Real Estate Business in Malaysia and Impulsive Decisions

Dear Diary,

I think 2014 is a good year for myself. But, one of my main weaknesses is I cannot refrain myself on impulse buying especially upon committing myself on a long term deal. As for the example, I bought a car back in 2010 on a very impulsive buying without studying the car in advance in terms of the practicality, aftersales service, reliability and in a long run, would I be satisfied with the car? I thought I would but only after 2 years, I got bored with the car, luckily I managed to sell it off for a fair price and again, bought a brand new car also on a very impulsive manner. This time around, I am quite fortunate because the car has already clocked 95000+ kms in Mileage and so far so good! She still feels like a new car, and I totally enjoyed driving my car around. Of course, there always would be an impulse to change to a new car, especially with advancement of technology, it is very tempting to upgrade. But alas, I think for the time being, better concentrate myself in investment, rather than changing cars. I would like to write a post regarding my ride as she has been a very good servant to me, but this will come later.

So, to elaborate on my impulsiveness, so again I did a purchase of my first property in a very impulsive manner. I took a visit to the show house, I was very attracted to the nice layout and facade of the house, pay the booking on the first sight! I didnt factor in a lot of things before deciding to buy a property which is proven a very risky attitude when comes to Real Estate World. But I think I shouldnt be blaming myself because I do not have real exposure on buying properties, so this is main pakai tembak aje.

Oh yeah, I should write also on my property acquisition later.

Although my dad is a big time ex-architect and his vast experience in construction would be an advantage in acquring a property, he never really taught me how to identify a good property. So I would like to elaborate points, on what should a buyer take into account before deciding to purchase a property.

Pointers

1) Location
All the "Taikors" (Big Timers) in Real Estate World repeatedly tell this to investors, to main points of buying a property is LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. And then you factor in other things before you decided to buy a property. As for an example, my current stay in Bandar Tun Razak was tenanted for 18 years without an issue. Can you believe it? 18 years is not a short time you know, they even had their own house, but they decided to rent it out and choose to stay there. We had to give out 1 year notice before we were able to "get back" the house. It is just a 20x70, simple and run down single storey house without any luxurious look but the tenant stayed there for quite some time. This is merely because both primary and secondary school is just walking distance, banks and pasar are nearby, public amenities are a stone's throw away (balai bomba, public swimming pool, post office, stadium, LRT and Hospital). So this proves that, whatever the reason that you want to buy a property, make sure the location is extremely strategic so it would attract a lot of tenants and push the capital appreciation faster. Well from my point of view, Taman Tun Dr. Ismail is a very good location, is a low density residence, has many good accesses and highways, surrounded with numbers of malls and many other factor that makes Taman Tun Dr. Ismail is a excellent township. No wonder a small single storey house there has fetched for least 1 million in price tag.

2) Access
A good Property must have very good access, which is integral to a value of a property. It must have several well connected roads, close to the proximity of a highway, direct access interchange and alternative roads. My old house in Bandar Seri Menjalara (Which my dad had sold it off) had at least 4 accesses, connected with LDP and PLUS highway with some other smaller roads to Sri Sinar, Segambut, Kepong, and others. The place is very serene also, but as the development became aggressive at that side, now Bandar Menjalara is surrounded with so many things unimaginable. This is because, the accessibility makes the township fluorish. SP Setia built a direct interchange from NKVE to Setia Alam interchange, and this has transformed  Setia Alam from tempat jin bertendang to a self sustainable township, for example.

But nowadays, the developer tend to overly developing a residential area without providing good access first. Although the location is good, but bad access could prove a headache. For example, one condominium is just at a side of Kajang SILK, but you need to encircle it for about at least 5kms before reaching the entrance of the condo. And you have to crawl at the extend of busy Jalan Semenyih and some other smaller roads before eventually reach the condo. But still, the condominium was priced at 250k in 2011, and now subsale is around 420k. Looking up at Mont Kiara, it is cramped with too many high density condominiums and the access is poor, but yet the developer still constructing many high density condominiums there. I wonder how is the traffic around Mont Kiara during peak hours.

3) Public Transportations
This is definitely one of the biggest points when considering a property. Good access to the public transportations may attract many potential tenants, although the place is run down or some chow kia low cost apartments, especially if they are within walking distance. I have read in forums, and often I found statements that properties are shaken by nearby LRT/KTM commuters. The effects that these public transportations can exert are great. They will push the capital appreciation faster and surrounding developments too. Once they announce the MRT stations constructions, all this high end and high rise condominiums were launched. And they are not cheap. So, when MRT is fully constructed and available for service, I wonder how much the surrounding property would appreciate.

4) Aiming for the Greatest Capital Appreciation in a period of time.
Of course when you ask a layman on buying a property, they would say "hey, just buy, if you buy one confirm harga naik punya". This is not true you know, some of the property in bukit antarabangsa depreciates after awhile. And some of the properties only appreciate a little, when the owner sold it off he was at the loss actually. So considering this point, sometimes they would ask, are you buying for investment or for own stay? I didnt get this point initially. Actually what it really means is, as for investment, the property must appreciate at its greatest value from one period off time and then you can consider selling it off. For Example, Sentral Residence Kajang was priced at 350psf during launch in 2012, and now as for subsale, the price may have risen to 500psf in 2014. As for my house in Pajam, It is launched at 181psf in 2012, but for subsale, it has only risen to 220psf in 2014. So ask yourself, which is better for investment?

As for own stay, it didnt matter whether it appreciates or depreciates, you will still like the house anyway. Of course, you couldnt be happier if the place you stay had appreciated in case you would want to sell it off in the future. So take home message is, determine what is your goal before deciding on purchase.


Well I would continue to write some other time again because I am too lazy to write now. So, to be continued with several other points



5) First Bullet Theory
6) Reputable Developer
7) Township Vs Pocket Development (Niche Development)
8) High Entry Vs Low Entry?
9) Research

Banking and Finance Discrepancies an Unfair Treatment to the Clientele

Damn it!! Feels like strangling the person who is in charge of my property financing. I am super angry right now. This has put a dent in my trust to the bank.

I received a letter from my developer that the house has already completed it's 25% and 35% around two weeks back. So, the financier a.k.a the bank was supposed to release the money to the developer before it is due. Due date in on fcuking 7th January 2013. Now it is 5th and it's Saturday. Too bad I could not get in touch with the bank because it is Saturday. Straight away I called the developer and to inquire whether the money has been released already or not. To my greatest horror, they haven't released a single cent and payment is due this Monday. Thanks to the bank, now I am bound to the 10% interest rate per annum charged by the developer to the buyer. 25% progressive is about RM 42k, and I think I am subjected to the interest of 10%, which is about RM 4200. Holy shit!

I mean, come on. The bank should be professional in handling those matter. They have to be fair to their clientele right? When it is due it is due, release the money and I'll pay accordingly. Seriously what is the problem with this banks??? I'm not the type those who likes to bug, to call and to ask around every day because it irritates me and they will get irritated as well. They are not taking thing seriously because they are not subjected to the interest charged by the developer.

To be very honest and square, I should have called the bank earlier and inquire when will they release the money to the developer once I got the developer's letter already. Like what I did during the first 10%, call and ask repeatedly. It seems that I gained their confidence because the bank could handle the first payment in time. But look what happen to the subsequent payment? They haven't pay shit and I cannot believe this.

The nature of my work is not like some office admin stuff, working office hours, punch in at 8.00am, lunch break from 12.30 to 2.00 pm and go home at 5.00pm. Hell no! I have to be watching those monitors every damn day and sometimes I havent got any time to do some administrative thing. That is my job is all about. Have to come early, no lunch breaks, hardly can be released to do some banking, or JPJ or tax or any craps around, and once in a while I could punch out a little bit earlier when all the tasks has been completed.  Feels like I should have a secretary to handle this matter. Luckily, I got some good friends who are willing to help out on this paperwork stuff. Really appreciate his honesty and willingness to help out.

Old people saying is true enough, people learn from mistakes they made and experience is the best teacher all around. This is the first time for me to be involved in purchasing of property so I am a little inexperience about it. So, for a change of strategy and friendly reminder towards myself, I have to plan ahead of time :

1) To call up the developer early and ask when is the next payment is due. I have already confirmed the date as for now.

10% - Payment Settled by both me and the bank on 13th December 2012
25% - Due this Monday (I'm stepping into the battlefield this monday. Shud I ask my trusted friend to help?)
35% - Due on 14th January 2013
45% - Due on 25th January 2013
As for the rest is still not confirmed yet.

2) Once receive the letter of progressive completion, to straight away call the bank and irritate them multiple times. If I am not doing this, then the same incident will recur.

3) To be very clear upon the instructions next time around. I missed the reminder letter little words written in italics saying "kindly follow-up with your financier for release of the loan on or before the last day for payment failing which interest will be levied into your account and interest at 10.00% per annum will be charged in overdue account".  The word follow-up carries a lot of weight here.

Ok, now I'm a bit calm down. Luckily I have got no customer around on this Saturday morning.

Jones in the Fast Lane

Hello all. This is the first time that I'm going to write in blogs. The main reasons of writing this blog is to improvise my writing skills and to ramble about anything that came out of my thoughts. My English has became for crappy and shitty ever since I left high school. 

Talk about happiness? I'm quite satisfied and happy with life at the moment. During my childhood days, I used to play a computer game titled "Jones in the Fast Lane". There are four criteria to be met in order to win the game. The criteria are Career, Money, Academics and Happiness. Well, I graduated from a local university with a degree, have a stable job with satisfactory income level, I'm driving a decent car and just completed purchasing my first property. Those things made me happy indeed. Of course there is always a vision to achieve greater goals but as for this moment, I'm generally content with myself. 

During childhood I loved playing the game so much until my mother banned it to be played. And eventually the game was missing from my hands because it was played via a floppy disc back then. It can only be accessed through MS-DOS, there is no savvy-levy Microsoft Windows to copy or to store the game. Once the disket got infected or corrupted, you can never get to play those game anymore. What an awesome childhood days I had. Well, the game is really well constructed, imagine you are just barely 6-7 year old and you are already thinking about shaping your own future! I have to write about the game, some other time.

I'm still waiting for my ipad mini to arrive. Waiting is killing me, as it is scheduled to arrive on 17th January. I'm tried looking for it in machine store in KLCC, The Mines, Alamanda but to no avail. So I decided to purchase it online using debit card. It is gonna be the first gadget I have ever bought in 5 years time, previously being the iphone 3GS. Man, I have been using the phone for 5 years, and it is still intact. I love apple products for being very durable. My phone has been accidentally dropped to the floor million times and even being soaked in water but it is still usable. It is like indestructible.

Some people might say I am doing locum too frequent. Maybe I'm a little too aggressive looking for side income but what the heck. That is what I'm good at and I really enjoy doing it . As long that I am not oppressing or use or annoy anyone, no one can complaint right?

 

I'm longing for holidays and I want to go to Redang. But now, it is best to be avoided because of the rainy seasons. I missed redang and snorkeling too. 

Okay, times up. I thought its gonna be easy writing up a blog and just ramble on whatever you want but I found it quite difficult to be honest. Maybe I have to write up in Rojak or Campur-campur as my extent of vocabulary is extremely narrow.

p/s : I think I'm going to list down my wish lists first. It is gonna be a long term wishlist.

1) To own at least 2 properties by the age of 30, 5 properties by age of 40 (Currently 1 but still in progress)

2) To get marry and have children
3) To visit Barcelona Stadium, Camp Nou
4) To see Malaysia qualify for world cup

5) To open a burger stall

6) To further my studies 

7) To see my parents live until the age of 80 year old

8) To go for holidays in Maldives

9) To achieve a stable 5 digits income per month