His black frame glasses are perched on his nose and he is smiling. It’s a crooked smile that could also pass for an expression more startled than gleeful, but that’s what you get when you ask a team of papier-mâché artists to make a miniature version of yourself.
“Officially there are 12,” Mr Ney, an American Myanmar-language student-cum-realtor, said of the three-foot effigies that dot apartments around Yangon’s Yaw Min Gyi area. “They were all sold before they were even made.”
The papier-mâché mini-Neys mostly occupy the living rooms of friends. One was purchased by an art gallery and another by a Yaw Min Gyi bank branch to “bring good luck”. They offer a small glimpse into how Mr Ney has become a staple in Yangon as one of the top expat-servicing realtors around.
“I became fascinated with the country because of the friends I had at univesity in Bangkok,” he said.
Upon arriving in Yangon four years ago from Thailand to pursue a position as an English teacher at an international school, Mr Ney set about the “very, very arduous process” of finding a place to live, which is what brought him to the doorstep of “Auntie” Boke and her husband, “Uncle”, who were running a small real-estate business out of their family home on Yaw Min Gyi Street.
“Not only were they able to get me set up, but they were able to go above and beyond what any other agent was doing. I felt very welcome and loved, almost, just finding my place,” Mr Ney said, speaking from his now habitual roost on the couch of the York Road Realty office, a family business that has adopted him as one of their own.
Intermittently fact-checking in Myanmar language with Auntie and Uncle, Mr Ney recounted how he came to shoot from his hometown Seattle to land in the Yangon real estate sector.
“I was really interested in learning the language but at that point it was difficult to get language teachers. So the way I learned has been how a two-year-old learns a language, by listening.”
Before York Road Realty in its current manifestation existed, the office doubled as a phone shop where the newly arrived Mr Ney would perch on the couch intently eavesdropping.
“I had the benefit of being able to sit on this couch every day and listen to these one-sided conversations in multiple accents every day and learn idiosyncratic details and apply [the language] in a daily situation with Auntie and Uncle and their whole family,” Mr Ney said.
Mr Ney began referring people to Auntie and Uncle for help with finding accommodation and the referrals kept coming and multiplying until York Road Realty became a full-time entity.
“Back then [pre-2010] prices were cheap, but it was harder to rent because the process for registration was a lot more difficult and a lot of areas were flat-out unwilling to rent to someone carrying a non-Myanmar identification,” he said.
“I enjoy [realty], I like going out and helping people, the skill set has developed over time and I have had very good teachers,” Mr Ney said.
“I hope we can influence rates and terms of rental agreements. I think the fact that landlords know we work with an international clientele gives us more of an impact on the future of Myanmar renting policy,” Mr Ney said.
source: The Myanmar Times
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