Do It Right

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.

Rumahku, Syurgaku

Ina Sultan mempunyai banyak pengalaman sebagai ejen hartanah dan telah berkecimpung dalam bidang ini selama lebih dari lapan tahun. Beliau sentiasa bersedia membantu pelanggan-pelanggan beliau dengan keutuhan dan kepakaran. Sebelum ini, beliau juga berpengalaman didalam bidang perkhidmatan pelanggan dan ini juga membolehkannya menolong pelanggan-pelanggan dengan cekap. Dibawah ini, beliau berkongsi salah satu pengalaman beliau sebagai seorang ejen.

“Suatu ketika dahulu, saya telah ditugaskan untuk memasarkan sebuah rumah pangsa empat bilik yang akan dirampas oleh HDB. Pemilik rumah itu tidak mampu membayar sewa bulanan kerana dibuang kerja. Walaupun beliau berjaya mendapat pekerjaan lain, hutang telah pun bertimbun. Setelah melakukan perhitungan, saya dapati bahawa pemilik rumah ini tidak akan mempunyai wang yang mencukupi untuk membeli sebuah rumah setelah penjualan rumah ini. Tambahan pula, beliau juga tidak dibenarkan menyewa dari HDB kerana mereka mempunyai peraturan dimana penjual rumah hanya dibenarkan menyewa sebuah flet selepas tempoh tiga puluh bulan setelah berjaya menjual rumah mereka.

Saya membuat rayuan ke pihak HDB supaya beliau dibenarkan membeli rumah terus dari HDB yang berharga rendah. Saya juga membuat rayuan ke ‘MP’ tetapi rayuan-rayuan saya tidak mendatangkan hasil. Oleh kerana pemilik rumah itu akan mendapat untung setelah berjaya menjual rumahnya, HDB menyatakan bahawa beliau harus membeli rumah dari pasaran luar. 

Semasa saya kerumah beliau buat kali pertama, saya dapati bahawa ini bukan suasana yang biasa kita lihat. Saya dapati lebih dari sepuluh orang yang menduduki rumah pangsa empat bilik itu. Pemilik rumah berkongsi bilik bersama isteri dan lima orang anak. Ibubapa beliau juga tinggal bersama. Bilik ketiga dikongsi oleh ibu mertua beliau bersama dua orang anak lelakinya dan juga seorang cucu. Adik pemilik rumah itu juga tinggal bersama dan beliau, isteri dan anak beliau berkongsi sebuah bilik ‘sementara’ di ruang tamu. Menurut pemilik rumah, keluarga beliau meminta untuk duduk bersama setelah mereka kehilangan rumah masing-masing atau tidak dapat membeli rumah lain. Walaubagaimanapun, saya sangat bangga kerana mereka kelihatan gembira walaupun ditimpa kesusahan. Setelah rayuan-rayuannya ditolak, pemilik rumah mengambil keputusan untuk menjual rumahnya. 

Setelah rumah itu dijual, saya menghantarkan rayuan lagi. Akhirnya, pihak HDB meminta pemilik rumah memberi dokumentasi sebagai bukti bahawa keuntungan dari penjualan rumah beliau tidak mencukupi untuk membeli rumah lain di pasaran. Setelah banyak ikhtiar, kini, beliau dan keluarga berjaya memilik rumah sendiri.’

Ina Sultan telah memberi perkhidmatan kepada ramai pelanggan. Beliau mempunyai pengalaman yang luas dalam menangani isu faraid, penceraian, kematian pemilik, penduduk tetap dan lain-lain lagi. Beliau memberi perkhidmatan secara jujur dan berdedikasi dan sentiasa memberi keutamaan kepada pelanggan pelanggannya. Beliau juga sering memberi banyak cadangan dan penyelesaian yang membantu untuk mendapatkan penjualan atau pembelian yang berhasil.

Humble Shackles

Imagine a 4-room HDB flat and you'd probably expect to see a mother and father with two or three young children and maybe an elderly grandparent or two. In reality, this is not always the case. It is easy to think of Singaporeans as wealthy and affluent but, as in any major city, there is always a certain percentage of the demographic that will live in destitution and poverty. 

Ina Sultan has been a property agent for over eight years now and I have had the opportunity to meet her to share her experiences of a few of her cases she handled. She has met many people from different walks of life. She is always ready to help and her passion is to serve clients with utmost integrity and professionalism. Having worked in customer service for many years previously has also helped her to serve her clients competently. She shares one of her experiences below.

‘Some time ago, the owner of a 4-room flat contacted me when his house was about to be repossessed by HDB. This man had been unemployed for some time and could not make his monthly house payments. By the time he had secured himself a job, his debt had accumulated and he was unable to pay it up. After doing profit and loss calculations, I found that he would not have enough cash in hand from the sale of this house to buy another house from the open market. Thus I sent an appeal to HDB to buy a direct flat from them which would require much less cash. He is also not allowed to rent directly from HDB since it is their policy to only allow sellers to apply for a rental flat after a minimum period of thirty months after selling their house. A few appeals were sent but to no avail. We then went to appeal to the MP, but the reply was the same. HDB insisted the owner buy from the open market since he has profits from selling the house.

When I first came to view the house, I saw that this was not a typical family arrangement; there were more than ten people, including five small children, living together. The owner, his wife and their young children occupy one of the bedrooms while his elderly parents sleep in another. The third bedroom was occupied by the owner's mother-in-law, her two grown sons and a granddaughter. The owner's brother, his wife and their small child also live in the house, in a makeshift 'room' in the living area. According to the owner, each of the four separate families living in the house has fallen on hard times and has lost their homes or jobs. He took them in since all of them did not have a place to stay. Although there were so many people squeezing in the house, they all seemed happy and laid-back.

After several rejection letters from HDB, and a letter stating that the house was going to be repossessed if he did not make the full outstanding payment, he decided to allow me to sell the house and rent a room in a friend’s house. Then I started to market the house and did all the background work. Only after the house was sold, and he had shifted out, were our appeals heard. The owners were asked to give some documentation as proof that the house proceeds were too low to buy a resale flat although the flat was sold at a good price. Finally, their prayers were answered and they were allowed to buy a direct flat. 
Now, the owner and his family have a home they can call their own.’

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.


Written by Nurkhairin Samsudin