Case study:  Can money buy love for this Englishman? Part 2 continued from Part 1.

Background. September 6, 1998. Continuing from Part 1.

After a three-month long drought of no offers as Singapore was in the midst of an economic depression, the Scotsman owner had 3 offers from Asiahomes.com Realtor within 2 days and other offers from other realtors.

The prospects from Asiahomes were a Chinese Indonesian family with 2 kids and 2 maids at $4,800, a Welsh couple with no kids and no pets at $5,500 and an Englishman with no kids and one small dog at $5,000.

All were corporate leases but the latter two had pedigree background, being located in Raffles Place and being listed in the Singapore Stock Exchange respectively while the first was a startup just registered few days ago.

"Hold on, I have a $6,500 offer for you" said a fax dated September 10, 1998 from another realtor, Patrick who had earlier offered a $5,000 rental offer within 24 hours after the Owner had rejected the $4,800 offer from the Indonesian family from the Asiahomes.com Realtor co-broking with a "lady agent" or "female caller" on September 4, 1998.

The Owner was not comfortable with the haggling and rapid changes of 3 to 1 and then 2-year lease offer from this Indonesian family and he suspected that Patrick's prospect and ours were the same.

How did Patrick know that the unit was still available?

September 5, 1998.   Patrick  contacted Asiahomes.com Realtor to co-broke, as the Indonesian was interested and offered $5,000. He was asked to provide more details. The Owner was informed.

September 6, 1998. Within 12 hours, Patrick had given a Letter of Intent and $5,000 cheque to the Owner. The Owner signed the Letter of Intent since he had a good offer.

Patrick gave some excuses to the Asiahomes.com Realtor that the Indonesian prospect had left for Hongkong.  Patrick's Letter of Intent showed the same prospect or related family members and he must have found the Owner's contact direct.

September 7, 1998 evening. Asiahomes.com Realtor informed the Owner that there were 2 quality Tenants (Englishman and Welsh) offering $5,000 and $5,500 respectively.

September 8, 1998. The "lady agent" or "female caller" phoned Asiahomes.com Realtor to enquire whether the Owner had accepted the $5,000 offer although she had been told that Asiahomes.com Realtor had no part in this offer as it was done by Patrick.  She persisted a few times.

September 9, 1998.  A third realtor phoned the Asiahomes.com Realtor saying that she had an Indonesian (but not Chinese Indonesian) interested and would offer $6,000 - $6,500. She was asked to submit the offer immediately as the Owner would be signing the tenancy agreement the next day. There was no response. The Owner was informed of this higher offer.

September 10, 1998. The Owner had a fax "hold on" $6,500 offer coming…from Patrick. No other details given.

This "Akan Datang" (Coming soon) suspense was killing because the Englishman was slow in accepting the tenancy agreement.

The prospective tenant, the Englishman was asked to bid above the $5,500 offer.  He was tardy in his reply.  The Asiahomes.com Realtor asked him whether he wanted the condo and if not, to let him know so that he could offer the apartment to the Welsh. He was not happy with the higher asking rent and the bidding war.

He said he would accept the offer but had no time to read the tenancy agreement  yesterday and today as he had to attend meetings.

His was the best offer.  But money was everything and the Englishman had the better offer. Could the  Scotsman better the $6,000 offer?

He did not. In a bidding war, it was difficult for the prospective Tenants.  It was very difficult to make a prompt decision and yet there was no or few ground floor waterfront condos and they command a premium rent if the time was right.