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3 Solid Reasons Why You May Not Need A Property Agent In Singapore
This article was originally on GET.com at: 3 Solid Reasons Why You May Not Need A Property Agent In Singapore
Have you ever considered hiring a property agent to help you find and buy your new home? If you’re a penny pincher who’d like to go all out to save every cent possible when it comes to property transactions, perhaps you could consider taking things into your own hands instead of hiring a property agent. Although property agents can take a burden off our shoulders to a certain extent, we’ll have to pay them 1% to 2% commission fees for their services rendered. Of course, some property agents are great and truly helpful in minimizing our losses or maximizing our profits - but others are less so.
A fresh survey by the Council for Estate Agencies showed that more consumers may skip property agents and instead, settle property transactions on their own. The survey highlighted that people between the ages of 21 and 39 are more unsure about hiring a property agent for future property transactions than people in other age groups. In light of the above-mentioned, we at GET.com have taken the liberty to share with you 3 solid reasons why you may not need a property agent.
3 Solid Reasons Why You May Not Need A Property Agent
1. Technology Is Awesome
People who are IT savvy stand to gain as the glorious internet opens up a whole new world for consumers to garner crucial information regarding all things related to properties that will enable those who are more hands-on to tackle property transactions themselves.
2. Nobody Says You Die, Die Must Engage Property Agents
Foremost, a property agent isn’t the fixed component in the equation whether you’re buying or selling a property. It is not mandatory for you to engage one, at least here in Singapore. If you’re knowledgeable and familiar enough with the buying and selling processes here, you could very well skip the middleman in the transaction.
Of course, you’ll have to concede with the fact that you’ll have to do quite a fair bit of work on your own first in order to see the transaction to completion without getting tangled up with legal issues that may arise due to lapses. This can be a turnoff for some people as you’ll have complex paperwork and multiple deadlines to tackle.
3. You Don’t Need To Deal With Guilt
We all know that property agents who own their game offer exceptional personalized services and they’ll willingly go all out in a bid to secure the deal with you.
They may offer you free rides in their presumably swanky cars all over our sunny shore wherever you’re heading to or buy you meals or whatever else they have in mind to get into your good books so that you’ll subconsciously feel obliged to deal with them.
Well, if you’re handling the transaction yourself, you’ll never get to experience this sort of extrinsic pressure, ever.
Interested In Finding A Property?
But of course, if it’s too cumbersome for you to handle the transaction on your own, you could always engage a property agent to make life a tad easier for you. That will obviously save you a fair bit of time as opposed to following the DIY approach.
We all know for a fact that property prices are sky high here in Singapore despite the recent slump in the real estate market that has inevitably caused condo resale prices to drop. Rental prices for condos have also dipped so much that you can now rent a condo for almost the same price as an HDB flat. That’s surely not a rosy outlook for those affected by the poor performance in Singapore’s real estate market. Just in case you’re wondering, we’ve also recently reported that architects and engineers working in construction are among those 13 jobs in Singapore whose earnings have taken a hit.
But if you’re buying a property, it’ll do you good to compare home loans before plonking your money down. Comparing the different loans available in the market couldn’t get any easier with a home loan comparison site like GET.com.
On the other hand, refinancing your home loans could also be an option if you're seeking to keep your interest payments on your loans as low as you possibly could. If you’re interested, do check out these 4 things you can consider when comparing home loans.
People who are looking for more flexibility when it comes to their home loan packages can, of course, consider home loans without a lock-in period.
The flexibility that comes with a floating rate package without a lock-in period gives you the option of changing your home loan package sans the nasty penalties whenever you reckon that you’ll be able to snag a cheaper package elsewhere. After all, a small change in the interest rate can lead to significant changes in our bank balances.
What do you think? Share your comments with us below!
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