Andrew Tong is the senior vice-president of investments at Concert Properties Ltd. In the 20 years that he’s been with the company, he has completed more than $1 billion in acquisition transactions.
He learned early on in his career the importance of being a straight shooter.
“Business is really all about trust. It’s not about getting the last penny,” Tong said. “When people are seeking advice or trying to do business, people appreciate how upfront and straight-up everybody is.”
Even if it hurts in the short run, Tong said it pays off in the end.
Early in Tong’s career with Concert, he was trained to be as thorough as possible in researching potential acquisitions.
“The problem is that we would analyze the real estate so extensively that our number, our price, would be less than the pack’s.”
Other bidders would win with higher initial offers, Tong said.
“We’d think, ‘Hold on, how is it possible for someone to pay more?’”
The short answer is, they usually don’t. After negotiating a preliminary agreement, bidders have time to conduct more in-depth market research, testing and analysis. They can then revise their offers downward based on their findings.
“There’s a temptation to not be so thorough, to roll the dice a little bit and put a higher number in,” Tong said. “But by sticking to your guns on that philosophy that ‘your word is your bond,’ now we see the actual fruit making a significant impact on our organization.”
On the Golden Rule of doing business: “People want to be treated as they would treat themselves. They’d like to do business, but at the same time they don’t want charlatans around them. From that point of view, if they know that they’re getting the straight goods from a group, they’ll want to do business with that group.”
