You hear a lot of stories out there about people getting cheated out of thousands of their hard-earned cash. Money they slogged day and night for, gone in the blink of an eye, simply because they made a bad judgement and trusted the wrong person. At this day and age, where those pieces of paper control practically every aspect of our lives, stories of swindlers and confidence artists seem to be ever more rampant. Most people are blessed to only experience them as cautionary tales told as reminders to be more wary of other people and not be so trusting. For my family, those urban myths stopped being stories and became very much real about ten years ago during the crash of property prices.
At that time, my family and I were living in a corner terrace in Kew Avenue. In an effort to cut her losses, my mother had contacted several agents to sell the house but none could do so at a price she was agreeable to. I had just gotten married then and my husband and I were living with my parents while we awaited the keys to our new home. Time passed and my parents were becoming more and more anxious that prices might dip even lower and they were almost at their wits' end when ‘A’ came into the picture. ‘A’ was my husband's best friend in school and he had only just become a property agent and wanted to dip his toes into the game. Even though he was inexperienced, my mother agreed to give him a chance as she believed taking him on would pose no loss to us. We had a meeting and my mother signed the 'exclusive' form with ‘A’, stating that he had been given three months to market and sell our house at a predetermined commission which, in our case, was agreed at 1% of the sale price.
‘A’ brought a few potential buyers and managed to secure one who had agreed to the price my mother had set, which was SGD900, 000. We proceeded quickly to finalise the sale, worrying that prices might go even lower. My father knew of a lawyer and we engaged his services to process and finalise the sale of our home. As soon as the transaction was completed, my family received an invoice from the property company that ‘A’ was affiliated to. They claimed that my parents owed them a commission of SGD18, 000, which was 2% of the actual sale price. It was then that my mother remembered A had come over one day when I was not around and had told my mother that her signature on the previous form was not done properly. As he was a trusted friend of my husband's, my mother did not even imagine that anything was wrong.
Suspecting something was amiss, I tried calling ‘A’ to shed some light on the matter but he was nowhere to be found. To make matters even worse, the lawyer we had engaged to process our sale had also absconded with SGD200, 000 of our profit! Needless to say, it was a dark moment in our lives, especially for my parents, who had eight children to feed, clothe and put through school. At that time, my parents owned a food stall and had to keep it open for longer hours every day. We rented a house and every one of us pitched in whenever we had time, in between working and studying. We would wake up at 3am to go to the stall, making cakes and Mom would keep the stall open until close to midnight to get as much as she could out of the business. Even throughout the month of Ramadhan, our family had no choice but to endure this exhausting schedule just to make ends meet. It goes without saying, I felt terrible. I felt as bad as my mother did, even though it had been she who had lost all that hard-earned money. I felt cheated and betrayed and it seemed incredulous that someone I had known and trusted would have been capable of doing something so awful. I had heard so many stories of people being swindled out of their money, but I never imagined that it would ever happen to me.
The whole time this was happening, we were constantly looking for ‘A’ and trying to contact the legal department of the property company. Shortly after, we received another letter from the property company demanding that we pay the SGD18, 000. We were forced to go to court and the matter was subsequently settled, with us having to pay SGD15, 000 in commission.
Two years later, my mother wanted to buy a house but, this time round, was apprehensive and worried that she might get cheated again. Not wanting the same thing to happen, I decided to take up a real estate course to learn about buying and selling property to prevent any misfortune in the future. Thank God, the transaction went smoothly this time round. From then, I was approached by friends and family members, asking for advice and assistance in the buying and selling of their homes.
I learnt that there are so many ways for a person to cheat and be cheated, not merely of a few thousand but of a few hundred thousand dollars of their blood, sweat and tears. In the end, it all lies in the agent herself and whether or not she has the integrity to do an honest job.
Although what happened to my family was something terrible, I believe we have all become better people for it. My siblings and I have learnt the value of money and although we do splurge and treat ourselves every once in a while, no purchase or expenditure has ever been made in the heat of the moment. It also gave me a deeper insight of just how strong my mother is; even though what she was going through would have made other people fall on their knees crying, my mother chose to keep her back straight and her chin up and survived the trial with fortitude.
I believe in retribution. I believe that no bad deed goes unpunished. You may be a cheater today, but you may be cheated tenfold tomorrow or down the road. With that in mind, I have always served my clients with utmost integrity and honesty. I hope that my passion to assist and ensure a smooth transaction will continue to give me satisfaction so that I may serve each client with the best that they deserve.
Ina Sultan has served many customers throughout her many years of experience as a property agent. She has experience in faraid, divorce, owner death, PR, etc. She serves her clients with honesty, passion and dedication, while always acting in her clients’ best interests. She has given many advice and solutions to help and guide people to a successful sales or purchase transactions.
No comments:
Post a Comment