fishpond

Dear all, Thanks again for the advices. Will take note and proceed cautiously. Dear MeToo, I was not hurt. You were right. We should be better informed and these kind of problems may be less. Difficult balance to be trusting and being kiasu/difficult. Will keep you posted.

Dear raincole, Wondering, besides signing documents, it the 10% being paid at 1 st appointment? How much is cash, and how much is cpf for this 10 percent? If we take 80% bank loan, is it 5% cash, 15% can be paid by CPF. Do we bring the cheque or does the lawyer handle this? Is the COV not paid at the second appointment?

Dear all, Sorry, have been a bit secretive as sale not going as smoothly as I would like. First time buyer and thus very stupid and making lots of mistakes. Did not discover this forum until signing, agreeing to some stupid conditions. Trying to rectify. Location Tampines. Will be more active once things are more settled. Have been wondering about the balcony area too and ideas for this area. Would like to be able to keep it as outdoor area but has the option to have some protection from the weather (seems even birds!) Been thinking about what is the best front door gate to get that gives maximum protection and yet if there were to be fire, people don't get locked in. Any ideas? Thanks for the welcome

Dear Hello88, Executed OTP. Awaiting 1st appointment Sept. Paid 410 for ours. Wondering how much did Bigbird pay for yours. Would you mind sharing ? Was wondering about whether those roller garage door thind is legal and if they can be made to look nicer.

Dear MeToo, I agree with you entirely and there are no excuses. We should have found out more but we were stupid and thought the flat would be sold if we don't grab. It has happened to us for 3 private properties in the past. This is the first HDB that we actually liked and initially thought the price was cheap. Mainly because we have been looking at private properties. We agreed to a very high price over valuation which we have since found out since the government released their latest datas. The average above valuation in the area was only 10 K but we paid 30K. The strange thing is all the rest of the hdb apartments that we looked at which we did not even liked asked for much higher cash over valuation. I wonder if the goverment datas did not capture the undeclared COV. I called up HDB and the officer managing our case told me that the date given to us was the earliest. My gut feeling tells me that the agent manipulated the date because the seller's 1st appointment is the very next day. I went to the HDB website and the also got 20th Sept. I thought that if I could persuade the HDB officer to give me documented proof, then I will proceed to the lawyer and get the agent fired. However, as I can't produce documented proof of the fact the agent manupulated the date, I will not be able to fire him. I don't just want to complain to propnex or HDB. I am also grateful to for your detailed explanation because I have gotten 3 versions regarding this estimated and completed date stuff. I asked the HDB officer and she told me that I get the key and is officially the owner after the estimated completion of sale. I start to pay conservency and CPF money gets deducted after or at effective date of resale. The HDB website said that our estimated completion of sale should be second half of Oct and the effective date of resale (EDR) 1st November. I called the agent to enquire about this mainly to find out when can we get the key and start renovation work and he told us that it will be 3 days after the second appointment. (Where did the 3 days come from ???) and then he said that we do not need to be there for the second appointment and that the lawyers can take care of things. What do you think? Difficult to trust him .... I will find out more about this whole process by calling HDB. Any further advice is much appreciated. Thanks everybody. Will keep you posted.

Dear Maisonette owners, I would love to be a Maisonette owner but having some problems with the sale. The seller does not want to sell till Nov. We would like to move in ASAP thus renovation job would ideally be as fast as possible as well. The entire family has be uprooted for 5 months for this transaction and renovation. Hope it will go well. We have been married for more than 10 years and have 2 kids (very young) and this is our 1st home. We have been too scarred to commit. (Not scared to get married young but scared to buy house). Anyway, first appoint in early September and hope to get the key by late Oct. Started looking at IDs and this forum. Learning lot from you guys. Great forum.

Dear Kreez, Could you PM me your contractor too please. Thank you

Thank you kind zirkh, I think this forum may be more effective in preventing being cheated by unscrupulus agents than just being able to air your anger and dissatisfaction. Gathering information and not being ignorant is the best way. Thank you for replying. This allow us to negotiate better with the agent as well knowing where and how the procedures are done. A couple more questions. What is the difference between Estimated date of completion and Effective date of resale? When can we get the key and when can we move in. One more issue regarding Cash over valuation, how is it paid and how it is normally done? Please advise. We are taking a bank loan and not HDB, how does not affect the process especially in speeding matter up? Thank you again

Thank you for your prompt replies. The agent submitted before the agreed submission date which was July 16 so does that mean the OTP contract still holds? We don't have a copy of the agreement signed to say that we would like to hire the agents but we know that they are from Propnex. Could you tell me what do we need to write in to HDB and Propnex. We were thinking of calling up the hdb hotline and asking them for evidence that the agent requested for a later 1st appointment date. ( He told us that the 1st appointment is not negotiable and that is only dependent on the submission date. Is that true?) Can we request for an earlier 2nd appointment date and how do we do this? Please help.

Our terrible agent is also from Propnex. How do we change agent if we have signed an agreement. Can we just request from Propnex for another agent?

We have the same problem. The seller's agent did submit the application but we think requested for a late 1st appointment. We agreed to pay him 1% for doing the paper work during OTP but now feel that he does not really represent us and would like to hire another agent. He said we cannot hire another agent because we signed the paper, we have to pay him even if we are unhappy with his service. Is that true? Should we not pay the above valuation price so that the seller will be upset with him?

We were stupid and thus was cheated by agent. This is our story, We found a flat that we liked and did not have an agent to represent us. The seller's agent told us that he could represent us, pay him 1% commision. We agreed, signed an OTP, put down 5K deposit and signed a formed agreeing to let them represent us. We told him that we want the transaction to proceed ASAP as our rental lease is expiring in the next 5 months. He told us, the process should take about 4 months and we should have the flat by October probably. We agreed. Unfortunately, nothing in black and white. During OTP, agent told us that the transaction of HDB is very slow and the 1st appointment will be late if submission is not immediate. We should let him apply for bank loan for us and submit the application asap. We faxed our financial details to him but proceeded to apply for our own bank loan. When our expedited bank loan was approved within 1 week, we called him to tell him we are ready for submission. He seemed reluctant to submit and came up with excuses which we found strange. We later found out that the seller needed to stay longer and thus did not want to submit till later. We pressurized him and told him we will not pay the above valuation price if they delay the transaction and then he agreed to submit the application in June 28. Our 1st appointment was scheduled for 10 Sept. I just found out from a friend who submitted in July 20th that her 1st appointment was Sept 6th. I called up the agent as we felt he was not honest and wanted to fire him and rehire another agent but he said because we have agreed to hire him and signed an agreement with him, we are unable to fire him. Is this true???? What can we do? We are not unhappy about paying him but we are unhappy that he does not seem to represent us but the seller only. I know we were stupid to be trusting. Can anyone advise please. Stupid