From 15x BTO SBF balloting to resale flat

Note: Jotting this down for our documentation, so it's gonna be lengthy. But maybe can provide some tips for upcoming homeowners out there. 💕

[📣 How did it all start?]

Tbh, I think we started our home shopping about 3-4 years ago. Back then we were between resale and SBF. BTO wasn’t in our option after a few tries because we have been together long enough and BTO wait times are usually 4 5 years. A bit draining to wait ah.

After tons of balloting, we decided to face the reality. We tried about 15 times in total SBF and BTO, including places near our parents’ home. Even with this scheme, our ballot number would still be outside of the supply. Yup we were just that suay lmao. 🥹

We have passed our 10th year together in 2024, and we have also reached an age where we really need to settle down. Welcome to the rat race. 🙃

[📣 Start finding The One]

So we started to look for resale flats more aggressively at the end of 2024. We wanted to do it without a property agent as we thought paying 6-7k for paperwork just doesn’t make sense.

We went to find listings on Propertyguru, 99.co and Carousell. Contacted the seller agent ourselves. We knew what we wanted, which area we wanted, and what budget to work with (get your HFE early! as agents will ask you if have this ready).

✨️It's important to discuss all the 5W1H as a team and list our your criteria and which ones are the priorities. It will then be easier to nail down to a flat you want.✨️

So we scheduled about 4-5 units in Feb & March 2025. It's always before we could make a decision or throw in our bid, the unit is either reserved or there was already a higher bid. That made me wonder, do people buy houses on impulse as well nowadays? 🤔

[📣 When did we decide this is The One?]

Maybe it was fate. We were supposed to have a group viewing on 23 March. But we realised we had something on that day, so we tried our luck with the agent to see if we could go for the viewing one day earlier, on 22 March. Fortunately, we were able to go. We went down to see it in the morning and we really liked the place. It was love at first sight, at least for my boy. I took a while to be convinced due to a small reason. (maybe I'll share more in the next few posts)

It checked all of our boxes:

✔️ Bright space & full height window

✔️ Airy & unblock view of the park

✔️ High floor

✔️ Near MRT

✔️ Good bus connectivity to CBD

✔️ At at location we preferred

✔️ Good amount of remaining lease

[📣 What went down in that 1 day?]

We really like the place and after heading home, we decided to view for another time. Contacted the seller agent and understood that the next day is the group viewing.

Luckily for us, we have an agent friend who also happened to stay in the same area, so we went to seek for their opinions. They advised that if we really like it, we should try to offer and seal the deal on the same day so that we can shut the other 5 potential viewers out. (Probably this is how impulse buying happens!)

Our friend kindly help us with the process and begin negotiations with the seller's agent. After the negotiation, we popped by the very same evening for one more look. The seller was asking for a pricier end.

Our concern was what if we had to pay for the COV, and how much we could cover. After some struggles and quick calculations, we bit the bullet.

[📣 So what’s the process?]

We offered a meet-in-the-middle price and luckily the sellers accepted. Our friend had the Option to Purchase (OTP) ready and we signed the agreement on the spot.

✨️We paid a fee of 1k as the option fee. This is to pay now to the seller as they will do the processing.✨️

Next steps were the nail-biting stage where the HDB evaluators would drop by to evaluate the place. If the evaluation is lower than our purchased price, that would mean we have to top up the difference in cash. T.T 🙏 Bobi ah!

The evaluation took about a week and finally the lucky star was on our side this time! It was valued at our agreed price and the crisis was avoided.

✨️Thereafter, we had to pay $4k to exercise the OTP.✨️

During this process, we could tell that the seller agent was trying to negotiate a longer extension for his client and we felt that he deliberately delayed the option to buy for a few more days. 😒

After the seller agent submission, and settling our financing terms that our friend had helped us with, we just have to wait for the HDB to give us the date for the appointment.

It took about 6 weeks for us to receive the notification for the HDB appointment, which will take place 2 weeks later.

✨️So a total of 8 weeks waiting.✨️

On the day of the completion appointment, 19 June, we had a nice yakun to celebrate the day. And within a few minutes and some signatures, we are now home owners, woo hoo!! 🎉 房贷少年

Though that date marks the beginning of the 3-month wait as the owners negotiated for a 3-month extension (that’s why the seller agreed to a meet-in-the-middle price).

During this lengthy 3 months, the agent tried to ask for a longer extension (about 2 weeks more) claiming it's the hungry ghost festival and moving is inauspicious. However, when we ask for some sort of financial compensation, all their beliefs went out the window. I guess money does have a way to get rid of ghosts? 👻

18 Sep, 4 days before we had to fly to US for our work trip, it was our key collection day! Felt so surreal that we are homeowners now, even as I wrote this well-delayed post. After collecting our keys, we went straight to Decathlon to get our first piece of furniture — two camping chairs. And we sat at our new home, reflecting on life.

But as of now, still no pepperoni pizza, sadge.