Renting a Property - First Step

Renting a house is not as easy as ABC. Couples of things to consider.

First, you have to think who do you want to rent to. Who is your targeted tenant? Are you looking for a families, college students, single, expatriate or company.. The best tenant target would be company or expatriate as rest assured, the payment timing is sharp as normally company or expatriate via hiring company will do a standing instruction to your bank account at the pre determined date every month. So, less hassle for you to chase your tenant should there be any delay. Renting to a company and expatriate will normally expose to potential higher rental rate. Some of my friend who owned condominiums in Hartamas fetched a reasonable above market value for fully furnish units.

Related with targeted tenant, you may want to consider to rent it as basic (without any furnitures), partly furnished (with some nessecities furnitures, normally, kitchen cabinet with hud and hob as well as 1 unit airconditioner at master bedroom) or fully furnished (with completed furnitures in all bedrooms, living hall, dining hall and kitchen). Anyway, the rental may be differ base on the criteria. If you invested RM10000 for fully furnished, advisable to add another RM400 to RM500 into rental considering 2 years rental contract.

Second, how to advertise your unit. Nowadays, with speedy technological and informative environment, we could have an access to couples of free website like rumahsewa.com or the best is mudah.com.my. I experienced a very good moment using mudah.com.my when I advertised my condo unit in JB. The unit has been rented out within less than 2 weeks from the advert date. And to my liking it was free.. :)

Third, how you choose your tenant. This is a real head ache. You do not know anyone so to speak when you first met them while viewing your property. Anyway, we could base on few tips. By appearances... When you talk to people, try to judge the way they speak, their professionalism and their appearances, whether neat and tidy. Ask their profession, ask their company contact number and business card. And how long they want to rent the property..? Who will they bring to stay with..? If you deal with an agent, let the agent bring the potential tenant together. Interview your potential tenant. Ask where they rent before and ask for previous landlord contact number. If possible, call the company they work to confirm their job designation. So you don't have to worry their capability to pay the rent. Call their previous landlord to make sure their rental payment pattern before. This is just a basic process to make sure you choose the right tenant... :). And don't forget to politely negotiate with them the rental rate. Do not fall in the trap of loose negotiation. Remember, we, as a landlord are doing business. Our property is our business and business must be profitable. Do not rush to close the deal. Don't worry, give them a fair statement by saying, you want to finalize all potential tenant first. Give a time line to finalize who you choose. At the end of selection, notify the rest of interested tenant with nice comfort word, so that you are not burning the bridge with them. Who knows they will be your tenant in your next property..

Forth, after you choosed your tenant, now it is time to get the deposit. Normally, the deposit consisted of 2 months rental deposit + first month rental. Then, request for utilities deposit as well, normally a month rental. The deposit will make you sleep in sound, in case there will be any delay in future monthly payment along the way and when the contract ends, should be any outstanding utilities amount, could be settle using the deposit.. And hey, the deposit will be good enough for you to start thinking to find another quality property.. :)

Fifth, legal side.. You may want to make it as formal agreement with adviced from appointed lawyer, and make an agreement to be stamped as well. This is good as if there is any breach of contract, you are protected by law. Get a lawyer won't cost you a bomb. It could be as low as couple of hundreds ringgit only depending on your property type and rental. Some more, make it look like a professional dealing.. :) Remember, renting a property is a serious business.. ;-)

A Vintage

I wish this could be real of mine... sleek, king of d machine ~~ the real big boy toys which are simply not for tom, dick and harry.... a real statement of over achievement, wondering if it will remain as my figment of imaginations............ zZzZzZ ;-)

Pizza ViENneSe

I am not that fancy to this Italian staple except my wife. Spare for this tho, simple.. soft dough topped with generous flow of home made bufala campana mozarella slapped with vegies and dashes of salsa makes it simply... savoury... owhh, those tomatoes when it burst, yummy

The Accident

The black 28 Jan 2009
I was on my way back to JB from KL via ELITE highway nearby NSE intersection. It was heavy rain, and I drove fairly slow.. 90km/h. Bad luck and Al Mighty's faith. At km 44, suddenly my car was skidded and bumped to right divider, turned 540 degree, banged 3 angle of my car. The front left side was the worst hitted. But thank God, my life was spared, my kids not with me.. And God giving me a lifeline to keep breathing... I was lucky there was no lorry or bus as it might hit me. The same spot, post 10 minutes after mine was wrecked, another brand new Benz was skidded and crashed. Pondering me to re-think...........

Fully Utilize Banking Facilities (Serie 1 - Car Loan Reschedule)

Nowadays, with life expenses soared and skyrocketting days after days, many of us think of how to reduce the debts and increase our cash flow.., surely. There are many ways to work on it.. The principle is, managing the debts commitment and in the same time able to maximise saving. Rescheduling car repayment period is one of the option. But this is applicable to those who doesn't have an intention to sell and upgrade their car to new one. Example.., one guy had a 3 yrs old hire purchase loan with a full settlement value of 58k. He signed up that HP loan which needed him to repay RM1400 per month with an interest of 3% per annum for a period of 7 years. He planned to reschedule it to increase his cash flow. The bank offered him to prolong another 3 yrs with the same interest rate. He pays RM840 per month and save RM560 a month by doing so.
Now, lets do some calculation. If he maintain current HP agreement and pays RM1400 per month for another 4 yrs (48 months), it will cost him RM66672 to finish the repayment at the end of the tenure. If he rescheduled and pays RM840 per month for another 7 yrs (84 months), he needs to repay RM70560 to finish the repayment at the end of the tenure, which means will cost him about RM3888. And if he save the balance of RM560 in unit trust (ASB for instance) which he made from rescheduling and considering 48 months to finish the payment if he maintained current HP agreement, he will save a whopping RM26880. In reality, the reschedule option will cost him RM3888 but instead he will manage to save RM26880. Good option isn't..?

Milan and Bergamo, Italy, 1-3 August 2008

A great tour at Milana and Bergamo. Milan is the city of fashion designers, on par with Paris, Madrid, NY and London. You can find almost everything with regards to fashion, from Chanel, DKNY, CK, Guess etc etc.. Just prepare a money and you are in heaven... :)
For us, the only thing that we can afford is sight seeing.. Low budget.. Hey.. who cares, anyway, we applied smart traveler during this trip. We are able to book a flight for below 100 pound for a return of 2 departing from Liverpool. And we are able to book a 4 star Best Western hotel chain for below 150 euros consisted of 2 night stay.. Smile... Once in a life time experience.. ;-)
For just 28 euro, you are able to explore all important 'must visit' attraction sight at Milan.. named Museo di Stora Naturale, Piazza Fontana, Torre Velasca, Piazza D' Uomo ---> This is the highlight mates... Teatro Alla Scala, Castello Sforzesco ---> Another piece of highlight, S Ambrogio and Piazza Vetra.. and many more...





Trip to Bergamo is another breath taking experience.. Bergamo filled with so many fine architectures which can be seen at their buildings surrounding its town. Bergamo is just a 10 minutes bus ride from Oreo Del Serio International Airport, one of 3 international airport at Milan proximity..





Pizza, the famous Italian delicacies around the world.

The best way to explore Milan is to fly in via Ryan Air from any point of its hub.. Find a good deal online..

Mortgage Refinancing ~ Buying Additional Property

Buying a house is not to be a sole shelter anymore. It could be one of wise investment opportunities.. How about this.. Say 5 years ago someone bought a property at RM152k and now its value jumped to RM210k.. 5 years back, interest rate at 7% (6.75%+0.25%). 30 years 90% loan had cost him an installment of ~RM1k per month. Now many banks offered very good rate, for instance BLR minus up to 1.85%.. If he refinance the property with flexible home loan with an option of free moving cost (FMC), and he gets 90% loan of RM210k house value, his installment will be at ~RM900 a month. And he will get roughly RM60-70k nett considering his full settlement with previous bank at RM130k-140k. That is a handsome sum.. Forget about he will prolong his house repayment period at the flip side.. That is why he should look for flexible loan which will enable him to make pre-payment at any time.. Definitely his income will be increase in future. If he maintained his lifestyle or increase it by a lil bit only, he could channel all his salary increment into the home equity and lessen its repayment period.. Brilliant strategy rite..? Now, what he can do next..???? Precisely...., buying the next property... Say, buying a condo or service apartment in good location, he will need at most RM15-20k as a down payment.. And he still have a balance of RM40-50k which he could spare it as an additional fund to repay the new housing loan at least for 3-4 years... Again, his income will increase in conjunction of first 5 years... So, he should not worry of being unable to pay the installment... And that second property will increase in value in the next 5 years off course for another refinancing exercise.. :) Indeed, he can rent it out as well.. If fully furnished condo/ service apartment at prime location, someone will be able to rent it out up to 2k a month.. See, he is making money out of it...