D.I.Y. Sale and Buying Resale HDB flat

I sold my HDB and bought a Resale HDB. 80% DIY.

My Total Savings Breakdown:

* Sale of Flat - Market rate commission is 2%, ie. $8k. I paid only 1%, $4k.
* Buying of Flat - Market rate commission is 1%, ie. $4k. I paid $500 only!
Plus I save COV of $15k! (I will share the story later!)

Total SAVINGS: $7,500!!

I must say i went through quite alot and learn alot of things. sometimes direct buyers ask annoying questions like - ur place is no good ok, traffic no good.. keep on badmouthing.. so u gotta be mentally prepared when direct pple comes along, these are the situation u may be facing... also, u must do homework on your neighbouring block, how much they are selling, this is to prevent u underprice or overprice also

A must do for DIY sellers:

1) Must advertise in the following
a) www.nationproperty.sg
b) www.property.st701.com
c) www.listings.sg

You can also visit : www.propertyguru.com.sg or www.iproperty.com.sg (these places only agents can post) to view your neighouring prices...

2) Get a copy of the OTP form from HDB -as anytime the right buyer comes along, you can sign the OTP

What I did to market my flat:

1)Advertise on Straits Time for about 3 weeks - 98% who called are agents, only minority are direct buyers

2) I went door to door to distribute buyers in my neighbourhood, about 8 blocks - out of which, 2 direct buyers who wants to be near parents came and view. All the offers are very low, ie. at valuation price only. 1 even said, 10K below valuation... Partly because mine unit is in CCK, hence harder to sell -unlike mature area like Bedok/AMK/Toa Payoh. That is why I let it be an open listing.

For the pricing wise, eg, If I want 10K COV, I will tell the agent my COV is 15-18K, so as to cover their comm. Or alternatively you can tell the agent, 10K is what I want, if they want comm, they add on to the 10K themselves.

There are good and bad on engaging agent or diy. the only good part on diy sale is only save commission, not forgetting there are some aspects to be taken into consideration, if your buyer is selling their flat, and then then buyer buying your buyer's flat got to move in early or etc.. those are not easy to handle as in their dates, negotiations.. unless the person buying ur unit is a newly wed or one who do not own any house, then things will be very simple and easy... for my case, the market cov in my area is 5k, (averagely), but thru this agent i got $15k. after deduct comm i still get $11k. Not so bad afterall!

Coincidently, another agent was competing the COV up to $20k, but agent request 2% comm, and their buyer have not sold their house yet.. so after weighing all the pros n cons, we decided even with lesser COV, we sell to someone who we think will not drag on our sale and easier to negotiate.. there are so much things to bear in mind, like expiry of your valuation, loan -HLE/BLE -have the buyer got the HDB loan approval/Bank loan approval. Sometimes they commit to buy from u but later on, loan rejected or not approved or not enough....u suffer opportunity cost if things like that happens

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For Buying
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It is best to view the unit directly through the agent that is marketing the unit. Best not to go through co-broke agents. The advantage of co-broke agent is that you can view several units at one go. So, u save time. But it's harder to negotiate on commission and selling price. Agents marketing for a unit (ie. they have exclusive with them), they always prefer direct buyers, just like when we DIY sale our house.

If we buy direct from the agent marketing the unit, they can earn 2% seller + 1% buyer. if we go through co-broke, they only earn through seller. Hence, when my bought my unit thru direct agent, I pay commission $500 (partly because the seller is desperate also)

For instance, if the direct agent got offers from direct buyers and co-broke agents buyer, assuming both is offering the same price, the direct agent will actually sell to the direct buyer. - reason being, can earn extra commission. in other words, if u go through co-broke agent, there is always a possibility that you have to pay more than when u r a direct buyer.

How to identify direct agent? -Newspaper ad If u see a agent have alot of listings, usually they are co-broke. -Ask the agent directly. But sometimes the agent will mislead u, telling u, oh it's my colleague unit

Happy Selling!

Feel free to ask for opinion -- I will try to an swer if it's within my knowledge :)