My friends know that for all my tough demeanour, I am actually a pretty harmless and non-confrontational person. Compared to Phoenix who would give the ah-beng salesmen at Lucky Plaza her toughest 'you-don't-think-you-are-chao-ah-beng-therefore-you-can-take-advantage-of-me' tirade, I am honestly a rather mild and harmony-preserving person at heart.
But I have my fangs too.
I especially hate it when people mistake my kindness for weakness. Doppy has been at the receiving end of my temper a number of times when he mistook my love for him as my weakness and took advantage of it (albeit he claims, most unknowingly).
And so it was with this particular housing agent of mine.
If you are not aware yet, we have been putting up our flat for sale since mid-late September. The housing agent in question was recommended by one of doppy's friends and thus we kinda trusted him implicitly.
His first showing was pretty good. He arranged for a total of 6 viewings a day and we were kinda hopeful that someone would make us an offer. However, the week went by with nary a sound. Subsequently, there were also hardly anyone who seemed keen on our place.
Then came the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the entire world is talking about economic crisis and an impending recession. Construction work in Singapore has slowed down, there are talks of cutting cost by cutting head counts, jobs are lost, and overnight, there are people who are gathering at Hong Lim Speakers' Corner to see if they have a case against DBS bank for mis-selling them structured products that they did not understand or did not suit their risk profiles. (This para is to update our overseas readers on the situation this tiny red dot.)
And it was against this background that doppy and I began to fear that if we do not sell our flat before December, we would need to revalue our flat and the valuation would most probably go down. Since we were not really greedy to begin with, we decided that it would be prudent for us to lower our asking price as it was quite obvious that the market belonged to the buyers.
And the moment we told our agent that we were willing to lower our asking price, he miraculously got an offer. To make matters worse, this person who was making us an offer was someone who we did not lay eyes upon for that day when the viewing took place, we were out and only F was at home. The agent offered us a price that was $2k below what we were prepared to accept and he kept harassing doppy for a firm answer. I am talking about 10min apart phone calls to try to hard-sell us the deal. I was a little reluctant to close the deal so quickly cos I reasoned with doppy that his commission was twice my monthly salary and I put up with much more shit at work and do a hell out more to earn my monies than merely showing people a flat. I felt that he ought to have done more to get us the price we want especially since we were not really being unreasonable about it. Being my usual cynical and doubting self, I also wondered aloud to doppy whether he was manipulating us and playing on our fears to make us drop our asking price before showing our place to genuine buyers. This feeling was further reinforced when I found out from F that the buyer did not come with an agent and was instead a direct buyer. This meant that our agent would not only earn commission from the us for the sale of our place but also from the buyer. Obviously, this would also indicate a conflict of interest as he would be representing both the buyer and the seller. But I chose to give him the benefit of a doubt and said that as long as he got us the price we want for our place, we would go ahead with the deal. So after much ding-ding-dong-dongs, the deal was finally closed at the price we wanted.
He rushed us to sign the option to purchase and honestly, it was only upon hindsight that we realised we should have smelt something fishy as the interested buyer only put down a $200 deposit. However at that time, he told us that it was pretty much a done deal as the buyer would have no problem obtaining a loan.
All that took place over the weekend and doppy and I were glad that we got the entire flat business off our mind. Though some of our friends commented that they thought we had let go of our flat a little too easily, doppy and I were of the mindset that we would not be able to predict how the market would go in the next couple of months and we did not want to take the risk and worry over the sale for a few more months. So we were happy with the deal we made and thought that was the end of the matter.
Come Tuesday, the agent informed doppy that he was showing our flat to buyers still. And that was when the story spilled. Apparently the buyer would not be able to afford a bank loan if her application for a HDB loan was rejected. She was buying under the single's scheme and the income cap for a HDB loan (since it is offered at a lower interest rate than bank loans) was $3k. Her gross salary was $3,250 and it would be difficult for her to obtain a HDB loan. A bank loan would require her to come up with 5% cash and combined with the cash value that we were asking above our valuation, she would have to fork out about 10% cash of the sale price. And this 10% cash was money that she did not have.
I was really unhappy when I heard the news. This was especially so since we signed the option to purchase which technically gave the buyer 2 weeks to sort out her financial matters and all but which meant that technically for 2 weeks, we were contractually and legally bound to not put our place up for sale till the option to purchase ran its course and it was not exercised. To compound matters, our agent wanted us to sign an exclusive rights with him when he brought us the papers to sign cos he said that since the deal was done, signing the exclusive with him was merely to help him maintain a good record which his company was fussy about. By this time, my aunt also told me that she knew an agent who charged only a 1% commission compared to the 2% that my agent charges. Needless to say, I was a most unhappy client.
The straw that broke the camel's back came when our agent informed us that the buyer was intending to forfeit the $200 deposit as she did not think that she could truly afford the place. I was truly riled by then and my unhappiness had developed into a sense of anger and frustration. Unfortunately for the agent, he chose to ring doppy to explain the situation when I was with him taking our dinner at the hawker centre. He then had the gall to ask doppy if we could lower our asking price further cos he might just be able to get us an offer if we do.
I took over the phone and really gave him a piece of my mind. I stated uncategorically that I was not happy with his service and told him that I could not help but felt that we were manipulated in this entire transaction. I told him that I was not happy with the way he only provided information to us on a need-to-know basis and with every new development, it appeared that he was only looking out for his own interest and not ours. Then he started to give me stories of how he was also not aware of all the information and he had already kept us in the loop at the earliest available moment. I was major pissed with him and told him that I did not care for his stories since they were now all water under the bridge.
After a most stern diatribe from me, I told him that I would lay my cards straight with him. 1. I would only lower my asking price if he would cut his commission. 2. I would not give exclusive rights to him as I could not trust him. 3. I want to see the option to purchase torn up in front of me. 4. I fully intend to go to other agents to get them to sell my place.
After much bargaining to no avail with me, he finally gave in and was willing to take a lower commission in return for a lower selling price for the 2nd intended buyer. 5 minutes later he rang back to say that the buyer had not enough monies and was merely asking for the price for fun. You can imagine how tired and upset I was by then and I was totally cold towards him. After a feeble attempt at convincing me that he was still confident about selling our place and asking us to reconsider giving him exclusive rights, He dared not have a sustained conversation with me and hung up at the first opportunity he had.
Apparently my talking-to to him had an effect. This weekend, he managed to get another 4 - 5 viewings set up. And today, apparently one of the interested parties is coming back for a second viewing.
I hope that something could come out of this.
Sigh.
And so, doppy has given all a pretty accurate and humorous recount of our nights. His account however was in broad strokes and written in general terms. I shall now give you my version of last night.
It started well with our confinement lady helping us to put him to bed at about 10pm (right after doppy was done blogging the previous post in bed). His diaper was a new one (mental note to self: change diaper before the second feed in the night so that he would not vomit out the milk due to the movement) and he was full. He was fast asleep and if we keep our fingers crossed, he would be able to sleep till 12 plus 1am (he feeds every 3 hours if he drinks 90ml of formula milk per feed).
So it was to bed we went with some hushed hushed whispers of 'he's very cute hor?' and 'meowme, I love you' and 'I love you too'. I was just drifting off to sleep when suddenly .....!
Both father and son woke up simultaneously, one with an expletive and one with a whimper.
The big baby woke up with a nose bleed, and the small one needed his mid-night feed.
So the mum tried to sit up as quickly as I could but with the weak (or perhaps non-existent!) abdominal muscles from the C-section (oh! I have never realised that one needs those muscles to sit up!), I was unable to do so quickly and instead had to turn to my side and slowly pushed myself up.
By the time I got to the cot, the big baby had already ran to the toilet to prevent his nose blood from staining the bed and I could not depend on the father to soothe the baby. So I patted the baby, whispered words of lies such as 'mummy has milk. mummy will give you milk in a second' and proceeded in my groggy state to make a bottle of formula milk for him.
When I was feeding the bottle to the babe, the big baby had come back to bed. He apologised profusely for not being able to help but he needed to lie down as he was feeling faint. In between trying to get the little one to drink his milk and not vomit it out, I was trying to advise the big one to put his head between his legs to prevent more nose bleeding.
When I was finally done with feeding and burping the little one, I went to make some cooling tea for the big baby. After he had drunk it, he promptly went back to sleep. I then lay down to try to steal a few moments of shut-eye.
It seemed like just seconds when the small one whimpered again. So up again, I got up, checked the clock and it was only 2am. That was too early for his feed and so I checked his diaper and indeed they were full from his urine. So I changed his diaper for him, placed him on my bed, anticipating the next feed at 3am when I shall attempt to breastfeed him lying down.
And so it was with me lying semi-conscious next to the little one, humming the one and only lullaby I know while he fidgeted once a in a while. Promptly at 3am, he started whimpering again. I thought I could cheat him into suckling at my breast so that I would not need to get out of bed to make him his milk. Alas, my ploy did not work. His whimpering did not stop and he kept pushing my nipple out of his mouth with his tongue. To prevent his whimper from becoming a full blown wail and wake his dad who needs to wake up the next morning to go to work, I succumbed and got up to make him a bottle of milk.
After feeding him and burping him (did doppy mentioned in the previous post that it was a repetitive cycle??!!), I thought he was ready to go sleep. And so I placed him in his cot, hummed the lullaby (again!) and patted him to sleep. However by the time I was done with putting him in his bed, an hour and a half had passed from the beginning of his feed and because he had regurgitated some out, he was hungry again!
And so it was back to the milk table I went, made another bottle of milk and fed it to him again. While he was feeding, I sensed or rather heard him pooping again! But because he had yet to finish his feed, I had no choice but let him sit in his shit-soaked diaper to finish his milk. Immediately after he finished his milk, I changed his diaper. He pooped so much that he even soiled his pants and his lower back. So that took another 20min of cleaning up and wearing of pants and it was then I realised that his shirt needed changing too because he had soiled them with his vomit. And so I changed him and by this time, it was 4.30am. I placed him in his cot again went to the living room to express my milk (yes, I still need to keep to my expressing schedule). By the time I went back to my bed, it was 5.15am. He was fidgeting in his cot as he had not enter into deep sleep. He started whimpering again and I had to pick him up again to rock him to sleep. By this time, the little bird residing in the air-con compressor outside our bedroom knew the lullaby I was humming and started whistling the same tune! I kid you not! Initially I thought it was doppy who was whistling but since he was snoring, it could not be him. I swore that the bird was whistling the very same lullaby I was humming to xp!
By the time he finally allowed me to put him to sleep, it was 6am. And yes, you guessed it! He was hungry again because the last time he fed was over 2 hours ago! By this time, he was beginning to wail as he was frustrated from the lack of sleep and hunger. Dawn was breaking and mindful of him waking doppy up, I took him outside. Thankfully, by this time, both our confinement lady and help were awake. They both laughed at my pathetic state and took over the care of xp immediately. My confinement lady ushered me back to bed immediately and I needed no further encouragement.
And so it was at 6.30am that I finally collapsed into my bed and feel into a deep sleep. I slept so soundly, I did not even realise that doppy had woken up and gone to work. I had to sms him to ask if he kissed me goodbye for I had no recollection whatsoever!
Remind me again why we decided to have a baby?
Because in the rare moment when he gives me a most satisfied grin as he is drifting off to sleep, I feel an overwhelming sense of love for him and immense satisfaction and pride that I have managed to see to his needs.
And of course, whenever I look at him, I see a mini-doppy, and he is the proof that we both love each other and he is that product of our love.
That is why we have decided to have a baby.
