Knowing your BTO units - part 1

1. Thanks to all readers who have been and will be using information available here free for their consumption and understand their risk as we have stated in all our posting here.

2. Please note that we have since set up www.hausanalyst.com to make information more assessable to all while being compensated for time and material spend via our paid services to make you an informed consumer. As such, whatever offer or service will only be available at www.hausanalyst.com and overwrite all those still exist in all our blog posting here (all offers from blog post in www.raremerchadise.blogspot.com before September 2016 will be deemed null and void). We will still update this blog from time to time while most of the in-depth posting will be available at www.hausanalyst.com.  

3. We believe that consumers would understand their purchases large or small but when it comes to the largest investment in their lifetime, we dare to say that almost none know much about their investment while risking all their savings in it, it’s that called gambling? We don’t benefit from your property purchase as we don’t collaborate with developers or property agents, we believe in only providing real time information about your off-plan property purchase to help you make informed decision.

4. Currently a property agent will charge you 1-2% of your property transaction as fees/ compensation from the seller or the developers which amounted to at least S$4,000 minimum for a S$400,000 property (not applicable to BTO sold directly by HDB). We, at www.hausanalyst.com is currently charging S$275.00 onward (usual price S$500.00 onward) for a personalized report which on average covered more than 100 pages of detail report. This S$275.00 investment have made most of our subscribers at least S$40,000 while still waiting for their BTO to be delivered.

5. We believe that getting a good unit is paramount to any couple (1^st timer or 2^nd timer) who wanted to upgrade their living standard and future lifestyle. Getting a good unit will ensure a healthy future profit and thus pave way for future lifestyle upgrade. Imagine when everyone have access to information available here or with the help of more smart gadget, the only difference between you and your neighbor who are trying to sell your houses will be down to either you sell to someone who is naïve or someone who has most probably done their home work and know what they are paying for. What are the chances of the former compare to the latter?  

hausanalyst team. August 2016 

Knowing your BTO units - part 1

What is stack? what is gable end? what is main facade? how to use scale rule... these are common question new purchaser will face as u embark to buy something so expensive yet u know so little about. I have been using some of the terms above while describing the pros and cons of the units. I have been trying to find time to write some articles for beginners to understand the basis but time is something which I'm really lack of for now. So rather than wait, I'll just give few inputs along the way to make the sharing process easier for everyone else.

When I first enrol in architectural course, I'm as blank as anyone else embarking on new field of knowledge. It will take some time to learn and to get use to, but this knowledge will stay with you as long as you wanted it to. 

From the above you can see 4 points I'm trying to share. 

1. Gable end

These are the wall which is highlighted in red. The word came from landed property but for this sharing purpose, we just make it simple and call these walls as gable end walls. 

2. Stack main facade

As the HDB units are always in stacks as with all high rise building, we usually refer these as stacks for easy communication purpose. The area highlighted in yellow orange is called stack's main facade since these are where you major views will be. Along these highlighted area, you will find all the windows and these are also where the sun and wind will affect you most since the windows are openable and will be your source of connection with the surrounding environment. 

3. Block main facade

This is indicated in apple green. A block can consist of lots of stacks. These combine stack will share a common lobby which have access to a common lifts. The combination of the stack facade will be called block's facade.

4. Scale ruler/ scale bar

The purpose of having a scale ruler is to give you an idea of sizes. Since we can't draw everything in the same size as the final product, so, we basically scale down the drawings to fit into pages for easy reference. The scaled rule will be the guide to get an idea of the eventual sizes of just everything in the drawings. For example, I have place a unit above the scale ruler, as u can see, I have drawn 2 red line and these 2 red line is sitting on 0 and 3 meter. So in other words, the room width is 3 m in dimension. You can use a piece of paper to trace all the numbers and just superimpose it on the plans, then you will get the exact dimension which you are looking for.

As this is a sharing session, I welcome all question which you may have. As Confucius say, 不耻下问. Do not feel embarrass to ask a question as I have as much to learn from everyone else.

Added notes:
As a first time buyer, what will i do to get a impression of the house which I'll be buying?

1. Get a tracing paper or anything u can find to trace the scale bar from the brochure OR if u are good with graphical software, you will know what to do.

2. Put the tracing paper with the scale bar on top of the floor plans and start to record the sizes of rooms, the width, the length etc.

3. Once you have this dimension (measurements), find a measurement tape and start to mark the measurements on the floor, u can do this in the void deck! Make sure u clean off the mark later! :)

4. From the measurement on the floor, u will get an idea of how big the sizes of these rooms will be. You can even mark out the whole unit in the void deck to really get a feel of the unit sizes.

Have fun and enjoy your experience!