kamikaze

Interesting. Thank you!

Hi! I'm curious. So that was in the past or is happening now? I understand it was like that before there was a $2500 legal subsidy ceiling.

Currently, bank loan interest rates are about 1 percent lower than HDB's. What it means to you is that about 2/3 of your monthly mortgage payment will go towards paying off your principal, compared to HDB's 1/2. That said, interest rates are not likely to stay low forever. For my own flat, I took HDB's. Please try doing the math using a mortgage amortisation calculator and see for yourself. Just to offer a second opinion.

I believe you are not aware of how this works.. To get this 0.15%, you have to be employed by a mortgage brokering firm., not an individual. Similar to real estate, banks pay the company, not the broker directly. Even if a broker splits his com with you, do you think it's possible to get 100% when the company already have a 10% cut? Conversely, this referral fee is not applicable to existing customers and not every bank pays the same com. And there is a cap to the comm too. With all due respect, i asked not because I didn't know. Rather, I wonder how he came to that conclusion. I do not doubt that I have much to learn though. I'm leraning everyday. You may wish to verify my above statement with a banker.

Actually, there are many private properties that are conveniently located around amenities. In theory, maybe, in practical sense, unlikely. 1. How many percent of Singaporeans own 2 or more homes? 2, Next is, how many percent of the above group own 1 Hdb and 1 Private property? 3. How many of the above group will renew a lease several times? 4. What are the events that can stop you or the landlord from continuing the lease? In short, you are looking at a very niche group with many possible uncertainties going into the future. Anyway, good luck in your search!

A rental lease is usually between 1-3 years in length and may come with an option to renew for up to 3 years. It is unlikely you see any HDB flat owners renting out for such a long period because existing regulations require the flats to be owner occupied and that there are minimum occupation periods to fufil and HDB must first issue an approval letter before owners are allowed to rent out whole units. Doesn't really make sense not to buy if one is willing to lease that long. If you can afford to rent a flat for ten years, why not just buy a private property instead? Depending on location, good chance of seeing some capital appreciation as well if you intend to hold onto a property for ten years.

Hi! I disagree with the marketing part. If the job of testing the unit sold can be done with 50% of costing, why not? It makes business sense to do it this way. No person will pay more if he doesn't have to. If an agent is able to get qualified buyers in and achieve the agreed selling price or higher, why would an owner complain about the listing not being widely marketed? Yeah. An agent shouldn't quote anything lower than the agreed price.

I think the issue for the thread starter was on whether he could handle everything on his own while trying to get the best price for his house.. I express no doubt that there are people who have successfully sold their flats on their own without any major hiccups, and it is truly commendable that you are one of the few successful ones, but we must also keep in mind of the fact that there are also many unsuccessful stories of which you won't find many people sharing. The primary reason for agents to know if it is an owner's listing or not has to do with the fact that an agent needs a product before he can sell it. This is unlike any other sales job where a product or a range of products are already available.. So it is critical for any aspiring property agent to learn how to continuously generate leads and quickly follow up on prospects hoping to land a listing. Conversely, if an agent is not aggressive in looking for new listings, chances are low that he would be aggressive in looking for buyers. Having said that, there are always some desperate or unethical agents out there who will take a listing at any price even when it is unrealistic to sell at the owner's price resulting in conflicts on all sides; seller not happy that the house is not selling, agent not happy about throwing money at advertising, time and effort in open houses etc since he gets paid only when the house sells and thus at this point, he would be pushing the owner to sell at a lower price. Something he should have stated from onset. Prices don't go up all the time, just look at the stock market. My point for writing this is that there are more agents out there who are just trying to make a honest living and it is a matter of survival to them. Both agents and owners should pre-qualify each other prior to any engagement and expectations should be kept within reasonable limits. Constant communicayion is of course a must. A the end of the day, the buyer set the selling price, not the agent or owner. The job of an agent is to bring in enough qualified buyers to keep any price bidding competitive while neotiating the best price for the seller, that is all. Vice-versa, if he represents the buyer. A good scenario I can think of is, if a Toyota costs $10,000. Why would a person buy it for 15,000? Two possible reasons, only when it is the only Toyota out there or there is some feature that attracts the buyer. The unlikely third reason is he got money to burn. If an owner can achieve it on his own, that is of course the best scenario. If not, he should look out for the right person to do the job. Btw, I'm a real estate salesperson to be. So my views could be considered biased.

Actually, I find it interesting as to how you managed to get this at least $900 mortgage loan referral fee idea?