Alnico | Singapore

Creating Engaging and Persuasive Content

Melvin Lim
Co-Founder and CEO
|
PropertyLimBrothers, Real Estate
Country Flag
Singapore
S$10M-$100M
Annual Revenue
50-249
Employees

Could you give us a brief overview of PropertyLimBrothers (PLB)? 

PropertyLimBrothers, founded together with my co-founder, Adrian Lim, and myself, initially started with using home tour videos to market properties. Today, our brand includes two main divisions: PLB Media and PLB Realty.

PLB Media, launched in 2018, is Singapore’s largest creative agency focused on real estate. We have a team of 88 professionals across Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, specialising in video production, copywriting, marketing, tech innovation through Real Estate Knowledge Institute (REKI), corporate communications, client services, and in-house staging.

From 2022 to 2023, our media team grew by 11%, expanding our services to support developers in addition to home sellers and buyers. 

Our team has also been recognised for multiple awards. Last year, we were honoured to receive an invitation to Bangkok, Thailand, for winning the inaugural Agency Excellence Award for Real Estate Content and Innovation. Hosted by the Dot Property Group, the event recognised the efforts of both developers and real estate agencies. It was a great opportunity to extend relations across the region, and sharing like-minded conversations with our peers in the region.

This year, we were also awarded the SME100 Fast-Moving Company Award. This is an amazing honour and achievement for us, and we’re grateful that our journey of growth, innovation, and good work has been recognised. 

In 2022, we, along with all PLB Consultants, exited PropNex to establish PLB Realty. We now have 58 full-time real estate consultants and have received awards at the Edgeprop Excellence Awards 2023 for our top transactors in the landed, luxury condo, condo resale, and HDB sales categories.

Could you tell us more about what you do? 

My name is Melvin, and I’m the Co-Founder and CEO of PropertyLimBrothers.

At PLB Media and PLB Realty, I guide our 88 creatives and 58 realtors by setting the overall strategic direction for the year and overseeing all major events, such as our PLB Landed Convention, New Launch Convention, Property Summit, Client Appreciation Night, and our Annual Christmas Awards and Party. 

As CEO, I lead business strategy, oversee team structure, conduct training for our PLB Leaders and team members, and manage our recruitment efforts. Externally, I engage in stakeholder management with our business partners. On a day to day basis, I’m involved in approvals and vetting for events, advertisement campaigns, employee benefits, and overall company decisions.

My day-to-day responsibilities include:

  • Leading Home Tour shoots as the Lead Home Tour Presenter
  • Conducting weekly training sessions with our team of 58 sales consultants
  • Attending strategic and weekly meetings with our PLB Media and PLB Realty Leaders
  • Holding 1-on-1 lunch and dinner meetings with PLB Leaders to discuss career progression and professional development
  • Hosting weekly shoots for our Nuggets on the Go podcast and PLB Webinars
  • Participating in ad-hoc business meetings with PLB Partners

I’m also involved in external events as a guest speaker, sharing real estate insights with various audiences—from HDB upgraders and entry-level investors to seasoned investors, relationship managers, and foreign investors. I’ve spoken at major finance events like the Seedly Personal Finance Festival and Nomura Investment Forum Asia, as well as real estate conventions such as the Malaysian Annual Real Estate Convention (MAREC). I’ve also been invited to speak at smaller, curated events for Standard Chartered Bank, Etiqa Insurance, and Chubb Insurance Limited.

At PropertyLimBrothers, we differentiate ourselves from traditional real estate agencies with our robust media capabilities, strong social media presence, and a dedicated team of professionals to service client needs.

As a true Real-Estate Powerhouse—with an in-house creative agency and realty combined—we don’t market properties hastily. We unlock the full potential of every property through various media solutions, including our presenter-led PLB Signature Home Tours, targeted geo-marketing ads, professional photography, and virtual tours. To date, we’ve produced over 2,700 Home Tour videos and educational real estate content.

Each property is more than just a listing; it’s a home with its own story. Our PLB Client Experience, PLB Realty Consultants, Digital Marketing Team, and Media Team ensure our client’s home is positioned to its maximum potential.

“Each property is more than just a listing; it’s a home with its own story.”

PLB pioneered Home Tours – could you tell us what motivated the creation of this concept and what specific challenges it aimed to address?

Back in 2016, photos were the main way to market homes. But every home is unique, with its own renovation style, view, and layout. That’s where our PLB Signature Home Tours come in. These tours show off every detail, letting homebuyers check out properties from the comfort of their own homes before scheduling a visit. Instead of waiting for buyers to find our listings, we bring the home directly to them.

Having been in the Real Estate industry since 2007, Adrian and I realised that there were many missed opportunities in real estate marketing. Properties back then were only marketed through photos—sometimes even through photographs of empty houses and rooms without any furniture. This method relied on buyers actively searching through property listing portals.

To solve this issue, we turned to Home Tours. These videos bring the audience through the home, where presenters share details, including insightful renovation tips, pricing and location analysis, and target the right audience. 

Each Home Tour is crafted to perfection, featuring not just the interior but also expert analysis from our PLB Realty Consultants on location, pricing, and floor plans. Our location analysis highlights key amenities, schools, and major highways. Pricing analysis breaks down the financials and compares similar homes in the area. Floor plan analysis presents the overall layout and walks buyers through various zones of the home. By providing these analyses, we position each home to its fullest potential, connecting the right buyers to each unique listing. As a result of this, our homes are sold within a median duration of 8 weeks.

What important lessons have you learned from implementing Home Tours?

Creating a Home Tour takes a lot of effort. We work hand-in-hand with homeowners to declutter the space to showcase it at its best. If needed, our PLB Concierge Team stages the home with furniture. If physical staging isn’t possible, our in-house creatives employ 3D Architectural Visualization and Visual Effects to virtually stage the home, showcasing renovation ideas and addressing potential issues before buyers visit.

Our PLB Signature Home Tours offer a comprehensive first viewing for potential buyers, leading to higher rates of qualified viewings. This means more serious interest, real buyers, and added value. 

When we first started filming Home Tours, our main idea was to make it easier for homeowners to view properties from the comfort of their homes. Our first video was 2 minutes and 24 seconds long, showing the audience a simple walkthrough of the home with minimal analysis.

Today, our Home Tour videos range from 10 to 20 minutes and feature in-depth analysis and motion graphic animations. We include detailed location and pricing analysis and use our proprietary PLB frameworks like Trifecta Insights and Disparity Effect®.

To enhance our content, we established an in-house Motion Graphics team to create engaging visuals with bite-sized information. By incorporating 3D Architectural Visualization and Visual Effects, we showcase a property’s potential and address issues before buyers visit. Our Realty team provides deep Financial and Location Analysis, while our professional Home Tour Presenters deliver their insights clearly.

Additionally, we offer interior design tips using 3D AV technology, highlighting the home’s potential with features like private lifts and outdoor gardens. These improvements ensure our viewers receive valuable and comprehensive information in every video. We recently also launched our AI renovation tool to help showcase our clients’ homes’ full potential.

We continue to innovate PLB’s Signature Home Tours to revolutionise property marketing in Singapore. As social media evolves and shorter, easily consumable content becomes more popular, we stay adaptable and forward-thinking, ready to engage audiences in new and exciting ways.

“As social media evolves and shorter, easily consumable content becomes more popular, we stay adaptable and forward-thinking, ready to engage audiences in new and exciting ways.”

How do you ensure that Home Tours are personable and maintain a human connection?

Our PLB Signature Home Tours are special because it is both an art and a science—something that requires both hard work and heart work—because a home is not just a home. There is always a story, an angle, a piece of history—and we have made it our mission at PLB to tell this story, and to the person that needs to hear it.

Our Home Tour Presenters undergo our Home Tour Showmanship Programme, learning the know-hows of being a Home Tour Presenter. This training encompasses multiple skill sets, from crafting pricing, location, and floorplan analyses to refining their presentation skills and ensuring that information is presented in a clear and concise manner.

Our seasoned Home Tour presenters—who are also trained by me—will also share their knowledge, tips, and tricks with the later batches, especially when they are tagged to our seasoned Home Tour Presenters over the course of a few months. Internal assessments are conducted to ensure that our Home Tour Presenters are camera-ready, and once inducted, then only are they scheduled for our PLB Signature Home Tour shoots. 

“Internal assessments are conducted to ensure that our Home Tour Presenters are camera-ready, and once inducted, then only are they scheduled for our PLB Signature Home Tour shoots.”

Could you share any success stories or case studies illustrating the impact of Home Tours on customer satisfaction or engagement?

Our team was introduced to a freehold semi-detached home within the Ah Soo Garden landed enclave in 2022. This home was already being marketed for 6-9 months by other agents and saw many viewings but little offers, as it was decked with a long driveway that was not mentioned in its previous marketing efforts.

Our team shot the Home Tour and immediately addressed the long driveway, using our 3D AV to showcase the numerous methods of utilisation: for a car enthusiast to allow for parking up to 6 cars, or for a family who loves hosting, allowing for an outdoor barbeque and play area. The home was sold within 2 months of the Home Tour launch!

Apart from Home Tours, can you describe any other specific initiatives or strategies PLB has implemented to deliver exceptional customer experience?

PropertyLimBrothers embarked on a journey to make real estate knowledge accessible to all. This is driven by a passion for real estate, the desire to value-add to the real estate market and provide transparent data-driven analysis. PLB has crafted various frameworks for real estate investors to make sense of the data and property and empower people in making better informed decisions.

“This is driven by a passion for real estate, the desire to value-add to the real estate market and provide transparent data-driven analysis.”

We believe that a deeper understanding of the real estate market can improve the individual’s and family’s lives, and this can allow them to harness transformative change by making good decisions in their real estate journey.

Aside from our Home Tours, we’re dedicated to educating our audience to make informed property decisions and investments. Here’s how we do it:

  • PLB Webinars
    • Starting in 2023, we committed to bi-weekly webinars to provide the latest property news and insights. We conducted 20 webinars, including 2 live debates. These sessions are purely educational, offering unbiased advice without any product pitches.
  • Nuggets on the Go Podcast
    • Our Nuggets on the Go podcast covers topics like real estate, finance, business, entrepreneurship, and investing, Singapore-style!
  • PLB Insights: Editorials
    • In addition to videos, we write editorials sharing valuable insights on the property market and real estate.
  • PLB Insights: New Launch Studio Review
    • In 2023, we launched our New Launch Studio Review series on YouTube. These independent reviews of new property launches in Singapore are free for developers and provide insights for potential buyers.
  • PropTech
    • We believe that property decisions should be data-driven and research-backed, and thus created a multitude of frameworks for our clients to utilise with the help of our PLB Consultants to make more informed decisions on their property purchase. In this digital age, information is readily accessible at our fingertips—we want to ensure that as technology advances, our team is advancing along with it.
  • In-Person Events
    • Since PropertyLimBrothers became an independent realty, we’ve focused on building deeper connections beyond real estate transactions through our organised events. These events serve as platforms to strengthen our relationships with clients. Here are some examples:

These avenues allow our realtors to view themselves as consultants, not just property transactors.

How does PLB ensure consistency in delivering high-quality customer service through its realtors? 

Our PLB Consultants work closely together, acting swiftly to ensure each campaign runs smoothly and effectively. This teamwork assures our clients that their listings receive top-notch care. Our commitment to accountability, professionalism, and teamwork positions us as a forward-thinking real estate company, consistently delivering exceptional customer experiences.

We inspire to grow together with individuals by sharing knowledge and experiences gathered over the years, regardless whether it’s in real estate, media creative, or even entrepreneurship—all through our educational arm, Assembly. 

Through Assembly, we share knowledge and experiences across real estate, media creative, and entrepreneurship. Our training programs like the 777 Training by Melvin Lim and our Sales Training Series equip consultants with essential skills and mindset training, helping them succeed in their roles and benefit clients. Our Inside Sales Team (IST) Sales Tactics day prepares them for the year ahead with goal-setting and mindset training.

Assembly hosts weekly sessions for knowledge sharing, SOP updates, and training, keeping consultants informed and ready to excel in client service and professional growth. We conduct leadership training once a month and hold monthly book club sessions for our leaders. Additionally, we organize annual retreats for our leaders, separate from the company-wide retreat, which also occurs once a year. We also celebrate our Top Producers with Quarterly Awards, fostering a supportive culture and encouraging our team to strive for excellence.

Looking ahead, what trends do you foresee shaping innovation in your industry? 

The future of real estate is already here at PropertyLimBrothers. What makes us different from traditional agencies is our strong media and social media presence. Our PropTech team is also busy developing new tools to analyse the market better.

These tools help our consultants give the best advice and insights to our clients. Looking forward, we’re excited about employing virtual reality to continually breathe life into every home we touch.

Imagine buyers wearing VR headsets to explore homes—it’s not just seeing them in videos anymore, but experiencing them like you’re really there. It’s a big step forward in how we show homes and help our clients.

What role does technology play in PLB, and how do you balance technology with human connection?

At PropertyLimBrothers, we’ve integrated technology to enhance the consumer experience through our proprietary PropTech tools, MOAT Analysis and Disparity Effect®. Developed in-house by our tech team, MOAT Analysis gives buyers and sellers a bird’s eye view of the various objective factors that will affect the future value of a new home—such as location, amenities, exit audience—assisting in better decision-making for one’s investment portfolio.

On the other hand, Disparity Effect® transforms complex property data into clear, actionable insights. With a unique blend of charts available to the public, Disparity Effect® is designed to demystify key market indicators like property values, rental yields, occupancy rates, and trends. All in all, it is your comprehensive guide to understanding the dynamics of real estate.

Both serve as dedicated tools that are exclusive to our PLB consultants and clients, providing comprehensive data insights, charts, analyses, and investment recommendations.

MOAT Analysis and Disparity Effect® empower our consultants to deliver top tier service with precision and efficiency, ensuring our clients are empowered with the relevant knowledge to make the best investment decisions in their property journey.

This innovative approach strikes a balance between leveraging technology to optimise our services, while maintaining a personalised touch through our consultants. Our tools represent the future of real estate service at PropertyLimBrothers, where every client’s journey is empowered and accounted for through the latest data and analytics—enriched through the power of PropTech.

Could you provide insights into how you identify and seize new opportunities within your industry?

At PropertyLimBrothers, innovation and client value are at the forefront of everything we do. In 2023, we proactively engaged with Real Estate Developers to collaborate on new launch projects, as well as developments in the landed sector. This initiative aimed to showcase upcoming projects beyond the resale market to our audience.

We curate and create tailored content to help developers communicate effectively through their marketing channels. This not only educates our audience about the suitability of these projects for specific target groups but also strengthens our partnerships with developers, expanding our network and enhancing opportunities for our realtors.

These collaborations have enabled us to establish a robust real estate ecosystem, providing comprehensive support and insights to both developers and our clients alike. More details about our collaborations with developers can be found here.

One such example is our annual Landed Convention. We saw a huge interest in one of our webinars focusing on the Landed Market, and took the leap to organise an in-person event for landed home lovers. In the same vein, we saw that 2024 is also the year of New Launches, so we organised the first-ever New Launch Convention, an in-person event which saw 1,114 sign-ups who were interested in the robust New Launch market, and also to hear from our PLB experts on the latest frameworks to apply when purchasing a New Launch for their portfolio.

How do you measure the success of your initiatives, such as Home Tours, and which key performance indicators are prioritised in this assessment?

We gauge the effectiveness of our PLB Signature Home Tours through several key performance indicators:

Firstly, our Home Tours consistently achieve swift results, with properties typically selling within an average of 9 weeks from the video launch to being sold.

Secondly, 62% of our PLB Home Tour Sellers experience a positive premium upon sale, underscoring the added value our tours bring to property listings.

Additionally, for PLB Socials, our events division, we track success through various metrics:

  • Engaging returning attendees across our content platforms, such as PLB Webinars, Landed Convention, and Client Appreciation Night.
  • Monitoring event attendance figures, exclusively driven by social media marketing without reliance on print media.
  • Continued annual support from our loyal clientele and brand partners.
  • Establishing valuable new connections with brand partners, developers, and industry peers.
  • Encouraging clients and partners to bring friends to our events, often resulting in referrals to our PLB consultants for property transactions.
  • Facilitating PLB-exclusive offers from our brand partners to benefit our clients with specialised products and services

Is customer feedback collected and integrated into PLB’s ongoing efforts to enhance its services? If so, what methods are employed for this purpose? 

At PropertyLimBrothers, client feedback is essential to us. After each property transaction, we ask clients to rate their experience through Google Reviews. We’re proud to maintain a strong 4.8 out of 5 rating from 462 reviews, showing our commitment to excellent service.

We also value referrals from satisfied clients, which highlight their trust in our services enough to recommend us to others.

Our Chit Chat Sessions provide further insights, allowing us to discuss with clients their experiences with our Home Tour shoots and property sales.

What advice do you have for businesses looking to improve their customer engagement efforts?

At PropertyLimBrothers, our commitment revolves around putting our clients first and adopting a value-centric approach. We operate under the principle of Excellence with Integrity, ensuring transparency in every interaction with our buyers and sellers. Our consultants are equipped with robust investment frameworks, offering unbiased guidance aimed at long-term capital growth for every property investment.

In today’s fast-evolving technological landscape, where information is readily accessible, businesses must continually innovate to enhance client service. This involves embracing new technologies, staying abreast of emerging trends, and periodically refining our operational procedures for optimal efficiency.

Engagement is pivotal in this digital age. Consumers seek diverse forms of interaction, ranging from concise to comprehensive content formats, and participation in virtual and physical events.

We encourage a culture of innovation, urging everyone to challenge conventions, share innovative ideas, and tackle new opportunities head-on.

“Engagement is pivotal in this digital age. Consumers seek diverse forms of interaction, ranging from concise to comprehensive content formats, and participation in virtual and physical events.”