Are you having difficulty achieving a record-breaking price for your home?

The resale market isn't the only thing that can overheat. 

From what I saw on Reddit, some property agents' flyers are also raising the heat:

Perhaps blatantly advertising your skills in raising home prices isn't a great idea right now. I mean, if even HDB is putting out notices to assure the public flat prices are affordable, then what can I say? Read the room, am I right?

But here's an interesting thing to notice: the flyer is directed at sellers, and not at all at buyers. In a way, the flyer itself explains why prices are so high. One of the quirks of property sales is that, unlike selling cars, insurance, etc., realtors need to source their own inventory. They not only need to find buyers, they need to have something to sell to said buyer. 

(With the exception of those selling new launches; but there are other drawbacks to that which we won't get into here; not least of which is potentially waiting nine months to get paid for your work.)

From this flyer, you can sort of see the issues we've been having the past few years: there's a lack of supply. I know many agents who still have a long line of buyers right now. And for flats near the MRT or in a central area, well, you still see the headlines of million-dollar flats being bandied about.

The issue is that even now, few people are selling. Existing home owners look at prices of replacement homes, and decide they better just stay where they are. This means buyers — and indirectly the agents — have to resort to increasingly bold moves to convince someone to sell.

That leaves agents to tread a fine line: they need to incentivise someone to sell, but also avoid agitating a frustrated public. Maybe it's best to just provide accurate information, and leave a potential seller to draw their own conclusions. 

And do it online, because flyers are only good for shampoos, burgers, or anything where I can turn it in for a discount, okay?

(Ps. To any agent reading this, I'm not kidding. The point of using a flyer is so you can count the flyer coupons that get returned, and measure the effectiveness of your advertising. That's why shampoo and fast food companies have flyers with coupons. But if you're just stashing flyers in people's front gates, that's probably just a waste of money and will annoy someone. Stop it.) 

Some Redditors also complained about some agents' behaviour:

As one Reddit user pointed out: 

"My estate was brand new. TOP was Dec 2014. Needless to say, all these property agents swarmed my estate like rats once Dec 2019 came (five year MOP achieved).

At one point, one agent rang the doorbell at 10 pm. Just after my baby had fallen asleep after two hours of non-stop wailing. I answered the door with the crying baby. I told the agent, 'You woke her up. YOU TAKE HER.'

The agent mumbled sorry and ran off."

And another:

"Same. My place MOPed in the same year and it got so bad that I had to paste a sticker beside my door bell that it is only for deliveries; no property agents/insurance/door to door sales.

F****rs dont have the EQ to realise they shouldn't be bothering people when its getting late at night. One did ring my bell despite the sign and when I asked if he can't read, he asked me "Why don't you want to make money." Boy that got me riled up. Can't a person just treat his BTO as his forever home FFS."

(So those of you who sneer about the "real worth" of condo security, think about this for a second.)

This sort of behaviour is also another interesting indicator. Along with badly written ads and listings, and crappy photos of homes, it often suggests a booming property market. 

When real estate prices are high, loads of newbies rush to get a license and sell a home. It's perceived as easy money, and in some cases, agencies do get more aggressive in recruitment (they need more hands on deck after all.) But a painful side-effect of that is less professionalism, and more tactlessness.  

When the real estate market is down, and only the lifelong veterans are still sticking about — that's when you see better quality listings, and better quality realtors too.

Weekly sales roundup (Sept 18 – Sept 24)

Top 5 most expensive new sales (by project)

Top 5 cheapest new sales (by project)

PROJECT NAME	PRICE S$	AREA (SQFT)	$PSF	TENURE
THE ARDEN	$1,179,000	753	$1,565	99 yrs (1969)
PINETREE HILL	$1,267,000	538	$2,354	99 yrs (2022)
LENTOR HILLS RESIDENCES	$1,315,000	603	$2,182	99 yrs (2022)
ORCHARD SOPHIA	$1,352,000	474	$2,855	FH
THE MYST	$1,445,000	678	$2,131	99 yrs (2023)

Top 5 most expensive resale

PROJECT NAME	PRICE S$	AREA (SQFT)	$PSF	TENURE
THE CASCADIA	$7,260,000	4715	$1,540	FH
PEBBLE BAY	$5,150,000	2745	$1,876	99 yrs (1994)
THE WATERSIDE	$4,728,000	2411	$1,961	FH
RIVERGATE	$4,150,000	1604	$2,588	FH
ORION	$3,935,000	1776	$2,216	FH

Top 5 cheapest resale

PROJECT NAME	PRICE S$	AREA (SQFT)	$PSF	TENURE
SUITES @ PAYA LEBAR	$645,000	377	$1,712	FH
ISUITES @ PALM	$675,000	431	$1,568	999 yrs (1878)
SUITES@CHANGI	$685,000	409	$1,675	FH
NESS	$695,000	463	$1,502	FH
THE GARDEN RESIDENCES	$800,000	452	$1,770	99 yrs (2017)

Top 5 biggest winners

PROJECT NAME	PRICE S$	AREA (SQFT)	$PSF	RETURNS	HOLDING PERIOD
PEBBLE BAY	$5,150,000	2745	$1,876	$2,976,000	29 Years
CORONATION GROVE	$3,600,000	1916	$1,879	$2,100,000	17 Years
WILLYN VILLE	$2,850,000	1518	$1,878	$2,002,000	19 Years
NEWTON LODGE	$2,688,000	1658	$1,622	$1,897,300	25 Years
RIVERGATE	$4,150,000	1604	$2,588	$1,773,900	17 Years

Top 5 biggest losers

PROJECT NAME	PRICE S$	AREA (SQFT)	$PSF	RETURNS	HOLDING PERIOD
ORION	$3,935,000	1776	$2,216	-$1,426,000	16 Years
OUE TWIN PEAKS	$1,350,000	549	$2,459	-$246,767	7 Years
THE SAIL @ MARINA BAY	$1,185,000	667	$1,776	-$235,000	11 Years
THE VERVE	$820,000	614	$1,336	-$78,989	10 Years
ECO	$870,000	635	$1,370	$1,314	11 Years

Transaction breakdown

ALSO READ: The best and worst performing HDB estates in 2023: Where does yours rank?

This article was first published in Stackedhomes.