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The Electric New Paper :

Why would I lie about NOT having degree?

Embarrassing mistake on website was designer's fault, says high-earning property agent

IT was a web designer's mistake that caused one of Singapore's top property agents some embarrassment, and she may now have to answer to her company.

11 September 2007

IT was a web designer's mistake that caused one of Singapore's top property agents some embarrassment, and she may now have to answer to her company.

Last month, The New Paper ran a report on how property agent Regina Lau will earn more than some CEOs here with an estimated commission of $1.7 million this year.

And she did this without a degree, an office or staff members, she said.

Then, some readers cried foul, and accused Ms Lau of lying.

On her website, they said, it was stated that she has a Bachelor of Science in building.

The New Paper checked the site and found it to be true. When contacted, Ms Lau, stood firmly by her statement that she does not have a degree. She was surprised that the degree qualification was still on her website even though she had asked to remove it before.

She explained that she paid a web-design company, View2Offer.com, to set up her website three months ago.

And she had wanted to use the same template as a fellow agent.

Unfortunately, the degree qualification tag came with the template and was not removed.

We checked her colleague's website, and it looked similar to hers, right down to the degree tag.

Ms Lau said: 'I had told the company to remove that bit a month ago. I didn't know it was still there.

'Why would I lie about not having a degree if I had one? It's something to be proud of and beneficial to me.'

When contacted, View2Offer.com confirmed that it had made a mistake.

Mr Daniel Ng, who said he was one of the company founders, added: 'One of our web designers copied from a template and didn't delete that part.

'We had to apologise to Regina and the web designer has since resigned.'

The degree qualification tag has since been removed.

Ms Lau said that she has not received any calls about her degree status, but The New Paper received several complaints.

Ms Lau said she seldom goes online to check on the site, saying it was more for her clients' use.

'Anyway, my clients don't care if I have a degree or not,' she said.

When contacted, ERA Singapore said that all marketing collateral that involves the company's logo has to be cleared by it, and this includes namecards, websites and advertisements.

SUBMIT PROOF

Several property companies also confirmed that they enforce the same rules.

This means that if an agent wants to add his degree qualification on his namecard or website, he has to submit his degree to the company as proof.

Mr Mohd Ismail, chief executive of PropNex, said: 'I've never heard of agents who lie about having a degree.

'In this industry, whether you've a degree or not doesn't really matter. Does the degree add value to the transaction? Not really.'

Ms Lau said that she didn't tell her company about her website because she didn't think that it was necessary.

Her namecard shows no degree qualification.

ERA's assistant vice-president Eugene Lim said Ms Lau didn't submit her website to the company for clearance and it is now investigating the matter.

He said: 'We take a very serious view of agents who breach this.'

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