We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sandi Chung. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sandi below.
Sandi , appreciate you joining us today. We believe kindness is contagious and so we’d love for you to share with us and our audience about the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?
Being a small business owner in real estate is far from a solo act in setting up for success. The nature of the real estate business is about leveraging and creating new relationships and helping each other in return. I’ve always been good about keeping in touch with individuals who stand out in their line of business; lenders, attorneys, various contractors, photographers, architects etc who help to make each contingency and detail involved in a transaction, a seamless and effortless process. Many of them, I have known since purchasing my first house in Maplewood, NJ, in 1997, and gratefully, they have remained loyal, no matter what the circumstances.
The kindest act is the trust the person has in you, to not have to ask questions. Even though some circumstances are complicated to explain when someone trust your action, they are fully supporting you without a doubt because they believe in you. Throughout the journey of becoming a small business owner, building and maintaining mutual trust is an ongoing journey that requires continuous effort in keeping promises and commitment from everyone involved.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
It’s been a turbulent several years for every single person, globally. After Covid 19 shut down the NYC design industry I have been part of, a good most of my career, I went into a small panic mode. My two grown kids were enrolled in colleges and I needed to quickly shift my career to ensure their education was not affected by the chaos that shut down many industries and companies. Thankfully, I have been involved in real estate since 2009, always fascinated by the process of owning a property to grow stability and leveraging finance since purchasing my first house in Maplewood, NJ in 1997. The initial process of purchasing the first house and then selling for almost triple the original amount led to purchasing a bigger property in a town boasting better schools and higher-priced homes. The 2nd home was pretty much a fixer-upper with a late 1800 foundation located in a non-designated historic area. The idea at the time was to renovate the house to be more ‘historic’ since all aspects of the original architectural details were stripped away by the previous owner. The process of finding the right contractors, designing a kitchen to fit the style of the historic farmhouse as well as adding architectural elements such as hand-hewn beams and wide plank flooring sourced from CT, set an idea in motion of purchasing other fixer-uppers. While consulting full-time in NYC, I had the opportunity to acquire three more fixer-uppers in the next five years; the 3rd & 4th properties needing an expansion and total gut renovation.
Around that time, the prospect of being a fully licensed realtor never crossed my mind, since the primary focus was on the kids, their school activities and outside the school, extracurriculars and the weekend had to be free to spend time together as a family. But during and after Covid, with both kids enrolled in schools, that was the moment to pivot my career. Thinking back to my twenty-something-year-old self, I thought at the time that careers were made in your early thirties and forties. Typically, in your 50s, still trying to climb the corporate ladder or restarting your career would be much harder, as most people think about retirement at this stage had always loomed in my mind. Well, my motto since becoming a realtor is ‘Never say Never’. After obtaining my license within a few weeks then passing the state exam and mailing out my resume in hopes of finding the right match with a local real estate office, my perspective completely changed in what I needed to do to ensure the new career could succeed. This bit of a revelation came about because of all the years of trial and error and trying different things I was ready at the age of 52 to become a small business owner. I initially joined an office being persuaded by the office manager of what he had to offer but it was never realized. Even with good intentions, he was never present nor available to work with to start getting my feet wet in real estate, having a newborn, and social distancing that was pretty much the norm with Covid. But I knew the company offered extensive online training so I buckled down for the entire month of training on marketing, social media, how to navigate all the different realtor platforms, and how to create leads that can lead to other business referrals.
Fast forward five years later, I am doing consistent business though the biggest challenge for even seasoned agents, who have been in real estate for much longer is the lack of real estate inventory. During Covid, the sellers and the buyers were taking advantage of the historic 3% interest rates and most realtors saw the businesses boom. When the interstate rates jumped to 7% at the end of 2022 due to the Federal Reserve’s response to inflation, it changed the real estate market drastically. From the start of 2023 to where we are in 2025, the average buyers have gotten over the higher rates searching for homeownership in a tight market, which continues to drive up the prices nationally and especially in the Northeast and the West Coast. The balance for me as a small business owner is to offer value to whom I meet and to people seeking out my services. I am not about volume as most full-time agents are which makes my position unique, offering truly personalized service. I care about all the little details and things that matter. While prioritizing my client’s needs, I am also on a constant hunt for new renovation projects. Since becoming a full-time agent I have solely financed and acquired multiple properties, either working with an architect or drawing up the plans myself for township approval. The key is in analyzing the numbers and the location of the property, and then weighing out the risk. So far these renovation projects have been a labor of love for old houses. The style of each unique architectural style of the home is a big factor in coming up with renovation plans as well as finishing material selection. Not only do the design elements and wow factors matter but all the internal systems behind the walls are upgraded and replaced, as I would not never sell a house without these essential upgrades.
I am happy to relay that as a full-time realtor and a property investor, I’ve successfully renovated, marketed, and sold for much higher than the listing price at record speed. I am truly grateful for the strategic partners and I’m fully committed to their success as well. Being in real estate is multi-faceted and I enjoy incorporating my design background as well as my knowledge of the areas in Northern NJ, being a long-time resident, helping clients as well as expanding my property investment side of the business. My mentality has always been ‘sink or swim’ and I am able to leverage being a full-time realtor in a big way; assisting in buying and selling, acquiring properties for resale or holding for passive income, as well as making referrals nationally. My firm belief in real estate is that there is a niche for anyone who is determined and understands it’s a people business.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
As someone who never paid attention to social media before becoming a full-time realtor, I started off by doing endless hours of research on YouTube and taking online courses on Coursera. I believe my social media presence is distinctive as it’s not ‘cookie-cutter’ as most realtors present their posts and stories. In everything I post, I have personally attended the event as well as photographed including highlighting business partners, local small businesses as well as the real estate transactions I’ve represented while protecting my client’s personal information. I have organically grown my presence and I have a goal in mind to be elated once a certain number of followers is achieved.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
By putting my client’s interest first, above trying to earn a commission. The best thing about being in real estate is the people you get to meet and assist along the way. Each transaction and property is unique and I strategize creatively to ensure the transaction can move forward. The results speak for themselves and 100% of the agents that I’ve worked with so far have not had any complaints working with me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sandi-home.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandirealtor_mb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SandiTrustedRealtor/
