By Lucy Xia of RNZ
A high-profile Auckland real estate agent has been given a formal warning by her employer after posting a TikTok video of herself giving a sales pitch using a fake Asian accent.
Award-winning Ray White real estate agent Linh Yee, who is of Asian descent, also said in the video that she will do cleaning and cooking for potential buyers.
The video circulated for more than a week before it was removed, following a complaint.
While Yee spoke fluently in an official video promoting a Sandringham house, she took on a different persona in a TikTok video marketing the same property, where she called herself “Lingling” and effected an Asian accent.
The video showed Yee walking through the property, offering to do a range of household chores for potential buyers — including sweeping the deck, and crouching down to clean the floor.
“You pay me good price, I also get dirty for you, see — I clean,” she said.
She also wandered to the kitchen and said: “And when I sell your home good price, I also make you good dinner, see, peanut butter jelly, I make for you.”
The video ended with the agent saying “love you long time” — a line from the movie Full Metal Jacket in which a Vietnamese sex worker solicited American soldiers.
An Auckland woman who complained to Ray White said she felt deeply offended by the video.
“I feel like what she was doing really proliferates stereotypes against Southeast Asian women, and as someone who is of Asian descent, it was just really disappointing and sad to see,” she said.
The woman, who did not want to be named, said it normalised racism.
“This is leading to more acceptance and apathy on normalising racism in our society, and it is quite disappointing to see that Ray White doesn’t really have any formal procedures and policies for their real estate agents, to basically be posting anything they want in social media.”
She said she felt there was a wider issue of racism in New Zealand, and it was a “dark underbelly of our culture” that was not being talked about enough.
Yee would not do a recorded audio interview, but told RNZ she had no idea how much the video would offend people.
“I’m so embarrassed about what’s really going on, I’m still letting it sort of absorb in, I really, really didn’t even have any idea how much this is actually gonna offend people, when all I was doing was mocking and teasing myself,” she said.
She said on reflection she realised speaking English with a fake Asian accent was wrong and had taken down the video.
“My intention was never to cause harm or discomfort to anyone, but rather to share a light-hearted moment of self-expression and humour. However, I now understand that my actions were culturally insensitive and perpetuated harmful stereotypes,” she said.
Linh Yee said she was “truly sorry”.
“Moving forward, I am committed to educating myself and being more mindful of the impact of my words and actions. I understand that words alone cannot undo the hurt caused, but I hope to demonstrate through my future behaviour a genuine commitment to learning and growth,” she said.
Ray White Epsom director Nick Lyus said Yee has been given a formal warning about the video, which was taken down as soon as the company was made aware of it.
He said the company was committed to giving all its employees cultural sensitivity and anti-discrimination training.
Ray White said it did not vet all its staff’s social media posts, but did monitor them regularly.
A real estate agent who has been criticised as ‘tone deaf’ for making sales videos for modest homes while driving high-end luxury cars has defended his methods after attracting thousands of views online.
Agent Amir Jahan, 25, from Ray White Parramatta in Sydney‘s west, has racked up hundreds of thousands of views for the videos he posts to Instagram spruiking his properties.
His videos include Mr Jahan arriving at lower to mid-end properties in luxury vehicles including a Rolls Royce and a Lamborghini.
Mr Jahan’s slickly produced clips have attracted comments slamming his style for being ‘tone deaf’ and ‘douchey’.
‘I get a lot of negative comments but what’s most important for me is to keep the sellers and buyers happy,’ he told Daily Mail Australia.
After starting as a sales agent five months ago, Mr Jahan knew he needed to market his properties from a different perspective.
‘I remember before I became an agent I saw all the real estate videos that all looked the same with the agent standing outside, saying ‘welcome home’ and I would skip through them,’ he said.
‘I asked ‘what can I do to make the videos different?’ Nine out of 10 people like cars, so I decided to put cars in the videos.
‘I wanted to get people’s attention and get them to watch them to the end.’
Many of his videos have been watched over 100,000 times, with one he shared to X hitting half a million views.
Far from being ‘douchey’, Mr Jahan revealed one of the main reasons for the videos was because of the Parramatta market being mainly ‘all units’.
‘When a house comes on the market, people are interested.
‘But because there are just so many units you have to do something to try and get them sold, otherwise they sit on the market for six months.’
According to Mr Jahan, the average time a unit stays on the market in Parramatta is a minimum of 60 days.
He says savvier agents who use platforms like Instagram to market properties have sold after an average of just four weeks on the market.
The agent said 10 units come onto the market in his area every fortnight, with most being apartments.
‘They have the same number of bedrooms, they are the same price, they are targeting the same market. You have to do something different,’ Mr Jahan said.
Mr Jahan said some people accuse him of ‘ripping’ off his vendors – but he pays for the marketing out of his own pocket.
‘Most properties I sign I offer free marketing. The cost of the videos are covered by me, including car rentals,’ he said.
The vendors he does offer a marketing package involves the seller paying for advertising on Domain and realestate.com.au and nothing more.
‘I don’t believe in taking commission and marketing costs.
‘Since I started as a seller, I believe when an owner signs with you, that is a big trust to give their asset to you.’
Mr Jahan also believes that just because a property doesn’t have a big price tag, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t get his full attention.
‘If I am selling a $400,000 – $500,000 unit, and turn up in a $1m car, there’s a reason for it,’ he said.
‘I’m not listing a property for $7m or $8m but I am treating your property like it is $7 or $8m dollars.
‘I am putting my focus on it regardless of the fact that we are not in Double Bay and your flat isn’t in the millions. It is still a big asset for the owner.’
His latest post on Instagram of a three bedroom townhouse has attracted negative comments , with some describing it as ‘s***hole’.
‘Good place to run meth out of,’ wrote one.
‘The car’s worth more than the apartment! I’m confused, are you an agent or a car salesperson?’ another said.
‘The meaning of out of touch,’ one wrote.
Mr Jahan told Daily Mail Australia the negative comments just fuel his motivation.
‘It’s life. It doesn’t matter how good or bad you are, you will always get negative comments,’ he said.
His social media campaigns have worked. Out of the 14 properties he has sold, four have been directly linked to his videos.
‘One man contacted me after seeing a video on Instagram. He had been looking for a while and came and saw the property. He made an offer on the same day.’