Our CPF 2019

I just realized that this article was in draft mode and partially completed while blogging on our CPF 2020 update. Here it goes, one year late. lol.

KPO's CPF

I was transferring OA to SA for higher interest once I started working and blogged about it here - CPF Milestone ($40k in Special Account) and The Power of Compound Interest. I stopped transferring and began to build up OA to prepare for our BTO HDB downpayment in 2018. There was a change in policy (HDB 想通了/achieved enlightenment. lol) and we can now keep up to $20,000 in OA. You can read about why we do not wish to wipe our OA here - Chiong Housing Loan or Take It Slow?

In 2019, we paid the remaining downpayment for our BTO, hence you can see a drop in OA. The plan now is to keep at least $20k in OA as a buffer in the event if we lose our job/income, we can still continue to pay off the housing loan for the next 2-3 years without any worry.

Interest received:
OA - $559.38
SA - $2,792.82
MA - $723.57

Total: $4,075.77

CZM's CPF

Interest received:
OA - $605.83
SA - $3,809.96
MA - $1,248.24

Total: $5,664.03

Together, we have received $9,739.80 :)

I have a spreadsheet that attempts to forecast CPF minimum sum and tracks how close/far are we to meeting/hitting the minimum sum. This is computed by adding OA and SA together (which forms RA when we hit 55). As of 2019, I have only met 48.84% based on the current minimum sum of $176,000 while CZM is at 64.50%. Long way to go before meeting FRS!

Something I like to do, assuming that CZM stopped working now and there will be $0 contribution to her CPF, will she be able to hit the minimum retirement sum? Using a finance calculator and her current SA of $86,811.57, the future value when we are 55 is $231,425.44. Pretty close to the lower bound of the estimation ($231,000 which is compounding the minimum sum at 1%). Guess CZM got to continue to work for a few more years. Hahahaha.

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- 2017 Net Worth

- 2018 Net Worth

- 2019 Net Worth

- Our CPF 2018

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Portfolio Performance in 2019

Let's take a look at how our overall portfolio did for the year 2019.

If you prefer looking at a graph. It seems that we have just very slightly outperformed STI ETF :)

For the year 2019, our portfolio time-weighted return was 20.71% vs 8.78% (ES3: STI ETF). The overall performance since 2014 is 19.50% (time-weighted return) and 6.93% (XIRR). It has been a pretty great year! Too bad for those sitting/hoarding cash though. If you are wondering what is the difference between time-weighted return and XIRR, do read this article by Investment Moats. In short, XIRR takes cash flows into account while time-weighted return does not so the way they are calculated is different.

Looking at the top 5 losers and you can see that these are huge losses:
1. Raffles Medical
2. Geo Energy
3. Tuan Sing
4. Eagle HTrust
5. Soilbuild Business REIT

No plans to let go of any at the moment but if I had to cut loss, the first to go would be Geo Energy followed by Raffles Medical. In addition, I realized this year I have not been keeping myself updated with all the various stocks or reading the financial statements. It feels like a combination of not much capital to inject and a lack of time. Anyway, I am also considering to do more passive investment besides StashAway and Endowus such as buying IWDA on a monthly basis.

These are our top 5 winners:
1. Sheng Siong
2. STI ETF
3. Capitaland
4. CapitaMall Trust
5. CCB (in HKD which is only about 1k+ gain) Frasers Logistics & Industrial Trust

Similarly, no plans to sell/realized the profit for any of them at the moment but the first to go would probably be CCB/BOC because the country is still in a mess.

Together, we have a capital flow/injection of $‭35,768.54‬ ($32,268.54 + $3,500 to Endowus)! Capital flow is the amount of capital that is being injected or withdrawn from your portfolio where the dividends collected are considered as capital withdrawn. Our rate of saving/investing has dropped due to extremely high expenses from our new house - renovation and furniture. It is only around 15-25% of our salary this year.

Our portfolio gave us a total dividend of $21,307.84 at an average yield of 5.26%. That is $1,775.65 passive income per month! Having said that, there were a few special dividends last year that bump up the rate and this also includes the dividends from our StashAway portfolio, hence it appears slightly higher than our monthly portfolio update.

StocksCafe is even smart enough to project the dividends (removing special dividends) we will be getting for this year assuming everything remains constant which is still lower than our goal of 5% yield.

Based on our 10 years plan to accumulate a $1,000,000 portfolio for extremely early retirement (age 36), our target for this year was $431,301 and we have met the target despite injecting lesser capital than expected (total opposite as compared to last year). The current market value of our portfolio is $463,297. Our next year conservative target is $552,868 with a capital injection of $57,140. Our yearly target is pretty conservative as we believe our expenses will be growing exponentially year on year.

Our expenses are still going to be high this year because we will be travelling quite a bit (visiting >10 countries - Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Japan and Malaysia). As we become 30 years old this year, we can feel our bodies becoming weaker (can't hike as much) and our minds becoming more humji (giving Bolivia Death Road a miss where you can bike down as an attraction). This will be our last year travelling so crazily *pinky promise*.

As much as this is more of a finance blog, instead of just constantly saving/investing for retirement, we should all take a break once in a while and enjoy life a bit. Everyone will get that eventually but why not make your journey more interesting and maximize every dollar you spent (use miles instead of cashback to travel like us! lol)?

Let's hope 2020 will be a great and better year for everyone and your investment!

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- 2017 Net Worth
- 2018 Net Worth
- 2019 Net Worth
- Portfolio Performance in 2017
- Portfolio Performance in 2018

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Portfolio - December 2019

Yay, the year ended with our portfolio reaching another new high as it increases by 1.34% to $463,297 - $1,556.74 of capital injection and $4,569.67 of capital gain.

If you prefer to look at numbers, this is the raw data used to generate the above bar graph. These numbers are as of the last day of the month. On a side note, the numbers (cash flow and PnL) vary slightly as compared to the previous few months because I forgot to include CZM SRS investment when she rejoins the workforce.

"Cash Flow" is the amount of money being injected/withdrawn from the portfolio (buying stocks = +ve cash flow while selling stocks and collecting dividends = -ve cash flow)

SOLD
None

BOUGHT
None

We did not buy/sell any stocks as most of the money was spent on optimizing our taxes either through SRS or CPF SA/MA. I topped up another $3,500 to SRS and decided to invest that with Endowus. You can read this post to find out more - Endowus CPF/SRS Review.

Dividends
The total dividends collected this month is $2,348.00. The breakdown is as follows:

Company	Symbol	ExDate	Shares	Total
Ascendas Hospitality Trust - Stapled Units	Q1P	31-Dec-19	15,000	$814.50
Singapore Telecommunications Limited	Z74	18-Dec-19	4,000	$272.00
Sysma Holdings Limited	5UO	10-Dec-19	10,000	$100.00
Accordia Golf Trust - Units	ADQU	3-Dec-19	15,000	$391.50
Pacific Century Regional Developments Limited	P15	3-Dec-19	7,000	$770.00

Total dividends collected for 2019: $‭20,978.35
Average dividends per month for 2019: $‭‭1,748.20

StashAway

KPO

CZM

Capital: $27,000.00
Current: $‭‭‭‭30,802.85‬

Endowus

Capital: $3,500.00
Current: $‭‭‭3,516.00

You might be interested in previous months update too:
- Portfolio Performance in 2018 - $354,145
- Portfolio - January 2019 - $376,381
- Portfolio - February 2019 - $379,814
- Portfolio - March 2019 - $400,263
- Portfolio - April 2019 - $400,263
- Portfolio - May 2019 - $392,934
- Portfolio - June 2019 - $415,611
- Portfolio - July 2019 - $420,798
- Portfolio - August 2019 - $421,644
- Portfolio - September 2019 - $420,854
- Portfolio - October 2019 - $438,957
- Portfolio - November 2019 - $457,171
- Portfolio - December 2019 - $463,297

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Advance Inspection - Post Renovation Defects Check

In my previous post here - Advance Inspection - Residential Inspection, I talked about our experience with the residential inspection i.e. pre-reno defects check. After BSC rectified all the major issues, we started with our house renovation. Honestly, we did not expect so many hiccups with our reno as we have done a lot of due diligence including checking online reviews, meeting up with the IDs several times to discuss on the designs/quotations as well as requesting to visit existing works. We have done everything that most people have advised. Even so, not everything went smoothly. You can read more about our reno horror story here - Renovation Cost for Our New House. Fortunately, we heeded ur parents' advice to who told us that we die die have to withhold at least 10% of the final amount until all rectification works are done. Prior to the start of work, we have also given our ID a heads up that we have engaged Advance Inspection to perform the post-reno defects check, and we will not transfer the final amount until all defects are rectified satisfactorily. Our ID agreed.

Unlike the pre-reno defects check, there is only one visit for the post-reno defects check (or you can top up extra for each additional visit). The inspector came and inspected everything relating to our reno works, including carpentry, electrical points (those extra points which we requested during electrical works), network data point, hollow tiles, etc. basically everything else which was related to renovation works. The whole defects check took a few hours as well. During the inspection, we noted a few major issues - our tiles were mostly hollow (especially at the skirting), a few chips/holes in the floor grout (we paid a premium for marble gum polishing btw), chipped tiles in the toilets, warping of carpentry.

We weren't expecting so many major issues since we did request our ID to rectify a few items prior to the inspection already. In fact, it appeared generally okay from a layman point of view and I have even asked KPO to move in a week before the inspection started, thinking that there would not be any major issue. Imagine our horror when we realized that our ID will need to remove/drill the tiles and re-tile them! Carpentry warping is another headache as we realized that our cupboards cannot close fully as the ends of the cupboard tend to be slanted. Our inspector explained that warping is a common thing over time as Singapore is generally humid hence expansion and contraction of the cupboards occur at different rates which resulted in warping. However, he was surprised that our cupboards warped so fast.

Other cosmetic issues include scratches on the glass panel, holes noted in the carpentry works. Our inspector told us that holes in carpentry are typically a result of drilling and the carpenter should paste a sticker over it so that it looks less unsightly.

On the same night, our inspector emailed us the report with all the findings. We shared it with our ID and requested all the rectification to be done asap. Obviously, he was reluctant and as expected, told us that certain things are meant to be like that. For e.g., both he and the tiler said that hollow tiles are fine and doesn't mean it will definitely drop. To be honest, if we have not engaged Advance Inspection, we may have taken this at face value. However, with the report (and affirmation) from Advance Inspection, it was a lot easier to dispute.

Next, the carpenter and our ID also told us that carpentry warping is inevitable. Similarly, we used the report from Advance Inspection and told them that this was unacceptable given the warping over a relatively short period of time. Eventually, the carpenter removed the carpentry and added reinforcement to resolve the issue.

For the other cosmetic issues such as glass scratches, we also requested for them to be replaced. Our inspector taught us how to inspect glass scratches previously, hence when the new glass panels were installed, we did the checks ourselves. Only after everything was rectified did we make the final payment. We were thankful that we have also engaged Advance Inspection for the post reno defects check. Otherwise, these issues would go undiscovered and possibly resurface a couple of years later and probably a lot more expensive to rectify then. It is also a lot easier to insist on the rectification as it comes from a "professional third party firm" rather than us layman.

Lastly, even until today as I have certain queries relating to house/reno issues, I could still reach out to Advance Inspection and they would respond very quickly to the queries. Hence, for new homeowners, you can consider engaging a third party inspection company to save yourself some headache and reno nightmares.

If you would like to engage Advance Inspection too, do use our referral/promo code - AISG0730. You will be able to get $30 discount and we will get $30 for the referral :) Simply contact them either through mobile/WhatsApp (8748 0988) or email (info@advanceinspection.sg) and quote the code. Do note that it is highly encouraged that you start off with the residential inspection first to avoid future disputes with your ID/developer.

You can also leave a comment below if you have any queries on our reno works.

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

2019 Net Worth

Let me start by wishing everyone a happy 2020 again! This was supposed to be my first post for the year but the move by DBS stole the limelight - DBS Multiplier Account Changes For The Worst.

This year will be an exciting year with many many things to look forward to!
1. This is our first year staying together as husband and wife in our new home for a full year. Expenses are definitely going to increase but we will be able to forecast more accurately as a family.
2. We will be doing our RTW trip going to Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Switzerland next month!
3. Bringing CZM's family to Hokkaido on Business flights using Alaska miles (the hack is no longer available).
4. Going to the Scandinavia/Northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia) with my family
5. I should be getting my promotion which means an increase in salary!
6. Our portfolio should reach half a million according to our forecast and IF recession doesn't happen this year. lol.

Alright. Let me just share the same importance of tracking net worth once again for the new readers.

This is the classic comic where everyone is actually poorer than the beggar who has a net asset of $2.73. Your friend/colleague may be living in a huge condominium, driving some fancy car but it could all be financed by debts. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as their income allows so. You can refer to the following articles/google on the importance of net worth.

InvestmentMoats - Don’t Track Your Expenses or Budget First. Plot Your Net Worth Instead

Google - Importance of Net Worth

Cash
This is all the money we have in our savings accounts. Our cash dropped as compared to last year because we just completed our renovation few weeks back. You can read about the total cost here - Renovation Cost for Our New House. In addition, I also did a Voluntary Contribution (VC) to CPF Medisave for Tax Reduction.

Our Cash: ~ $22,000 (-54.2%)

CPF
Every month, I will try to show CZM her net worth in order to motivate her to work harder towards financial freedom. However, she would always say I inflate her net worth because I included CPF. lol. I am sure some of you may have the same mentality but like I always tell her, CPF is our money and should be included as our retirement planning.

Our CPF: ~ $262,000 (OA + SA + MA) (+19.6%)

Investment

I have yet to blog about our portfolio performance (still in draft mode!) but I am proud to say that we have outperformed the index (STI). Overall, our time-weighted return is 19.54% and XIRR is 6.99%.

I have also invested some of my SRS money ($3,500) with Endowus since my last review. Will blog more about Endowus in the future.

Our Investment: ~$469,000 (+33.2%)

Property

HUGE change as compared to last year. We took a 25 years HDB loan for our 4 room BTO and started paying for the loan mid last year.

I believe that property should be included in the computation of net worth. If one excludes the value of the property, the money (cash/CPF) you use to pay for the loan/mortgage will be no different as disappearing into the thin air or throwing it into the sea. Hence, I will be valuing the property based on the total payment (interest + renovation cost) till date. This ensures that our money will not "disappear" and act as a floor/minimum amount (total payment + remaining loan + markup/profit) to sell in the future.

I can imagine people selling their house at market value + markup, thinking that they made money from the sale but it is totally possible that market price + markup < total payment + remaining loan. Does this make sense or is it too confusing? lol.

Our Property: ~$133,000 (+533.2%)

Total

Our Net Worth: ~$886,000 (+38.4%)

Here you go! Our net worth pie chart, it looks pretty yummy to me :) We are so close to becoming a millionaire in net worth before the age of 30! Hopefully, it happens before both of us turn 30 this year. Hahaha. On a side note, we are already a millionaire in KrisFlyer miles @_@"

We also have ~11k Asia Miles and ~55k Alaska Miles in each of our accounts thanks to the Cathay error fare.

We have also clocked 1,000,000 page views! Thank you very much to all our readers!

Alright, I digress too much. Are you tracking your net worth?

You might be interested in these blog posts too:
- 2017 Net Worth: ~$510,000
- 2018 Net Worth: ~$640,000
- 2019 Net Worth: ~$886,000

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

DBS Multiplier Account Changes For The Worst

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully, this year will be a better year for all of us although it wasn't much of a good start for DBS Multiplier account holders (ourselves) >.<" I think a lot of us were still hoping for a repeat of last year Cathay error fare only to see this news by DBS.

When they relaunched the Multiplier Account a few years back, it was a game-changer. There were no minimum credit card spendings required, encourages people to invest genuinely through CDP (stocks or SSB instead of getting funds from the respective bank), treated everything as a transaction and awarded interest accordingly. Categories can be easily fulfilled with SSB and shared by couples using a joint account which I blogged about previously - DBS Multiplier + SSBs + Joint Account = Higher Interest! They even introduced home loan as a new category and increase the cap to $100k. It felt like they were on the right track in transforming DBS into a one-stop solution/bank.

Unfortunately, there will be a revision to the DBS Multiplier terms w.e.f. 1 February 2020. There are 3 changes:
1. Renaming of Salary Credit category to Income category. This is a pretty harmless move.
2. Dividend Crediting from CDP will no longer qualify as Investment but will be under the above Income category. So this essentially removes 1 category from all of us.
3. Balance cap for Salary Credit/Income + 1 category will be reduced from $50k currently to $25k with effect from 1st February 2020. This is the ultimate nerf that will cause people to move/change their savings account.

Although their website hasn't been updated, I believe this is how it is going to look like. Oh well, this is sort of expected right? The only constant is change. Are we going to change our savings account before February 2020? Probably not, for a few reasons.

KPO and CZM are pretty poor. Look at the amount in my Multiplier account. We are still well below the new $25k. I know it is sad but regular readers will know we hardly keep much cash. They are either invested or spent on our house/vacation. lol.

DBS is smart and knows that the Multiplier is still one of the most attractive savings accounts if we compared it against other banks at the same range/tier ~$25k.

UOB One requires one to spend at least $500 and the interest is around 1.5% - 2.0% for the first $30k.

OCBC 360 awards interest at 1.5% with at least $500 credit card spend for the first $35k.

SCB Bonus$aver is the highest for 2.13% with more than $500 credit card spend and the best part is the cap is $100k! This is probably the best savings account with its high cap if you are cash rich and have no issue spending at least $500 per month on credit card.

For now, we will probably remain with DBS but I can foresee us changing to other savings account once we get richer... What will you do?

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Expenses - June 2019

For the last few months (since June), I stopped blogging about our expenses because there were just too many things ongoing - our house was doing renovation with a few hiccups, CZM deciding to do a semi-retirement (it ended after 1 month. lol.), I was looking out externally and went for a few interviews (decided to stay on now - shall blog about this another time), visited and returned from Canada/USA (yet to blog about this too) and planning for our RTW (Singapore - Mexico - Peru - Bolivia - Brazil - Switzerland - Singapore) which is happening next month.

Anyway, I should not be procrastinating too much before the year ends and finally took some time and tabulated the expenses for the last few months as well as our annual expenses. You will soon understand why we barely buy/invest this year.

Current Profile: 29 years couple who got married last year but are still staying separately with our own parents while waiting for the renovation of our BTO to be completed.

Our total expenses were $14,035.27! The breakdown would be as follows:

KPO Expense Fund (our common fund): $9,129.03

KPO: $2,421.26

CZM: $2,484.98

House

House will be our biggest expenses for the next few months. We made the first 10% downpayment for our renovation and you can read more about it here - Renovation Cost for Our New House.

We have started paying for our mortgage/housing loan. The loan amount is about $380k, amortized across 25 years will mean we need to pay $861 each. We are paying this using our CPF OA. Why are we not using cash? Long story short, we are generating higher returns with our cash. You can read about our strategy here - Chiong Housing Loan or Take It Slow?

Vacation

Vacation is still one of our biggest expenses. Most of it would be for the upcoming Canada vacation. The increase in other subcategories is because we went to KL for a few days and I just got reminded that CZM owes me another travel post. lol.

Parents
$1,360 - This is the total amount we are giving to our parents as allowance.

Darling/CZM
$484.51 - 3 x Lancome Advanced Génifique Serum bought from Duty Free (forgot the size)

$200 - CZM signed up for some massage/facial thingy.

$64.04 - Watson

Food
$473.98 - Our combined food expenses are still on the low side because we are still staying with our parents and I usually skip lunch.

Treat
$339.95 - Treated family, friends and colleagues to food/drinks. I can't really remember what's the special occasion but I had a Chope reservation at New Ubin. Guess that's where the majority went to.

Credit Card
$241.57 - Paid annual fee for Citi Premier Miles to get 10k miles and some processing fees for the transfer of miles.

Insurance
$189.00 - This is a fixed monthly cost for the basic coverage - $1 million term life ($71), Early Cancer Care - 150k ($64) and hospitalization ($53).

Transportation
$110.28 - Our EZ Link/Account-Based Ticketing (ABT) for the month. Read about this Samsung Pay x SimplyGo x Visa Hack if you are a Samsung mobile phone user.

$56.4 - Cab

Gift
$138.00 - Wedding red packet for a colleague at JB Pekin Restoran (北京楼).

$2.90 - CZM bought something for a friend.

Mobile
$98.33 - First month of my mobile plan (pro-rated + 1 month in advance) M1 Corporate Individual Scheme (CORI), mySim70.

Entertainment
$20 - CZM and I went to watch a movie.

Summary
January 2019 - $11,712.06
February 2019 - $7,301.63
March 2019 - $6,954.84
April 2019 - $5,236.49 ($30,027.34 including the next 5% downpayment)
May 2019 - $4,860.15
June 2019 - $14,035.27

Our total expenses for 2019: $‭50,100.44‬
Average expenses per month for 2019: $‭8,350.07

Do like any of the following for the latest update/post!
1. FB Page - KPO and CZM
2. Twitter - KPO and CZM
3. Click here to subscribe using email :)
4. Instagram - KPO_and_CZM (Did you see those delicious food photos to the right --> Unfortunately, you can't see it on mobile.)

Advance Inspection - Residential Inspection

Hello everyone! After a long hiatus, I am finally here blogging! I am sure KPO will be very pleased (and will stop nagging). In KPO's previous post - Renovation Cost for Our New House, he talked about how we ended up choosing ID over contractor as we are not familiar with the renovation and would prefer to leave it to the SMEs ("Subject Matter Expert") to deal with it. However, do we 100% have faith in them? Probably not, given all the horror reno stories which you see/hear from your friends/online. We also personally encountered one ID company who almost "ate up" our deposit without performing any work. We went to CASE and were also mentally prepared to go to Small Claims Tribunal to get back our deposit. Long story short, we managed to get our deposit back but lost faith in this industry due to the many black sheeps.

As such, we were absolutely amazed when we learnt that there is such a thing/service - defect inspection. Being an ex-auditor, I know how important it is to have someone neutral and professional to inspect the books and records of a company (otherwise the firm will have no incentive to ensure correct reporting right?). Similarly, the defect inspection company acts as a neutral third party who helps to inspect home and properties.

We compared a few different defect inspection companies (there aren't many in the market) and have shortlisted both Advance Inspection and Absolute Inspection as they are the bigger market players and hence more reputable. Eventually, we chose Advance Inspection as they are more budget friendly. Most people will ask why engage a defect inspection company instead of checking on your own? Well, yes you definitely can do it on your own, but we decided not to take matters on our own hands and leave it to the experts. After all, it is only a small cost as compared to the price of the house (typically range from $200 for 480 sqft two-room unit to $1,000 for a 2,000 sqft home).

We first engaged Advance Inspection for the Residential Inspections upon our HDB key collection (before reno starts). This is important as they will help to check for any defects by the developer and ensure that rectification works are done before the start of renovation to avoid future disputes with ID/Contractor. There are three inspections in total:

• 1st Inspection: Identifying defective works & report submission for client / developer
• 2nd Inspection: Joint inspection appointment with client & developer on defective works
• 3rd Inspection: Conducting of a final inspection on developer rectification works 

We thought the first inspection will be really fast as they are the experts. It will just be the typical checking of hollow tiles, electricity etc. However, we were wrong. The inspector assigned took more than 4 hours. He checked every nook and cranny, from tiles to electricity, from painting to bathroom water flow. At the end of the 1st inspection, this is how our house looked like.

Blue tapes/defects everywhere! The box up tape means chipped tiles.

 We received a 4 page report on the defects on that night. How efficient!

The second inspection was more of a breeze. The inspector went through with the developer/BSC on the defective works and left it to them to correct. We noted that the workers from BSC have the tendency of removing the blue stickers after rectification is done, so a suggestion was to remind them NOT to remove after rectifying the defects, or only perform rectification when you are around. Another thing that we noted is that the workers did not rectify all the flaws. Some of the flaws we find it really small and decided to let it go. Besides, we have the 3rd inspection, so the inspector from Advance Inspection can help to point out if there are any major issue no rectified. 

On the 3rd inspection, there wasn't any major issue noted. The inspector added a few more stickers, mainly due to uneven walls or paint. As this is the final round of check by them, we arranged another time with BSC to ensure that the workers complete all remaining rectification. 

Given KPO's kiam pok nature, had we regretted engaging Advance Inspection? Absolutely not. We could not have imagined climbing high and low to identify defects, bearing in mind that there was absolutely no fans/air con installed in our unit at that time.

I will leave to the next post to share our experience on the post renovation defects check. Till then.

If you would like to engage Advance Inspection too, do use our referral/promo code - AISG0730. You will be able to get $30 discount and we will get $30 for the referral :) Simply contact them either through mobile/WhatsApp (8748 0988) or email (info@advanceinspection.sg) and quote the code.

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