Our Miracle House Purchase

We really want to share this happy news with everyone. The Lord has blessed us with a house! Some of you probably know that Roger & I applied for the Redhill flats balloting and were quite upset that we were rejected. On hindsight, it was really a blessing because it would have not been financially wise to buy that property.

We started house-hunting on 4 November - not really intending to buy any property but just to start our research. We saw a total of 3 properties that day. Now, a little background - we wanted to buy the Bukit Merah area to be near my parents (eligible for grants / priority) and also because I wanted very much to remain in town area. The prices for houses in my areas are exorbitant and you will not really find any properties that are selling at or below valuation. 5-rooms in this area are selling for half a million or more. Our budget only allows us to look at the smaller 4-room or 3-room flats. Moreover, due to a constraint in cash, we can only look at properties that are selling at or below value - which in essence was impossible... I was a little worried how this would stress us and was already considering looking at flats nearer to Roger's current place instead (which was really not what we wanted).

We prayed together as a couple to believe the Lord for a really good place for us - and one that would be of wise & sound financial investment. So, on 4 November 2006, the 3rd property we viewed was what we really like! Of course, we didn't immediately say yes to buy. We went back, considered, prayed about it...

The sellers were asking for S$360,000 for this place. It was valued at S$340,000. During our first meeting, we told them frankly we will not be buying a place that is S$20,000 in cash above value but would consider at value. A few days later, we decided and believed God that this place was worth only S$320,000. We spoke and confessed the value of the house as kings and priests in the Lord. We called the agent and told her that we will not offer anything above S$320,000. The agent came back to us with a counter-offer and we were almost swayed... but thank God for the Word! We stood firm in our decision at 320 and told her we would rather look at other properties as we have a lot of time. Imagine our surprise & delight when she came back that the sellers finally agreed to sell at 320!!! (Although I heard from her they were a bit reluctant...)

With the government grant of S$40,000, we only need to pay S$280,000 for this place... It is 5-room, upgraded and the size is 127 square metres (1,366 square ft)! The price for such a big property in town is almost unheard of! Even the agent thinks we have got a really great deal. So Roger & me are really excited! We have signed the agreement and really thank the Lord for His wonderful help in our house hunting... and the whole process took only 10 days.

Oh, in case you all think we really rushing into it, we did go and do some more house-hunting after that... we didn't find anything we really like or it was way too expensive... We brought our parents to see the flat and both side parents like it alot and thinks it's wise spending on our part. So we're really grateful to the Lord that everything went so smoothly! And that we save a total of S$80,000 from the original S$360,000 for this house... Praise the Lord!!!