blue_skies

Came across this article. Quite an interesting read and would like to share with everyone. "Kwek Leng Beng: ‘I would allot 50 per cent of my portfolio to property’" http://lushhomemedia.com/2010/07/30/kwek-l...io-to-property/

I have a Scanpan cook's knife that I've been using the last 5 years. I don't use it for heavy duty cooking. I only use it for simple cutting of veggies, potatoes, chicken parts etc (cooking mostly on weekends) and it was only this year (5th year) that the tip of the blade chipped. I had the tip re-sanded and blunted and am still using the knife. Blade wise, it retains its sharpness after sharpening it so am satisfied with the performance. However, I bought the same knife for my mum (but she uses it heavily plus cutting fruits at home everyday and cooking every weekend). Her knife only lasted her 3 years before the tip chipped. If you want to look at a good variety of knives etc, you can try this place called Razorsharp at Tan Boon Liat Building, it's a chef's haven - they have all your kitchen needs including including Jap knives, all kinds of pots and pans etc.

In my opinion, if you have a lot of CPF (and haven't bought any ppty yet), it might be better to buy private first. Coz you can use CPF for downpayment of the private ppty and also the monthly repayments (which would be on a higher side compared to using it to pay for HDB). After you buy the private property, use as much as you can from your CPF to service the loans so that you can save your cash - then buy a HDB resale using the cash. Again, this is personal opinion and some pple don't believe in maximising their CPF so above method may not work well for them.

I think my friend bought her 2 bdrm unit at 690k. Maintenance should be around $250/mth coz the 3bdrm units maintenance is abt $300/mth.

1) First of all, before you do the re-valuation, you must sign the OTP and seal the selling price. i.e. also put down the 1k deposit. We actually dated the OTP 10 days ahead to give us some lead time (see point 4). Owner must agree to this, otherwise it is not possible to do the re-valuation. 2) At the same time, you tell the owner that you would like to do a new valuation (because current valuation is expiring / because you want to keep your cash for house reno etc) 3) Of course the seller must agree to letting you do new valuation & date the OTP 10 days later etc - otherwise, you better not sign OTP or you might risk losing your 1k deposit. 4) Once OTP is signed, you must immediately arrange for HDB valuers to come down to do valuation of the unit. It takes 2 weeks for the valuation report to be ready, and you must exercise the OTP within 2 weeks. Time is a bit tight for this, so that's why better to date the OTP at least one week later. e.g. - If i decide to seal the deal today (15 July) with seller, I date the OTP as 24 July. The seller must agree lah, otherwise no go. - So basically you have 3 weeks to get the place revalued. - Once OTP is signed, immediately arrange for HDB valuers to come down asap. The valuation should be done in YOUR name, for YOU, and sent to your address, since YOU are paying for it. So the seller does not need to see the report or need to know what's the new valuation price. - Valuation report should take 2 weeks. - By the time the new valuation report is out, you can submit it to the bank for your loan application. You should however, have done homework with the bank to know how much in-principle you can get before buying the HDB. Otherwise all that hard work would be for nothing... A lot also depends on the type of seller / seller's agent that you are dealing with. If they are nasty and are not flexible / not understanding, then not possible to do this.

Just to share, my friend who bought a 2bdrm unit at Carissa Park for investment rented out her unit within a week. Partially furnished, $2.5k/mth.

From what I understand, if you sell with tenancy, the buyer gets the unit as is. even with the furniture. I don't think the buyer would want to go through the hassle of replacing all the furniture because it would also add to their cost.

Totally understand how you must have felt when your valuation report came out higher than expected. My husband and I were in your shoes 2 yrs ago when we bought our resale 5I. The valuation report was also expiring already so we had to do a new one for the bank loan anyway. The new valuation came out to be much higher than what the agent and us expected. It was the same price as the selling price so we paid $0 COV. Every last cent counts when you are tight on cash....

The OTP penalisation is all you are liable for. You shouldn't have to pay the agent anything.

Go for this - have tried their food on many occasions and the standard is always there. Never disappointed with their food so far. Plus it's halal. http://www.kriston.com/ Cakes - depending on your budget, you can try Canele (chocolate cake) / Four Seasons (fruit flan) / Prima Deli (chocolate and fruit flan cakes are both not bad)

Canele does some really good chocolate cakes. The fruit flan cakes from Four Seasons are not bad too.

I guess it's a very personal choice because it depends on whether you mind what is at the back of the unit 1800 sq ft for 2 floors sounds a bit crammed though, and 1.6mil for that size sounds a bit steep, not to mention you'll be paying a sizeable amt of maintenance every mth if you have one of the larger units. I've not been looking actively at landed properties in that area, but I think about a year ago, you could get an old terrace around Lucky Heights area for 1.2 - 1.3 mil? Not sure what's the price tag on them now.

Have you tried looking at the ready made curtain rods sold at Spotlight? They have some metal / iron ones and I've used those for my home. Can cut to length if required with a hand saw. The curtain brackets they sell there can also fit the rods so you'll save yourself the hassle of running around to look for different items at different places.

I would go for No. 2 choice actually. It's already TOP for several years so you can check whether the development is well maintained or not, plus who your neighbours are etc. Sometimes developers don't build the units as shown in the plan and you may end up with a different facing. When you buy an already built unit, you get what you see. If you are buying a penthouse, you might also want to check what is the developer's liability on the roofing (against leaks etc), especially if you are buying an open rooftop. The wear and tear on surfaces exposed to rain & sun everyday can be quite severe, e.g. on expansion joints. Don't forget that if anything happens to your waterproofing on the rooftop, it will affect your unit first.

For a young family, I think going for the condos with full facilities might be better as there is also more ground area for the kids to take a walk etc. In my opinion, this would rule out the condos in the Telok Kurau area as those there are boutique condos with simple facilities. I would consider a large condo as a development with 200 and above units. These large condos normally would have a very large (sometimes 2 swimming pools), tennis courts, BBQ pits etc. Personally I would go for Pasir Ris area: - Livia (still being built) - 99yr leasehold - Oasis @ Elias (still being built) - 99yr leasehold - Ris Grandeur - Freehold (7 yrs old I think) You can cycle to the MRT station and there's lots of activities to do in Pasir Ris on a weekend. Plus the above condos are not as expensive as those at East Coast area. There are also those near Tanah Merah MRT that you could look at, the condos there are large projects too, but it's not so near to the beach as compared to those at Pasir Ris.

Going to exercise option for an EA at Pasir Ris next week. Valuation 450k. COV 20k. Hunted for almost 5 months, viewed >30 units. Glad that we finally found a place!

Hi Just to share, my hb & I were looking for condos ard the East side to purchase for own stay last year - we viewed units at Ballota Park, Edelweiss Park, Azalea Park and Carissa Park. We ended up buying Carissa Park because we wanted a condo with lots of space. I think Carissa Park is the largest amongst them. We found Ballota Park too close to the prison plus there was a temple next door, so it did not make the cut even though price was almost 80k cheaper for a 3 bdrm unit. Azalea Park was a bit too run down. Edelweiss seemed a bit cramped. We bought a 3bdrm unit at Carissa Park, mid floor, pool facing @~$610psf. One of my friends also bought a unit at Carissa Park for investment just recently. Apparently, a very large portion of the units at Carissa Park are tenanted (rather than owner occupied) - that's what the management office said when I asked them about the tenancy at the condo. About condos in Kembangan area, I think they can be a good buy if you find one of those older ones. The new condos in the area are too pricey. I don't particularly fancy Telok Kurau area coz the streets are very cramped and you've got 2 way traffic on some of them. Have you looked at Windy Heights / Starville / Grosvenor View etc? There are a few condos near Lengkong Tiga which are freehold / 999 and quite nice and probably a better deal for the same price than those in Telok Kurau area. Don't forget too, that for small condos / boutique condos, there are fewer units so the maintenance cost per unit is also more $$$ If you are buying with the intention to rent out in the future, might be better to buy a unit that's near the MRT too.

I think that's expensive for a 99 yr leasehold condo not near MRT.... but then again, if buying for your own (long term) stay, I guess most people won't mind. For that price ($820psf), I would look for an older, 999 yr / freehold apartment - maybe near Jln Loyang Besar? (If you like to be next to the park / water)

If you want to spray paint the cupboard doors and have it look professional, you'll need a generator with a spray. Doing it from a can of spray is not going to be even. Plus the weather needs to be sunny and dry. Cannot spray paint in cloudy / rainy weather. Plus you need lots of empty space and it's a messy job so keep your fingers crossed your neighbours don't complain, esp if you are living in HDB. Forget about trying this if you are living in a condo (unless you are going to do it on your own balcony and risk having everything else around it spray painted with the same colour of paint)....

1) I am not sure how big your cupboard is, but it should be attached by hinges & screws? You probably have to dismantle all the parts in order to take it apart. 2) Sungei Kadut got lots of wood shops. I think my dad gets his from somewhere in Ang Mo Kio. Frankly if it's a wardrobe type of cupboard (i.e. with doors), I don't think it's worth it to use teak. I would use teak only if it was shelving meant for display purposes. For wardrobe type of cupboard, why not use the wood you can buy from Ikea, or if available, buy good quality laminated wood. 3) A bit confused here - are you planning to build a cupboard (with doors) or a top to bottom display shelf? If you are going to build doors, be careful when taking measurements coz the ceiling to floor height is not the same from end to end of the wall. My dad built the wardrobes in our house but he saved cost by using the wall as a backing. i.e. there is no wood at the back of the wardrobe, and the shelves are supported by brackets drilled directly into the wall. You have to get good quality brackets and if you are placing heavy stuff like amp & guitar on it, better to use a bracket in the centre of the shelf too otherwise the wood will warp over time. Books can be very heavy too, so better use extra bracket on that shelf.

Are you looking for those really fancy looking ones or the chinese looking ones? I've seen those chinese vases in varying sizes being sold at lots of pasar malams and I regularly see it at Chong Pang too.

Big Eater Seafood at Jln Pari Burong? It's recommended by my brother and his friends, I tried it once, not too bad, but a bit on the pricey side.

If the tenant is late in paying you rental, I don't think you got a good chance to ask them to compensate you for furnishing, agent fees etc. But if this current tenant / agent can find you a new tenant, why not take it? You'll save on agent fees, wasting time to advertise again etc. and the new tenant will have to take over whatever is in the contract (including the existing furniture). To me, one month of no rent is not worth it. Each month loss of rental will all add up. Better to get a new tenant asap and get your rental income rather than wasting time with the current tenant.

warrior, Do you have a proper tenancy agreement (TA) with the current tenant who is late on paying rent? And has the TA been stamped? If yes, does the clause say that the landlord can enter the house and repossess the property if the rent is late? e.g. (a) If the rent hereby reserved or any part thereof shall be unpaid for seven (7) days after becoming payable (whether formally demanded or not) or if the Tenant shall at anytime fail or neglect to perform or observe any of the obligations, stipulations and agreements herein contained on his part to be performed or observed or if the Tenant or any other person in whom for the time being the tenancy be vested shall become bankrupt or enter into composition with the Tenant’s creditors or suffer any distress or execution to be levied on the Tenant’s goods or if the Tenant being a company shall go into liquidation whether voluntary (save for the purpose of amalgamation or reconstruction) or compulsory then and in any of the said cases it shall be lawful for the Landlord at any time thereafter to re-enter upon the premises or any part thereof and thereupon this tenancy shall absolutely terminate but without prejudice to the right of action of the Landlord in respect of any antecedent breach of this Agreement by the Tenant. If you have such a clause, you can use your spare set of keys and enter the house and ask them to leave. After all, you have been trying to contact them but they come up with all sorts of excuses. To me, this is just excuse to delay payment. If I were you, I would get my lawyers to draft an eviction notice and get them to pay the outstanding sum (in cash) by next week or they have to leave the house by that date / time. Also ask your lawyers to do an enhanced individual search on the tenant (and his company) to see if they have any writ of summons issued against them - i.e. they owe other pple money. This probably means they won't be able to pay your rent too.

Hahaha! This lizard business is so funny. Suddenly there are so many interesting ways to catch / kill them. eiffel, I'm amazed that the lizard in your house can "challenge" you!! What about using traps with poison? Like those for cockroaches?