The process of buying

Ok, I promise to go study after this, but since I'm so 'engagingly distracted' by the internet now, let me just write a little about the property buying process in Singapore (since when we started out we were practically almost clueless and had to ask around and google for any type of advice we can get. Thankfully one of my consultants is very knowledgeable regarding the process and was extremely helpful.) It is actually a rather simple process, but for someone who is "clueless" there can be a lot of anxiety involved. Uncertainty about money always make people anxious.

First of all, have to put disclaimer first. I'm writing this from what I can remember (and for fun, hopefully I can help someone reduce their anxiety), so the nitty gritty details may not be 100% accurate.

2nd, we bought the house when we were both Employment Pass(EP) holders in Nov 2011, just weeks before the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD - an extra 10% stamp duty imposed on foreigners, but not permanent residents) was imposed.

3rd, we were naive 1st time house buyers in Singapore. A lot of things could have been done better in retrospects, hence also the reason for this post.

4th. We bough a private property (only (married)PRs/citizens qualify for HDBs), so no HDB rebates/whatever rebate/subsidy stuff for us.

So here goes:

1. View the house, and decided we want it.

2. Call the agent (negotiate a price, we negotiated with an agent rather than the house owner, she called him and called us back, blah blah... not sure if we could have negotiated a better price if we had spoken directly to the owner)
*To decide whether the price is reasonable, refer to this website URA. It gives a history and psf price of transactions within a development, so you can know whether you're being ripped off or getting a good deal. (We only found out about this website after we put the 1% down, else we'd have negotiated for less!)

3. Put the 1% downpayment (eg, if the house costs 100k, 1%=$1000. This money is not refundable, even if you decided not to purchase in the end.)

4. Once the 1% in put down, you will be given something called "Option to Purchase". It's a 2 page (or was it 1 page) letter stating your intention to purchase, the owner's name and the exact address of the property. And the agreed purchase price.

"Practicing the option"
5. We're given a 2 week period to "practice our option". If I'm not mistaken this is standard. Hence started our hunt for a bank loan.
In retrospect, a bank loan should be "obtained" before you put the 1%. It's called "in principal approval-meaning the bank agrees to loan you a certain amount of money "in-principal". This is a no-strings-attached service provided by banks, so do not hesitate to get you 'in principal approval" before you even start property hunting.

6. The job of hunting for an appropiate bank was delegated to my husband. At first we called a few banks up, in the end he went down to the respective banks and finally we decided on DBS. They have different loan types - the board rate, floating rate, bla bla rate (3 types in all I think). I'm a dummo in these things so I shall refrain from commenting further.

7. Our bank loan gets approved in 2 days, and they threw in free lawyer's fee of up to SGD2500 (don't be so happy they gave it for free, this is standard. And apparently, you can ask for shopping vouchers too sometimes!). We don't know which lawyer to choose, so we asked the bank to recommend one near where my husband works, for convenience sake.

8. We meet our lawyer, a young chap who probably just graduated from law school. The secretary seems to be more experienced. During this 2-week option period the law(yer)/ firm will make sure the owner is not the bankrupt, nothing illegal in the transaction, etc.

9. Within the 2-week period another 5-10% of the purchase price needs to be paid up. Also, remember to factor in an additional 3% stamp duty (applies to all including citizens and PRs) - which is payable to the government. They have a special formula 3%-$5ooo or something like that, so in the end it amounts to slightly less than 3%. We gave all these things in cheque to our lawyer (so ya, a cheque book is kinda necessary too). They will settle the rest.

10. Once the 2 week period is up, there will be a 10 week completion period. Not too sure what really happened during this period, but it was good for us as it gave us time to start digging into our resources for the rest of the 20% downpayment!

11. By a week before the completion period ends, the lawyer would have sent you the payment instructions (i.e whose name to buy a cahier's order in). 3 days before the completion period, my husband went to buy Cashier's Orders from the bank (no cheque allowed this time, in case they bounced!).

12. On completion day, we got our keys.

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

Add: The maximum home loan amount allowable (by law) is 80%

Focusing, with a strategy

My study break has started, and I will be on leave/protected time for the next one month. One of the difficulties I face when I'm on a study break/leave is staying focused when I'm at home to study. I constantly go on Facebook, open the fridge, have a sudden urge to do laundry, watch mindless TV programs, etc. Anyway, I found an excellent post on staying focused.

1. Priming
This is probably the most important step of all. It is described as "setting up your environment and work routine to make you want to get work done". I find the waking up early and starting work immediately tip to be really useful. It's not really about having more time to get work done, but rather it's more of tricking the subconscious mind to be "primed" for the task ahead.
I shall do this tomorrow. Up at 730 to start studying.

2. Distraction-free breaks.
Oh, now I know not to kill the momentum with engaging activities! So, no Facebook, no Internet surfing, no magazines during the supposedly 15minute break. (it always stretches to 1 hour if I go on Facebook). Stretching sounds good :)
"Breaks are about strategically recouping your energy and focus to reattack the work at hand" - well said.

3. Active work
In contrast to passive work.

4. Fixed scheduling
Schedule lots of work in the earlier part of week or day, and then spent time after to relax and have a life!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woYyi1rwwhw

This is funny, but it illustrates very well the problems/challenges we face in our work :)

Renovation (prelude)

After getting the keys to our house 2 weeks ago, we are now in the process of selecting our renovator. We have decided not to go the Interior Designer (ID) route, because we need to save costs and have heard that IDs jack up their prices by about 30% compared to contractors. And apparently, most IDs in Singapore are actually contractors. And anyway, I have a whole stack of home and design magazines to glean ideas from. But the bottomline is, we want to save money. Having said that, my principal is "what needs to be done has to be done". My husband's view differ abit in the sense that "if you can live with it, don't renovate it/if it's still good, recycle it". Case in point : The Kitchen. Ah, too much details to go into, I'll elaborate another time. So anyway we have at last reached an agreement to renovate almost the entire house, mostly the flooring, the kitchen and both toilets. Yesterday was the first time we met with 2 contractors at our new place, and soon after the contractors left we had an argument with each other, followed by the silent and cold treatment. This usually happens when we need to make decisions and have differing views. It's ok, this is part of married life, isn't it? My husband is more rational and level-headed, while I'm more impulsive and emotional, so at the end of the day we reach a balance and hope it'll work out for the best.

So anyway, have you heard of "overlaying" tiles? Hacking away the old tiles cost quite abit of money and one of the contractors suggested we just overlay them with new tiles. Easier than hacking and save cost. Initially this sounded like a good idea, but after we did some research and talked to other more "experienced" people (our dads) we decided that it is not such a good idea, one that we're not comfortable with.

Going through the house with the contractors really opened our eyes to see all the flaws with the existing condition of the house, and it's not really a pretty sight (it's a 14 year old property without much work done on the existing structure). The door frames, the flooring, the ceiling, the woodwork, the electricals, the plumbing, the AMOUNT OF WORK needed and the MONEY needed to get it done. We were a little depressed after that, maybe that was also why we had a meltdown with each other. Thankfully the quoted cost for now is still within our budget, but we have yet to include the cost of appliances and fixtures. Waiting for another quote and hopefully then we'll be good to get things started.

Welcome once again, to the boring life. Life of work, study and simple-no-fuss-most-convenient meals (a.k.a The Tai Chow Downstairs). I'm not complaining this time though. Well, not that much anyway. To study and not to have a social life is only temporal, and important for a bright future. (yada yada) My only concern is for my husband. He has passed all his actuarial exams (one last module work left) so he is pretty free and seems to be spending a lot of time playing computer games. Coupled with my disinterest in adventure (the physical and the gourmet kind) and interest in only 2 activities, i.e sleep and study; I worry he may feel neglected. We are supposed to be living a blissful married life as newly-weds! But it feels like we are both perpetually tired after a day's work, and after work we just go about doing our own stuff. He has been extremely understanding, leaving me to my own space so as not to disturb me, tolerate eating at the tai chow downstairs almost every day of the week so as not to waste time, not forcing me to go exercise with him, tapaoing food for me, doing the dishes, etc.

Sigh. I'll make it up to him once my study break starts! (Or not)

A.L.A.M.A.K.

Exam in 49 days!

Trying all sorts of stuff to get myself motivated.

Best tactic of all is to dangle a huge carrot in front of myself.

Focus focus focus!

Sometimes I do wonder why I write the things I write. Do I write them for an audience? Do I write for release? Do I write because there is "anonymity" and although there really isn't I just love the idea that there is? Do I write for pleasure?

Anyways, we're in 2012, and as much smuncho muncho the world and people out there try to adopt and implement new age methods, paradigm shifts and whatever heck that sounds cool and bool, some things are best done the old way.
Repetition, repetition and repetition.

I'm just saying, you know. Sometimes the best way to learn new things is by repetition. Wait, not sometimes. It is THE best way. REPEAT, REPEAT AND REPEAT. And one day, whoosh, it will come ever so effortlessly.

Case in point : Brushing your teeth. Repeat, and soon you'll get the hang of it.

I think this is the greatest lesson I've learned so far. In 2012.

Brushing teeth is just a CASE IN POINT. I know some of you think that I have just mastered the art of brushing my teeth. In the past I'll be cool with that, but I'm mature now, so I'll smack you if I find out you think that. Just saying, you know.

Anyway, this is my message for the WORLD today. (Hello, WORLD!)

REPEAT, AND SOON ENOUGH YOU'LL GET IT.

Chinese New Year is around the corner. This year, I had no mood to shop. I'm doing a short attachment at the Histopath Department at the National Skin Centre, and everyday, my train ride goes past Orchard Road and Somerset. Somehow this year, I'm just repulsed at the thought of shopping at what in the past used to be something I looked forward to. I think it's a sign of maturity :) I never once stepped of the train at these stations in my so-far 2 week attachment. In fact, for some strange reason I am getting repulsed by the sight of clothes these days. Strange. All I can think of when I get off work is to get home a.s.a.p so that I can sit on the couch and slump into a ball of sloth. But, I did get myself a pair of jewelled sandals, because I'm wearing out my oxfords and the humid weather has caused some of my shoes to grow mold, resulting in them getting thrown out. (I thought I need to clarify that I have THROWN them out. Just in case you think I was gonna WEAR them still.)

Anyway.

I'll be going back for CNY! Yay!

Anyway.

Why is this post so grandmother-story like?

Because. That, is a sign of maturity.

Sorry, maturity has made me a boring person.

Excuse me, I have to go water my plants.

Happy Chinese New Year.

Goodbye.

Phew!

I had never had a gastroenteritis this bad. Started with diarrhoea, high grade fever (recorded at 38.8 Celsius at the doctor's), chills (I shook until I was breathless), nausea, headache and proximal myopathy. It was madness. I walked around the house in a daze, losing my balance frequently. Couldn't eat a thing. Basically just stayed in bed the whole day. Spoiled some dinner plans with an out-of-town friend, but I was literally incapacitated. Thank God it only lasted all of 2 days, the fever finally broke and my strength returned as suddenly as it went. And my appetite returned as well. All that is left is the frequent explosive diarrhoea, which is more of an inconvenience than an illness, it feels as though. I'm going back to work tomorrow, and fingers crossed no incessant trips to the toilet!

Birthday prayer came true!

My prayer (when I turned 29 last year and blogged about it too) was from Psalms 23:

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want (meaning : I shall not lack)
He makes me lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside still waters

I'm getting ahead here, but my heart is bursting in joy because this next portion of the verse has never failed to make me look up to heaven in amazement and wonder "Why Lord? Why do you bless me with so much? I am so undeserving, but You have showered waves after waves of goodness, waves after waves of blessings. It's all because of what Jesus has done on the cross. This is really amazing, but I'm telling you, His words and promises are true!

The portion is this:

You anoint my head with oil
My cup runs over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

In this instance, my Heavenly Father has provided the money we needed for our house, which I talked about in the previous post. The amount of bonus received this year almost made me fall of the chair. I hope I don't sound boastful here, but it's just pouring from my heart to share with my Christian readers, that our God is so good, and believing, you will receive! He is not a God who will withhold any good thing from his children. If He gave His only Son, He will not withhold anything else from us. Even in the time of draught, there is abundance.

Hallelujah! Praise God!

(We have more than enough for 2 Lazy-Boys now! But whether we'll really get them, is another matter. Hmm)

Updates

1. This is going to be a year of increasing fruitfulness. I proclaim it over my life, and I believe it. In Jesus' name.

2. Meditation on God's word over worry.

3. Cab fares in Singapore during the weekends have changed for the worse. I'm planning to boycott them.

4. Even if it means an hours' ride on the bus/mrt including transfers and walking (see no. 3). It's a matter of principal. And saving money.

5. We are 3 weeks away from taking the keys to our house, and I'm excited.

6. And scared. Seeing my bank account go from comfortable, to rapidly depleting, to a possible 3 digit figure in the next few weeks. See 1, 2 and 3. And 4.

7. I have set my eyes on La-Z-Boy recliners. 2 of them in fact, since I always lose to my husband when it comes to wrestling for chairs. Even though we cannot afford 2(maybe not even 1) at the moment. See 6.

8. See 1.

9. We're doing some minor renovation works, which involves hacking and redoing both baths, some built in cabinets, repainting, etc. Most of my time now is spent browsing decor mags and interior websites. houzz.com was recommended by Brian and is a current favourite .

10. Before renovation starts, we're dreaming Victorian, with marble, granite, quartz, wall panelling, cornices, vintage taps, luxurious drapes, gold-gilded toilet seats, the works.

11. Once we get the keys, we are going to have to return to planet earth. And look for veneer, laminate, marble-look tiles and horror of horrors, plastic. Well, let's hope we can find middle ground.

12. Finding a renovator : We have heard enough horror stories to be reasonably afraid. The advice that has been repeatedly repeated and that we'll heed : get someone from a recommendation, not someone you find from a magazine/showroom.

13. Last, but definitely not least : Studying for FRCPath Part 1. People say it's not too difficult, and it's MCQs, but boy I'm a little freaked by the QUANTITY of material to go through.

14. Striking a balance between study (which should be top priority) and planning the renovation (which can be very distracting). Working on it.

15. Here's another resolution : If I pass my exam, I'm definitely getting that LazyBoy

It's 2 days before 2012.

I'm heaving a sigh of relieve because I managed to clear my backlogged 20 or so Pap smears with my boss, and my pending work is at its minimal.

I'm having a smile on my face because we're heading to Penang tonight for New Years :)

I'm having a peaceful moment right now.
Ok, I'm thinking about contraception. But I guess you don't want me to go there.

I'm thinking about how great 2011 has been, despite predictions of economic gloom. The disasters were certainly nothing great, but it has been a year of touching moments, of seeing that humanity is well and alive. It's a year of many events, many life-changing ones.

For me personally, it is the year I completed my first year of training, fell in love with Pathology, passed my Basic Pathological Sciences exam, cut my tendon, underwent microsurgery, did a 3 month stint in Cytology, lost a crazy amount of weight (I went down to 49kgs from 56!) ,developed a love of drinking wine, bought a house together with my fiance, got married, and er..had sex. (Too much information, I know)

It has been a whirlwind romantic kind of year, this 2011.
And I loved every bit of it.
(well, not the work-stress and living with a hand-in-a-splint part and the whatever not nice part, but really you don't want to hear about those)

For 2012, well I have my resolutions, but I'm not telling.

Bah, nobody wants to know, but let me tell it anyway :-

-Spend less time on Facebook
-Study more
-Exercise
-Develope relationships

Sounds like a million other people's New Year Resolutions, but,

WHATEVER

Love and best,
Adeline

It has been an incredible year.

I am incredibly blessed with love from family, friends and the man I love.

Thank you for sharing our joy.

A shout-out to those of you who came to our wedding(s!), we could not have done it without you :)

From the bottom of our hearts : Thank you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Two weeks to our wedding, God has been amazingly good :)

Our wedding preps are going smoothly, thanks to help from our families.

We 'stumbled' onto a piece of property and one thing led to another and we finally bought it. The house fulfills all the criteria we wanted: freehold, at least 2 bedrooms, relatively near to MRT, good size, good price and we managed to get it below valuation! We are not even permanent residents(PRs) but our loan was approved in 2 days.

I am just so humbled by God's grace and His providence.

You know just about a month ago I was complaining that weddings are not for the couple but more for their families and guests. I suggested we elope. I was unsurprisingly stressed out by the preparations and the guest list.

I retract that statement now. I have experienced so much love from family, friends and even colleagues and my boss leading up to the big day that I think the wedding is truly a celebration of love between two people, together with other people who love them. Everyone has been really supportive and friends even booked their air tickets for a daytrip up to KL just for the wedding.
(I, of all people, know that attending weddings can be a pain for a lot of people, that's why I really appreciate those who make the effort! LOL!)

I am looking forward to the big day!

The Proposal - Finale

.......So anyway, he took the ring out from a small little plastic ziplock bag from the coin compartment of his wallet and showed me. I looked at it for a split second, and curled up in a foetal position on the bed, and suddenly felt like crying. My dream of a Parisian proposal is dead. The ring is 7 sizes bigger than my finger (size 14. I'm a 7. It doesn't fit even my thumb. Hilarious!) The ring was taken out of a plastic ziplock bag. I'm traumatised. No proposal ring should be ever presented in a plastic ziplock bag.



He came over from behind, gave me a hug with his big strong arms and said "Will you marry me? I want to take care of you for the rest of your life... I want to grow old with you." (something like that, I think, I was already too emotional then to think straight.)

At that point, the tears spilled and I started sobbing. Wasn't sure if I was touched, crying tears of joy, or crying because I was sad. (I'm fickle like that sometimes. I can't decide what kind of emotion I'm feeling) *sob....sob* "I want to marry you, but I don't like the ring" *sob* (meaning: This isn't how you should have proposed. *sob*)

3 seconds of awkward silence....

(I'm making some of the rest of the talking part up, because frankly I can't remember verbatim the conversations that took place. Heh)

"Why? Don't like that la." *wraps arms even more tightly around me"

"I thought you were going to propose in Paris" *sob* *hugs him back* (ok, maybe I'm happy and sad all at once)

"Paris is dangerous mah, a lot of crooks. Later get robbed how?"

"The ring is so big. Can't even fit my thumb. Please don't hug me so tight. I can't breathe."

"I was so busy ma, not enough time to resize it. I only got it two days before we left....But the diamond is nice right? Woo!" *holds the ring up, feeling pleased with himself*

"It's ok lah"

"What? Ok only??"

*take a better look at the ring* "It's nice la." *came to my senses, wiped away my tears, felt silly, and gave him a smile*

"I love you."

"I love you too."









"Propose to me again at Eiffel Tower, ok?"






THE END






He did eventually propose at Eiffel Tower, but it was so ridiculously cold he just whispered into my ear "Will you marry me" and I said "Yes" even before he finished asking just so we could start cuddling for warmth. (Proposals at Eiffel Tower are overrated. *self-consolation* But Paris is magical!)

Overexposed photo (only after we came back did we realize a good camera with good night shots is so important!) but it was really THAT cold.