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Advantages:

1. 5-minute taxi ride to Orchard Road. Many buses to Orchard Road/Shenton Way.
   
2. Door-step of the prime Orchard Road, close to Botanic Gardens and near Holland Village, a prime expat eating area
   .
3. Good for expatriates who want to be near downtown and Orchard Road.
   
4. Low density and/or pool only condo.
   
5. Plenty of playground area for small children.

Disadvantages:

1. Appears dated. 
   
2. Pool only.

Case study No. 1:

Advices to Owners: After closing, the Owner should take over the "after-rental" service because it is to his interest to retain the Tenant to ensure full occupancy and therefore no loss in rental income. However, in this case, the Owner was unhappy with the Tenant whose company still had not paid the rent for past 2 months. There is unnecessary correspondence in this case (see one example below). Alternatively, employ a Managing Agent - standard fees are 10% of the rental income/month but much depends on negotiations.

April 20, 1998
To: Landlady
From: David Sing, Asia USA Realty
For and on behalf of the Tenant as the Tenant cannot communicate with you in Mandarin.
Ref: Meeting with Tenant of UE Square #NN-XX on Sunday, April 19, 1998 9 a.m.

1. Compensation for Damages caused by the curtain contractor.

Your curtain contractor did not bring his ladder to install the curtains as would be expected of a professional. While using the green chair of the Tenant, he fell and hit the Tenant's video set and the precious stone made chess set from Kenya, Africa. The Tenant wants compensation for the damages caused:

1. The chair was cracked and since it was a set of 6 from Australia, none could be found in Singapore. A replacement chair needed to be bought in Australia.
   
2. The pawns in the chess set had their ears split off. This set survived many international trips and the 3-year old niece in Australia but now 2 pawns were damaged by an adult i.e. your curtain contractor. The replacement pieces needed to be purchased from Africa.

2. Incompetent curtain contractor. The day curtains provided in the living room were too long as they were from another unit and deemed to be old curtains for the new apartment. The curtains have a scalloped lower edge which enhances its beauty. These day curtains are of excellent quality seldom provided by most Singapore landlords as they cost more. However, your curtain contractor refused to do a proper trimming of the upper end and just sew up the scalloped edges.

• The Tenant wants a scalloped edge.

• The black out curtain for the guest room was not installed. The Tenant requested one to be done as the bright dawn wakes up guest too early.

• The 2 blinds in the bathroom of the master bedroom are too short but your contractor said that there were no other lengths available. The Tenant disagrees and want the proper length as there is no privacy during bath-time as office workers from the Shell Tower can become peeping toms and this is causing considerable distress to the wife.

• Shower rail and curtains wanted by the Tenant for the bathroom as the floor gets flooded with water and becomes slippery and dangerous.

3. Damage to paint outside the apartment, at the door bell area. The Tenant wants you to know that the damage is caused by your door bell contractor.

The problem has been festering for few weeks. Please resolve the problems and pay for damages before the Tenant's patience disappears. They cannot wait for another week and I hope you will attend to their minor requests promptly, within 2 days. I can help get a professional curtain maker and buy the curtain rods if you need my help. Thank you.

The Australian Tenant is not the aggressive type, otherwise there will be litigation. Landlady agreed to change blinds but dispute liability for damages caused by curtain contractor and would not provide the shower rods and curtains.

The cost of the shower rods and curtains amount to <S$200 but in this case, the Tenant did not want to spend any amount as in Australia, the Landlord provides the shower rods and curtains.

They took the brand new apartment "as it is" and there were no shower rods or curtains.

First-time expat Tenants to note when renting brand new apartments - ask for shower rods for the bathrooms. Actually, installation of the rods and curtains save the wooden door from being damaged by water splashing, but the Landlady did not see my point of view. A small expenditure to save the wooden door which costs more to replace when its lower edge becomes rotten due to water in next few years' time, yet the Landlady will not spend the money!

Asia USA usually tries to accommodate "urgent" requests from the Owner to rent out their units. However we encountered 2 typical cases which should not be emulated by other Owners if they want their units to be rented out fast.

Example 1. Owner, Jessie rang to say that she would be relocating to Malaysia with her husband in one month's time and therefore it was imperative we helped her rent her Costa Rhu unit fast. She was present at first viewing but subsequently decided that we should collect keys from her "office". The keys were not there and she made us wait for one hour. She could not make it and wanted us to re-schedule our appointments to suit her. We could not do so and while in Costa Rhu, she phoned to say she could be available within few minutes. "Once bitten, twice shy" and we avoided her like wild fire. Owners may feel the thrill of Agents wanting direct contact to save on co-brokerage (sharing of 50% of the commission), but do not treat Agents like dirt. There are many more kinder owners.

Example 2. Owner David was proud that he had the pick of the apples - a choice 4-bedroom Costa Rhu unit fronting the river with no "sharp" buildings (The Millennia, The Plaza Hotel and the Suntec City Buildings) cutting into the view of the apartment, facing North (i.e. no afternoon sun which many Buyers of Costa Rhu forgot when they looked at the water frontage). That would be bad feng shui. He forgot his unit ends with the number "4" .

First-time Buyers to note that they do not invest in units ending with the floor or house number "4"; it is difficult to sell and it is not a preferred buy, no matter how good the feng-shui. Also avoid "T" junction e.g. the Charonia Block of Costa Rhu has some units facing the "T").
Avoid low floors and facing West too for income-producing units as they are not preferred units.

Our agent got the keys from the maid but he did not sign the "acknowledgement of receipt of key form." He got a big blasting off from the Owner who phoned him. Another agent did the same and got another earful.

First-time Landlords to note: There is no point antagonising realtors. Treat them as partners not as slaves and they will give your unit top priority when they have clients or when the realtor with clients contact them.

First-time Realtor to note if you demand punctuality of co-brokers: In this case, the other Agent who got the keys had a sour face (probably born with the "horse-type" face). His firm had earlier demanded punctuality but he was late himself. When contacted, he said "forget about it" if we could not wait for him for 1-2 minutes (actually 10 minutes and that threw our schedule off). It turned out both of us had the same keys to the same unit. The Owner had just got his keys 2 days ago and he is a clever person.