First Move Property Advisory

Principal Advisor & Buyers' Advocate

Member of the Midstream Aspac leadership team. Accountable for the performance of the ANZ Supply and Biofuels business.
Strategy, P&L accountability, commercial negotiations, commercial development, origination, developing strategic partnerships, supply chain management, and biofuels compliance

Negotiation & Integrated Margin Senior Manager, Midstream AsPac

Member of the European Petrochemicals leadership team. Accountable for the performance of the European Aromatics & Feedstocks business. 
Strategy, P&L accountability, commercial negotiations, origination, developing strategic partnerships, sales & marketing, pricing, customer relationship management, customer acquisition, project development, operational excellence, supply chain & logistics optimisation

Commercial Team Leader, European Petrochemicals

Develop partnerships and negotiate commercial agreements with customers and suppliers across Europe

Commercial Manager, Aromatics, European Petrochemicals

Own and lead refinery commercial optimisation strategies to maximise refinery gross margin
Translate market movements into refinery optimisation plans at pace, and into language understood by Refinery, Trading and Supply teams, ensuring prompt capture of market opportunities.
Authority to make feedstock and products commercial decisions on behalf of the refinery.

Refinery Planner

Day to day safe, compliant, reliable and efficient operations of the plant (Crude Dock, Product Wharf, Product Terminal, LPG Terminal, Mogas Blending, Refinery Tank Farm, Fire Water System, and Waste Water Treatment Plant)
Authorise permits to work under the bp Control of Work process
Operations and Maintenance prioritisation and planning
Manage unforeseen equipment break downs, while considering safety, commercial and operational impacts

Operations Area Authority

Lead and manage LP project developments, from concept through to execution 
Develop organisational capability in LP commercial application within the refining and trading businesses

LP Developer

Process Simulations Specialist

Support bp refineries globally in engineering training, project development, engineering design, plant turnarounds/shutdowns, operations and optimisation

Asset Support Engineer

Operations Support Engineer 

Process Development & Design Engineer

Melbourne Buyers Advocate, who levels the playing field for home buyers and property investors, driven to secure for them properties that align with their life goals and aspirations. 

While I'm passionate about property, I'm more passionate about people. I empower them to make confident and informed decisions in their property journey - giving them their time, money and energy back.

As a professional negotiator, having led negotiations worth billions of dollars all over Europe and the Asia Pacific for BP in my former corporate role - I believe that great negotiations are built on empathy and strong relationships.

I am a property investor of over 15 years, with my own property portfolio, who left a successful corporate career to start my own business, and hence, First Move Property Advisory was born. One of the joys of owning my own business is being able to bring my dog into the office!

At First Move Property Advisory, our clients and team are at the heart of the business. While we help our clients and their families achieve their goals, nothing matters more than showing up for them with integrity, authenticity and genuine care (We are also slightly over-protective of our clients!)

Once upon a time, this was where I lived.

This is the backyard of a shop in an obscure address of SS19 Subang Jaya.

It’s funny, growing up, I had no idea we were “poor”.

Until one moment in my dad’s delivery van, which I remember like it was just yesterday.

I was being dropped off at school in his goods van…

And I remember staring at the school buses and asking - “Why can’t I go on one of those like the other kids?”

I was told, very matter-of-factly - “We can’t afford it”

I think it was my first time realising we were different.

I grew up in a small family business in Malaysia, where hard work wasn’t posted as an Instagram quote - It was simply a way of life.

My family lived above the shop, and every day felt like an extension of the last because the work never really stopped.

When that’s your childhood, “work hard because money doesn’t grow on trees” becomes your DNA.

And even after life became more stable, that belief followed me straight into adulthood.

For years, I thought the only way to earn was to work myself into the ground. 

That belief got me into my first big-girl job. And then my promotions at BP. 

Years of pushing, striving, and proving.

It took years of unlearning - and honestly, a lot of property investing - to realise that money doesn’t have to be tied to working yourself into the ground.

And freedom doesn’t come from working harder - it comes from thinking differently.

Now - in my 40s, financially comfortable, with years of investing and saving behind me - I still work hard, but the energy is completely different.

I work hard because I genuinely love this life I’ve built.

Running this business feels like the thing I’ve been waiting for my entire life.

I get to wake up every day and help clients make decisions that genuinely change their lives.

I get to mentor my amazing team.

It feels like I’m living a dream that I didn’t know I was allowed to have.

And I get to do it intentionally, with the right people - not in the frantic, survival-driven way I grew up watching.

This isn’t the kind of hard work I was raised to do - but I know my family are proud of where it led.

Haley Lim

Melbourne Buyers Advocate | Founder - First Move Property | Negotiation expert | ex-BP | Business & Property Investor

For most of my career, I was 100% convinced of one thing.

“Every single thing in my business was my fault” 

I’d beat myself up over it.

Fortunately, I don’t think like that anymore.

If a client wasn’t happy, it was my fault - even if it was my team that missed the detail.

If a building & pest inspector stuffed up, my fault too - because I thought leadership meant total ownership.

And I wore that like a badge of honour.

Until I realised it was doing nothing to progress us as a company.

All it did was turn me into a martyr in my own business.

So I’ve started looking at “mistakes” differently - not as shame or fault, but as opportunities to simply be better.

The uncomfortable moments that force us to do the work and grow.

You see most of the time, the hardest part isn’t fixing the mistake.

It’s pushing through that feeling of not being good enough.

But hey, can we stop for a moment and celebrate how far we’ve come?

To be grateful that THESE are the problems we get to solve today!

Because truth is - These are the problems we once prayed for.

So now it is just “okay cool, I’ll do it this way next time so that doesn’t happen again”

Leadership isn’t about taking the hit and quietly bleeding in the corner, then patting yourself on the back for being a “selfless leader”.

No one cares.

Genuine leadership, is confronting the discomfort, owning the lesson (not the mistake) and making sure it doesn’t happen again.

So there’s no “blame” or “fault” at First Move Property - it’s just “hey, let’s do this better next time”.

It feels lighter, braver… 

And a hell of a lot more useful than carrying the world on my shoulders ever did.

P.S. This was me back in the very early days of business, when it all first started – nervous as hell, tirelessly trying to work it all out, but full of faith and belief

Some people walk into your life quietly… and end up changing everything.

LinkedIn gave me one of those people.

A year ago, I met someone on here who has somehow become… family.

His name is Adi.

Today, he’s the little brother I never had…

The little brother who is wayyy smarter than me.

He gives me advice that makes me think, “Wow… how is this kid wiser at 30-something than I was at 40?”

He is one of the sharpest businessmen I’ve ever met - and the kindest soul.

He inspires me to be a better human - in this crazy work-life blend that is business.

He’s also the shoulder I cry on when I’m feeling emo, and always there to hype me up when I’m doubting myself.

Honestly, I feel a tiny bit embarrassed when I think about what I was doing at his age.

Living abroad in Europe, obsessed about climbing the corporate ladder, hopping between airports, travelling…

(But to give myself SOME credit, I did have a few investment properties back in Australia quietly doing their thing)

And of course, he does annoying little-brother things like sending me scary voice notes at night for LOLs!!

Because he knows I’m a scaredy cat who hates horror movies 😝 

Those who know me know I have a very small circle.

So the fact that this incredible human wandered into my life through LinkedIn… 

Still blows my mind.

But I’m so, so grateful for it.

He’s changed my life more ways than he’ll ever realise.

I thought these flowers were a delivery mistake - they weren’t

I can be ridiculously brutal with myself sometimes.

It’s wild how we hold ourselves to standards nobody else would ever expect of us.

So when I came home the other day and found flowers on my doorstep, I honestly thought they were a mistake.

It wasn’t my birthday…

And I definitely don’t have a partner who surprises me with flowers lol

Turns out they were from a couple who’d just bought their investment property the day before - clients I met through LinkedIn, who I absolutely adored working with.

And I was pretty shook.

Because even though we’d found them a fab investment property (one of those “I wish I could buy 10 of these” ones), my inner voice had been whispering very loudly that I hadn’t been good enough.

→ We didn’t buy as quickly as I’d hoped.

→ We looked at a few that were almost right, but not quite.

→ And somewhere along the way, I started wondering if I was falling short.

So seeing those flowers felt like someone shaking me by the shoulders and saying:

“Hales, calm down, you did good”.

Hearing them say they appreciated me so much meant a lot more than I expected.

That moment on my doorstep reminded me why I love what I do.

I get to work with people who not only appreciate the effort - but go out of their way to say thank you.

If you’re someone I’ve met through LinkedIn - a client, a peer, or even someone who’s just sent a kind message - thank you. This platform has brought the most incredible people into my life.

And Adi Chanda, if you’re reading this: thank you for pushing me to write here.

It’s changed my life in ways I never expected.

“I’ll use another BA after this one.”

A client said this to me on our very first call – umm okayyyy 😅

Not exactly how you dream a client call will start.

He’d reached out from Sydney, wanting to buy his 1st Melbourne investment.

I didn’t think it was the most flattering start.

He said, “I’ll start with you, but for the 2nd one, I’ll probably go with someone else. I want a suburb specialist in another pocket of Melbourne.”

Part of me thought, fair enough - people like to feel they’re covering their bases. 

Before I’d even done a thing for him, he’d already decided I was a one-off.

But c’est la vie - I got to work.

9 days later, he’d secured a place worth $730k for $660k. 
(Even the sales agent said, “Cheap - you owe me”)

And before we’d even wrapped it up, my client said:

“Haley, can we go again?! I want you to buy the 2nd one for me too - anywhere you like.”

I laughed and asked why - since only a couple of weeks prior he was set on going with someone else. 

What he said back is exactly what I pour so much of myself into:

“It’s the relationships. The way exclusive off-markets come to you. The way you know the agents. The way you negotiate.”

It had nothing to do with the “expertise” he thought mattered at the start. 

It was all about trust.

And now, we’re planning investment number 3 together - a far cry from that first call.

And it was a great reminder about the direction I’m taking First Move Property. 

We don’t just buy great properties.

We give people the belief, that my team and I are in their corner, pushing for them, even when they weren’t sure they deserved it themselves.

That’s why I know he’ll be back for the 4th too.

Imagine missing out on buying your home… for a year straight.

I can’t even imagine what that would do for your self-confidence.

Most people lose at auctions.

Not because they can’t afford it, but because they don’t know how to play the game.

A few weeks ago, a woman reached out and asked me to bid at an auction for her. 

(If you didn’t know, I loveeeeee auctions. It’s like a party for me.)

She’d been searching for over a year - inspecting properties, constantly missing out, and getting more and more disheartened with each Saturday that passed.

She wasn’t being fussy or looking for a unicorn, but every time she found something she liked, someone else got there first.

Then she found “THE ONE”.

When I asked her to rate it out of 10 (10 being perfect) - she didn’t even blink and said, “it’s a 12”.

And I don’t know, the way she said it…there was this tiny mix of fear & hope that you only hear from people who’ve been disappointed more times than they care to admit.

I remember thinking - “Alrighty, we’re not losing this one”.

Most people think auctions are about who has the deepest pockets.

But honestly, the real “hack” is understanding the seller’s motivation.

In this particular case, the vendors had already moved out. 

So I knew they were motivated to sell - fast.

You know what I did? I asked to bring the auction forward.

Didn’t know you could do that, did you? Scandalous!

The auction ended up happening mid-week at 5pm, when most buyers were still in meetings or scrambling to arrange finance.

I did that for 1 simple reason - catch everyone unprepared, because we were very (very) prepared.

We’d already mapped out our strategy and walkaway price the day before, so while the competition was scrambling, we were ready to roll.

There were 2 other parties that night:

➝ One dropped out quickly - the strong bidding completely shook him.

➝ The other stuck around for a bit, but with each bid, you could see the hesitation creeping in.

The 3rd party i.e. my client and me, walked out with the contract that night.

Afterwards, my client told me “This is the best money I’ve ever spent”.

If you need help with auctions, I’ve got you.

It’s one thing to trust your team.

It’s another thing entirely to trust them with your parents.

I’ve always said I only present deals I’d be happy for my parents to buy. But this time… that wasn’t hypothetical.

When they called me to say they were ready to downsize, I wanted them to feel safe, cared for, and excited about this next chapter.

I could’ve taken the search on myself… but I didn’t.

Instead, I handed it to my sourcing specialist (who’s been absolutely killing it, by the way). 

I didn’t tell her they were my folks - because she’d treat them like VIPs anyway, and I didn’t want the added pressure for her.

And within just one week… she found it.

In one of the most competitive markets (where homes were flying $300k over the guide), she delivered:

→ The perfect home for their needs.

→ Below market value.

→ Lovely vendors who even offered an adjustment for minor repairs.

The cherry on top for them is that these vendors are now their neighbours - also in their 70s - who are genuinely thrilled to live next door. 

They’d found a new home, and the start of a new community.

I’m so grateful for many things in this story:

→ That I could help my parents.

→ That my team cares as deeply as I do.

→ That when the right people are in the right place, magic happens.

I think this is the first time I’ve genuinely felt the impact of my work.

More of this please.

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