Those who follow my blog will know that we managed to sell two properties early of the year. READ: How We Sold Two Properties In One Month and Very Close to My Asking Price!
End last year, the conviction came that we should sell our properties, and purchase a new property. We went for it!
For those who have intention to sell their property and buy a new one, hope that this article recounting our experiences can be of help to you.
The sequence how we started are as follows.
REASONS FOR THE SALE AND PURCHASE
To begin, it is obvious that you ought to be know the reasons why are you selling your house, and why are you buying your new house. For us, it is crystal clear and the reason was cited in our earlier article.
SALE – ASKING, TRANSACTED AND SELLING PRICE
Next, do your research in PropertyGuru, 99.co or SRX apps. Search within your vicinity/condo the “Asking Price” and the “Past Transacted Price”.
The price guide is normally in Price per square feet i.e. psf.
For better units within the same condo, such as newly renovated, high floor, good facing and regular layout, the psf is definitely going to be higher than the average transacted psf.
Below is a screenshot extracted from Propertyguru for the Condo Bishan Point.
You can also visit URA website for actual transactions that have their Caveats lodged. Refer here.
The “Asking Price” is usually higher than the “Transacted price.” This is because the Seller will want to give room for negotiation. Hence, in the ad, you will see “Negotiable” beside the asking price. However, do note that some Seller will instead indicate “Starting from” or “View to offer”.
For example, after doing your research, your ideal selling price is SGD1.3 million. You can then probably either set your asking price as SGD1.4 Million “Negotiable” or SGD1.25 million “Starting from” or “View to offer”.
Frankly, it is better to set pricing as “Negotiable” rather than “Starting From / View to Offer” since most buyers love to negotiate down the pricing giving them a “sense of achievements”, rather than bid up the pricing, that potentially can turn off the real buyers.
WORK OUT YOUR FINANCIALS
Create an Excel Sheet
Next, I created an excel sheet. See below two examples. This is to ensure that my financial is in place. For those who wanted this excel format, please email me at [email protected]
Below are just arbitrary numbers for your reference.
Loan Eligibility
Contact your bankers to check your indicative loan IPA i.e. In-Principal-Approval. Otherwise, I recommend Redbrick Mortgage Advisory (refer here) who renders extremely good services and can help you search the best loan and legal conveyancing deal in the market.
Monthly Mortgage
Check your monthly mortgage. You can either download apps on phone, or you can ask for an excel sheet from your bankers.
Affordability
Referring to my excel spreadsheet that with all inputs identified, you can then clearly know
- what is the value of house you can afford
-
how much cash you have left for renovation
-
what is the monthly mortgage cash outlay after deducting CPF
CONTACT YOUR AGENTS
It is better to do your research first before contacting the agents for discussion. Then at least you already know your stuffs, and will not be over-influenced by the comments of the agents.
If you are not very sure about the choice of agent, maybe it is good to get two agents for different opinions, or even get two agents to do the marketing.
Refrain from getting too many agents to freely market your house. I have seen ads with more than 10 agents marketing, and sometimes it can be really a turn-off, and they have been in the market for a long time “unable to sell”.
For me, my agent is my decade-long friend who knows the estate really well with good transacted track records in the past. Not only I gave my agent a longer exclusivity for the sale, I also did not short-change her/him and gave 2 percent commission plus GST. In return, my agent managed to sell my house in a short time, and at record PSF, and way above my initial expected deal closing price.
Everybody is happy!
Good luck to you if you are selling your house.
In the next article, I will share my experience on my search of house.
Hmmm…. I am not going to be a property blogger. It is just that the topic of “properties” have a big place in my mind for the past three to four months.
