Choosing a First Home

Getting our first home involved many hours of scanning newspaper classifieds first thing in the morning for us. Things that we considered when we selected our own home :

1) Type : Private / Public

- After calculating the amount of interest we have to fork out for a private housing , plus considering the CPF minimum sum rule of $120K in ten years time, we decided on a HDB to ensure that we can both be debt free by in 10 years. After all, it's what you put into the house and other things you can do to enhance yr lifestyle with the money you saved that will really make a quality difference in yr life unless you can afford both. In addition, first timers get a 30k grant ( 40k if your purchased flat is within 2km of yr parents or in the same town. However, note that this rule does not apply if yr parents are living in a private flat. ie they must be living in HDB also for you to qualify. ) To think if you should be buying a private apartment and borrowing a loan from banks to do it, consider this. If bank interest rates rise by 1 - 2%, will you get flustered and start calculating how much cash you need to top up yr monthly loan payment ? If yes, then maybe you should reconsider buying a private apartment. We wanted an apartment that would be comfortable for us and not one that we have to slog our entire life for. For resale flats ( HDB and private ), you would need to consider the difference between the asking price and the valuation as stated as that would affect the amount of cash that you would need to have or would have to use up, which will affect your budget for other items.

2) Location : Location is everything to us at least ! Having lived in the east for decades, there was simply no other location that could match the east ! We identified a few areas in the East
- Cassia Crescent , Marine Parade , Bedok Reservoir and Bedok South . The first two soon were deleted from our list as the booming property market made these flats soar beyond their valuations. We managed to get a gd 4 rm corner flat at Bedok South near Temasek Primary which is quite a pleasant environment, quiet and near to private estates. It was a good catch and we were lucky we could just afford the above valuation cash value ( FYI - flats during booming property cycles tend to get overpriced above their actual values as stated by property valuers. Banks / HDB will only loan up till the valuation amt and anything above that, it is pure hard cash which you have to cough out ). To get yr dream location, you should do a recee and scout around for the specific blocks and check the classifieds listing early in the morning. For us, we had to rush down first thing in the morning and put a offer price based on what we could afford.

3) Size / Layout - For us, we felt a 4rm was just right. Most young couples wld collapse two rooms into one, leaving one more rm for future needs or for relaxation / other purpose. Also note that a 5rm would result in more cleaning, more taxes.... Importantly we felt it should be a corner flat rather than a corridor one as PRIVACY is very important to us. The premium for corner flats is justified as you have yr own privacy, a bigger floor space and also a better selling price later if you should decide to sell.

4) Find yourself a reputable and honest Property agent

For me and gayle, we were very fortunate to meet up with a very reputable and honest property agent - Mr Andrew Pat who helped us in our home sales transaction. Andrew is really helpful and very responsive to all our queries as a first time buyer and he helped us to settle outstanding issues with the seller in a very friendly yet professional manner. He is really the type of person who puts you at ease and this is very important as you need to have an agent you feel you can trust esp when like us, we know very little on HDB regulations and the sales process etc.. It is really important to have a property agent whom you can converse with and at ease to ask all kinds of questions. Also, he was always very prompt despite his busy schedule to get back to us on our queries and clarify our doubts. He even gave us complimentary durian puffs to make sure we weren't hungry at one of the meet ups. Such is the good measure of his exceptional service.

For those of you who are looking for a property - private or HDB or looking to sell your property/rental of property . do look for Andrew and give him a call and tell him Eugin and Gayle recommended him to you.

You can call Andrew at : 91848840 ( HSR Realty )