Linh Yee has only been selling real estate for a little over two years, but has already made her mark on the industry, including being REINZ and Ray White’s top new agent in 2022. She attributes the success she’s achieved in her life – not just in real estate – to a fierce determination and incredible resilience she developed after living on the streets at 13.
Q: How did you end up homeless?
I fell in love with a boy when I was 13 and my father didn’t approve, so he kicked me out of home. I came from a poor background – my parents were Vietnamese refugees and I was born in a refugee camp in the Philippines, then came to New Zealand when I was six weeks old. I’m one of nine children and there were 11 of us in a three-bedroom house. Education was very important to my father and he thought I should be focusing on school, not boys. Being hard-headed, I didn’t ask if I could go back to our home in Onehunga, instead I lived on the streets of South Auckland. I slept in bus stops, in friends’ cars and garages, anywhere I could. I dropped out school at 14 and got jobs like working in a dairy and cafes. I was living paycheck to paycheck. I did forgive my father and went back home when I was 18.
Somebody gave me a copy of Robert Kiyosaki’s book Rich Dad, Poor Dad when I was about 18. Reading it changed my life. I remember playing snooker with my friend at a place in Royal Oak and being down to my last $2, and saying, “I am never going to be this broke again.” I knew that if things were going to get better, it was up to me.
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Q: How did the book change your thinking?
It opened my eyes to a greater world beyond being poor. With my family being as focused on education as they were, I felt like because I’d left school so young I was a loser, and that was a real hindrance to my confidence. But what resonated for me from that book was that it is not how much you earn, but how much you save. So from then on, I saved 60% of my income, and put 20% into expenses and 20% into living costs. And whatever I did, I worked really, really hard. I worked in retail, then at 21 I went into business with my sister, and by 24 I had enough money in the bank to be pre-approved to buy my own home.
Q: What business did you have with your sister?
We had a bakery/café in Te Aroha, in the Waikato. We couldn’t find any rental accommodation there at the time, so I had to drive down every day from Auckland. I would wake up at 3am to drive to Te Aroha, work in the bakery until it closed at 5pm, drive another hour and a half home, have dinner and be in bed by 7.30pm. I did that seven days a week for 10 months until I found accommodation down there. Eventually my brother bought me out, and that’s how I got enough money to buy my first home. It took me about a year and a half to find the right place, in Hillsborough.
Q: What job did you do next?
I went back into retail. I’ve always loved fashion – I’d had my own line, designing and making clothes – and I worked for an Australian company that had a chain of women’s clothing and lingerie stores across New Zealand. I went from a store manager to national sales manager to country manager and doubled the number of stores we had in New Zealand. I always told my staff, “It’s all about the customers. Without the customers, there’s no us. We’re here to provide solutions for everyone who comes into our shops, whether they want a bra fitted or an outfit that makes them feel beautiful.” It’s the same in real estate – we’re providing solutions for vendors and it’s all about them.
Yee loves fashion: “I’d had my own line, designing and making clothes.” Photo / Fiona Goodall
Q: Why do think you did so well?
I took the job very seriously, but I tried to make it fun for my staff. I created fun games and competitions. So I didn’t seem like the big, scary boss I would film myself doing funny rap songs and send them to everyone on WhatsApp, and I encouraged them to make parody videos and send them to me. It was a really good way to build strong camaraderie and a good culture. If the staff enjoy coming to work, the customer can feel that when they walk in the store. I would help my staff to reach their goals and they would thank me for inspiring them.
Q: Where did this strategy come from?
From adversity. From being poor. When you have nothing your brain goes into survival mode and you find ways of getting things done with what you have. But whatever I did, I had to do it with integrity, which is the number one thing for me. You always have to do the right thing, even when nobody is looking. Especially when nobody is looking!
Q: How did you go from retail to real estate?
I actually became a property coach in between. As I climbed the corporate ladder in retail, I’d started to buy investment properties. In an 18-month period I was buying a property every three months. I’d got married and had my second child when my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so I decided to leave my job to look after my mum, who died nine months later. At that time I was shoulder-tapped by a property coaching company who asked if I’d thought about being a property coach. I did that on a freelance basis and I really enjoyed being able to help people invest in property and make their dreams come true. But after five years I had reached my goals, including achieving the 10-year financial plan I had set myself in half the time, and I was looking for the next challenge. Also, I wanted to be able to help more people without them having to pay the coaching fees and I thought, I can do that if I start selling properties.
Q: Did you find your feet quickly?
As a property coach I had built up a lot of knowledge about the property market and buying and selling real estate so becoming a salesperson was a natural progression. Right from the start, I had big goals. I was going into the industry as a nobody but rather than being a little fish in a big ocean, I wanted to be the piranha in the pot.
When I got my licence somebody said to me, “Did you know you’ve only got one shot to be Rookie of the Year?” I visualised myself walking across the stage to get the award. When I won the REINZ Residential Rising Star of the Year award and the Ray White New Start Agent award they were very proud moments.
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For me, having a goal is what gets things moving. I believe when you want something so bad, you have tunnel vision, and when you manifest it, you get it. Everything I have got in my life, I manifested years and years before I actually achieved it.
Q: Why do you think you have been so successful in real estate?
I decided to launch myself into the industry in a different way that made me really stand out. I wanted everyone to know who I was, and I wanted the properties I was representing to be seen.
With one of my early listings, I had the challenge of selling a tiny apartment in an area with homes on quarter-acre sections. I knew it would be hard to sell so to stand out, I decided to do a rap video, a bit like the ones I used to do when I worked in retail. I made up a song and did things like falling out of bushes and into a swimming pool to show that by comparison, there were no hedges to cut, no pool to clean – it was low maintenance. It worked – the property sold.
Yee is out to make real estate fun and has made rap videos for some of her listings. Photo / Supplied
I believe in working really hard for my vendors – this is a seven-day-a-week job and you do have to make sacrifices. I don’t get to spend as much time with my husband and my two boys as I would like and I don’t have any hobbies outside of work. But being a part of people’s journeys and helping to change their lives is really rewarding and fulfilling.
Q: Do you see yourself selling real estate long-term?
Definitely! I love it so much. This is my final resting place!
Q: How do you feel now about what you went through as a teenager?
I believe that my father kicking me out of home was the best gift of my life. It was an absolute blessing because it's made me who I am today, which is really resilient.
