ERA Realty

ERA agents frequently appear in expat rental searches and purchase shortlists. For rentals, ask specifically about HDB eligibility if that is on your shortlist — rules trip up newcomers weekly. Refuse any pitch that says stamp duty is optional on a residential tenancy; IRAS lease duty is usually 0.4% of total rent for leases up to four years, and silence in the TA defaults liability to the tenant. If you appoint a tenant-side agent, sign a CEA prescribed Estate Agency Agreement before viewings and strike unwanted renewal-commission clauses in writing — rates are not fixed by law, dual commission is an offence, and you pay the agency not personal PayNow. Insist on a room-by-room inventory with dated photos at handover — fair-wear deposit fights are won on evidence, not WhatsApp volume. At LOI, strike or clarify professional-cleaning / curtain / pest clauses and the first-30-day defect-free period — bed-bug blame games and surprise deep-clean invoices are recurring Reddit deposit fights. Ask the agent (and later the MA) for renovation-notice norms and how noise complaints route to MCST — tenants cannot usually terminate for neighbour reno alone. For private purchases, insist the agent state your ABSD rate by nationality on the OTP date, whether FTA remission applies (US / Iceland / Liechtenstein / Norway / Switzerland), and that ABSD is cash not loanable. For resale HDB, demand a valid HFE letter before option fees, confirm the 3-year SPR tenure rule for PR core members, and check EIP/SPR quota on the block that month — SC + non-resident spouse schemes usually leave the foreign spouse as occupier, not co-owner. Interview the individual agent on contract hygiene and response time; logo scale is not a substitute for a clean LOI/OTP process.