🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates.
Interviewer: Mr. Mohab, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the Prime Global Awards, we are thrilled to have you today, and congratulations on winning the achievement award in the real estate
Mr. Mohab: It's a pleasure to be here and to be invited and selected to be one of the elite, thank you for that
Interviewer: you are welcome, would you please introduce yourself to our audience
Mr. Mohab: My name is Mohab Samak, I am the CEO and managing partner at Deja Vu Real Estate, I have been in the real estate business for the last 20 years in Dubai, and I worked in Egypt, the UK, and Canada
Interviewer: so to get started, can you please share some highlights from your experience in the real estate
Mr. Mohab: okay the key highlights, it is a big list I would say, the good times and the bad times you learn a lot in both, and you learn to restrain yourself in the good times and to push yourself in the bad times. Choose right, never choose easy, and I would really advise you to choose the right company to work for, choose the right client to work with, choose the right colleagues to team up with, and choose the right partners to compete with. The idea is that you have always to be better, and you always have to grow if you ever got to a level and sat there then you just surrendered yourself, and it is not right, you need to always be looking forward to pushing the level up, as every time you reach the level it is not the end, you can do better, and you owe it to yourself, and you owe it to the people around you, and that will be the spiritual side of the business that we do, on the other side you need to be fair, you need to treat people right, keep working, wake up every day and run with it, and when the next day comes in, happy days, do the same things, wake up and run with it, trust me if you look down lines 5-10 years from due accepting and adopting this mentality, you will wake up as a someone else and somewhere else, so you will be taking some places, so just keep going.
Interviewer: so tell the story, how did you start your company?
Mr. Mohab: see it is a level of a complex story, I worked in real estate all of my life, even when I was an agent, I was a commercial agent, and you need a lot of experience to be able to build something on your own, and it took me about 10 years being an agent, jumping into management experience I big companies name, and from there I decided I need more, and eventually I have become the head of the organization, and when that happened you have to act like the owner, at least I do, to benefit the people, and benefit the company is your top priority, and then you realize at the end of the day that is not yours! Then I decided to be a partner, to invest my money wisely in a company I will be a part of, the partners are good friends of mine, I've known them for a very long time, and we decided to jump in together in Deja Vu real estate. I have already warned most of our competitors, who are also friends, that we are coming so just watch the space! very soon we will reach one of the top agencies in the market hopefully.
Interviewer: what sets your company apart, and what makes you unique in this industry?
Mr. Mohab: with "Deja Vu Real Estate" what makes you unique is integrity, it has existed since 2007 and managed to go through all the ups and downs in the real estate market which gives it validity. The owners are trustworthy, and everybody knows them very well, what has to be done, gets done, so we have established a very good reputation in the market of trust factor. when it comes to the client, what we promise, the client gets, integrity from the aspect that we give the right advice, it is a consultancy, we don't just sell, we are not sales agencies, we are consultants, so our client benefits and our client focus is the most important part, and all our agents are following the same, so one agent comes talking about commission percentage that this developer is giving us more, I will be like, I am really sorry this is not how we do business here, we do business as the best for the client, and then the commission comes after. so at the moment, it is a messy market in Dubai because of the competition in it, so what happens is you get agents and clients trying to discount the commission, which we try not to use because the idea we are elevating the level of business, and if you pay us same as the rest while we are giving you something different, so those are the things we have to keep eye on.
Interviewer: can you share with us the challenges that you have faced over the years, and how you overcame them?
Mr. Mohab: So we are going through challenges, and challenges are what lead to growth. I always say something in the fitness world, what doesn't challenge you, doesn't change you, so what I am saying is, that challenges mean that the business is good, you have to understand that, so if there are no challenges then you are staying the same, you always have to keep the challenge, the healthy challenge though, so if we are talking about forces beyond our reach, things we can not control whether a market condition or regional political situation issues that causes us a drop in business, in our business we have to keep that in the plan B situation, we have to have an idea of what if any issue happened to the market, so any sudden drop we always make sure that we are aware of it, we see it and we act accordingly, if you have been in Dubai real estate for the last 20 years, then you have seen things, so we are in water ship in a deep water, sometimes there are storms, the better the crew, the better the captain, the better the ship, the better the chances of surviving, so that is what we are trying to do.
Interviewer: so tell me a little about the business philosophy you use as CEO of your company.
Mr. Mohab: Teamwork vibe, this is very simple, the first thing I like to do when I enter an organization for the first time is to create the vibe in the office, that we are all together in this, we all understand what we need to do, we know our direction and we keep looking up, it is not just a keeping a policy in the office, and it didn't happen, it is an open door policy, this is one of the main philosophies that need to be there, first thing before business management or anything else. Then comes obviously a solid understanding, and a pessimistic look because you have to be prepared for the worst, the philosophy that you are not right, never right, you always have to question your judgments, listen to people, understand what they say, and make the decision better. Be flexible, and don't be stubborn because things will change, and when the changes you have to be flexible, otherwise you break, you lose people, you lose business, you lose clients, so you cannot break. Be ready to jump up and take the challenge whenever it comes, if there is an opportunity never be scared because we grow and we live on the edge of fear, so you have to be on that edge otherwise you will not grow, so feel that sensation that I have never done this before, this is new, and be excited, you also have to understand energies, learn how to deal with people, learn emotional intelligence, learn the body language, whatever skills that you can take, take it, take courses, let someone teaches you because you don't know everything.
Interviewer: do you believe that Dubai is a promising market for real estate investments? And what are your insights about the future of the Dubai real estate market?
Mr. Mohab: so I will answer the second part first, the future of Dubai real estate is positive from what we see now, based on the current number, the current situation, the growth of infrastructure, and the amazing government and how they are treating the people, so the future is to be positive, could drop down and increases, but work is flowing from all over the region towards Dubai, the conflict from the other side of the world is giving Dubai a financial boost from business respective, as the government has done an amazing scenario for telling people that this is a safe haven for investment, for money and real estate, and for people, in general, it is a very safe place, so people look at Dubai as if there is any trouble anywhere we run there, which is amazing for us from a business perspective, and I think that Dubai will keep growing like that as long as the conditions remain the same, by the continuous of the government support
Regarding the first part of the question where if Dubai is a promising market for real estate investments? since I have been an agent and helping people to set up businesses, and see all these businesses opening and closing, the way they are doing the business plan, the layouts, I have always looked at Dubai as one of the unique opportunities over worldwide, and now where else can compete with, and when I travel and start talking to people in Europe and other countries, people they start to realize Dubai growth market over the seas, this place in Arabia with nice pools, and biggest hotels, amazing city and very safe, which will give a big investment in the real estate, and now place in the world can compete with this share and volume, with amenities never seen before, amazing weather over the year and all things are shiny, and that what Dubai is about. the return on investment, or net income of the business, in real estate specifically is giving you an average somewhere between 7-8% which is again a huge number in real estate investment, so if you are interested in investing outside of your city, then Dubai should be considered as one of the top options. so when you go client mentioning all that, they feel that and it is real, we are consultants, not a sales agents, so I am advising the client what is the best for him, as I am the expert in the market and I know what happens, so I think Dubai real estate market is a good business, and all international standards applied in Dubai way, and there is a huge potential and huge competition because of this huge potential attracting a lot of people to the business, there are a lot of agents in the market but the right ones and the good ones will stay, and long term is what we are looking at, you don't want to make quick money and leave, I am here to stay. We will grow and will provide more services to satisfy all of our clients.
Interviewer: finally, what is your message to the young generation, and for startup companies?
Mr. Mohab: Don't give up, that is the number one rule because once you give up that is when you lose, so you have to keep going until it is done, you will fail, and you will be scared, even if you will break sometimes, all is fine, just keep going because once you stop you will be like the rest, or you keep going and be different.
Number two, choose right, not easy, things will come all your way in this field, a lot of money involved, and the money is the fuel for the ego, so you have to understand that eventually whatever you do will come back to you, so work hard now and you will get money in the future, take the easy route now and you will fail in the future, especially in the real estate, I have seen this happening a lot, as people jump to real estate to make quick money, then to get out, here I am not talking that you have to take real estate as a career, but if you jump into it be serious about it, and do it right.
Extremely important advice, choose the right company because training is everything, support is everything, support is everything and leadership is everything, if there is no vision, no structure, trust me it won't last much, so again if you jump easily somewhere to make easy money, but you are not going to learn and not going to do the hard work, but you need to do the hard work, there is no shortcut , same in fitness there is no shortcuts, so you have to take the hard route and jump over all the obstacles till the end, but there is no end as we are a humans with ego, and you have to keep growing which is fine as this is how we were created for.