blue_skies

I feel that a good agent would be able to advise you on all the above, including going through the resale checklist properly (it is mandatory actually!) and making sure you understand everything. They would also explain all the necessary documents you need, advising on earliest 1st appt etc. You can read up on the resale procedures here from the HDB website http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10321p.nsf/w/...ts?OpenDocument They can also advise you what components need to be paid by cash or CPF in case you are using CPF. And you don't need to pay them the commission until the sale is completed and you get your keys. i.e. after 2nd appt.

Hi Terrace Just to share, I'm engaging Ban Nee Chen for maintenance for the following plants (in pots): 3x large red palms 3x small planter boxes heliconia and some bushy shrub 4x eugenias 3x rhapis 1 x large balcony planter box with rhapis and lantanas Generally would take an hour for 3 guys to do the job of trimming, spraying insecticide and applying fertiliser. Cost me $50 per session (before GST). But I have no grass to be mowed.

Looks like they are halfway there. COV now 25K+, expected to drop to avg of 20K in Dec. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin...1097532/1/.html Where did you hear about the 10K COV target from? Is it one of the govt's KPI?

Agree with bepgof. Agents in this type of situation won't want to get their hands dirty. They'll probably tell you something like their responsibility ends once they find the tenant for you, and anything that happens afterwards is btw you and the tenant. Hope you don't end up fuming mad after speaking to them....

Actually, I meant it as, in my personal opinion, it would be best to evict them asap. Once you have served them the lawyer's letter, you have a right to ask them to leave if they haven't paid by the deadline. However it may not be wise to confront them yourself. Good if you can have some big guys with you (your uncle, brother, etc also can) while you ask the tenant to leave. Be prepared to call the police if they kick up a fuss. Good luck!

Er, once you go to court, your legal fees will also increase. If you want to still go to court but do it the cheaper way, you can probably go through Small Claims. But I'm not sure if this is a sure win route to get the person evicted in the fastest way. When you say minimize damage, I presume you mean minimize your monetary loss? Every day that they stay in your home without paying is increasing your monetary loss and preventing you from finding a new tenant. I would personally evict them as soon as I can, clean up the place and move on with a new tenant. Imagine if your court case takes another couple of months, that means you lose another X mths of rental. And going to court doesn't necessarily gurantee that you are going to get back your money (legal fees or rental), especially if they also owe $$ to other people.

This guy actually owed many other people lots of money (we found out when our lawyer did a Writ of Summons search on the person), so it'll take a long long time before I can get any money back from him. We didn't have to go to court. Lawyer's letter is good enough to claim back whatever they owe you - provided they can pay. Do PM me if you would like my lawyer's contact.

Get a lawyer to send them a registered letter. This clause will allow you to enter the premises without their permission. Your TA should have something similar that the lawyers can use. "If at any time any part of the rent is in arrears for 14 days after becoming due (whether formally demanded or not), our clients shall be entitled to re-enter the Premises and resume possession of the Premises and the Furniture and thereupon the tenancy shall absolutely cease and determine but without prejudice to any claim our clients may have against you for any antecedent breach." I lost my legal fees but I tried to minimise my rental loss by evicting them as as soon as I could.

Your family of 3 tenants sounds suspiciously like the non paying tenants I had. Is the husband by any chance a Malay man with NRIC S68XXX26H? If it is, then it would be the same guys I had.

You know they say that money will last in the family for only 3 generations. Dunno how true that is though. But would agree that risk appetite is a major factor. I know of friends who have enough capital to buy another property for investment but don't want to make the move because they consider many many many things (too long a list) and then decide that they cannot tahan the risk.

I don't think the type of car one drives is a true reflection of how comfortable one lives or how much the person has in assets / cash. I know of someone who drives a BMW but who is 20k in debt. Once you drive a flashy car, you also got to live that life, otherwise "not matching". Hahaha. You don't often see a porsche along geylang road to eat frog's legs porridge, or park at HDB car park to eat at hawker centre. I would gladly drive a humble Honda or a boneshaker car and live like a king After all, my home is not in the car..... And anyway, if those who drove flashy cars were really rich, I think they shouldn't need to be in the morning traffic jam but rather working at the luxury of their own time LOL. I used to see this lamborghini along the ECP in the mornings. Got to drive at 40km/h and drive bumper to bumper all the way to rochor exit. So unglamourous.... hehehe. Sports car must be able to zooooooooooooom!!

I just sold my flat and I actually mentioned upfront at the first meeting with my agent that I would only pay 1% commission no matter how high a deal he secures, and he was agreeable to it. I feel that this is an important point that should be agreed upfront otherwise later the agent can hold you ransom by blowing the deal just because he insists on a higher commission. Anyway my agent was nice enough to schedule all viewings on a weekend between a stipulated time, e.g. 2-4pm so that it doesn't interfere with our daily activities. He showed us a list of other similar flats in our area and how much COV they were asking, so that we could see for ourselves whether ours was asking the "average" or "above average" amount. He will advise if the COV is realistic or if it means it will take longer to sell. Anyway we sold our place within 3 weeks of advertisement so I belive a good agent will really help. By the way we bought the flat from this same agent a couple of years ago and he was very helpful so decided to approach him again when we decided to sell the place.

Not sure if you currently already own a private property. If you do, and the value of the property has increased since you first bought it or if it has been partially paid up, you can try to use that as a collateral to get additional loan from the bank. That will help you get the extra 10% in case you are unable to come up with 30% cash. There's a certain level of risk involved but if you do your sums right and you can cover the payments, should work out fine.

Does it involve re-doing your water piping too? Coz bathtub may have pipes below, so that will have to be re-done as well. You will almost definitely have to replace the tiles below the bathtub coz those would not be usable. It'll have cement on it etc so probably have to hack those or overlay if your toilet floor allows for it. For the wall, if you can get similar tiles, maybe no need to hack all the walls. Just replace those that are covered by the bathtub area.

Sometimes there's more to it than meets the eye. Seller may have genuine reason for backing out. Personally I would tell the agent that I would like to speak to the seller face to face so that I can understand the actual situation from the seller himself. You can then decide from there whether you want to bulldoze your way through or gallantly take a step back. IMO, I don't believe buying a unit from an unwilling seller. You won't know what he would have done to the place when you get the keys if the deal eventually goes through.

I was one person never to believe in TCM until very recently. I don't know how I would have survived the last 2 weeks without acupuncture. This TCM doctor is very good for aches and sprains etc. I owe him big time for his very accurate diagnosis and skillful acupuncture. This is my recommendation: Tan Kok Chuan. 515 Bedok Nth Ave 2 #01-215, 460515, Singapore. Tel: 64426590.

Finally sold our unit last week at 415k + 21K COV = 436k. It's 1K less than our neighbour's place It's a 5I at Sembawang.

Since you do not have a new agreement (after the TA expired in April), there is no binding agreement for the tenant to continue living at your place for $X rental/mth. I don't see any problem with you asking him to vacate in a mth's time. After all, it seems that you allowing your tenant to stay at your place for $X rental/mth since April without TA is a goodwill gesture. I hope that you still have his deposit? (In case he damages anything before he moves out... but sounds like you and your tenant are on amicable terms so hopefully nothing of this sort happens)

I jump out of vehicle already, a bit skeptical of ppty market at the moment. Hold the moolah first. Now wait and see what happens.

Perhaps you might be more satisfied if you take a drive to Changi Village. LOTS of good food there, and so much cheaper too. I always go for the Ayam Penyet from Sri Bistari

Perhaps you might be more satisfied if you take a drive to Changi Village. LOTS of good food there, and so much cheaper too. I always go for the Ayam Penyet from Sri Bistari

You can try Andrew Chin from Chin Jun Furniture. He's got his own factory producing the woodworks. I've used him before to build my built-in wardrobes and am satisfied with the cost and quality. Perhaps you could speak to him and see what his prices are and compare it with your other quotes. Chin Jun Furniture Amk Tech II #06-03 5 Ang Mo Kio Industrial Park 2a (S)567760 Tel: 64813639

These measures are just plain absurdity! Who on earth is going to assess the financial plan? Who's paying for the person to assess the financial plan? Who is going to say whether the plan makes sense? And what if the plan is submitted but mistakes are realised only later on? Who will take the blame? Create more things to do, allow more chances for errors / mistakes and then bigger S**T happens. Will HE be there when the S**T hits the fan? That will be the legacy he leaves behind.

I would think that if you give the whole house a new coat of paint, it would help to get rid of some of the smell, especially in the bedrooms and kitchen. Open up all the kitchen cabinets (and built in wardrobes, if any) to air for a week. Use a torchlight and check for areas in the cupboard where the wood may have given way and insects are hiding inside, especially cockroaches and ants. Any ant bait should work, you just sprinkle it around the areas that you see them and wait for about a week to see if the population decreases, and then you know it's working. You may also want to consider putting some cockroach traps in the house in case there are still anymore lurking around. The smell in the kitchen may also be coming from the manhole cover. This is the manhole where if you decide to wet wash the kitchen, the water would go into. If you know that you are never going to wet wash your kitchen, you can cover that hole temporarily using a tile or something, so that no smell comes out from there. To get rid of oil smells in the kitchen, you can also wipe down all the interior and exterior surface of the kitchen cabinets with a sponge & detergent. Then wipe it dry with a cloth. This will help to remove the layer of oil that has accumulated over the years. If that doesn't work, you can try using a glass cleaner (those spray bottle type) to remove the oil stains. I've tried this on kitchen cabinets (formica surface) as well as on cooker hoods and it worked for me. Try not to use Cif as it is abrasive and may scratch the metal surface of the hood. Oh, and depending on the type of tiles used in the kitchen, you may want to consider washing it with bleach coz it sounds like the previous owner probably didn't maintain the floors either. Did you try wiping down the parquet flooring yet? You can use a damp cloth to wipe parquet flooring. Try not to use mops as this may leave small puddles of water in certain areas and it may damage the parquet. Vacuum the parquet flooring first to remove any dust. Take a damp cloth and wipe the floor with about 1/5 cup of Magiclean floor cleaner (the yellow one) mixed in half a pail of water. Wipe each room 3x and it should work. Do not wash your cloth in the pail of water after cleaning each room. Wash it under running water. It's hard work to clean the house but you could always call in the cleaners if you don't mind paying a bit

Hi mel77 I've checked with HDB and if you input your postal code into the website on electrical loading limit to check whether the block has been equipped with higher electrical loading and it says "block not provided with higher electrical loading and need to apply for an HDB permit to install new 15 Amps power points for air-conditioners or other higher capacity equipment/appliances (e.g. high powered IT equipment)." Then it means you can only have ONE compressor.