AnalysisWe all want buying/selling a home to cost less, and there’s a much better way.
- by Stanley
- February 14, 2017
- 4 min read
Imagine this: Buying or selling your home in Singapore – Easier, fuss-free, does not cost you an arm or a leg.
Sounds like a dream? This can be done. Let us tell you how.
The problem right now
With limited space in Singapore, home prices here are definitely on the high side. As such, with the commission model in Singapore, if you were to take a $500,000 HDB as an example, this can cost up to $10,000 for the seller and $5,000 for the buyer!
The problem here is that the commission model does not align with the incentives of the buyer/seller. For example, selling your home for $10,000 less to get the deal done is very favourable since the decrease in commissions is only $100 (for a 1% commission), whereas to you, $10,000 is a lot of money!
The problem here is that the commission model does not align with the incentives of the buyer/seller.
Is the commission model entirely wrong? Not really, some properties like a luxury penthouse or a Sentosa Cove pad are difficult to sell, and a commission model could work in such a niche market. But the same model applied to the buying and selling of the general housing market is unreasonable.
The right way forward
We believe in a fair and just model that works for us all. That is why our mission at Stacked Homes is to empower buyers and sellers with the confidence to buy and sell their own homes while saving them the hefty commissions. Yes, in italics, because we all know how much you can save from a 2% commission of your HDB value 😉
We aim to streamline as many of the buying/selling process on one platform. Here’s how we do it:
1) Great design + Powerful search
We needed a well-designed platform where homebuyers can navigate a powerful search function – where they can filter the qualities of a home they desire, and use a map to see which homes are near important areas of their lives – their workplace, their parents home, their dream towns etc. So we threw in districts, HDB towns, streets and other important landmarks in our search to make it useful to buyers. Our maps also allow you to see where listed homes are situated and lets you preview what these homes look like while having an overview of the listings around.
2) Quality listings
We cannot have duplicate or expired listings that you so often see on property portals where agents just list for the sake of using up their listing quota in hopes of getting a contact interested. We encourage sellers to verify their listings with us and even assist in taking quality photography.
3) No more headaches or uncertainty in the paperwork
We created a step-by-step interactive guide with screenshots so that sellers and buyers are hand-held throughout the paperwork, removing the need for them to navigate multiple resources to get the information they need.
4) Bringing the home tour to the buyer
It’s 2017 already. We are able to hail cabs from our phone and are even on the cusp of driverless cars. It is time for the home buying and selling industry to be suitably savvy. At Stacked Homes, we enhance the experience of viewing a house from the comforts of your own home with our 360 home tours. It is beautiful and seamless and saves people the trouble of making a trip down until they are serious (sellers we are looking right at you). You can check out some of our virtual tours.
Help us help you
We know that the #1 concern for any home seller is to get the deal done quickly at the right price.
That is why we built Stacked Homes – to provide this infrastructure and service to you, the savvy consumer. We ask that you spread the word about Stacked Homes and together we can work towards building a strong network that all home buyers and sellers in Singapore can rely on.
