zirhk3355

That's the way to do it man! Good for you...

The feature wall, as the name implies, is a feature. So its purpose is to beautify. To have or not to have, well...that largely depends on whether you think its beautiful or not lor. But I duno why you relate it to your wall mount TV...?

First thing is to login and check MyHDBPage whether you are eligible to sublet. If so then you can fetch a better price, because the tenant also want to rent an approved unit so there will not be problems in future. But if you are not allowed to rent, then you will be renting out illegally. That one I won't teach u openly in this forum lah, hehe. I rented out a room in my flat at Tanglin Halt (the new 40-storey flats) and managed to get $650/mth. I think if your place is decent, it should fetch about $1500 / mth and above. 99% of people who rent flats are foreigners working in Singapore, so transportation is utmost important. If your place got bus stops and near to buona vista MRT, then I think you can get good rental price. Flat rental is a very very simple process; don't waste that one month's rental comm to give agents. If you need I can pass you a standard tenancy agreement, which is also widely available on the internet. Just sign it and ask the tenant to go IRAS for stamping and that's it.

Oh, that's too bad! Ok see you next THUM ya? I am staying in #34-356.

deepakvali, when will we see you at THUM huh????

Come down to THUM after your selection and we can celebrate with you!!

Haha, you are right, and petrol companies are not the only ones who operate like a cart*l...oops! Yes, very true. As long as we remember this, we would not be swayed by unscrupulous agents who just want to close, close, close. Or to put it more bluntly, if you are being swayed, then there is no one else to blame but...??

Hey I was from Blk 71, those walk-up 4-storey blocks!

I am a strong believer of paying more for good service, rather than to try and pay less when the service is sub-standard.

Aiyo, cool down lah. You might have forgotten that you did suggest some kind of a solution here: http://www.renotalk.com/forum/index.php?s=...st&p=296082 Also, from your posts it does seemed that your grouse is not in the mechanism of computing commission itself, but more because you felt the fees are too high for you. Sorry if I had assumed wrongly. But I am sure nobody is finding fault here; its all a discussion and never personal. If we only want to voice our opinions and not hear others, then we are better off writing a blog than to come to a forum. I am sorry also if my post came too strongly, but its also based on my past experiences as well. To be fair to those hardworking and good agents, in improving the messy situation of the real estate industry, the bar for the agents' service standards must be upped, rather than to cut down on their income. BTW, in comparison, agency's fees in Singapore already pales in comparison to those in other developed countries.

So exciting to see all the new neighbours coming in! Hopefully we can find more kakis in our estate; otherwise its going to be yet another 'cold' concrete housing... So just to "advertise" again, Tanglin Halt Usual Meetup (THUM) would be as usual: When: Every Saturday, 2pm to 3pm START, till late Where: Blk 46-1 Coffeeshop Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...034504&z=15 Hope to see more newbies!! Shy ones can PM me or any regulars for mobile no to call...

You need to take a loan of $330K?? You really got to manage your finances and be very confident that you will get more income (and stable income too!) before you commit to this, esp you need to pay cash too.

I am hesitant to say this but it seemed like the discontent should have been targetted at the final commission amount, rather than the mechanism to compute such amount? The way of pegging commission to transacted amount is a very common way in several industries, simply because it makes business sense. Very few out there actually peg commission to the intangible 'service'. Also, I tend to believe that the people who really need an agent would be the lowly-educated ones, whom are usually also lowly-paid. What will happen to them? Facing reality here, if one day agent's commission becomes a fixed fee, it will definitely not be much lesser than what it is now. The fixing of fee is definitely going to be very debatable - while you could put a fee to the specific form filled up or "consultation" pertaining certain housing issues, how do you fix the fee for, say, viewings? If fee is charged based on per viewing basis, then the obvious that will happen is that the agent is going to bring his wife, children, father, mother, uncles and aunties to come and view your property! How do you judge if the agent had brought a 'good' client? Also, how do you put a fee to negotiation? Per hour charge? Like legal fees? Pray tell, would you really be happy that you spent like $3000 on agent's negotiation fee and still unable to close the deal? The most obvious repercussion for fixing agent's fee is that agents would not go the extra mile anymore; they will just try to clock as many chargeable duties as possible, choose to do only those that commands a high fee, and h*ck care the rest. Some may even pride themselves to be an 'expert' in certain duties and start to "specialise". Then are all agencies' fees going to be the same? It cannot be, because that would be a cartel and against fair competition spirit. So we are going to have agency A charging $500 for paperwork vs agency B who charge $2000 for paperwork + guaranteed 10 viewings. Then agency C, because of low sales volume, they will give a 10% discount and offer 'free' submission of HDB documents. What will happen to agency D, a 'premium' agency, is that they are going to say we shall charge $4000 for 5 viewings + negotiation, but sorry we don't do paperwork; we are the real estate negotiating consultant. The result is that only the rich can afford the expensive and 'premium' agents, while the not-so-wealthy sellers/buyers will have to bear with the cheaper and inexperienced ones. Then the poor who cannot afford an agent and yet unfamiliar with the legalities and practices, will then fall victims to the unscrupulous ones. So are we going to have an "Agent Aid Dept", just like legal aid for those who cannot afford??

I dun think HDB would be the right authority to regulate the agents' industry; they are just like a property developer, eg capitaland or far east orgn would not go and regulate the agents for private properties. The onus of such regulation lies on the industry themselves; already, there are several associations being formed voluntarily like IEA, SAEA, etc who are in such regulating position, however they can only act upon those agencies who are their members because they are currently not vested with enough powers. Then, the govt need to come in and say, all agents must be registered with xxx association. Good examples are like the law society and the singapore medical association, where it is mandatory for lawyers/doctors to register with them and they have the authority to discipline the erroneous ones. With such associations, then it can come up with strict rules and regulations, allow public to lodge distress, and enforce it.

For me pandan leaves will be in the water right from the beginning until the end.

Why everyone forgot about the pandan leaves?? That's very impt for my green bean soup or sweet potato soup! ;P

My motto: Always go for the 'jump'. Eg if the asking price is $250K, check if can consider $200K. If the agent/seller jumps and say, "Siao ah! Cannot lah!" then u got him liao. Next question is, "How much, then?" The price that come out would be the true base price. If you offer a price and they say, "Ok, we will consider", or worse "Can, you come in with the cheque" and no 'jumping', this means that their base price is still below your offer price.

Actually there are still quite a few hardworking, honest agents who really out to make a decent living; but I must agree the black sheeps are far more than them. Agents do play an important role, not just for the lazy seller/buyer, but also for those who are not as quick-witted and articulate. And sometimes people are not lazy lah, they really very busy with their work, fly here fly there, cannot afford to go thru the process to sell/buy the flat themselves. Thru my previous job, I came across a lady whose husband owns 23 private properties in Singapore and still buying more. She sat in my car and we past by a condo, she pointed to me that she got an unit there. I ask her which floor and facing which direction, she says she doesn't know. So pray tell, how would she cope without an agent?? Those star agents who earn 5-figure sum every month are serving this kind of people. IMO, the bigger picture is that the agents start to go undertable, backalley, become conmen, misrepresentation, etc simply because the system allows them to do so.

Darwin's business modus operandi is the same as those 'exhibition' IDs - employ many many cheap labour (eg ah bengs selling DVDs at geylang kind of standard) to cheong for sales, paying salary as low as construction workers, then got close deal then got comm. These sales will know next to nothing about design, try to close you on first visit with that $500 "booking fee" to get 'free' 3D drawings, then you will be thrown to their design team and the sales disappear. I tried sitting at their branch in TradeHub 21 for 45 mins trying to explain the kind of breakfast table I want, but salesguy just stared at me blank. Quotation finally came about 3 weeks later (after countless missed calls), then realised he left out the master bedroom's sliding door. I tried to ask him nicely about it, its just a small oversight mah, so apologise and get over it lor. But NOooo...guess he says? "Master bedroom no need door mah, nowadays open-concept is the 'in' thing!!" I dun even want to bother telling him that master bedroom door is facing the middle of my living room; stood up and dragged my wife out of the place. *facepalm* I swear never to deal with this company ever again.

Wow, this is very good! One of the most widely used tricks by the agents, esp new ones. However, its also very sad; why can't they just go work hard to serve people who need agents?? Such tricks will not let them go anywhere - trying to chuck themselves into deals that do not involved them at all! Another bad practice that I would like to reveal here is making use of direct owners (who do not want to pay agent's comm) as the neighbourhood "showflat". What will happen is that the agent will call up the owner to view, dun pay comm never mind, they just want to close the deal with you (wah so good??). But the funny thing is, when they come with the buyers, they start to criticize everything in the flat in front of the buyers. At first you might think that the agent is not representing you so its natural they don't side with you. But that's not the case. The agents are actually using your flat as the showflat in order to sell the OTHER flat/s whose owners are willing to pay comm! They do not intend to sell your flat at all, they just want to show the buyers more flats (because buyers always want to see more before they commit) and go back to sell the other flats to the buyer. This trick also affects the buyer adversely, because the agents will not sincerely show the flats that are suitable for him, but purposely show a series of unsuitable flats, so that he will be cornered into buying the flat that the agent want him to buy (ie the one that willing to pay seller's comm!). My advice is that you must always promote your flat yourself; do not let the agent and buyer walk around your flat by themselves. Follow them and try to 'sell' it. If your flat is really better than the other one that the agent is trying to sell, the buyer will come back to you.

Oh ya this brings up another myth that the agents always try to make us believe: They will find the BEST price for us (be it seller or buyer). The above example speaks for all. An agent is only good for bringing the clients to you, doing the running around for this and that, perhaps also imparting some knowledge on the paperwork and also using their templated contracts and agreements, which is good because they are usually vetted by lawyers. That's about all. As for the price, you have to decide; never let an agent influence you on that.

Haha...thanks for the correction...;P

Signing of agreement is necessary when comes to protecting the agents from selfish clients, who refused to pay commission after good service is provided. However it seemed like this agreement is more oftenly abused to corner unknowing people into paying comm. But to sign or not, that is the question! Well, I can only say caveat emptor; you need to judge whether the agent is good or not. If so, then its only rightful that you give him/her the due assurance that you will pay for his/her good service.

Hmmz, how could there be no crime committed?? Its clearly a case of mischief! But maybe the police want to taichi lah, cuz michief can be either seizable or civil suit, depend on the situation and damage caused. Or unless the ID deny that they put the lock then that's another story...

Ok I had moved in since Nov'08, everyday bath hot water with vapours on the door (somemore my common toilet dun hab shower screen so when someone bathe, the water will splash directly on the door). Until now *touchwood*, the doors seemed ok leh. So dun think need to put waterproof doors lah, spend your money for other decor!! This is common for everyone lah! If your queue number is out of the available units, of course must wait for people to give up before you get a chance to choose mah! Anyway, as far as I see the past two ballots, usually there are quite a few people who give up. One of our forummers here got queue no 300+ when there is only 200+ available, and he managed to get an unit, somemore high floor one! So have faith!! Haha..