I am Teoalida and I love doing research, collecting information, writing articles and making databases about real estate, cars, and other fields, as well as designing own housing models. I made this website since 2009 to share knowledge and educational material, sell my works and promote my services, and make new (business) friends.
All articles, drawings, 3D models, Word documents and Excel databases, are my ORIGINAL work. Except the photographs from Housing around the World section, which are linked to their original source, and the HDB brochures.
I am NOT a freelancer that you can hire. In the past I made projects on request basis, but the number of people demanding my services grow too much so I need to use my personal time wisely ONLY in projects requested by / useful for large number of people, read more.
I also have few partners, architects and programmers who can do projects on request basis when I am too busy. If you want to be partner you are welcome.
If you have any enquiry about AutoCAD, architecture, real estate, databases, research, data mining and analysis, or any other stuff covered by articles of this website, comments about my works, errors to report, suggestions, critics, etc, feel free to contact me via LiveChat (in lower-right corner of screen), Skype: teoalida, or email: [email protected].
Housing around the World, research and educational articles
I love exploring the world to study architecture, housing and living conditions, and write articles. While articles themselves do not produce money, they help home seekers, students, researchers and some businesses, increase website audience and occasionally people offer to pay me to do other works.
Starting from 2009 I wrote 14 pages for various countries/regions: North America, Latin America, Europe, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Africa.
AutoCAD design
My dad is using AutoCAD since 1995, I learned AutoCAD myself while watching him working and made my first drawing in 1998, over years I made numerous drawings from personal interest (hobby) as well as working for my parents or for customers who contacted me via this website.
Low number of customers paying for AutoCAD drawings and low payments made me (after 2017) to outsource most of AutoCAD projects to other people less busy than me, price for Paper to CAD conversion services: $10/hour.
Word books & Excel databases – data entry and web scraping services
My dad encouraged me to write documents in Word like a book since 1997, but I learned also Excel myself and since 2003 I am using it more than Word. Today, sales of Excel databases is my primary source of income. Word documents and books turned hard to sell, but I continue to write, just that I write blog articles instead of Word documents.
For many years, manual data entry from books (as seen in this video), or manual copy-pasting from websites, was my only way of creating databases. I do web scraping since 2015, coding a bot that visit a list of given pages, copy specific data from each page and put it in an Excel / CSV file automatically, at rate of few pages per second.
By today I made over 100 databases related to geography, real estate, automobiles, electronic products, game items, sports, etc. Due to high number of customers demanding such services, I create new databases only when multiple people request same data.
Housing in Singapore
I studied Singapore housing in more depth than any other country. The first page HDB floor plans 1930-2010 I published in 2009 and expanded over years to the point I had to split up into multiple pages.
Currently the Singapore section have over 20 pages, including Interactive map of HDB blocks (alternative to official HDB Map Services) and similar map for Condos. Click block pins and view year built, number of floors, number of units breakdown by flat type, upgrading programmes, typical floor plans, chances to get SERS, etc. You can also apply filters to display on map only HDB blocks that meet certain criteria.
Housing design – the Virtual City
The interest for architecture dates back from childhood but only in 2008 (at 19 years old) I started serious work, making “Teoalida’s Virtual City” with dozens building designs, constantly improved, floor plans and 3D models designed in AutoCAD for personal pleasure / artistic purpose, but fully livable homes that can be built (virtual city = because I am not a developer, I don’t have capital to build them).
Since 2010 I designed landed houses too, detached, semi-detached, terraced and cluster houses (landed condominiums), some been inspired from various housing around the world, some being my original concepts. And all this without taking any architecture courses!
My works been a source of inspiration for many students. Out of the few hundreds sketches and experimental designs made, I published over 50 apartment designs and over 50 house designs for free viewing, with option to purchase AutoCAD DWG files and make changes yourself.
Housing design – architectural services
Adding chat box on website in 2012 made people to contact me easier, some advising me to pursue a career in architecture and make big $$. I learned to make “construction drawings” according building codes of various countries, fully-dimensioned floor plans, elevations, sections, as required for building permit, but…
…been overwhelmed by non-serious people from third-world countries who wanted FREE house plans, serious PAYING customers were rare and some of them asked numerous design changes, wasting entire month working on a single family house, making me unhappy regardless of sum paid.
Over years I met few licensed architects, all having similar difficulties in convincing customers to pay, even after being in business for 20+ years they struggle to earn $2000/month, a sum that I personally achieved in 4 years of database business. Consequently in 2015 I stopped offering architectural design services, to focus on databases.
Customers who can pay an architect, I can connect you with one of partners, licensed architects who do not have other jobs and can work whole month designing a custom project for you.
Palace design in AutoCAD
Probably the most beautiful piece of art that I ever made in AutoCAD, this 3D model is a virtual reconstruction of a REAL building built in early 20th century and abandoned without being ever finished.
Originally designed voluntarily in 2006, I improved it in 2009 and 2014 to show you my abilities of 3D modeling in AutoCAD and geometry design.
There are several architecture software (ArchiCAD, Blender, Chief Architect, Revit) that can do better job than AutoCAD, but the little money earned from this type of services do not justify buying more licenses.
Furniture & interior design in AutoCAD
From the same passion for AutoCAD and 3D modeling, beside houses and apartments I made some furniture items too.
My mom been working in a furniture factory in 2001-2003, moment in which I designed few items for her. Other furniture items I designed to furnish my own apartment. Lacking other customers prevented me gaining experience in interior design like in architectural design.
Real estate database – data mining and analysis
One of my biggest research and data mining projects is the Singapore HDB Database, a table of 14000+ buildings with block number, street address, postal code, year build, number of units breakdown by flat type, upgrading programmes, etc. An original compilation of data centralized from multiple sources plus own research.
Started in 2009 from personal interest and put ON HOLD because the potential of turning into a business was under question, after discovering potential of Car Database, I resumed working at HDB Database in 2014 and finalized in 2015, after hundreds hours of work, it has been purchased by several real estate companies, home insurance, telecommunication, door to door services, etc.
In addition of HDB original research, I am offering Condo Database made via web scraping, and HDB Resale Flat Prices Database that include over 60 charts made in Excel.
Another project is the Hong Kong Housing Database, table with 1000+ public and private housing estates, made in 2011 for an insurance company (my first large project done at customer request and not as personal interest/hobby).
Car database – research and data analysis
Due to my passion for automobiles and obsession for doing research, tables and statistics, in 2003 I started making voluntarily a car encyclopedia, several lists in .DOC format and tables in .XLS format which allows you to sort and filter car models. This include a table with 20,000+ car models sold in Europe that took me over 1000 hours of work!
The hobby turned into a business since 2012 when I found professionals looking for such data, I improved European databases and created new databases for America and Asia using web scraping and as 2015, they have been purchased by hundreds companies including car parts, insurance, shipping, as well as web designers and mobile app developers.
Car design in AutoCAD
One of my older passions was for automobiles, since 2000 I designed side views of few real cars in Paint, also my own car models, in Paint and later in 3D in AutoCAD.
“Teoalida’s Cars” are not very modern or sport cars, but they are designed with as many details is possible, and rendered with all photo-realistic effects available in AutoCAD, to showcase my skills of 3D modeling.
Last car I designed was in 2007 (photo), it took me about 100 hours of work, too much time for its value. Since 2008 I moved to architecture where I can design a house in few hours.
Map design in AutoCAD
My interest for architecture and urban explorer made me to design maps too!
Between 2004 and 2007 I voluntarily designed artistic maps for Ploiesti and nearby towns, that included block numbers and floor height. I made vectorial drawings in AutoCAD then colored in Paint and distributed freely in PNG. The work took a lot of effort and did not had much use I abandoned it.
In 2009-2010 I also made a very basic map of Singapore in AutoCAD which I published on website in 2016. In 2018 I made a new map to sell it to companies who want a wall map in their office. Low demand for such printed maps made me to STOP drawing maps in AutoCAD indefinitely.
I moved towards making online interactive maps, like Singapore map of HDB blocks made in 2017, where you can click each block and see block information from a database.
Gaming – The Sims housing
Many architecture students if they love games, they do play The Sims game. Me too, I play The Sims series since 2003 and The Sims 2 became my favorite game, in which I practiced urban planning talent by building large neighborhoods with non-functional apartment blocks in 2006-2008, before moving to architecture in AutoCAD. I also built over 50 functional houses which I offer for free download on my website.
After 2013 I seldom played game and built new houses, but I keep website running and since 2018 I added information about game itself, such as list of houses available in each neighborhood / world that comes with the game, which turned a successful way to increase website traffic, compared with my personal builds that seems to get little audience.
Web design
I am not saying that I am a web expert, but I made my website myself without any professional help! I have high SEO knowledge that helped my website to be on 1st page of Google for dozens of keywords and raising traffic from 100 visitors per day in early 2012 to 800 visitors per day in 2014.
My coding knowledge is limited to HTML, CSS and WordPress platform. 90% people do not know even such basic stuff, so feel free to contact me if you need a little help in website building or optimization. I do not know PHP so I cannot make custom websites and I do not intend to become a full-time web developer.
Over years I made several friends in webdesign which I can give your projects to, if you need custom website development.
Notes & frequently asked questions
I get often dumb questions like this:
What do you do for a living?
Why did you made these projects?
What is your profession / primary job?
How do you earn money? I do not see any ads! (really dumb question)
Why did you created this website? (question often from Singaporeans surprised by amount of housing information offered without being a real estate agent)
I never had a full-time job. I made a living by working for customers paying me to do various projects (freelancing), but today most of money come from selling completed projects (online store).
I started website in 2009 to show off my works, a portfolio primarily for AutoCAD buildings designed by me after a deep research of Housing in Singapore and other countries. I linked it from freelancing websites hoping to get people hiring me, but I never won any project. Because very few people are interested in someone’s imaginary building designs, I published the housing research too few months later, to share my knowledge and help Singaporeans with free information.
Teoalida is one of the dozens names invented by me at 6 years old, and the name I am known by my real life friends since 12, this is the reason I bought domain name teoalida.com. Nowadays most people come here for specific information that I offer on my website, and less for knowing the author / person behind website or his other projects.
Number of people emailing me was low, but in January 2012 I found live chat software that allowed visitors to talk with me anonymously, give feedback or request projects. The website and my whole life started evolving based on suggestions and project request from people like YOU! By this way I abandoned most of non-paid hobbies to focus on projects paid by customers (projects done before 2012 were voluntarily / personal interest to “show off” to friends, rather than being hired by someone to make them). Website became a MESS of articles and projects that have nothing in common except author.
Making projects on request basis (freelancing) was stressful, especially in architecture where only 10% of people contacting me have paid me and ONLY after seeing (part of) work done, in 90% cases we just wasted hours chatting without success in convincing customer make a deposit before starting actual work (example). Paying customers made me stuck on their projects longer than expected, causing a domino effect of delays for other customers until they hired someone else.
I noticed customers preference to buy completed projects, and data selling turned more successful than architecture (when someone ask something I don’t have, I offer to create database via web scraping, some refused saying “no thanks, I am looking for a database ready available“). Website traffic rose from 200 visitors/day in 2012 to 800 visitors/day in 2014 and I reached my target of $1000/month in 2015 from sales of databases, so I no longer need to create on projects on request basis (unless I can sell to multiple people). I started again doing voluntary projects to increase website audience which indirectly turn in more sales.
Per month the website have ~60,000 visitors, ~600 contact me via live chat (90% of chats I answer in less than 1 minute), few more contact me via email, Hangouts and Skype, ~60 buying something or paying a service, while the rest are thankful for free information offered on website (as 2019, in 2020-2023 figures declined a little). See full statistics.
I don’t put ads on website because estimated earnings from Google AdSense would be $300 for 60,000 visitors, customers may see ads of competitor services, and I will lose sales worth more $ than what I earn from ads.
Can I hire you for a project?
See above traffic figures and imagine how many people battle for my services, I would need to sit at least 48 hours/day at computer if I were to do myself all projects that people request me to do. I can earn more $ doing SEO and marketing to increase sales of existing projects, rather than increasing number of projects.
I am a little man with BIG responsibilities: to provide regular updates for few hundreds companies who purchased databases from me. Consequently I am NOT a freelancer that you can hire to “do a project just for you”. Instead, you can suggest ideas of new projects if you want something that I don’t have already. I do new projects depending by available time and (unless your project can be done in few minutes – example) only if multiple people are interested, and post them on website so anyone interested can make payment and download it in seconds.
You are also welcome if you need 10-minute consultation, having pre-purchase questions about my projects, etc. But if you request an architectural design or anything else that takes hours/days and have NO USE for anyone else than yourself, I won’t spend my personal time helping you, instead I connect you with my partners offering services starting at $10/hour (useful if you need long-term workforce).
Can I work for you?
If you are architect, interior designer, programmer (experienced in data mining), or real estate agent, you are welcome to be my part-time partner and I can pass you leads occasionally.
Some customers suggested me opening a company and have a team ready to do projects without delays. Other customers refused to work with my team and insisted to have project done by myself. Lacking constant flow of customers + difficulties described above) in convincing customers to pay in advance for a project that will be completed in X days (opposite than buying completed projects), is NOT viable to hire full-time staff for each type of service people may ask for.
What is all this mix of stuff on same website?
Are you CAD designer, researcher, database provider, gamer, or…?
I am ALL OF THEM! This is PERSONAL website and my life is very diverse!
Several people suggested making separate websites, one for Singapore housing, one for CAD services, one for database services, etc. But having all them on same website turned helpful, Singapore pages got lots of traffic plus Facebook likes and tweets helped whole website to appear higher in Google, if the services were on a separate website, it would have not getting much traffic and customers.
Some drawings and databases are related to Singapore housing. I also got several collaboration offers from foreign companies who did not visited /design or /database sections directly, they found my website while looking for info about Housing in Singapore or Housing around the World then clicked About me page, saw that I am also in architectural design and data research and contacted me for paid work.
Do you get paid to chat with people? Do you help people for free?
I am NOT employed, affiliated with any government or company, or get paid “to help people”. I am independent, this is my personal website and only YOU can pay, for example if my chat with you helped you to decide to buy a $500,000 property, I appreciate if you can donate to paypal @ teoalida.com whatever sum you like. Example: someone paying $20 for architectural consultation.
Or spread the word on Facebook (especially if you have 2000+ friends or are in a group with 10000+ members, may be more useful for me than donating $20). Try to promote website content and NOT me as person. For example you can post “I found a great website full of information about housing: www.teoalida.com“. DO NOT post “I found a great guy who helped me at homework, go to www.teoalida.com and contact use site owner via his chatbox, he answer any DUMB question in seconds” (in May 2018 during one week I received few dozens strange questions that I could not answer, the fact that most were from United States visiting homepage www.teoalida.com rather than specific subpages, raised suspicion that they were TOLD by someone to “ask Teoalida any questions you have”).
While a short chat consultation is FREE, the research, drawings and database services are NOT FREE. This is how I make a living. If you are NOT PAYING for any service you are advised to not chat too much.
Thank you very much. A great job from a very passionate person.
Hello Teo!
I just downloaded the data I bought from you yesterday. Do you have some internal unique row key,which you could include in the data set. I would be so much easier in the future if I decide to buy more data (collums) from you and we update with new rows (models). I also found a few things I believe is errors which you might wanna improve. Do you want we to communicate errors I spot so you can improve quality on your side?
Audi TT third gereration, Make: Audi TT => Audi
Audi 60/75 Variant, Body: Ko =>K
Ssangyong Rexton: Drivetrain: E=>Z
TWR Sagaris: Drivetrain: 4=>A
Drivetrain: All H =>R
Honda CRX: YearsSold: 1987-1898 =>1987-1992
Citroen Aircross: Years sold: 2013- => 2013-____
Renault Captur dci 90: Engine: 5=>F
Grand Cherokee 3.6 V6 FlexFuel: Fueltype: BE => ETH
Chevrolet Volt: FuelType: ?=> E
Br
Jonas
Keep up the good work!
I just purchased the HDB resale flat prices 2008 – 2013 database. Overall the purchase process worked well and I downloaded the database just after completing the purchase on PayPal. The database is just as promised, and the zip file included three different versions of the database (original, enhanced and merged) as different excel documents. A few minor difficulties I encountered are below:
I had a little trouble getting a different database out of my cart before checking out on PayPal, but it was solved by clicking the “Clear Cart” button.
My credit card uses USD, so PayPal tried to convert SGD to USD before charging me. However, it kept warning me that the exchange rate had changed since I clicked the button to accept the purchase, and asking me to accept the purchase again with the new exchange rate. If you experience the same problem, I recommend choosing the PayPal option to buy the database in SGD currency and have your bank apply the exchange rate.
Gmail sent the email with the download link to my spam folder, but Teoalida warned me this might happen, so I checked my spam folder and found the email right away.
Thank you for collecting this data and making it available for download! This really helps with my research.
I tried to make this on line service work , sorry to say the guy was not able to convince me he was a professional, his e mails rude and not helpful , glad I realized this in the few e mails between us , I want nothing more to do with this person and believe it best to have personal contact and plans drawn up with people who can visit the site and offer advice , this person does not offer this service , I would only say buyer beware ..,
This guy seems that have mistaken me for living in Philippines… I do not know what is best to build for rental, and he claims me rude and not helpful… that is VERY SAD!
And sorry for sending a pre-made floor plan instead of drawing a new floor plan for you, but we were undecided what to design.
As coincidence, I done for a previous customer a block for similar land size https://www.teoalida.com/design/sketches/7x12m-block.png 7x12m block for 7x16m lot and if you want to keep 1.5m on sides it fits well… but what do you want to build more exactly? how many rooms per apartment? Alternatively… studio units https://www.teoalida.com/design/Philippines-Tiny-Apartments.png. Give me some comments before I can design a new floor plan for you.
Thank you for your prompt reply , Impressed Sir .. look for that piece of land I would like to build either a block of four small apartments all 2 beds if possible,? or plan B just two bigger terraced houses again two beds , might be bedroom one big enough for a double bed some storage room space for a wardrobe , bedroom two, if not enough space for a double bed then enough room for a a single or bunk bed + some storage room ie space for a wardrobe in whatever we build, see e my previous mail below , to tell you the truth cost of either build and rental income of both builds would be the deciding factor of which to build sure you would understand, and I wondered what your thoughts on the two options would be .although small I suppose either choice of what to build the fit and finish I will make sure is very high so as to make them desirable for who ever rents them and to Insure they love living there . very Impressed with your floor plans so far , but a rough sketch of those two floor plans and perhaps two terraced houses as well a rough sketch would be more than helpful, along with your comments of what best to put on that land, the two options above ..being a Pinoy you probably know what best to build for rental Thanks Rodney ..
I have no idea what made you to think that I am from Philippines or know what is better for rental, I designed many houses for people there but don’t know the real estate market, especially rental one…. you’re immigrant? Not local working in middle east or somewhere else overseas (as most of my customers are)? If you said to keep space in both sides of block (no firewall allowed?) then I am in doubt that you can build 4 units per foor. Unless you build as studio units. And indeed there are BIG buildings dominated by such studio apartments small as 16 sqm, but for sale, not rent. Who is buying that? Do filipinos really love tight spaces or they buy what the corrupt developers are building?
I am retired sold my business bought a piece of land , more able than at least some of your customers to be able to build on my land , Your attitude is aggressive and down right unhelpful , I wish you every success but somehow doubt it unless you take an anger management course , I do not want to deal with you anymore , I will get in a professional in , on line you are not getting the best guys so it seems .
Indeed… I am not professional. If you want, go to a professional and PAY him for every advice that personally I offer FREE.
Great works!
Hey would you be able to do up a scaled layout plan for a small restaurant? Do let me know your availability and charges. Thanks in advance.
Do you have a paper or JPG floor plan that needs to be converted into an AutoCAD drawing? Or I should come with my own floor plan? I am experienced in making own floor plans only in residential field. But give me a try…
I think your portal has a wealth of information more than HDB does, at least what we can see from the internet.
Good info for value property investors in Singapore.
URL: valueinvestingsingapore.sg (dead website)
this man is awesome
Great works! info. for housing is valuable