kaylinpickles

omg i totally understand how u feel abt space planning even before you get the flat! i'm exactly like you and i too wanna get a unit with two rooms facing each other and a store room in the middle. to me thats the most ideal compared to some units with storeroom or bedroom near the kitchen, which is just weird. my only worry is since im currently staying in an EA and planning to downgrade to a 3-room soon i dunno if my king sized bed and 8-seater dining table & chairs would be able to fit into the house or not. i want open-kitchen concept too but i will need sliding glass door as i bake for a living so i will need to have aircon installed in the kitchen. what i like abt this flat layout is that the kitchen is big (i want an island) but the idea of small bathroom and corridor unit dont appeal to me

yes you're right! thx for the tip.

ya lah, it did occur to me oso, that the agent will push me to close at $300K. not that i didnt think of it at all. i'm motivated to sell the flat, more like i'm not motivated to pay the agent fees. cannot compare with loved one receiving medical attention, coz that one is more like out of desperation gotta find $, selling flat is not that desperate, unless i'm bankrupt or kena chased by loan sharks (choy!). so in yr point of view bargain got use? since u said we're asking for trouble if we ask for fixed sum comm, and really got agents dun accept any commision, sure not? like that is free lunch lor, i oso want

nothing to do with my affordability? maybe, but not entirely true. like i mentioned b4, i need to sell the flat for at least $375K to earn abt $8K, all of which will go to the agent or maybe not even enough. if its u, will u b willing to just fork out w/o batting an eyelid? unlike our mothers' time, they bought their flats for like, $30K in the 1970s, and if they sell now for $300K, they're making a profit of $200K or more. for me, i don't think i can even make a profit of $20K, or worse still, suffer a loss. why wouldnt i feel the pinch? so yes lor, u r rite, either i sell the flat myself, or dun sell at all. anyway that 1% 2% thing, why is it still applicable like now, since the market is so bad? like u know the resale levy, last time HDB also go by %, depending on how much u sell yr flat, u pay different amt, like property agents. but few years back they changed to flat rate...if i buy new flat now, i gotta pay a resale levy of $50K. i think its more reasonable & fairer that way. why cant the agents do the same

thx for your extremely kind words. i'm staying in sembawang, basically that location is not gd, plus its quite some distance from the MRT, say abt 5-7 mins walk. and i was told by this agent that my floor area (130sqm) is not what ppl r going for. he said if ppl wanna buy EA flat, they normally wanna go for bigger units like 141sqm or so. dunno how true lah.

hi guys, any idea how much does the BLUM hinges pull-out system cost? is it very ex? i also wanna find a contractor who can install it for me!

i think the prob now is not whether they can provide good service to justify their commission or not, so as to make us feel more worth it to pay them. more like the market is really bad now, most home owners are not making any profit when they sell their flats, so how to give commission?? take my case for eg. i did a calculation using the HDB's sales proceed calculator, i need to sell my EA for at least $375K to earn a meagre $8K, which is not even enough to cover their commission. so they shd understand that if they want their commission, they shd just try their best to sell my flat as high a price as possible. else, no commission for them. simple as that. no need to talk abt gd or bad service now. if i can earn a profit of $20-$30K from selling my house, maybe i dun really mind paying them. but its not the case lor...

seriously, i hv mixed feelings abt this. at 1st when i heard it i was REALLY happy. then again it may not be gd news afterall...since in future the property agencies get to set their own rates, i wonder will it go higher, and then all the other agencies follow suit? what i don't understand is, one of this agency boss they interviewed said when the market is bad, home owners are willing to pay more commission than when the market is gd. how come leh? i tot shd b the other way round? anyway is it true that last time, the fees were negotiable all along? i'm curious to know if i try to negotiate the fees with them, say, the max i will pay is $3K...will they not work as hard? perhaps this is the time to engage alot of agents, instead of an exclusive one. haha. or mayb really fated to sell the flat myself.

the google sketchup looks really cool! currently i'm using my sims 2 game to do up my home floor plan, put some furniture in to see how it looks like in 3D view. not exactly accurate since it doesnt allow u to customize on the exact measurement of yr house layout, but i think its gd enough for now. i juz wanna hv a feel of what its like. i think IKEA has a kitchen planner software...u can download it. but not sure if its for kitchen only or u can also do up other areas of the house using that software. one limitation would be u can only use their products in their software...but no prob for me since i'm a big IKEA fan! btw with regards to throwing everything to the ID, cant we do the same thing for contractor as well? afterall u r engaging the main contractor aka. supervisor or something, and he has his subordinates to do the job and his main job is just to oversee & supervise. so if anything goes wrong u can also just throw to him rite?

i'm thinking of just engaging a contractor coz i'm like 101% sure what my ideas/needs/wants are and i don't need input from an ID. probably the only thing i need is just the 3D drawings. plus i think even if u manage to find a very gd ID, ultimately its the contractor who does the house and the contractor that the ID finds also cannot be guaranteed of their reliability. so my questions are : 1. how much cheaper is it to find a contractor instead of ID. do we actually save a significant amt of $? how do IDs charge anyway, by consultation per hr basis or the amt is already included in the reno package? 2. if u tell the contractor what u want, can he oso do 3D drawings for u? thx!

hi all, sorry if this is a repeated post but i really cant find the answer i need. exactly how much do we need to pay the housing agent? i understand its 2% for seller, and 1% for buyer. so for my case, i'm both the seller AND the buyer rite? so do i hv to pay a total of 3%?? did a calculation...i'm gonna sell my EA flat, if 3% then its gonna cost like over $10K, which is really ridiculous! someone pls kindly advise. so i pay 3% to my own agent, or do i hv to pay the other side's agent oso? thx!

hi guys, i'm new here...intending to sell my EA flat and hope to save on agent fees coz the amt. payable to them is really tremendous came across this site xxx.xxx.com, has anyone engaged their services b4? they claim to help owners sell their flats and the fees is just a flat rate of $450-$550 upon successful transaction of yr house. just like to find out how good it is, do they hv the database that the agents use coz if not many ppl advertise with diyHDB and they can't find that many ppl to view my house then its abit wasted. thx! [Phantom:No advertising]