purecat

Thanks Amrasenelya. Flat hunting is really not easy these days. COV battle against available cash flow ! It gets disappointing to be looking at flats you like but the COV is like Sky high. And it is more amazing to be seeing flats asking for $40 to $50 k cov without built in wardrobes , hardly any renovation. Really glad that we managed to secure this unit

Pull Factors to Our Purchase of This Flat Our brother in law was the one starting the flat hunt. He is looking into a flat that can be rented out as he could be posted overseas in recent years. That prompt us to think if we should upgrade as well. We checked the Balance of the Oct Brand New flats- ( Clementi area - SO EX ! ) . Checked the expensive levy we have to pay. In the end we decided that we should go for resale flats in the same estate we are living. However we set rules for ourselves. It is afterall a seller's market at the moment and we dont want to end up paying high COV since we dont have much cash to begin with. We started by using a Propnex agent. Randomly picked this agent as we saw a web ad with very nice reno at a reasonable price. Unfortunately it was sold. This agent is interesting, when they first visited our 4 rm flat, 3 of them came ( Son, Dad, Mum all Propnex agents !) They sounded very experienced /pro, took down notes ( what facing we dont want, which area we are looking at, COV amount that we are willing to pay , Total pur price not to exceed $X ) and sounded very keen to help us . However we didnt found a flat under them. Seen 6 flats with them in 2 viewing. We concluded that 5 rooms are rarely available to begin with in JE area. As there is growing concern that they are only bringing us to see high COV flats (despite us telling them we cannot afford high COV ), I decided to try another agent. We found "S" of ERA from one of the booklet mailer he delivered door to door. Surprise to hear that he is living just a block next to ours. How convenient ! Told him my requirements and the rules that he has to abide. Last time we sold our woodlands 4m flat first... and it was a mad rush over two weekends seeing lots of flats before we found the current 4 room.This time round, we would buy first ( find the desired flat ) then sell . And I told him, " Dont waste your time to bring us to see flats with high COV". He must be real lucky. A week later, the first unit he brought us became our CHOICE ! The unit was just out for sales. Owner is moving into private property. We saw their son in " graduation suit " taking photo with a minister. Then we found out from the owner that his son took a scholarship and graduated with a master. The initial offer was a COV of $30k. We cant afford of course. So " S " help us bargain. Slash 1/2. Afterall the flat is 20+ years old and really need lots of work to fix things. Seller's agent told us to wait as another couple coming to view the flat. They didnt offer. Then after some deliberation, seller decided to sell to us. It is that smooth ! Seller even offer to give us the set of encylopedia and "mother of pearl" trimming altar. Generous ! As we decided to build our own altar, we turn down the latter. Will post some of the valuation pics of existing flat condition, once I get hold of the report . (which my blur agent keep forgetting to bring.)

Hi All Welcome to my T-Blog ! We are currently staying in a 4 room flat in JE. The upgrade will allow us to move into a bigger flat, at a higher level and most importantly still live in the same wonderful estate we have been living for 5 years ! Included a timelog here to help track progress. 15-Nov-09 Option Fee $1k paid - 5 rm 15-Nov-09 Apply HLE via internet 15-Nov-09 Apply for Valuation of 4 Rm via internet 17-Nov-09 Valuator visited 4 Rm Flat 20-Nov-09 HDB approved HLE application 22-Nov-09 HLE report received via post 22-Nov-09 Valuation report received via post 24-Nov-09 Exercise OTP - Bal of Deposit $4k paid -5rm 28-Nov-09 Grant Option for sales of 4 rm 09-Dec-09 Buyer exercise OTP of our current 4rm 20-Dec-09 Went Select Tiles + Pay Initial Deposit to Contractor 18-Feb-10 5Rm HDB 1st Appointment 27-Feb-10 Visit New 5rm with Existing Owner permission to measure and recheck planned quote 28-Feb-10 Ikea Purchases ( miscellaneous stuff ) 14-Mar-10 Bought Lightings from Chelsea Lightings 21-Mar-10 Deposit to Avanni for 1 Single Bedframe, Dining Table & TV Console 25-Mar-10 SP Services Electric & Water Activation 25-Mar-10 5rm HDB 2nd appointment 28-Mar-10 Praying + Formality Hacking Day to signify commencement of reno + Bal of 30% deposit payment 04-Apr-10 Meet up Contractor to choose toilet bowl / basin / tap, bi-fold door, bedroom veneer doors, window grilles, sediment flakes for balcony walls, laminates for all wardrobes, altar, kitchen cabinet + solid surface for kitchen cabinets. 11-Apr-10 Bought Recliner 2 Seater Leather Sofa + Side Table from Nova Furnishing 12-Apr-10 Bought Toilet Accessories ( Toothbrush holder, mugs for holding toothpaste/face form + holding water, liquid soap dispensers, soap holders, shower curtain ) 13-Apr-10 4Rm HDB 1st Appointment 13-Apr-10 Ikea Purchases (Toilet Accessories - Stainless Steel Towel Bar & Toilet Paper holder + Glass panels, etc ) 17-Apr-10 Purchase Electrolux Gas Cooker Hob + Ellane Chimney Hood from Lion City Co. 18-Apr-10 Purchase Toilet Mirrors + Kitchen Sink & Tap, Two way taps, bidget sprays, water filter system, bathfoam dispenser from Sim Siang Choon 18-Apr-10 Order new Cushions + 2 sets of Cushion Covers (for existing Zen Sofa ) from First Classic Textiles 19-Apr-10 Ikea Purchases ( Curtain Rods & Living Room Curtains ) 24-Apr-10 2nd payment to Primework Solutions 25-Apr-10 Purchase TV & Home Threatre System from Courts 2-May-10 Ikea Purchases ( misc ) 15-May-10 Handover Date + Balance paid to Contractor 15 to 20-May-10 Own shifting of boxes + new purchases delivery 21-May-10 Official Shift in Date (with Movers's help to move the big items ) 27-May-10 4Rm 2nd Appointment to be continued Contents of This Blog ( Click on the links below to take you directly to the topic ) 001 Pull Factors to Our Purchase of This Flat 002 为何易财二世 ？ 003 Shortlisted IDs & Contractors for quotes 004 Reno Tips 005 Getting Ideas from ShowRoom 006 Tiles Selection 007 Lightings Purchases 008 Photos Before Renovation 009 Renovation Week 1 010 Lightings Layout 011 Chosen Contractor : Primework Solutions + Estimated Renovation Costs 012 Renovation Week 2 Part 1 012 Renovation Week 2 Part 2 012 Renovation Week 2 Part 3 012 Renovation Week 2 Part 4 012 Renovation Week 2 Part 5 012 Renovation Week 2 Part 6 013 Renovation Week 3 014 Some of Our Purchases Part 1 014 Some of Our Purchases Part 2 015 Brand Loyalty ? 016 Existing 4 Room Flat 017 Renovation Week 4 018 Renovation Week 5 Part 1 018 Renovation Week 5 Part 2 018 Renovation Week 5 Part 3 018 Renovation Week 5 Part 4 019 Renovation Week 6 Part 1 019 Renovation Week 6 Part 2 - Kitchen Cabinet + Altar 019 Renovation Week 6 Part 3 - Inside of Wardrobe 019 Renovation Week 6 Part 4 - Inside of Wardrobe 020 Photos of Completed Master Bedroom Bathroom/ Toilet 021 Photos of Daughter's Room 021 More Photos of Daughter's Room 022 Photos of Kitchen 022 More Photos of Kitchen This is our floor plan. Size : 131 sq m . Comments Welcome ! Final Layout - Sorry looks abit blur because I enlarged the original copy, scan, then crop.

Understand to use those " rain " shower, need gas heater ? Same if we want a bath tub. Just checking. Do Gas heater consume more electricity ? (Sorry dont have gas heater before not sure how it works.) Or is it suppose to conserve electricity ? Is it dangerous ? thinking along " explosion " context with the word " gas " Do you normally hide it in cupboards ? Where do you store it ? Kitchen ? Toilet ? ( silly qn ? )

actually why is it not allowed huh ? curious to know also. because planning to do for upcoming flat. i recheck my old quotation, it did say plastering of ceiling- two bedrooms ( but we dunno if the contractor then did apply permit or not ) how to tell if it is plastering or skimming ? the concern is what will happen when HDB come check the flat after we submit the resale docs.

So confirm now the earliest appointment is in March already ? How about latest available ? ( I know it sound silly ) my buying flat 1st appointment is mid Feb. So that means estimated 1 Apr ( 2nd appointment ). Hopefully we can get a end March 1st appointment , then will push for 8 weeks max for the 2nd appointment. Then we will surely have at least two months . fingers crossed.

I told my agent that after the buyer for my existing 4 room pays the $4k, he can only submit docs after the cheque clears. We have 30 days to do so I think ( written on the option form ). Where possible may have to delay submission abit to give more time gap between buying flat and selling flat 2nd appointment to space out for renovation time. why not call the seller agent to check when he submitted to HDB . Now normally done via e method... so agent choose the 1st appointment date actually.

THKS poseidon girl . So maybe what my agent say is true ? It will take a year. Best is that way. lesser chance to dispute later. Lift on the same block (other end) is ready and in use. The one outside our unit is pending testing. The side grilles also not painted. Same block those originally with lift landing /lift shaft need to " dig holes " and make passageway for every floor... fingers crossed those will take 1/2 yr or more.. then should be alright.

my floor is black homogeneous also. think the white stuff could be residue from soap or bath foam. Try use a smaller brush to brush. Not sure if it helps but it works for us. THough next time think i will get grey tiles instead of black , this will cut maintenance effort.

We have asked for 4 quotes. Already received 1 quote but surprise to see high markup for doors / door frames. Another friend who's quote we will be seeing soon ( this sat), over the phone told my husband about the quote for the tile we wanted. It is about $2 higher per sq foot. ( excluding labour ) Now we are contemplating getting a contractor instead. Or splitting up: floor get a tiler, cabinet get carpenter, plumbing get a plumber. Just checking for those who done that before, how much can you save ? Ours is a 5 room resale. Quite a fair bit of hacking to do also.

thanks. alot can visualise better how it looks

ok great, think will try go for 5 weeks... then delay the submission for my sales of existing flat. Thks Forgotten !

Your seller very good. The problem is the queue for first appointment is like 3 to 4 months away. At time of sale, the lift is really not complete and we did tell the buyer that they are suppose to pay for the lift upgrade. I told my agent i want to get my buyer to sign a letter of idemnity that they will pay for the lift upgrade. Just in case the bill come between 1st and 2nd appointment or close to 1st appointment, so that there wont be dispute. Will this work ?

at least now u have the seller's contact no. quickly let the police know. let the police take over, am sure the police can do something to track down the loansharks.

Location : Upper Thomson Road Hi All, this is recommended by our neighbour upstairs.( His friend's ) So we visited his shop today. Mostly likely we will use him since it is someone familar. Then again we havent seen the quotation which will be only ready in a week's time. So things may change. Meantime thought I better gather some feedback . Anyone uses them before ? Or heard people using them before ? How's the quality ? How's the service overall ?

Location : Sims Avenue Hi , our current 4 room is done by them. But it was 5 yrs back and our friend who used to work there has left ( change line) Now awaiting for the quotation to be done. Meantime I think no harm gathering advice on those who use them before. Have you heard of them ? or Heard anyone using them ? Hows the quality of work ? and after job service ?( heard they just started with inhouse contractors-( malaysia mfg ) recently)

Getting quotes from ID & contractors at the moment. One of them said they need 2 months if we do granite. Another say 6 weeks. Of course we wont want a rush job to risk quality. However we also have a tight schedule to plan the handover of existing flat. Very sticky. If you have done a granite flooring , care to advise, how long your full renovation takes ? It helps us in making decision. THKS IN ADVANCE !

Be positive! You have done what you need to do already. We were positive when it happens to us else we wont have written a pleading note without caring the embarrassment ( letting the neighours know ) The loan shark side leave to the police. Believe they will do their best to track them down. Your agent is obliged to provide the help the police need. There is no house that stay forever unlucky, just need fengshui correction . Maybe can get a fengshui master to help ?

So basis this thread, i take it that if both the seller and us ( buyer ) agree on an earlier date than the 6 to 8 weeks, HDB will agree right ? Ours is HDB loan wonder if HDB will agree at 4 weeks ( ie if seller agrees also lah )? Anyone try before ? Our concern is also how much time we have for renovation. We manage to grant option our flat 2 weeks after we exercise our buying flat OTP. So now is still within the 14 days. My 1st appointment is in mid Feb 2010, if 6 weeks means means we can only start renovation at 1 Apr ( estimated) Anyone know how late can we submit the documents for the flat we are selling after buyer exercise option. In doc it says 30 days right ? ( I need to know this so that I can push my agent firmly - just realise he is quite new so abit inexperienced )

actually no. when we did the valuation , the lift is not completed for our block ( other nearby blocks already completed ) It is mentioned precisely in the report that lift is not completed at time of valuation. But is true that after lift completed, the price will go further up. ( We know of a neighour at lift level floor , his flat same block was value $25k more than us. Now u know why lift landing is important ! Though it wont be just the lift alone, a few levels up also probably add to higher valuation also. ) However because we buy first, and we dont want to drag sales too long ( we need the cashflow ), so no choice cant wait for lift to complete then to sell. Afterall we never know if the economy may crash again ( see Dubai recent news ! .... )

It happened to us a few weeks after we shift into our current 4 room ( 5 yrs ago ) It was cooking oil though. 1)We made a police report. 2) Police came down to take photographs because the stupid loan shark wrote the phone no in red along the staircases ( middle between top n lower unit) A police officer from a special task force for nabbing loan shark call us to followup. 3) We call the seller ( lucky we have the no. because the seller allows us to start renovation before the 2nd appointment date ) We ask if his son owes people money but he denied though he suspected it is his friend downstairs. We are not sure if he was the guarantor for friend or not ? 4)We call the loan shark, tell them we are new owners and we already made a police report and have given the police the same no. we are calling them. 5)Then for some reason, the no. of the wall on the stairs near our flat was clean up ? ( Paint over in white ) 6) My dad help me write a " pleading letter in chinese " and i do a translation in english. Basically to plead to the loan sharks to chase the right people ( spare the innocent !) And imagine, the whole block who uses the stairs past by will see this notice pasted outside near our main door. We became famous overnight and get to know alot of neighbours thru this incident. What a way to make friends ! 7) But we didnt hear anymore from the loan sharks. Not sure if the police manage to nab them or not. 8) Then last yr if i didnt remember wrongly, the unit directly below us genna red paint splash. So that confirm our findings. The loan shark must have made a mistake ! It was 2nd floor they were after ! Stupid loanshark must have started counting downstairs unit as 1st level and ours 2nd ( when we stay on 3rd !!! ) Maybe you can do the same thing, paste a notice outside + the police report photocopy !

oh i just found an interesting link http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10207p.nsf/WP...s)?OpenDocument Do you intepret the same way as me ? Comments please . My flat is not found in the list( of link above, currently show billing upto Mar2010 ), so that means the earliest to bill would be April 2010? However my flat is found is in the " other precinct link , so the long note below relates to the those that is in the front right and not other precinct? Quote / You can also view the billing status of other precincts affected by lift upgrading under LUP and IUP-Plus. Note: The lift upgrading cost is payable only when the upgrading works in the precinct are completed. Billing will only commence after the upgrading costs for the precinct is finalised and the flat owners' share of the upgrading cost is computed. The person who is the owner of the flat at the date of billing has to pay for the lift upgrading cost. Subject to changes by HDB, billing is not expected to take place within the next 3 months for precincts that are not listed here. /quote

HUH ? why dont need to pay. Did you poll your agreement ? We didnt cast any vote ( NULL ) we chose to sit on the fence. Our floor is white, it is a windy unit which we like. But because of the lift upgrade, we have to keep windows closed ( for fear of the amount of "dust" ) Yesterday just cleaned one row of windows.... 3 pail of black water !!! And you know what, the zone RC staff, one unit one unit come knock door, try convince us to vote for it. In fact of all blocks in the same estate, all the votes are like 80%. think our block is the lowest but after door knocking still 70%. There was a brochure that come in 4 languages, and will state by block and each unit need to pay how much. The total costs are split by the no. of units sharing the same lift. The huge portion is paid by HDB, a small portion by town council and a small portion by flat owner. For our flat it is about 2+k, some units think those without need for a lift shaft, only pay like 1k+ Still 2k+ is still money. So we hope we dont have to pay since we already sold. So question is will we be billed before the resale transaction complete ?

Option Day today for our existing flat. Was told by agent that the earliest 1st appointment date is Feb / Mar. Our existing flat lift upgrading look almost complete. Can I understand how soon the invoice will arrives? Our agent say in one yr time ??? Dont know why but i felt doubtful. Who will pay for the upgrading? If we sell our flat stating that the buyer will pay but if the invoice come before the resale completion. How ? For once, we actually hope the lift upgrading will delay completion . Lolz.

some think the main door, some think the main living room window. for us. we look at main door. but best will be both dont face * , north or west which means 喝西北风 Some say look at ur gua to determine good facing ? The funny thing if you observe majority of the flats sold are * facing.It happened to us when shift from woodlands to current flat. So no * facing became a criteria in my new 5room upgrade. It also happened to my bro in law last weekend when he went flat viewing. All * front door facing. And if you read some fengshui books, they will tell u the best facing is south, southeast. But that will really limit choices of flats. So suggest choose one which you feel comfortable and get a fengshui master to help you correct ? Afterall there is also a saying : 没有不能住的房子 so 改改风水便能住了.