From Accountant to Property Expert

Richard Lu started his career in accounting but quickly found out about the power that property has to offer.

Over time, Richard built a substantial property portfolio and also flipped properties as well as bought and sold land subdivisions. Eventually, he moved into working for a home builder but when COVID hit he realised that it might be the perfect time to turn his passion into a career.

“When the construction industry started to go downhill, and the opportunity to start as a buyers agent came about, I thought that I would jump on it,” Richard says.

“I always wanted to be involved in the real estate industry and this worked out really well because I already had my license.”

Richard set up his business, Elite Property Consulting, and initially worked with predominately owner-occupier buyers across Sydney along with some investors.

He says that in the current market, people are struggling to buy homes, especially in the blue-chip areas like the Easter Suburbs, which is where he wants to increasingly focus on.

When he launched his business, he says it took some time to get things off the ground and it was a matter of honing in with what type of marketing approach would work best.

He says that while he initially started doing a lot of digital marketing, he found that many of his clients were finding him through different means.

Richard worked with the Buyers Agent Institute (BAI) and says that learning the right way to do things made a huge difference in getting started.

“The processes and procedures were really good,” he explains.

“Over time I’ve been able to come up with my own procedures and tweak things here and there to make it work.

“Ben provides the foundations so you can go and do it yourself.”

Given his Chinese background, Richard says that in the future, he wants to start targeting and bringing in more Chinese buyers.

He’d also like to grow his business revenues into the millions of dollars over the coming years.

Richard will also be putting more focus on buying in the Eastern Suburbs for clients.

For people looking to get into the industry, he says you need to work hard.

“If you want to be your own boss and you think this is the right opportunity for you, you’ve got to keep on pushing yourself,” he believes.

“It’s not easy.

“If it was, everyone would be doing it.

“It can be a tough journey, but if you learn the process and procedures and you find out what works and you talk to enough people, you can make it work for you.”