I am a 101% newbie with regard to HDB's rules and such but recently, we bought a flat without any agent. And it saved us a few thousands, enough to buy new aircon and several household appliances. Besides, we bargained hard and smart and the purchase price was sweet
Let me tell you it was plain simple and a breeze, just follow the pointers given on HDB's site. If not sure, call the hotline. And I hope some day, most will just DIY. Sorry agents, I am on the consumer side.
It is good to hear you had manage to go through a fuss free DIY purchase.
Most likely yours is a straight forward case, thus it was "plain simple and a breeze" for you.
I am quite sure some of the questions cannot be answer by the HDB hotline.
eg. seller need some time to purchase another flat, and requested for 90 days to submit for HDB first appointment, is buyer ok with it? If not seller won’t sell to this buyer. If you call hotline, they say its buyers and sellers mutual agreement; they don't care how many days is written there. So what now? You ok to wait 3 months for submission, if not don't buy? But it's your dream home you know...
eg. Seller needs two months extension, call HDB hotline they say it's illegal, but it's your dream home and price is right, how now?
You making it sound like it is such a simple job to be an agent, then why don't HDB make agent redundant and save everyone the money and trouble to engage one?
A seller's agent is to maximise the price for him. Yet, there are unscrupulous ones blocking you from viewing or withholding your offer to the seller just because you have no agent. Truth is, oft-times seller's agent is in cahoots with his friends or colleagues just to suck out some easy money from an unsuspecting buyer. How could he represent seller's interest by eliminating this DIYer? Wouldn't this DIYer be more prepared to pay higher (if need be) since he saves on agent's fee which can be quite substantial?
From personal experience, those who DIY are usually not in tuned with the market.
For seller they expect super high COV, and for buyer they expect a very low price no matter what advise they are given. Of course if they wait long enough or they are lucky, then things do go their way, but how many can say they bought it at a low market price? or sell way above market price?
Wouldn't the seller benefit in a way?
A buyer who insists on diy is trying to save the few thousand dollars (there are some genuine case where they have low budget, which we can understand), so they are less inclined to pay more for a unit.
Please do not go and think that a buyer trying to save money on agent's fee would rather spend it to pay towards the seller asking price!
And usually when they meet a good seller's agent , their negotiating skills are not going to work well on this seasoned agent, so they end up paying more than what they would had even with an agent, just that they didn't know about this at all.
A good agent will make this buyer feel that they had gotten a good deal out of the whole purchase.
I believe such a unethical case can be feedback to CEA.
If agent requested to get commission from both buyer and sellers, do report to CEA so that we have lesser black sheep.