Burgoos

Hi, Do you mind PM your painter's contact number to me please? Thank you very much!

Hi, Do you mind PM your painter's contact nimber to me please? Thank you very much!

Congrats Stormcontrol, Like your location, very accessible and convenient. Tried BE your block last year (or was it 2007?) but no luck. End up bought 4Rm resale at TPY. Enjoy your reno journey...

Try Scanteak, Originals @Dempsey.

Hi Jann, I'm also facing wood smell prob with my console table. External easy to solve, air it a few days the smell disappear. But the internal I tried opening the console doors to ventilate, the smell still remains. Some people suggested using charcoal or coffee powder, will remove odour, but I have not tried. Moth ball is a NO-No. Another issue, any one has experience preventing wood bugs, silver fish or worst termites with their woody furnitures? Sorry, don't mean to hijack your thread, but since we have wood furnitures, perhaps someone can share with us on wood furniture maintenance.

Hi Melancholic, Congrats on your new reno journey. Nice to see a new reno project undertaken by other IDs here, other than the very famous Uncle Soon. Awaiting more picts and quotation updates/ sharing from you. Enjoy the journey...and you'll appreciate the destination.

1. Very rarely agents will agree to absorb GST. Unless they 'privately' rebate you once they receive their share of comm from their agency. But you will still have to pay the agreed comm + GST to their agency 1st. Any kind of monetary rebate is a very sensitive issues nowadays, especially now when cash is involved post-sales. But rouge agents don't bother anyway. They do anything just to close sales. Those associated to IEA (Institute of Estate Agents) are more careful with such request as they face penalties if such private agreements turns against them. 2. Professional and ethical agents don't do private agreements because the 2nd 1% comm paid directly to the agents, will not be splitted with their agencies. Even the agent gets the full cut of the 1% comm, they also face enquiries, investigations and a possible termination of service, worst case legal suit, if the agency finds out about such private agreements. But again, rouge agents don't bother and will agree to your proposal if they can reap more $$$. Morally, it is also not right I feel.

I agree with stagger. By-passing the sellers' agent after viewing the property that he/she has just shown to the buyer doesn't seem right... If the seller happens to be a family member or friend of the agent and the buyers' attempt to contact the owner directly is exposed, then the situation can be quite awkward. The deal may be jeopardised also. If buyers are already gonna pay 1% comm to their representing agent, then they might as well get them to negotiate the deal and handle the situation. That is provided this agent is also the capable, ethical and professional type. The more experienced agent who represent you, the buyer, should have some tactics to counter such rouge agents. Will check with my property agent friends and see what they have to say about this situation and share in this thread. As for the sellers, you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Selling your property involves BIG $, so scrutinise and choose the right agent.

There is no "Rejection Column" in HDB's OTP form. If you want to be very sure that sellers' agent present your offer to the owner, fill up the OTP, which is pretty simple to fill up and ask the sellers' agent to return the form crossed out "Null & Void" and counter-signed by the owner if they reject your offer price. This at least assures the genuine buyers that their offer price is not accepted by the sellers, not by their agents. This may be a little troublesome for the agent, but hey, do you as the buyer want to lose out a good buy or get the dream home at your calculated price. Many house hunters like some of the members who have contributed above missed out on their ideal home purchase simply because offers were not presented to sellers but upright shut out by the sellers' agent. Personal experience? Definitely. More vomit-blood experience in my year-long home search. Not all from agents but from owners as well. Coming soon...

Interesting! Will follow this thread... Btw, what kind of furnitures are you planning to custom make. Must be something out of the ordinary that you design yourself or replica from other designer furnitures? Are you considering makers from Indonesia? For timber furnitures like those from Origins at Gillman Village, there are many sources in Indonesia, mainly Central Java. Balinese style resort or outdoor furnitures, where else but Bali. You can consider Malaysian furniture makers 'cos "Shipment" is by land transport over the Causeway, so should be cheaper than sea freight. How about local furniture makers? There should be quite a few good carpenters if you look through the right directories. I'll keep a look-out and post here as and when I come across any. Can save on shipment also.

Shopped for lightings over two months with wife...from Geylang, Balestier, Jln Berseh, Rochor, Kelantan Lane, Ikea, and a few neighborhood light shops. We end up buying all our lightings for our new home from LightCraft. Went there a few trips, but bought during their Sales. My evaluation of LightCraft: Sales service: 7/10 (If you are served by a Filipino guy called Leon, maybe 8/10. I also enjoy shopping at places where sales staff leave you alone to look-look-see-see, but prompt and knowlegeable to answer your queries. They also acknowlege your presence when you enter the shop, and hand you a clip board with order form.) Price: 8.5/10 (Good promo during their sales. Wait for GSS, maybe got promo again) Delivery: 9/10 (On time, call 1 day before to confirm, then 1 hour before arrive call again. Even delivery of replacement due to tarnished chrome on table lamp on separate day also punctual) Variety: 8.5/10 (Good selection. Managed to settle kitchen/dining, vanity, both toilets, walk-in-wardrobe, study and table lamp all under one roof from them after scouting so many shops. Even bought one ceiling lamp for mother-in-law's dining area to replace her chandelier) Installation: 3/10 (Installer pull very long face because worked OT on Sat afternoon. Didn't center align light above mirror, simply install where wires protrude from wall. Luckily mistake was spotted and asked to re-install to center align with mirror. And fortunately the mirror light casing manage to cover the wrong drill hole. Study room lamp was not properly installed, trip the circuit breaker every time it was switched on. Kitchen ceiling light casing and wire casing did not touch, hence wire was exposed from gap in between. Installer did not cut hole on ceiling lamp casing for wires to penetrate the casing. Instead he simply screw the lamp casing over the wires. My electrician spotted and said that this is very dangerous as the lamp casing may cut thru the wires over time. When their "senior" electrician/ installer came on another day to redo/ reinstall their previous mistakes, he gave a lot of excuses for the mistakes done. He also passed a lot of unnecessary and uncalled for remarks on our choice of lamps (from his shop!) and on our ID and reno ideas) Above are my personal evaluation of LightCraft. For your reference and happy shopping! P/s: I will be posting the picts of the lamps we bought from LC at a later stage.

If you are represented by your agent (buyers' agent), and after viewing a property marketed by another agent (sellers' agent), decides to make an offer for the property viewed, there is always a very high chance that you will hear the sellers' agent telling you that your offer is lower than his/her previous offer(s). Sellers' agent will use this technique either to set you for a higher offer (which is such an outdated sales technique) or he/she simply doesn't want to close your deal. Reason is simply because if you are represented by a buyers' agent, he/she does not make the 1% buyers' commission from you, as you will be paying the comm to your representing agent. After walking away from your offer, he/she will then market the property and hope for an offer from a direct buyer who will pay him the 1% buyers' comm. So what makes the sellers' agent forego the potential comm that he will receive from the seller if your offer is accepted and the transaction goes through. Clearly greed is the root of such unethical behavior. Another reason, such agents are usually the ones who can only negotiate for a 1% comm from the sellers, while most other experienced and professional ones are worth 2% sellers' comm. So they are less willing to close a deal if they are unable to make-up the 1% comm from the buyers. So if you really like the property after viewing, worked out your sums and made an offer, and incidents like the above happens, and your representing agent does not propose a solution, what should you do? My suggestion: Take out your cheque, issue one with an offer money that you are comfortable with, tell the the sellers' agent how much you are offering for the property and ask him/her to prepare the offer documents. If he/she rejects your offer claiming that your offer is lower than his/her previous highest offer, tell him/her that he/she is the sellers' rep, not the seller, so he/she should not verbally reject the offer on behalf of the seller. If he/she tells you that the seller rejects your offer after walking away, supposedly on the phone with the seller, tell him/her to come back with the rejected offer-to-purchase documents, duly signed and rejected by the sellers/owners. By doing so you are assured that your offer actually reaches the sellers and not jammed at the sellers' agent. The above is what I have experienced before many times. There are many unethical property agents out there. Sellers do not receive the best offer for their properties, and buyers missed out on their chance to own their ideal homes. Having said that, there are some cases, though very very few, where sellers fully authorise their agents to make the final call on offer prices. Agents are paid a decent comm for their work, so even if the seller is located in Jurong and the viewing and offer takes place in Pasir Ris, the agent must still travel to the seller to deliver the buyers' offer in the shortest time. Disclaimer: I hold nothing against property agents. I believe the majority of them are professional and ethical in their conducts and business transactions. Only a handful of bad apples tarnish the professional image of the industry