Tips to maximise your profit while buying a Real Estate or Housing

Property Agent closing deal

It is very common and natural to worry or feel anxious when we decide to buy a house or property. The fear related to this is never-ending – whether to go for a loan, will we have enough cash for the down payment, are the papers of the property all legal, what if there is sudden decline in the property value after our purchase. Since a lot of cash goes at stake, of course we want to make sure that we get the best deal. Hence it is always safer to hire a property agent or real estate agent who knows the market well, has good list of properties to offer and understands our requirements and all criteria well.

However following are some of the very basic tips that we should consider when we plan to buy a property –  

  • We need to thoroughly understand how much exactly we can borrow – It is very important to know how much we can actually afford on home. A pre-approval letter from the banker is always a pre-requisite for house hunting. In fact, most of the property agents or real estate agents need a pre-approval letter before showing the property to their clients. Moreover, knowing our budget also helps to save time on house hunting.
First know the amount you can borrow to buy your house
Important to know how much we can actually afford on a house.
  • Either be the first or the last – It’s a trick! If we are serious and understand that it is a great deal, then one trick is to quickly make an offer to the owner or to the agent who would pass it to the seller of the property. This way we can win a good deal.

On the other hand, another situation where the owner is tired of holding on to a particular property or he wants to sell it off for personal reasons on great discounts, then the trick is to make an offer for it. In most of such cases, the seller will entertain almost any offer made.

  • We should buy property when it is a buyer’s market and avoid during seller’s market – A buyer’s market is one in which, there is a decline in the home prices due to reduction in demand. On the contrary, in seller’s market, the property price is very high due to increasing demand for homes. So here the tip is to invest when the price is low i.e. during buyer’s market to benefit ourselves.
  • We should always remember the amount we need for the down payment when we purchase a house – Usually, the national average for down payments is 11%. So we must check the hands on availability of this amount the moment we to plan to buy the property.
  • It is worthy to note that a pre-approval for a mortgage indicates that we are a serious buyer – Both our real estate agent and the seller of the house or property feels more focused seeing that we are serious about the deal.
Mortgage pre-approval form
A pre- approval for a mortgage makes the seller understand that the buyer is a serious one.
  • For the buyers of their second home, it remains a question whether or not to sell their current home before buying a new one – To answer this, it totally varies from case to case. If the current home’s built-up equity will be applied on to the down payment on the new home, for sure, the previous house has to be sold prior to the new purchase. In other cases, if the client decides to rent out their current home as an investment, then the house does not need to be sold. However whatever the situation is, it is the loan advisor who does the preliminary examination and evaluates the risk of our profile. He checks the credit history too in order to determine whether taking a loan for the new home is feasible while retaining the title to the old home at the same time and accordingly will guide the buyer.
  • It is advisable that to view at least some number of houses physically even in today’s’ online convenience before buying our new property – Today online we can search, see pictures and even see a 360degree view of the house/rooms. However, when we are going for a lifetime investment, visiting at least a few houses to actually see how it looks and feels is worthwhile.
  • If the buyer’s offer is not accepted by the seller but another counteroffer is proposed by the seller, then it is better to look at it if we are really keen for that particular property – The current owner of the house might flat-out accept or reject an initial offer or he might also initiate a counteroffer. If this be the case, then all we need to do is with our property agent, we need to review it and determine whether the counteroffer is acceptable or not. Let’s say, it looks all good then without any delay we should go ahead to close the deal.

Saying all these, it still remains quite a hectic procedure and many stay in dilemma in this respect. Hence the best way to go ahead with such dealings is to have our own property agent or real estate agent to help and guide us in the process. He is the person who will understand the whole picture, send email alerts to notifying us of any new property listings and close our deal in a lesser complicated way.

Get a property agent – https://www.stringssg.com/property-agent-singapore

Property Agent closing deal
Property Agents have the solution to our house hunting!

Hunting for a house to rent or buy in Singapore?

How easy it is to find a house to rent or buy in Singapore?

If you are trying to find a house to rent or buy in Singapore, you will most probably start with searching on the internet, then short-listing the Ads and calling on the listed phone number. Most likely you will end up with property agents picking up your calls. The property agents will then set up meetings with you to show you around several houses in Singapore. When I moved to Singapore in 2011, I had to visit 24 different houses with 11 different property agents before I could get to the one of my choice. This was a whole month activity and off course tiring. In Singapore, generally you will have to go via a property agent to do all the legal work for you.

Find a House

Find a house in Singapore
Find a house in Singapore
Why does it take so much of effort?

The property advertisements on the internet do not have complete information or details that answers your needs. For example, I was looking for a house with bigger living room with a balcony and a space to setup my own gym. A typical Ad is very generic that says how big the house is, the number of rooms and bathrooms with some pictures. Most of the time, we go by the price and if the pictures are impressive we call the advertiser or rather the property agent. If you are not lucky, you will most likely be disappointed when you visit the house for one or more reasons. For example, there could be parking for only one car while you needed a second one for your wife’s car. This story could be similar with the rest of the Ads you have short-listed to view with a property agent. In the end, after a long vested time you find your ideal house. When you think about it, all you needed was someone who could understand all your criteria and show you a house that exactly met them rather than showing you 20 different houses that does not meet your needs.

What is the solution?

StringsSG provides a platform where you can post your housing needs with a few clicks and set your own criteria like budget, location, urgency, house or room sizes or anything you want in your house, there are no limitations. Your request will most likely get multiple responses from multiple property agents. To keep it simple and easy for you, StringsSG has the algorithm and artificial intelligence to sort the responses based on the match percentage of how much a property agent can meet your criteria. You also get to view the ratings and review of the property agent on his profile. Previous success stories of the property agent may also be listed on his or her profile. In the end, you choose the property agent you like the most.

To conclude, if you wish to save time on your house hunting, your only action is to:

  • Submit your request on StringsSG with the list of all your criteria.
  • View responses of the property agents with higher match percentage to your criteria.
  • You may choose to initiate conversation with multiple property agents using the integrated chat system.
  • Before finalizing on the agent, make sure to view his or her profile ratings and reviews. We also helps you with other services like insurance and savings plan, handyman services, beauty and massage services, maid services, aircon services, interior designing, personal fitness trainer, food catering services, wedding and other event planning services.

StringsSG is dedicated to serve the people of Singapore.