So we’ve been shopping for a home. Yeah, we figure after 4.5 years, it’s about time to go to the next level..but we need to get a house first. A place with ample space for our cars, for Charlie to run around a bit and a functional kitchen. We’ve been living in this tiny apartment for so long and I’ve particularly gotten really sick of it. Doesn’t even have enough space for a damn washing machine.
Long story cut short, we found this double storey terrace house near where we’re living right now and instantly fell in love with it. Told the agent we’re taking it. Told her we’re going to get the house valued by the bank and then come back with our offer price. Which we promptly did. Bank came back with the price that is about RM40K lower than what owner has listed. So after about a week of negotiations, we got the price down to our ideal…which is about 16K more than the bank’s actual valuation. We didn’t mind paying the extra, it’s a business after all and we really wanted the house.
So we got to arranging for our mortgage and after nearly 2 weeks, nothing has happened yet. Apparently, the owner has refused to handover the title to the bank for processing. Why?
Apparently, a different property agent has told him that she could sell his house for RM20K more thank his initial listed price!!! And to our horror, this greedy asshole of a house owner believes that his un-renovated, 15 year old, dirty house is worth RM60K more than what the banks have valued. So he refuses to sell it to us. Okay, so he’s greedy and stupid. What can we do? We can do nothing. Except for looking at different houses, which will be his loss eventually. Good luck selling your house dumbass.
What I’m really angry about is how what these agents appear to be doing, they are essentially spoiling the market for both buyers and sellers.
By seemingly jacking up house prices in order to make more money when there are ample buyers out there who would willingly part with their money for a reasonable above average market price. I am extremely pissed off by this and to whichever property agent that is reading this and is trying to pull a fast one, FUCK YOU.
Anyway, we eventually found out that the agents who in my opinion have been speculating with the market is these bunch of agents from this agency called J A Valley Properties. Their names are Judy Chong, Steven Chong and their daughter, Jesse Lee. If you’re looking to buy properties in Petaling Jaya, beware. It seems their modus operandi is to find out the owners of the properties, contact them and then promise to sell their properties at a much inflated price. Then they’ll get their colleagues from the same agency to do the same and before you know it, the owner is totally convinced that they have underpriced their properties. Mind you from what I’ve heard, these people don’t even physically value the properties or see pictures before conveniently stating the price. And who get screwed? Uninformed owners (and of course, greedy ones) and sincere property buyers like you and I.
I’ve actually contacted them way before this to view some houses they have listed on https://www.iproperty.com. But we eventually decided to stay away from them because I found that they tend to offer their properties around RM50K more than the market value or other property agents. They seem really damn shifty as well and keep shoving down your throats properties that are way beyond our budgets. Like wtf, stop wasting my time. Very persistent and annoying as well and doesn’t understand the meaning of “It’s beyond my budget”.
Here are a couple of house buying tips:
1. Drive around the neighbourhood you want and just browse for houses row by row, street by street. From our experience, calling agents up are frustrating. Of course, that said, there are professional & good ones out there, we’ve met a few. So good luck.
2. Always have the banks value the property before making a price offer. With the bank’s valuation, you have a solid benchmark for making an offer.
3. Check out Judy Chong, Steven Chong Lee and their daughter (whose name I can’t remember Jesse Lee) of J A Valley and learn what kind of property agents you should watch out for from them.
4. Research, research and research. Don’t ever be an un-informed buyer.
So, yeah we’re still looking albeit frustratingly. I hope we’ll find our dream home soon cause I’m itching to decorate.
p/s: Just because of a few rotten eggs does not mean that J A Valley Properties is an unreliable agency.
