xiaob

I would hack and relay. You never know what is the condition of the piping underneath. By hacking you are "getting a peace of mind"(granted that your contractor does a good job). Just to share my experience, I had to redo my toilet floor due to a leakage, y contractor found that it is due to piping which was laid in an incline instead of recline, hence water was always in the pipe to a point where it leaked out to the flooring and my neighbour's toilet. Imagine the money wasted if this happens to your kitchen? Although there is less risk for the kitchen but you do not know how much is invested in the previous renovation. Another sharing, I know of a friend who got a new flat is is very certain of selling it 5 years later, he got the contractor to give him lousier materials.

I have been out hunting sofas for past few weeks. Just visited Navinzi's showroom in Enterprise One. I feel NAvinzi's sofa's are more comfortable compared to Lorenzo. Overall the feeling of the leather from both brands are better than the unbranded shops who claim to have their own factories.

Just to share my experience. I bought an EA. The purchase of the EA was done without any agents, seller advertised his unit and I so happened to be looking for a place. Encouraged by this outcome, I did the same when I was selling my 4rm. The end result is that the buyer's agent also represented me. Reason being that she brought along a client which put in a net bid (after 2% commission) which is 9k above the best offer I got so far at that point in time. From my experience of being on both sides of the transactions within a span of few months, I feel it is worthwhile to do the leg work yourself be it buying or selling. The following are purely opinions of my own based on my experience and I do not mean to offend anyone: 1) Your interests as a buyer or seller are not really aligned with the agent. As most agents just want to close the deal and move on next. The few extra k difference is not going to incentivise them much further. 2) With this misalignment, you never know if the agent is telling you the truth. This is especially so when selling. If you are relying on just a few agents, your communication with the market in general will be filtered through these agents. By opening up communication to the market in general, i.e. you have unfiltered information. Buyers with agents will deal with you directly and you can set the terms with the buyer agents or better yet direct buyers. And any offers you receive are for at least coming directly from the horse's mouth. Most of the time, I just state the last best offer and its just a matter of whether are the buyers willing to better the last offer. 3) DIY with HDB is really not that hard, and the officers are generally tolerant of mistakes in the forms. For my direct purchase, I submitted the option form after expiry but they still accepted the forms and allowed the sale anyway. On first appointment date, I forgot to bring the original option form (for DIY registration of sales and booking of first appointment date is done online, there is no submission of any physcial paper until first appointment). For my sales, the agent screwed up on the forms, still the sale went ahead! 4) You save on commission fees and have direct access to the buyer/seller. I feel as long as both sides are reasonable people and talk things over, its pretty easy to settle stuff. To sum it all up, be fair to yourself, only you can look after your best interests, do the legwork, it is worth it. At least you know you aren't taken for a ride. Agents do have a place in the world, they really have alot of contacts which can help to accelerate the sale and bring up the offers. FYI, I see alot of people who place tremendous trust on these agents, be it buyers or sellers, they just believe everything the agents said! One lady who came to view my 4rm told me she needs to contra and she is selling her place (16 flr unblocked 3rm, 3 blocks away rom my place) at 4k above valuation. Before she could continue the agent quickly cut the conversation, I had told him before hand that my last best offer is 25k COV. For those who wish to DIY, one tip is to get a prepaid HP number. Once you advertise your number on the newspaper it gets stuck on alot of spam lists, trust me its worth it. Now I get all sorts of sms about units for sale or commissions for referrals of home loans. Even 2 months after the sale of my flat, I still get enquiries.

Hello everyone! Newbie here. 1. icky -- Jurong East 2. burrppp -- Tampines 3. applefreak -- Seng Kang 4. lakmy -- Pasir Ris 5. damsel in de-stress -- Bedok Reservoir 6. chocolatzz -- Pasir Ris 7. simcity -- Serangoon North 8. rummi -- Seng Kang 9. priyalok -- Seng Kang 10. DoubleJ -- Jurong West 11. khair76-- Pasir Ris 12. Deepwhite-- Hougang 13. BunBun -- Jurong West 14. Haven59 -- Pasir Ris 15. Aqilo -- Bedok Reservoir 16. jt1011 -- Woodlands 17. Tsubame -- Jurong East 18. Joho -- Yishun 19. Nobody -- Choa Chu Kang 20. xiaob -- Choa Chu Kang nobody are you in CCK central?