Chinese surgeon to real estate agent

PHOTO: Barfoot & Thompson agent George Fong says having a medical career helped him become a better real estate agent. Photo / Fiona Goodall

According to ONEROOF this Real estate agent quit medicine to sell houses in Auckland.

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It’s quite a change, going from performing surgery to selling houses, but George Fong has no regrets about swapping careers. Real estate has been good to him over the last 28 years, and he’s good at it, taking the top spot as the number one salesperson at Barfoot & Thompson’s office in Epsom, Auckland, 15 times.

Q: How did you go from medicine to real estate?

It was not planned! In China I was a surgeon – I did mostly stomach surgery. My uncle had come to New Zealand for an exhibition and at the time – it was the early 1990s – we did not know much about New Zealand. All we knew was there were more sheep than people. My uncle said: “It is a nice modern place, you should visit.” I wanted to have an overseas experience so I came for the short term, maybe three years, initially to study language. But then I met my wife, Laura McAuley, who is a Kiwi, and we married, and I stayed.

Q: Could you have worked as a surgeon here?

They recognised your qualifications but you needed to pass registration and to do the exam cost about $8000, which I couldn’t afford. I went to university to do my master’s degree in health science – I was doing cancer research – and after the school year finished in October, I thought: “What am I going to do over the Christmas break?” My wife said: “Why don’t you find a short course to do?” In those days you could do your real estate licence in a week at Unitec. I had been helping some Chinese people I knew through church with translations when they were buying properties and I thought, OK, I will do a real estate course. I got my licence in one week and Crockers were looking for salespeople, so I thought, I will try it. In my first two weeks, I sold three properties. My first one was a three-bedroom brick and tile flat with one car park, for $71,000. So I decided to do real estate.

Q: Do you ever miss being a surgeon?

Sometimes. But I am very pleased that I do real estate. It is still helping people, it is just a different way of doing that. I think having a medical career helped me with real estate. Doctors learn to talk to people and understand what they need, and that is what you do in real estate. You have to be able to connect with people emotionally. I have to find out from them: “What do you really want? What is your first priority?” Sometimes they don’t even know themselves.

Q: What do you love about the job?

Helping people. I like dealing with people and I have made so many good friends over the years. Every day is different, and I like that. And it is fun. Also, I like competition, so I compete against myself. I set myself targets and I do my best all the time to achieve my goals and keep doing better. When you work hard, you get good rewards.

The hardest thing probably is that you spend a lot of time at the weekends doing open homes so you miss family time. I have four children, so that is the only part that is not so good. They are all grown up now and living in Australia. My wife, who was a teacher, is now working with me and her support is very helpful. We work as a team.