I have said this before and i will say this again, always try to get your own lawyers in any property transactions.
Never use the one the agent or the seller is using, at least you have some safeguards. Never trust anything an
agent or even developer says. I had folks writing to me after being conned by developers who promised the sky
but reneged and wormed out by saying, no signature, no company stamp after the deposit was placed.
I also had bad agents who tried to be funny, please feel free to name and share any experience with agents, banks
or law firms that did not do the right thing. Where necessary, please do use their consumer watchdog or the bar
council to take errant folks to task.
Also be aware of lawyers trying to fleece you by charging you for visits to the developer to sign S&P, once you
pay this charge, more charges will normally come your way. Be not afraid to go to the Bar council to complain if
you find any dodgy characters. Go for reputable law firms where possible. Getting the cheapest lawyer may not
always work out well. That being said, always do remember to ask for a discount even after conclusion of a successful
deal. Though not in practice officially, it is still a norm to ask for and get a discount.
Most sellers will not be affected in any way if halfway through a deal, they decided not to proceed so do check
what you are signing up for when buying resale.
Be wary of any T&Cs with the banks as certain banks have a lot of terms.
To my countrymen, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not think that just because you are in a foreign land, you need to
use a bank which you are familiar with. If you are getting a loan from them, they have more to fear from you then
you from them. This is as the liability to you is at most the 20% for the house that you have to pay first but theirs
is the remaining 80%. Of course, this is offset by the lawyers who will normally act as the middleman and keep the
monies safe(of course in life there is no guarantee, lawyers in Singapore have been known to run away with their
clients money while doing conveyancing too)
You do not need to go for a large bank, just a bank which gives you good rates and is well established in Malaysia.
If you are trying to come out here to get a loan for a house, the theory is that those banks which do not have branches
in Singapore are better if you do not want folks in Sg to know about your loan/property here. Of course, for those
trying to cheat the system, they will be able to know your credit history and credit worthiness in Singapore through
CBS and other checks.
Btw which one you checked with? Is it Rockwills or something like that? How much do they quote?
