Full Time Mom, Part-Time Realtor

Most people who ask me about becoming a part-time real estate agent in Singapore have one thing in common. They are not looking to replace their current life. They are looking to add something meaningful to it.

Anthea Soon is one of those people.

She spent a decade as a stay-at-home mom after leaving a career in banking and finance. When she finally decided to re-enter the workforce, she did not want a full-time grind. She wanted something that could fit around her family, grow at her own pace, and still give her a sense of purpose beyond the school run.

Real estate was not her first choice. But it turned out to be the right one.

In this episode of Her Bold Moves, Anthea shares how she built a part-time real estate career in Singapore, what the journey actually looked like, and what she would tell any mom thinking about doing the same.

Viv: Why did you choose to give up your corporate career and become a stay-at-home mom?

Anthea: I was trained as an accountant. My first role was in auditing, and then I moved into the banking industry. If you asked me 14 years ago whether I would become a mom, I would have said a firm no.

I never saw myself as a mom. But through my faith, I slowly came to realise that motherhood was meant for me.

I got pregnant five years after getting married, and that’s when everything shifted. From accountant, to banking, to suddenly stepping fully into motherhood.

After I got pregnant, the role I held was no longer available. But it turned out to be a very timely season. I could stay home and care for my child from a very young age.

Initially, my husband and I planned for me to stay home just for a year. We reviewed our finances, our situation… and one year became two. Then the periodic “let’s see how it goes” review quietly stretched into ten years with another child arriving in the fifth year.

Looking back, it was a wonderful season that completely shifted my life’s priorities from building a career to fully embracing motherhood.

Viv: After 10 years as a stay-at-home mom, what made you decide to become a real estate agent?

Anthea: I never aspired to be a real estate agent. Sales wasn’t something I saw myself.

Honestly, I didn’t think I had the “salesperson” personality.

But after 10 years at home, there was this quiet desire to do something outside of motherhood. I need something flexible, but yet still manageable with my responsibilities.

People often suggested insurance or property, and real estate caught my attention because it’s something everyone needs.

I started researching the RES course, but back then everything was fully onsite and full-day. As a mom, it was almost impossible for me to commit a few full days just to sit in a classroom.

Then COVID came, and suddenly Zoom classes were an option.

It felt like a door opening at the right time, almost like a quiet reminder saying, just take the first step.

So I did. I attended the course without any real intention of taking the exam. But once you have gone through the lessons, taking the RES exam feels like the natural next step.

So I told myself, “Just try.” And I passed.

Everything after that continued in baby steps. Passing the exam was one thing, but finding an agency that aligned with my values was another challenge. I didn’t want a high-pressure environment or a team that operated on hustle culture, because I wasn’t ready to switch into career overdrive. I wanted a place to grow slowly and meaningfully.

That was when I came across your website. What drew me in instantly was your message about empowering women after a career break. It resonated deeply because that was exactly the phase of life I was in.

I spoke to you, and I also spoke to many others, but your mission felt like home. It’s supportive, grounded, and understanding of mothers like me.

And that’s how my journey began. Not with a big leap, but with simple, faithful steps forward.

Viv: You have a very unique way of doing sales as a real estate agent. You are a part time realtor, and besides referrals, you focus mainly on tagging in your area. What made you choose this approach?

Anthea: When I first started, you just wanted to cheong, right? You attend the trainings, learn all the marketing strategies, prospecting methods… and honestly, it was overwhelming. I didn’t even know where to begin. I remember hearing you talk about GTA (geographical target audience) and how District 15 is your area.

One day, I was jogging around the Lentor area. Back then, it was just flat land and the government had just opened up the roads. There were people jogging everywhere. And as I was jogging and praying, it suddenly clicked:

“Hey, this is my area.” 

It’s close to where I live, I’m extremely familiar with it, and for someone doing this part-time, it felt like a natural fit.

That moment became the first real step in shaping what this career would look like for me.

Viv: I often share with mothers or anyone with other priorities my strategy when my kids were younger. And that was to focus on getting the exclusive to sell.

I used to manage only two or three listings, all in the same area. I would arrange the viewings on either Saturday or Sunday so I could keep the rest of the time for my kids. This arrangement worked well for me.

And for you, working on the Lentor area suits you too, since it is close to home and you are very familiar with that area.

After working with you recently at Faber Residence, I realised something else.

One of your biggest strengths is how easily people are drawn to you. You have this calm, non-pushy presence, and clients feel very comfortable around you. Even our teammates who have closed deals with you say the same.

Anthea is steady, dependable, super zai.

You are a very good tagger. But people outside our team don’t know yet. I wish more people knew this.

Maybe in time, when your children are older, you can expand beyond Lentor and take on more projects.

Anthea: Yeah, I think taking on Faber Residence was already a step out of my comfort zone, because it’s in Clementi and not in Lentor. It was a learning curve for me, trying to understand the Clementi area. But it’s also a baby step toward knowing more places instead of just staying in the areas I’m familiar with.

And along the way, I get to meet more people and they have questions about the West side of Singapore. So I have been attending training and upskilling myself too.

Viv: So you are a part-time realtor and a full-time mom. Naturally, a big part of your time and priority goes to your family. How do you incorporate work into your life?

Anthea: My children are my main priority. The household chores, sending them around, and just being present for them take up most of my day. Fitting real estate work into all of that can be challenging.

Because I want to give my best to my clients, and giving my best means putting in time and effort.

So, for listings that are far from where I stay, like in Jurong, I sometimes have to reject. It's not because I don’t want the sales, but because I know I can’t give the quality service which my clients deserve. In those cases, I either pass it to a teammate or advise the client to look for someone else.

There are also moments where things happen last minute, maybe an urgent closing or needing to rush down to pick up documents. Those are the times I activate my emergency button and call my mother-in-law for help. Thankfully, she’s always been incredibly supportive.

Challenges still happen. Sometimes my kids will say, “But you said we were going to do this… why not now?” When that happens, I explain that I am not choosing work over them. It is just that some things are urgent.

I want them to see that in life, we all need to learn how to decide what is important now and what can come a little later.

Viv: What do you appreciate most about this career?

Anthea: The flexibility! But beyond that, I really enjoy journeying with my clients through their property decisions. Buying a property is one of the biggest investments in life and being able to walk that journey with them is both fun and exciting for me.

Viv: I feel the impact we have as real estate agents is actually very strong. People outside the industry may not always see how meaningful this work can be.

We sometimes meet our clients at the lowest points in their lives. Being able to listen and journey with them adds a different kind of depth to the work we do.

One of the most meaningful cases I handled was helping an elderly father move from a five-room flat to a more manageable three-room unit. He told me that the new home must have access to more than one lift. At first I didn’t fully understand why, until he shared that his adult daughter is wheelchair-bound.

For him, a single lift wasn’t just an inconvenience; it was a real risk. If the only lift broke down or was under maintenance, he wouldn’t be able to bring his daughter for her medical appointments. That fear shaped everything about his search.

Hearing his story shifted my perspective. Something as ordinary as a lift, which most of us never think twice about, can be absolutely essential for someone else’s daily life.

I eventually found him a unit with access to three lifts, and helping him secure that home was incredibly fulfilling. Moments like these remind me how meaningful the work of a real estate agent can truly be.

Viv: Let’s talk about motherhood. When you decided to become a stay at home mum more than ten years ago, what was going through your mind? Did it feel like you were putting your career aside, and how did you process that choice?

Anthea: I remember the darkest moment in my life was actually the first six months after giving birth to my first child. You can read all the pregnancy books and try to mentally prepare yourself for sleepless nights. But when you’re really in it in the middle of the night, holding your baby, exhausted, you start questioning yourself:

“Why am I doing this? I could be sleeping.”

And in the daytime, when you are changing diapers, feeling haggard, you question again:

“Why am I doing this? I could be dressed up, going to work, earning money.”

The first six months after my first child were really depressing. Post-natal blues is real. You are recovering physically, everything is new and uncomfortable, and you keep questioning yourself. What helped me through it was a very supportive environment.

And because I’ve been through it, I can now have real conversations with other moms who are struggling because every mom goes through it. Our bodies are recovering, and everything is new and uncomfortable. It’s truly stepping out of your comfort zone.

Viv: I completely understand that. Looking back now, I sometimes wonder whether there was a bit of an identity mismatch, or even an identity crisis.

Photo Source: Gemini

If we imagine a scale, with our children on one side and our career on the other, choosing to be a stay-at-home mom naturally shifts the weight toward our kids. Mom's guilt becomes lighter because we are with them all the time.

But the other thought is always there:

Am I shortchanging myself? Could I have done more in my career?

Now that my kids are older, I do wonder. If I had spent more time on work, would I have achieved much more?

As women, we hold many roles. For me, the role of a mother is still the most important one, and that never change. Even if I had to choose again today, I would make the same choice.

But you cannot deny that small voice at the back of your mind, wondering if there was more you could have done. At the same time, we know we can’t have everything all at once.

Like Michelle Obama said:

We can do everything we want, but not everything at the same time.

Now that my kids are older, this season feels like the right time to move forward. Not to chase what is lost, but to honour the part of me that still wants to grow.

And for many moms, once their children become more independent, they start asking themselves:

What’s next for me?

To them, I just want to say this is a good time to rediscover yourself. While we are healthy, and while the kids no longer need us every minute, we finally get to do something for ourselves.

Anthea: I feel the same. When I took up the RES course, it was my way of slowly easing back into the workforce with baby steps. The training, meeting new people, learning new things… it gave me something beyond school runs and “mummy talk.” It also helps me build a foundation so that when my children are older and I have more time, I’m not starting from zero.

“Baby steps” describes my whole journey. I am using whatever little scraps of time I have to put in my best effort.

About the identity crisis part, what grounded me was being very clear that motherhood was my season. In the early years, my kids needed me physically.

Now that they are older, they don’t need me physically all the time, but they still need me emotionally. That is a long race.

So I asked myself,

Do I want to stay in the stay-at-home mom identity forever, or is there space for me to hold both? Slowly I realised I could balance both without getting sucked into the rat race. If I lose myself chasing work, my children will feel it. That's not what I want.

That’s why I carve out time intentionally, and say no to certain deals or listings. I need to be clear about what I’m doing, and what works for my family.

Viv: Yes, exactly. When I meet mothers who want to join the industry, many tell me, “I won’t have much time for work.”

And to me, that is perfectly okay. If you close just one or two deals a year, that’s already enough because you are learning, meeting people, and still connected to the world.

It’s a totally different ballgame from a full-timer aiming to be a millionaire agent.

What I don’t want is for someone to get their license and then park it aside without doing anything.

If you put in the effort even for just one deal, that’s good enough for me. You just need to keep moving.

Anthea: Yes, and that’s also why I joined this team. From the beginning, I already told you I wouldn’t be very active. But at the back of my mind, I also didn’t want to waste the privilege of having the license. I wanted to use whatever time I had to do something. And so far, it’s worked well. Maybe five years down the road things will change. Maybe I will do more, maybe less.

But for this season, it fits perfectly. And the team dynamics really help. Our teammates are so encouraging, many are moms too and we don’t just talk about work. We talk about our family lives, our struggles, our wins. It makes work so much more enjoyable, it is not just about closing deals.

Viv: How has motherhood changed the way you see success?

Success to me now is when I see my children go to sleep happy, and I can close my eyes happy too knowing my children and my family are at peace. That’s success for me.

And ultimately, when I meet my Heavenly Father one day, I hope He will say, “My good and faithful servant,” because I have been a good steward of the time and resources He has entrusted to me.

Viv: For me, one way I see success as a mother is when my kids, who are now a teenager and a young adult, are still close to me. When I see that, I think, “Okay, whatever I did back then worked.” And with that, there are no regrets.

Viv: There are many mothers looking to come into real estate as part-timers. What advice do you have for them?

Anthea: Just take the plunge, if time and resources allow.

Baby steps really work.

And when you feel overwhelmed, it’s okay to retreat into your little “closet”. Take a moment for yourself, and come out again when you are ready. There will always be people you can talk to.

There are trainings every week for residential, commercial, even international properties. And sometimes, you won’t realise how useful it is until one day someone asks you, say about overseas properties. It is enriching professionally and personally.

Along the way, you will meet people from all walks of life. Some are nice, some not so. Every experience shapes you. It teaches you how to react, how to grow, how to become better.

And honestly, when I feel down, I will call you. Many times. You have become like my place to unload. After talking to you, I always feel, “Okay, snap out of it, get up, move on.”

This industry can be trying, but it is also very rewarding. It depends on how much effort we choose to give our clients. And sometimes, after a conversation, you realise, “Maybe this is not the right fit.”

That is when you remember there is always a supply and demand match. Clients choose their agents, and we can choose our clients too.

In the beginning, it was very hard for me to say no. I kept chasing. But over time, I realised: I am my own boss, I get to decide.

And that is the beauty of this career. You build it in a way that fits your life.

Viv: Thank you, Anthea, for being here with us and for sharing so openly about your journey. Your story will definitely resonate with many mothers out there.

With that, we will end our episode today. See you in the next episode.

Check out the full episode here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hgmBaXUolA

Conclusion

Starting a new career in real estate is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming, especially when you are doing it alone. Having the right mentor by your side can make a real difference, not just in how fast you grow, but in how you navigate the tough moments that every new agent goes through.

If you are thinking about making the move into real estate and want someone who has walked this journey, understands the challenges, and is genuinely invested in your success, I would love to have a conversation with you.

Click below to make an appointment with me and let us talk about what a career in real estate could look like for you.

Make An Appointment Here

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Related Readings

1) Is Real Estate Agent Career A Good Choice For Moms?

2) Can I Be A Part-Time Property Agent In Singapore?

3) The Ultimate Balancing Act For Real Estate Moms

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About 'Her Bold Moves' Podcast

In the first season of the HER BOLD MOVES podcast, we invite guests from across the real estate industry to share their lives, experiences, and the bold decisions that shaped their careers. Each conversation gives you an inside look at what it really takes to build a meaningful and sustainable real estate career in Singapore.

Every episode features in depth stories about how different realtors started, the challenges they faced, the turning points that defined their journeys, and the mindset shifts that helped them grow. From part time agents and mothers returning to the workforce to seasoned realtors who rebuilt their careers from scratch, these stories offer practical insights and real encouragement.

Whether you are exploring a real estate career, preparing for your RES journey, or already an experienced agent looking for renewed purpose, you will find inspiration, clarity, and honest lessons from those who have walked the path.

Join us as we explore how real people made bold moves in their real estate careers and transformed their lives along the way.