Should We Sell?
That is the first question on everyone's mind - whether to sell, to downsize, to upgrade or to buy an investment property? And to answer to this question is 3 simple steps - The ABC Framework.
A for Affordability
This is where we review the maths to ascertain if it is best to sell or stay.
This includes reviewing 3-4 valuations of your property, checking the outstanding loan amount and working out the estimated cash proceeds and others.
B is for Buy
This is where we look at what you hope to achieve with your next property decision and explore the possible property options.
Should we upgrade? Should we downsize? Should we sell 1 buy 2? Should we buy an investment property?
C is for Calculate
Options are only fluffy dreams until we work out a rough calculation to see if they would be good plans for your future.
Will it increase our cash savings? How is the payment schedule for the next few years?
Doing a review to know your property value will help you understand why you should continue staying and/or when you should sell. Only then can you make the best decision.
In Singapore, our property is like stored value card. If managed well, its stored value will grow over time. But its value would have a peak and thereafter, its value is likely to decline. Thus it is important to know how to keep growing its stored value. This is property wealth planning.
Always Know Your Property Value
This is my story, before I became a real estate agent. Like all couples, we thought "As long as the HDB loan is paid, we are good for life. We just wanted a roof over our head."
We never thought of our home as a wealth bank and how it could help us grow our money, thus we never paid attention to its value. If we had done so, we would have gained $330,000 from the sale, almost double of what we have gotten. That extra money would definitely help to pay off our car loan.
From this, we have learnt that it is always good to monitor your property value and make an informed choice whether to stay or sell. The worst thing is not even bothering to look at it - Like us, some years back. Don't let our yesterday be your tomorrow.
