YOUR PROPERTY MATTERS
AWARD WINNING REALTOR
EUGENE NG
In today’s competitive market, it is important to have a reliable real estate agent with superior communication skills that you can trust and depend on to guide you through the home buying or selling process. Eugene is committed to making his clients his number one priority and understands that buying or selling a home is one of the most important decisions of your life.
Eugene uses a combination of award-winning marketing experience and good-old-fashioned hard work to ensure clients have a positive experience worth talking about.
Whether you are buying or selling, rest assured that Eugene has a proven process that will assist you in making the best decisions for you and your family. Through precise planning and preferred vendors, Eugene is able to help expedite the process with local, trusted professionals and most importantly, work hard for you.
Eugene is passionate about negotiating and providing quality experiences for his clients. At the end of the day, Eugene’s goal is to leave you with a smile and more money in your pocket than if you worked with another Realtor.
MY ACHIEVEMENTS
BENEFITS OF PROPERTY ASSET PROGRESSION
If the Progression strategies are executed correctly and on time, property owners can look forward to owning one of two fully paid private property by their retirement age. These owners can choose to sell these properties, downgrade to a HDB and enjoy a comfortable life for the rest of their living years or put the funds in a fixed deposit account to collect interest.
In some cases, property portfolios would comprise high rental yield properties that generate passive incomes even before the owners reach their retirement. This is fantastic news for those who are still trapped in the corporate rat-race because the recurring rental income will boost financial wealth, create positive changes in their living standard and even fund their children’s education.
Another upside of adopting the Property Asset Progression lies in the fact that such investment requires extremely low cash outlay. Purchasing a private property in Singapore uses only 5% cash, while the remaining 95% can be funded by CPF and bank loan.
Furthermore, unlike investing in asset classes such as stocks and gold, banks are more than happy to issue a mortgage loan to fund a property investment. Simply put, property buyers can invest using someone else’s money even without dipping into their savings!
PROVEN MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BRING YOU THE BEST OFFER!
VIDEO MARKETING TO HIGHLIGHT THE BEST OF YOUR HOME
One of the problems we’ve been experiencing in the marketplace is gorgeous properties being marketed and positioned all wrong. There are buyers in the marketplace whom these properties are perfect for, but these buyers overlook these properties because of the quality of their photos or videos or they lack professional photography and/or videos altogether.
There has never been a better time to market your home online, and we can help you do it the right way. Eugene and team offer professional photography, professional video services, professional floor plans, and 360-degree matterport videos that people can view from the comfort of their own home.
If you’re looking at selling your house for top dollar, contact Eugene today!
360 VIRTUAL HOME TOUR EXPERIENCE
Ready to UPGRADE? OR SELL your property?
DECOUPLING YOUR PROPERTY: WHAT, WHY AND HOW?
What: Decoupling is to transfer Owner 1 share of the property to Owner 2 so that Owner 1 can buy another property as a ‘first-time’ buyer.
Why: Singaporeans have something of an obsession when it comes to buying properties as investments. However, buying a second property – whether for investment or for stay – comes with a hefty property tax, a.k.a. ABSD. To avoid that, many co-owners – usually married Singaporean couples – would ‘decouple’ by transferring his/her share to the other co-owner. This would make one person the sole homeowner of the existing home, freeing up the other person to purchase another property without incurring ABSD.
How: When it comes to decoupling, there are two ways to do this. Either transfer your share of the property as a gift, or sell parts of your share to the other owner.
Transfer as a gift
You can transfer your share of a property as a gift without receiving any payment (i.e. transferring your share for $0). This is only possible if the property is unencumbered, i.e. there’s no outstanding mortgage or CPF charge. Otherwise, some extra funds would be required for the outstanding mortgage and/or refund of the CPF monies.
Transfer by way of sale
Another way is to sell your part of the share to your spouse. The process is different for both HDB flats and private properties, but before we get into that, you’ll need to know the manner of holding; whether it’s a joint tenancy or tenancy-in-common.
4 IMPORTANT THINGS TO TAKE NOTE WHEN DECOUPLING!
CPF
Many of us tap our CPF accounts to finance our home and when transferring your shares to the buyer, you’ll need to return all the CPF monies (including accrued interest) back to your CPF account. The remaining deficit will be settled by the sales proceeds.
If you’re 55 years and above, the CPF monies refunded will be used to top up your CPF Retirement Account, and the remaining balance will be diverted back to your CPF Ordinary Account (OA).
Outstanding mortgage
If there’s an outstanding loan, this must be discharged (i.e. paid off) with a new mortgage from the bank. You’ll also need to know if there’s any penalty for taking a fresh mortgage, or whether the new owner can support the fresh mortgage. Remember, life can get unpredictable so it’s good to be prepared for unforeseen events such as retrenchment, termination, pay cut, illness, divorce, etc.
Seller’s Stamp Duty
You might need to pay Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) if the existing property was bought within 3 years.
Buyer’s Stamp Duty
When transferring the shares from one co-owner to the other, the owner that’s ‘buying’ the shares will need to pay BSD.
So say that you and your spouse each own 50% share of a $1M property. Your spouse then transfers 50% ($500,000) of her share to you, which means you need to pay $9,600 in BSD. In addition to that, you would also need to account for additional costs such as conveyancing fees, which could easily amount to thousands of dollars. In the end, the cost to decouple could end up being higher than paying ABSD.
Therefore, before deciding to decouple, always ensure that the cost to decouple is lower than paying ABSD.
However, there’s also the 99-1 rule where you and your spouse both own 99% and 1% share of the property as tenants-in-common. You then transfer/sell your 1% share to your spouse when you want to decouple, and your spouse would only need to pay BSD/SSD for the 1% share, which is way lower than paying for 50%.
The downside of this is that in the event of a divorce, your spouse would own 99% of the property. You could battle this out in court, but it would just make things ugly and only increase legal costs. So do consider this closely before signing.
Find out more about decoupling? OR Ready to buy a new property?
CLIENTS’ TESTIMONIALS
Eugene is very on the ball and prompt with replies. When it comes to property knowledge, one can definitely feel his passion when you speak to him. Thank you for helping my family with our property upgrade! – Tan Sok Kiang
Eugene goes the extra mile for us. Guiding us on the sale and purchase of new property. Even help us on rental questions. He promptly replies our messages and calls. Gives us clear timeline and action plans. He also assures us when we are in doubt or have concerns on the transaction. Super! Best agent ever! We are lucky to have him! – Beverlyn
Eugene is very helpful and patience in answering my questions and guiding me through the process of purchasing my flat. He has good sense of humor and fun personality that makes him different from other agent I have encountered. Will definitely recommend him to others who need agent. – Kay Yang
Eugene was good at selling my unit at the price I wanted. He was helpful in getting most of the paperwork done for me too. Good attitude and friendly. – Yeo Wei Hock
Eugene is very proactive in engaging with his customers. In my case, he made multiple visits to my unit in order to gather the right materials to prepare his marketing campaign. This allowed him to really accentuate the unique selling points of my property. Overall, I am very satisfied with Eugene’s services. – Kiu Yan Ru