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Hi, Anyone has gotten external inspection on top of hdb inspection before first appointment? What are the list of items that I should look out for? My seller has a hdb letter for me to sign stating that buyer agree to reinstate some works to original state (according to hdb guidelines) My understanding is that seller is liable. Is this correct?

I read in a magazine article that homeowners should budget about S$100 per square foot (psf) for renovation costs for HDB resale flats. For a 3-room flat of about 688 sq ft, this would mean a total of S$68,800! Now, I'm aware that magazines tend to jack up the price a little, as a lot of items used are designer items, but this differs a lot from what I've been reading in various forums online. I tend to hear quotes of as low as S$30,000, and S$50,000 would be considered very expensive by most. So, let me hear some advice from you, as a homeowner who is currently selecting Interior Designers - what's a real fair cost for a full HDB 3-room resale renovation, assuming we want our current (very) outdated house to be revamped totally, with no major changes to the existing floorplan? Thanks. PS, if you have any pics of how you did your 3 room bathroom, that would be great too.

Hi there, I'm new here and am starting to hunt for my resale flat! The attached shows the ideal layout! Would appreciate if anyone can tell me where to find this type of 4 room layout.

Hello folks, Need some advise here. Basically we broke up after failing to resolve long standing issues after we signed the OTP for a resale HDB flat. We thought we could ride through our personal issues with our marriage and all but it don't seem the case, therefore it was decided to cut the pain now then marry-first-then-see-how-if-not-then-divorce approach as the latter would be much more devastating. So, handed over the signed letter of purchase cancellation letter a few days before our 1st appt to the seller in the presence of everybody (ie myself, seller, seller agent, buyer agent). Seller was upset, yes, that can be understood....and unavoidable since we met with a marriage tragedy and I mean, nothing else can be done. If I'm 35 and single then I might seriously consider buying the flat myself, but there are just no other alternatives since we're not getting married anymore. Seller received the letter, and lamented about opportunity costs (no specifics here) and I explained our situation to seller and sincerely apologised and then the buyer agent (my agent) explained the standard financial damages (forfeiture of the $5k deposit, 1.5% bank loan, if seller cannot get a better price than what we had signed in the OTP we will have to top up the difference). We then left the meeting. Later, in the same afternoon, my agent (ie buyer agent) came to me and send me a letter detailing the damages I have to pay, the biggest sum and the most shocking thing was the 1% commission equivalent of 'damage fee'. I was shocked. I wanted to confront him on the spot, but due to not enough sleep and all that emotional trauma from my break up (just the day before), I wasn' in the right frame of mind and mood to contest directly. In a spur of the moment, I signed the letter agreeing to pay. BUT now the silver lining is that my ex girlfriend, who is also supposedly to be the 50% owner of the flat that we are supposed to purchase, haven't sign the letter yet. So, in a way, I think this damage fees letter is not valid as both buyers will have to agree to it and sign before it becomes a proper agreement. At least this is how I think. My questions: 1. Is this proper? Or is this a case of my agent taking advantage of us consumers who are unaware of such procedures? I don't think I have to pay my agent the full comm equivalent even I didn't end up purchasing anything! 2. Also, my agent didn't bring up this point about damage fees should we cancel after we sign the OTP. How can we challenge it? I'm intending to lodge an official complaint to CEA (www.cea.gov.sg) if my talk with this agent fails. Also, I intend to visit HDB to ask for remediation advice. I mean, both of us are already in emotional distress, and having to deal with this additional issue. What do you think? What can we do as consumers? We think we were misled and taken advantage of. Thanks so much. D