A New Beginning: what you may not know about house hunting

1) Ask for size area and owner's expected price and maintenance (if condo)
2) if its HDB, ask for valuation AND owner's expected price
3) if an ad writes POOL VIEW, it doesn't necessary mean pool view. That is up to the owner's interpretation of what a pool view means. A little sliver of a baby pool can also be considered POOL VIEW *slaps forehead*
4) Near MRT can range from 5 to 15mins of walking. Always check online maps for actual location to be doubly sure.
5) Apartments that are older tend to get higher risk ratings from bankers and thus less likely to get better loans from them.
6) Everyone assumes that the new MRTs that are being built now will raise their prices. But that remains to be seen... especially if your station happens to be a white elephant :p
7) Always go visit potential places yourself to get a feel of the land, its surroundings, the place itself, the renovations done etc. You might get surprises (good or bad is pretty much dependant on fate)
8) You can afford a higher valued private apartment than a HDB. Observe the calculations

HDB Valuation = $450k, money over is about 50k for example:
Cash + CPF element = 50k + 5% * 450k + 1% * 500k (agent fee) + 3% * 500k - 5400 (stamp duty) + 15% * 450k = $154,600 where minimum cash portion is $77,500
Rest of 80% is loan.

Private Condo Valuation = $500k (usually money over is close to zero OR banker can match the selling price
Cash + CPF element = 5% * 500k + 3% * 500k - 5400 (stamp duty) + 15% * 500k = $109,600 where minimum cash portion is $34,600
rest of 80% is loan

Thus given the sums that i produced (the stamp duty might not be accurate for HDB side but it doesn't differ by too much) its amazing to see the amount of cash for HDB vs Private Apartment. Mostly though it has to do with the money over element which is mostly covered by the bank loan for a private condo. Granted the monthly installment is going to be a lot more but given the possible price variations for a private apartment vs a HDB, it does make sense now why my parents keep harping us to get private apt instead of condos.

Throughout our experience so far its definitely been an eye-opener. Granted we might have saved ourselves a lot of time by looking specifically to the specifications that my parents had already dished out to us, but we wouldn't have learnt so many things nor seen so many interesting units if we had not "knocked the wall with our heads" so to speak ourselves. This brings to mind a great many things about life and about humans in general. That we often need to see it for ourselves to learn better. Sure it might make things easier if we had gone along with the knowledge of our seniors, but we would have learnt the lessons by heart much better and more indepth if we had to go through the "pain", "suffering", "time" ourselves. After all,