Originally Posted by
Ringo33
no offense, do you really think that ebay model is going to work for property??
here are some comments.
1) The only time people will actually bother about auction is if the property or the product is going at firesale price. if you cant find willing sellers to put their property at least 15 to 20% below market value, then dont bother about bidding.
2) your company has requested bidder to submit a bid bond of 1%, what about the seller? How do you ensure that seller is authorized to sell the unit? what legal documents do you have in place to ensure that seller cannot back out from the exercise? what about LO? legal documents?
3) You mentioned the 1% bid bond will only be refunded to unsuccessful bidder? what about the 1% from successful bidder? Will that constitute to be part of the final buying price?
4) There seems to be a major conflict of interest here. How it is possible for a bidder to trust your due diligent when your goal is to help the seller to sell at the high price? So does it mean that if you have 5 bidder for 1 property, you will sell the same due diligent report to 5 bidders and collect >$750 each from the bidder? And how can we be sure that your due diligent report is consistent and not be tweak to favor certain buyer?
buying property is actually a fun process, so please dont make it so complicated lah.
Ringo33,
Thanks very much for your comments and sorry for the late reply.
1) OHEX will advise bidders to set starting price (i.e. initial bid value) at 15%-20% below market value and set a reserve price at market value.
If the final bid is above the reserve price, seller must sell.
If the final bid is below the reserve price, seller can use the market response (e.g. 300 views, 15 bidders until the last 3 rounds, final bid is 5% below market value) to evaluate whether the selling price was set too high or too low, and has the option to withdraw or sell below reserve price.
2) In our due diligence exercise, we will be able to confirm if the seller is authorised to sell the property. http://ohex.sg/documents/sample/sample_duediligence.pdf
The sellers are required to sign a Listing Agreement and the bidders are required to sign a Bidding Agreement. While we recognize that it is difficult to use legal means to force buy/sell a property, but hopefully the penalties we set is enough to prevent defaults of the agreements. If you are interested, we can send you the agreements for your review. 
However, we believe the auction model is naturally beneficial to both sellers/buyers, so the chance of default is reduced.
3) The 1% bidding deposit is a cashier order issued to yourself. Hence, the bank will hold on to that money and OHEX/seller will not be able to touch that money. OHEX will return the cashier order to the successful bidder after the successful bidder receives the option to purchase from the seller (meanwhile paying the option fee directly to the seller).
4) The due diligence fee is payable by the seller, and it is free for bidders to view. In terms of the content of the reports, all contents are verifiable, and we use only URA/public data to do the analysis.
OHEX's goal is to offer fair dealing, and provide independent information to sellers/buyers to make the right decisions, not to sell the property at the highest price. That is why we emphasize very much on transparency in our model. Hopefully the quality of our reports could speak for itself.
I agree buying property should be a fun process, but sometimes a different set of rules can make a game more fair and fun. Not to mention buying/selling a property could be one of the most important financial decision in our lives.
Thank you again for your feedback! 
OHEX
Success is built on trust. And trust starts with transparency.
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