The one where the haus agent failed...

Disclaimer: Haus here is not thirsty in Malay but is pronounced as house. International slang haha. So please don't read it wrongly ok.

I think I have mentioned that we are looking into resale flats

1. Size of the house (< 103 sq m)
2. We want to kaup (take) as much money we can from gahment (no grants if bought directly)

and found one which we went for viewing the Monday after the entry. We managed to set the appointment and got both our parents to have a look at the house with us. Reason being? Our parents have a better eye for houses since they bought and sell quite a few themselves. 

So anyway, we met the haus agent whom I shall name M (for merepek) under the block. We found out that the house is on the 2nd floor. Already a disappointing factor because I wanted odd number and a higher floor, preferably. So we entered the house and then, she brought us around and started talking about the little details. You know haus agent right? They speak only the good things and hope you don't notice the bad things.

TBH, the house is in an Ok condition. If we bought it, we would redo the kitchen, toilets and paint the whole house. And get new set of air-con. We noticed some corners of the walls very worn out but we were OK with it. But M started her merepek-ness, it was hard not to cringe.

After looking around the house, M took out a floor plan of the house to show us that it is 105 sq m. Then she pointed to the front door on her floor plan and showed us the front door of the house. I mean, ummm? I can tell where is the front door or master bedroom without looking at the floor plan, thank you very much.

Then M started asking us how we felt about the house and we told her about what we felt that needed to be done. So the price was put 470k which was out of our price range but the ad says negotiable so we are just trying our luck. So we told her 470k was something we can't afford right now because we are still building up our CPF, especially Baobei, and we are looking for something lower. 

So then M asked if we have done our HLE, and I told her that we have not as we needed Baobei's December pay slip to complete the HLE. But I told her based on our calculations on HDB website, we are eligible for 3XXk only. Guess what M said?

"But both your combined income is more than 5k right? And you have no debts for cars/personal/study right? I think HDB can offer you 400k for HLE."

Wait, a haus agent is telling me that the loan calculator designed by HDB is not working right? How can what I calculated and what she thinks HDB can give me is a HUGE difference? Yes based on experiences of people who have or in the midst of buying houses said that the HLE will be slightly more than you calculated. But we are talking more than 40k difference here. Merepek right? If she authorised the housing loan at HDB, I think our housing will be in trouble or people work to pay for house only.

Nevermind. It doesn't stop there.

M said her seller is not in a hurry to sell and that they are not buying after they sell because they will be staying at a relative's. B U L L S H I T.

We found out that her client is divorced and the woman has already remarried. You know what that means right? Court gives you a time frame to sell off the unit to return the CPF to it's respective owners meaning in this case, the woman and her ex husband. After all, I am pretty sure her ex husband would not like the current husband to stay in the house that ex husband paid his share right? So the not hurry to sell, I call bullshit. 

M said she can try 450k for us but any lower can be hard since the ex husband has his price. When we told her that we definitely do not have the money to pay at 450k, she said this, "Why don't you loan from the bank the excess and then rent out your house for awhile to pay the bank?" Seriously I am starting to question her credibility. How can we rent out when we just purchased the unit? There is a rule that we can only rent out after 4 or 5 years living in the unit. And she is a haus agent and I am just a potential buyer, but I know rules better than she does (or she's just trying to make her sale).

So nevermind. M continued her selling tactics on us saying "There are couple of people who have viewed and are interested." Sorry, you posted this ad for awhile and yet no one has bought it. You texted me and arranged a viewing the day you came back from holiday (no rush eh?). You reposted the ad a month later (even after I have viewed and you waited for our HLE). So the many potential buyers you speak about? I call B U L L S H I T.

Then M decided to play 'dirty'. She said and I quote, "People are taking advantage that it is low floor and only Malays can buy over the unit." No darling, people are not taking advantage but it is to our advantage. Know the difference. Yes, people prefer high floors that's why low floors sell at a cheaper price and that is a fact. Malays can only buy the unit because our quota is not filled and that is just too bad for that particular flat. Anyway, it is known that Melayus like to stay near their kelompok (I am not sure of the word/spelling and everyone is asleep haha so just take it as it is) in Jurong, Tampines, Clementi, Pasir Ris, Bedok, Simei but very little of us in Serangoon and Bishan. So it is our advantage.

Since the sentence didn't move us at all, M went one step further. She said, "Anyway my seller is not well to do. You saw that right? So poor thing if you were to buy it at a much lower price." SHE DID NOT JUST GUILT TRIP US. Yes, the seller has a mother, 4 kids and a maid which equals to 8 people. Yes, she can no longer afford the house and needs to get a cheaper house. But I am not buying a house at your price out of pity, we just don't have that kind of money. Or rather, we are not willing to pay more than what we can afford. But you don't say things like that to guilt us. I am sorry things are not going well for them, but we are not starting our marriage with a debt because we pity them. So if we take bank loan, they senang and we susah kirakan ok ah? DON'T PULL THIS SHIT ON US. If we had the 450k budget, trust me we would have taken it already. But we don't and you know it!

We were seriously unhappy with the way she worked but we liked how big the house is and how close my parents would be. So after we got the results of our HLE (within 3 days if you don't count weekends, thank you Yvonne for helping get it done ASAP!), we texted her

Btw, did you notice how her story change? From 'not in a hurry to sell because they are not buying' to 'they need to buy a flat after selling'.

M thinks she is the only one who can play hard to get? I see potential haus agent qualities in me. Haha! But I was told to play it cool even though I really love to get the unit. The master bedroom toilet is huge and we could fit a bath tub, that's why I keep dreaming about me soaking in the tub.

Anyway, M replied me the next day,

And that is why I am blogging about this now. The deal didn't fall through and amazingly, I was/am ok (I am more attached to houses than Baobei are). For me, I am pretty sure there are reasons why we didn't get the house like maybe the house isn't good for us or we probably spend more money trying to fix it. Like I said, we are not in the rush but it will always be nice to have our own place and currently the resale market is a buyer's market. Hopefully they will get a buyer that can meet their pricing so the 'not well to do' (according to M) seller can buy a house. It will be funny if weeks later, M would text me and say that the seller accept out offer. Who knows by then we are actually looking at other houses (haha since what I said is a total bull).

What's our next plan? Since our HLE is valid for awhile and I seriously love haus shopping, so the haus hunting continues. Buying from the open market is really fun. Instead of being the obsessed girl who keeps refreshing the BTO page to check if the unit we want is still available, I spend a lot of time on STproperty and PropertyGuru (bookmarked them!) page checking for 4A houses in Serangoon and Bishan.

Til the next haus that may potentially be ours, xo.