John Luong, Sales Consultant for Village Real Estate

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Rresident of Yarraville, boxing enthusiast

I grew up in Cecil Street, Yarraville and spent my whole childhood there. I remember spending most summer afternoons riding my BMX down Cruikshank Park after school with my brothers. My parents are Vietnamese but wanted their children to have an Australian upbringing so I was sent to St Margaret Marys Catholic Primary School in Spotswood. However, they knew it was important their children know their Vietnamese roots so we were all sent to Vietnamese school on Saturday afternoons at Footscray City College. We were also very active with local sports playing juniors soccer and cricket for Yarraville.

My parents settled down in Yarraville instead of Footscray. We were one of the first Vietnamese families in the area. Back then, they were renting a house in Deakin Street, Yarraville. Mum was walking down Severn Street one afternoon and saw a pointer board to a house in Cecil Street. She inspected, walked back to get Dad and they bought the house that week. This was in 1992. My parents are still there.

We are a family of seven. When you have four other siblings your negotiating skills are honed at a young age, mostly at the dinner table over meal trades! I’m the second oldest of the five.

Yarraville used to be rougher and pretty undesirable. It was very blue collar. Probably in the last fifteen years has Yarraville really taken off; gentrification has seen many cafes and restaurants established and the older period homes renovated and restored. This might be controversial but Seddon is probably more hip than Yarraville. It’s the younger sister to Yarraville. Yarraville is more like the ‘too cool’ whereas Seddon is seen as the ‘new cool’. Footscray is very dear to my heart too with such a great food culture.

After my first girlfriend and I broke up at the age of 19, I walked into the local boxing gym in Footscray. I wanted to get fit and had more time on my hands since I was newly single. Pretty quickly I realised this was the sport for me. Soon, I was training eight times a week, including twice a day on some days.

Within three years, I became the Amateur State Champion for VIC. This was in 2012. I still box casually now but I don’t fight anymore. You can find me at North Melbourne Boxing && Fitness, three or four times a week. This allows me to eat good food over the weekend and have a beer or two without getting too fat.

Boxing at the time was all-encompassing and was an obsession to me. I would box from 12noon to 1pm, go to uni in the afternoon and box again from 6pm to 8.30pm. I did this from Monday to Thursday, with just one session on Friday. I would go home and watch boxing videos on Youtube and apply the technical skills in the gym the next day. I was obsessed with getting better, acquiring new movements and being ahead of the rest of the pack. I lived like a monk for those years.

When people think about boxing, some think it’s a barbaric and violent sport. Indeed, boxing is violent, but it’s also a skilful craft that involves strategy, forethought and a sharp mind much like chess. The best boxers are highly skilled technicians who use surgical skill and ability to defeat their opponents. It is definitely brains over brawn.

Working in real estate is very similar to boxing. You constantly have to evolve, upgrade your skills, adapt to change and most importantly work your ass off.

It’s a challenge to juggle work and life. When I first started in real estate five years ago, I was young. I had to put two to three years of really hard work, seven days a week. No one knows you are and you have no experience or clients. You have to outwork everyone else.

The tipping point in real estate arrives after about three years in the role. You’ve sold a few houses, you are good at what you do and you begin working smarter, not harder.

I’ve seen a lot of agents not make it past the early stages of their careers or get to the two-year mark and burn out. A lot of the time you don’t get to see your family because we are out meeting clients after hours and on weekends. Lots of agents I know are divorced because we are all married to the job! The commitment is serious – If someone has entrusted you with their biggest asset that’s a big responsibility. You’ve got to be sharp as a tack and really know your stuff. You cannot turn up on a Saturday doing an open for inspections feeling hung over.

Gone are the days of real estate agents wearing slick suits and a silk noose or driving flashy cars. Okay, they still drive flashy cars! It is all about the people and making sure you help them with what can be one of the most stressful time of their lives.

I’m single and live in Yarraville. I have a little blue fighting fish called Frank. He’s been with me for three years and has been through a lot. He’s a fighter, a battler. I recently watched a video on Facebook of a study. Apparently fish get depression if they are on their own in a small tank. Fish like company and stimulation so I’m about to get him a mirror and a bigger tank. I would love a dog but it’s a big responsibility. Much more than a fish anyway.

I love travelling. Every time you travel, you see different cultures, lifestyles and your perspective changes. Your worldview becomes much larger. You see that there is much more in the world than just our lives when we live in our little bubble. When you return home, you appreciate what you have rather than what you don’t have.

In January this year, I was in Vietnam to reconnect with my Vietnamese heritage. I’ve been there a few times for short holidays in the south but never an extended trip. It also gave me a chance to go on an overseas bike trip as I love motorbikes and the total freedom it gives you. I wanted to ride the length of the country from north to south.

I flew into Hanoi, bought a 110CC Honda Win for $300, strapped my bag to the back and rode up north to Sapa. I got up to the mountains in the first two days. I met an American guy called Mark, who was checking out my bike while I was getting it washed. He had wanted to do the same trip to head south. I ended up helping him buy a bike, as he couldn’t speak Vietnamese. I figured, I could speak the language, why not help him? If we got into trouble, I could box!

It was good to have a riding buddy. Over 25 days and 3,000km, we rode together through some beautiful remote parts of Vietnam were we wouldn’t see another tourist for weeks. We rode about 200km and 8 hours most days. I still keep in touch with him. In fact, I am visiting him next year. He’s currently teaching English in Saigon. We will link up again next year to do a two week trip in Vietnam with some friends from Melbourne. His Vietnamese could be better than mine!

I’ve been with Village for about 12 months now, after four years at Compton Green. My first job in real estate, however, was in Jas Stephens as a PA. That role did not work out so I stepped on my own with Compton Green as a standalone agent. Nothing however, beats my very first job I’ve ever had – stacking fruit and vegetables at Yarraville Coles. We worked hard, but we had to taste test everything!

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