landed house vs high rise – which one is better?

For those who have lived in both types of properties must have had their fair share of opinions based on the experiences developed during their stay. Likewise, there are a lot of debates for which one is better than the other; but actually there is no right or wrong. This is because it all depends on the individual preferences and the reason for the purchase.

Many buyers have a lot of concerns in terms of which types of properties would provide the best gains in the future – or better yet, in the short run. Again, this is all relying on the purpose of the buy – whether it be for own stay or investment. In this sense, below are the general comparisons that are being outlined to help readers or as we can say “future buyers” to better imagine the bigger picture for which property types most suited for them to buy:

Concerns	Landed Unit	High Rise Unit
Price	Comparing between the landed and high rise unit in a same area, landed unit would have higher price as compared to high rise units	Comparing between the landed and high rise unit in a same area, landed unit would have higher price as compared to high rise units
Space	Bigger space and would normally have extra home areas such as yards, two floors and gated. Normally ideal for individuals with steady income or individuals with growing number of family members	Smaller space which is ideal for young workers or young couples just starting out in the working sector
Security	Unless the area is gated and equipped with security guard services, landed properties have higher tendencies to burglary cases	Generally secured especially for apartments or condominiums with personal card functions which only allows residents to enter or exit the premise more conveniently. This is coupled with the tight security normally set at lobby section of the property
Facilities	Normally supplied with playground and security guard services only	On general, newer projects will include security services, swimming pool, sports facilities, linked to shopping malls or public transport stations and many more
Rental yield	Currently, in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, rental yield would be between 2% – 4% according to The Edge Markets.	On general, according to The Edge Markets, high rise properties will have better rental yield as it is equipped with better amenities, security and nearby public transports. With good investment entry based on research, buyers have higher chances of getting rental yield of above 5%
Parking	Larger parking area	Most projects allocate at least 1 car park
Privacy	Provides a much more quiet environment especially for homes that are away from the cities	With the units closed to one another, we will normally be more exposed to noise level from nearby neighbors and other units across one another.
Maintenance	Higher maintenance fees as landed homes are larger in size. On top of the maintenance for home repairs (which happens but not all the time) there are other maintenance to be made especially for your garden. Still if you are in a guarded facilities, you would also have to pay the security services being rendered	Normally high rise owners would normally pay maintenance fees for the securities and amenities provided in the apartment such as swimming pools, securities and garden area
Commercial titles	Generally, landed properties will be designated under residential title	Buyers would need to check whether the units they purchased are under commercial or residential titles. Properties under commercial title will have to pay higher tax rates as compared to units under residential ones

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Now that you have an overall view between landed and high rise properties, hope it helps you to choose better based on your current life options – whether to buy for own stay or for investments. Either way, there is no right or wrong. What matters is that you choose the best decisions based on your needs, your family needs, your affordability and most of all the option that makes you happy and one that would impact your life positively and the short run and the long run.

What is the difference between Freehold VS Leasehold properties?

With the ever growing population which resulted in the rampant property development, the number of freehold land are slowly diminishing in numbers hence opening more roads for leasehold properties. However, there is still a dilemma going around for many property buyers to incline more on freehold land as it offers better edge in terms of…

by raziq rosman 30th May 202130th May 2021

4 Secrets You Should Know to Get Your Loans Approved

Before you head out straight into applying bank loans, there are few checks you must make to ensure high chances of approval. I previously had the chance to have a conversation with a banker who now becomes a businessman and he shared something incredible. You might be wondering “how do I know what to check?”…

by raziq rosman 29th Feb 20202nd May 2021

7 Best Stocks Investment Strategies To Minimize Risks

Just when the year was closing to it’s end last year, I managed to attend a stocks investment strategies class. It was held by none other than a market leader in it’s field (investment) – Kenanga Investment Bank. It was a full seminar to find the best stocks in the Malaysian market. More importantly, the…

by raziq rosman 16th Feb 20202nd May 2021

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What is the difference between Freehold VS Leasehold properties?

With the ever growing population which resulted in the rampant property development, the number of freehold land are slowly diminishing in numbers hence opening more roads for leasehold properties. However, there is still a dilemma going around for many property buyers to incline more on freehold land as it offers better edge in terms of value, long term prospects and rental returns. Is this really the case? We will have a brief comparison in the next section for a more holistic outlook to understand and hopefully to be able to gauge better property investment decisions moving forward.

1. Freehold

“The property and the land is owned indefinitely by the buyer”

When a plot of land is set aside to an individual for an undefined amount of time, that plot of land is called a freehold land.

In this case, the land is solely owned by the individual for as long as the land is not sold to other parties – you can say that it is forever owned by those who bought freehold land.

1. Leasehold

“The property is owned by the buyer but not the land”

When a plot of land is set aside to an individual for a defined amount of time, on average maximum 99 years of tenure and possibly lower, that plot of land is called a leasehold land.

Below are the major differences in detail for ease of understanding:

	Freehold	Leasehold
Property value	On average, steady appreciation over the long run in years	There are leasehold properties that have higher capital growth in the first 30 years. However, going beyong 30 years the value might stagnate. The value increment might increase again after renewal of the leasehold was made
Ease of selling	Transaction is much simpler and would take up average 4 months. However, during COVID-19 the process might take longer	On average leasehold properties would take up of 6 months – 1 year
Ease of financing	Banks do not have preference on this factor. Banks will mainly refer to borrower’s financial health.	Banks do not have preference on this factor. Banks will mainly refer to borrower’s financial health.

*Source: CIMB Bank Malaysia and Astro Awani Malaysia

Have a brief read on 5 Traits of a good property to invest and get good rental for clearer picture of property investing.

Hope this help you guys to invest better in properties with more awareness and knowledge! 🙂

7 Best Stocks Investment Strategies To Minimize Risks

Just when the year was closing to it’s end last year, I managed to attend a stocks investment strategies class. It was held by none other than a market leader in it’s field (investment) – Kenanga Investment Bank.

It was a full seminar to find the best stocks in the Malaysian market. More importantly, the seminar fully focuses on ways to find stocks that gives the best dividend profits for it’s investors – for short and long term period, which also touches on companies that can sustain in the next 10 years.

Do have a brief read on stock investing for beginners as a start if you find this a bit technical.

Before we start, our minds must have answers to the queries below:

“What is your mission?”

“What is the return you need?”

Generally, people invest and invest more to make more money – but for what purpose?

Is it to fund your children’s education?

Is it to buy your new house? be it for property investments or your dream house.

Let’s say you want to reach $1 million. You have to work backwards to calculate how much percentage of return on stocks investments you need to achieve to obtain the $1 million by the period you want.

An investor can only improve and track their investing performance by having a set of NUMBERS that they want to ACHIEVE. Bear in mind that – what you can measure, you can improve!

To cut short, here are the steps to find the perfect stocks~

1. Understand the business

When we invest in a company, we must know the ins and outs how the company generates their money. We must visualize how they make sales – this what we call sales funnel. When we have an understanding, ask this question, does the way the company generate sales make any logical sense?

When we discuss about stocks investment strategies, this is important to avoid investing in scam companies who only wants to steal your money, or worst, companies controlled by bad syndicates.

Here are examples of companies with reliable sales strategy:

a) Nestle

• Sales funnel : food products

• How do they generate money : Through retailers (hypermarkets, small retailers, etc.)

b) Poh Kong

• Sales funnel : Buy gold, design it, and sell them

• How do they generate money : Mark up the gold they made and sell it

Noticed how the companies mentioned above have clear ways on how they make money. Those are the companies encouraged to invest, not some WOW business model that sounds too good to be true.

2. Does the company have decent track record?

When it comes to stocks investment strategies, an investor should invest in a company with well known business background. A reputable company normally would have been with the characteristics as below:

a) Been in business for minimum 3 to 5 years

b) No unfair deals to shareholders especially minority shareholders (Didn’t pay back investors’ dividends for more than 2 times)

We can do a round check from news articles or the web if ever the companies have questionable histories. If they do, it’s advisable to avoid investing in them.

3. Is the company making profits?

There are 2 ways to look at this, the company:

a) Is at least profitable, be it in that year or for the last 5 years average

b) Even if they are making loss during the year, at least their revenue is growing – this is better if the company is making profits during the year

4. Does the company have good profit margin?

A good indicator on a company performing good is that, they are making at least 10% profit margin.

Here is the formula:

Profit margin ratio = Net Profit/Total Revenue

Say for example, Company Z is making 10% profit margin ratio – what does that mean? is that good or bad?

What this means —>

For every $1 sale, the Company makes $0.10 cents profit. A low performing company normally makes 5%, average companies makes 10%, while great companies makes 20% and above.

A good company have high profit margin because it has high pricing power. Hence, the company can demand higher product pricing in the market. This means higher returns (dividend income) for investors!

5. The company have good balance sheet

A general rule of thumb of a good business has the following 2 traits mainly:

a) A lot of CASH and ASSET

B) Low DEBT

We can analyze this by ensuring the following criteria:

• Net debt to equity advisable to be less than “1.0”
  • Formula: Total liabilities/Total shareholder’s equity (This formula indicates whether the company’s total wealth can support/cover the company’s total debt) – we won’t want to invest in a company that have more debt than it’s total wealth now, do we?

A high cash and asset but low debt-bearing companies are super great as it would normally have excessive cash to pay debts, get more loans for business expansion, and better yet – pay you your dividend incomes!

6. Good Return on Capital

This is one of the major part in the stocks investment strategies. Most investors would look at their return on investments they made, rather than the total sum amount of returns that they received.

A good rule of thumb when we invest in stocks is —-> 10%

A key way to find companies that can reach 10% are normally companies with POSITIVE operating activities as presented in their cash flow statements (CFS). This means that the company have sufficient cash to cover for their monthly or yearly business operations.

However, if the investing activities in the CFS is NEGATIVE in amount then it is alright as it may also indicate that the company is currently heavily investing in other assets. This is one of the financial statements normally produced by a company in its annual reports by their accountants.

P.S: its okay if you do not know what the term “cash flow statements” or “balance sheet” means because those are normally accounting knowledge related, I had a rough time myself understanding those reports. Click the links in green down there for more information on this.

Company financial statements/reports normally comprised as below:

a) Balance sheet

b) Cash flow statements

c) Income statements

7. Are the major shareholders reputable?

Normally a good business has highly reputable people working in the company. People who really go to work and to build the business – not just sitting idle waiting for their paychecks to come in.

It is highly encouraged to invest in companies where the major shareholders are the ones who have stayed to build the company through it’s ups and downs in uncertain economic conditions. People who have sweated through the years to raise the company like their own baby.

By doing so, we would be putting our money at the hands of the right people – key people who will ensure returns for the investors who put their money to grow the company, expecting profits from capital invested.

Conclusion

With most of the factors combined above then we may be able to at least minimize our risk of losing money on capital invested in stocks – that’s one less thing to worry in life.

Again, if you find it a bit challenging to understand this article then you can also start by reading stock investing for beginners!

On a side note, be aware to invest only the amount you are willing to lose. Sometimes it is better to save than to invest. And, there are also times when it is the best time to invest rather than saving. It depends on your risks appetite. But then again, if your money is enough to cover only your basic needs then maybe some considerations need to be given whether to invest or not.

A good rule to simplify this is to “spend money on your basic needs, commit to save a certain portion of it every month, then invest the difference“.

3 Ways To Shift Your Mindset From Scarcity To Abundance Mentality

Living from paycheck to paycheck may seem daunting. It was happy at the start but we get anxious at the end of every month as our money gets super low.

We might think that we can live off with the current salary and wait for the next increment. WHEN? In 3 years?! That’ll be quite some time to wait.

What if there is a faster way? There is! In these times, it’s worth to look into investments in properties, stocks, or businesses. Its alright if you are not sure about what to do – it’s natural when you are at the launching phase. First things first, every positive change starts with a positive mind. This is crucial to be able to achieve financial abundance. Here are 3 ways to cultivate the mindset!

• 

1. ASSOCIATE MONEY WITH POSITIVE THINGS

If you want to live a remarkable life, you must master your emotions, that is, to be able to understand and control them. This works the same for MONEY.

Our wants and needs which is centered from our emotions uses money as the means to obtain what we desire. Relief. Content. Embarrass. Pride. Guilt. These are some of the emotions we associate ourselves to money.

But then again, what if you can use money and produce positive feelings most of the time? This is where your BELIEFS about money comes into place.

“If I have money, I can be with my family on all times.” “I can do whatever I want if I have tons of money.” “I can do an activity as fast as possible if I have money” or “I can have the ultimate wardrobe!”. These are the examples of positive things we should associate ourselves when it comes to attract money in our life.

Tony Robbins, in his book, Money: Master The Game stated that “repetition is the mother of skills“. We can train our mind to be an optimist by repeating positive lines within ourselves. By doing so, achieve a life of financial abundance .

But then again, while you want to be an optimist, there will also be times when you will opt for an avoidance approach. An approach that at least keeps your mentality cushioned – things that might lead to pain. This is where we might say, “If i make money then people will judge me” or “I will be too old to enjoy money” “If I make money then I wont have time to focus being spiritual”. These are the lines we need to avoid saying to ourselves as it will train our subconscious minds not to become the best version of ourselves.

Being in financial abundance is better than being in financial scarcity. More money means you can pursue greater meanings in life beyond our financial means. You can HELP more people in need and who knows, they might be able to achieve what you did and in return – they will help people that used to live like they did. This is what is called the RIPPLE effect.

• 

2. FINANCIAL ABUNDANCE MEANS FREEDOM

Imagine you earn more than what you spend in every month of your life, wouldn’t that be GREAT?

All it takes is discipline and perseverance.

How?!

It is as simple as taking a portion of money from your monthly salary and dump it in your investment account. The key is to make sure the amounts compounded every year so that the funds grow bigger by every year. This is a sure way to skyrocket your way to financial freedom – you just have to try!

Now, we are only talking about the passive way to grow your funds. Not the active way yet.

Repeat this every day or every month and see how your figures will grow. The only condition is to keep the funds in the bank account as long as you can without withdrawing it as it will affect the growth rate of the fund. Well, until at least you have hit your targeted amount that you want to accomplish. Achieving financial abundance would be easier.

Always save what you have and in return, invest the differences!

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3. IF YOU CAN MAKE $1 THEN YOU CAN MAKE A MILLION MORE!

As mentioned before;

“Repetition is the mother of skills”

– Tony Robbins

Let’s say you figured a way to make $1. Why don’t you repeat the same process for another 1 million times?

It make things easier to see and process when you do an activity at one time after another. Take one step at a time. It will reduce your stress and at the same time makes it more bearable to achieve your dreams.

Because you are FOCUSED.

To achieve a dream, you must have goals. Goals are what you do everyday to achieve the ultimate purpose – in this case, called a DREAM.

A dream can be anything. Buying a mansion, become rich to give back to the poor, or as simple as opening a small business. And it may takes a certain amount of funds – for example, $100 a month to collect $1,200 to open a small lemonade drink business. This requires monthly goals that you have to meet to achieve the dream of having $1,200 after a year.

The higher you dream, the higher the price would be.

A part of achieving a dream would be to fail. Good ideas comes from failing. Failing is an inevitable process that every people must face to become successful. But you will regret less in your old days if you have failed in something. Because it means you have at least tried something to fulfill a dream in your life even if it means you have to fail.

But then again,

Fail and fail again until you succeed.

5 Creative Ways To Save For A House Deposit!

We will talk about the concept of down payment before we dive deep into the tips to save on down payment so that you will be able to get a better outlook.

Down payment means a portion of the total sales price of your home, which you will need to pay upfront to buy a house. The rest of the payment to the seller comes from your mortgage which will be approved by the banks upon successful purchase by you (as a buyer). Down payments are normally expressed as percentages which in usual cases are 10% from total property sales price. Normally, 3% will act as booking price with estate agents and 7% which you will have to pay to your elected lawyers in a form of bank cheques in order to proceed with your purchase process.

However, be mindful that the 10% deposit usually applies to subsale properties (properties that you buy from an existing owner). These days there are various numbers of buying schemes that allows you to buy homes without the deposit payment of 10%.

And here comes the tips.

TIPS 1: SAVE MONEY FOR THE BETTER

A great stock investment coach once advised me that, “you are your own fund manager!” – and I feel that it’s downright true. Regardless which investment vehicle you are going to use to multiply your hard earned money, nothing is better than knowing what you are investing into.

As a rule of thumb, most financial advisors would suggest saving your money 10%-15%. In other cases, you might also be able to save up to $1,300 per month from a salary of $3,000 – it’s possible. However, if you want to speed things up then you might want to consider saving up to 25%-30% of your net income. The savings will be further boosted by cutting off unnecessary expenses such as cancelling dining out every night, taking public transport to work, collect your tax refunds, save your bonuses or even as simple as parking in a free zone – it makes a huge difference.

Looking for ways to boost your savings further? Invest your savings or better yet, invest in businesses where you might think would make huge returns!

TIPS 2: DO A SIDE HUSTLE

With the rapidly changing economic landscape of countries globally, the gig economy is getting even more popular these days. Developed countries would try as best as they could to find the cheapest yet highest quality set of skills to get their errands done.

With reliable gig economy funnel such as Fiverr and Upwork, you can earn up to USD $25 an hour. This includes simple tasks such as translations, data entries, and even app designing – try it out!

TIPS 3: REFINANCE YOUR PROPERTY

Let’s say you have a house and it seems that the value of your property has gone way up after years of staying. Well, maybe it is high time you should research how many margins of loans you can get out of your home refinancing. It is a good way to consolidate and/or eliminate various debts with various interest rates that you wish would go away and focus on only one stream of debt with one interest rate.

However, be aware that refinancing would also mean to incur a new loan. Do your researches and make sure that you only leverage on loans in order to make more assets and money for you in the foreseeable future. Rich people are rich because they know how to leverage on loans to make their life better financially.

TIPS 4: BUY A CHEAPER CAR OR DOWNGRADE YOUR CAR

It is undeniably hard to restraint yourself from buying that car you have always wanted now that you have the financial means to maintain the car. However, cars are depreciating assets and its values drop every now and then.

If you are able to at least restraint yourself from buying that high-spec Honda City, and instead opt for cheaper alternatives – you will be able to save or invest the monetary differences between the two cars.

Better yet, you would be paying lower installments and lower maintenance fees for a second hand car and have better credit scores in eligibility to own a house!

Have a read down below to know how you can work your way to better credit scores (CCRIS) so that you can get better chances of getting your loan approved by banks :

4 Secrets You Should Know To Get Your Loans Approved !

TIPS 5: CONSIDER HOME BUYING SCHEMES

With the aid of governments and other related bodies, various housing schemes are introduced to help easier purchase of properties for home buyers these days – better yet, without the 10% deposit.

These includes many major government aids for home buyers across the globe such the “Own Your Home” scheme in UK and many major countries.

In addition, these are the schemes outlined in Malaysia to encourage more home buyers:

1. PR1MA
2. Skim Rumah Pertamaku
3. Perumahan Penjawat Awam 1 Malaysia
4. MyDeposit
5. RUMAWIP
6. Rent to own
7. BSN MyHome (Program Perumahan Rakyat)

Now that you have reached the end of this article, you sure are serious on finding ways of becoming a home owner. Best of luck to whatever goals you want to achieve by owning a house. Hope this article helps you in your quest. I am excited for you, the reader – for you will be embarking on a journey that will truly be life changing.

“The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there”

~Vince Lombardi

30 Ways You Can Make Use Of Your Land (Part 1)

1. Farming

There is a lot of things you can venture into when you are farming. You can farm into chillies, cucumber, fruits, & etc.

If you love gardening and you think you have green hands – this might be for you!

Let’s take an example,

A half acre land of chilli farming with 2,000 chilli trees can make roughly RM800 per week depending on the productivity of the trees.

There will be cultivating the plants for 6 months and harvesting season for 6 months. So if you want an all year round income, you would have half portion of your chilli trees planting in the first 6 months and another half portion being harvested at one time.

And, that’s one great example of a farming activity!

There are lots more plants you can cultivate to optimize your land – you just have to plan and start!

2. Public park

Public parks are an amazing way you can use to contribute towards society, especially for neighborhoods that don’t have one.

Families and friends will be able to have a get together session, it will be a place that encourage social development.

If you are thinking of monetizing it a bit, maybe you can setup a small ice cream shop or truck with a small coffee shop on the side. It’s good way to optimize the crowd coming in your public park.

3. Lighting carnival ground

I stayed in a small town and living quite near to the city centre. Once in a while there will be various carnivals held and one of them is a lighting carnival.

It’s a great way to attract crowd and it looks pretty at night!

The fee per person would be RM8. Imagine getting 100 customers in one night – that’s RM800! You can either buy the lighting equipments from local stores or have it custom made from factories.

4. Rental house

Indeed! The most common yet proven way to increase your cash inflows. Buying a land and build many homes on it may prove to be most cost effective strategy on the long run.

Look at it this way, one apartment might cost you RM160k with average rental RM700.

Whilst, if you buy a land that costs RM100k with additional cost of RM60k to build two extra units that gives you RM600 a month each.

Have a read on 5 Traits of a good property to invest and get good rental for starters!

It’ll be better if you can find cheaper alternatives. However, this may require more cash upfront but have greater benefits in the long run.

5. Museum

You don’t need too big of a land to do this. The size of your museum depends on how big you want to scale your business.

You can have museums ranging from shoplots, double storey house, a single storey warehouse or even a bungalow lot!

Take the 3D museum located in Melaka, Malaysia. They converted the bungalow costing around RM1million and renovated it with cool and attractive 3D graphics.

And now they are earning thousands a day from thousands of tourists!

6. Reserve forest

For those nature lovers who have a land or feel like contributing their land for the good mankind – this may be a viable way to make use of your land.

You can either monetize the land for a small fee or open it for public use at no charge at all!

People can enjoy camping or hiking or even have an enjoyable stay at a cozy treehouse – depends on you.

7. Office spaces for freelancers

Businesses like these are emerging rapidly these days with various new industries being created through technology breakthroughs.

These business would surely need office spaces.

Have a look at successful businesses like Wework! They managed to propel themselves in the office space business excellently throughout the world.

8. Shop lots

Nothing can go wrong with building shoplots at your land plot except that you need to ensure what kind of businesses would run well in your area.

The world these days still rely on brick and mortar or businesses. People still love to shop around physical shops. They may start of with window shopping but will eventually escalade to real purchase if they see what they like.

According to the The Balance, consumers still prefer to shop at a physical store even with the increase in online business – however, a combination of both online and physical store attraction would skyrocket your business.

9. Wedding space

People get married everyday all year round and it’s a growing business worldwide. Greater size of growing for wedding management companies who can help provide affordable wedding packages that covers all benefits from wedding space to providing catering services, wedding cards – you name it!

(insert sta of people get married) linked with revenue of wedfing biz.

10. Corporate space

Have you ever seen a building with a branded company branding logo banner on a building?

Do you believe that’s their building?

Some yes, and some no.

Truth is, some companies leased out from the owner of the buildings. They will lease out certain floors or the whole building – it depends. But the revenue generated from leasing a whole building can translate into rm…

11. Open Garden

Feels nice if you can contribute your land to an open garden. People would be able to have an evening stroll, jog or even picnic at your garden. Not a bad idea eyy!

12. Small petting zoo

Having a land big enough to build a zoo? You don’t necessarily need to build a ginormous zoo! A small one would do if you are an animal lover. Who knows, it might attract people from other States and you might expand your zoo.

13. Fishing pond

A good idea for those who likes fishing. If you have a land big enough then you might be able to build a pond conducive enough for fishes live. It won’t be a busy business, all you need to make sure the fishes gets food, the pond is clean, and have enough space for people to fish there.

14. Glamping?!

Camping in style! That’s Glamping! It’s a luxury way of camping where people can camp in comfort. There’s the tv, the cushy sofa, kitchen, conducive toilet, and you still won’t have to part ways with nature. It’s a revolutionized and great way to spend an outdoor holiday adventure.

15. Resort

Having a land big enough and a big capital – you might be able to start a resort business. It would require a huge upfront capital but would give a steady return in the long run if you plan well and the location is great.

16. Air bnb-style homestay

Maybe you have that house somewhere on the village side or that vacation home with gorgeous view bit you seldom stayed there – maybe you can consider putting it in Air bnb. At least you can earn a side income!

17. Nursery

So you love gardening and are passionate about plants – maybe starting a plant nursery would a good fit for you. If in the event you can plant something that can provide value to the market such as chillies or pumpkins then maybe you can start a class and help other people earn a living from your knowledge and skills.

18. Coconut/Palm oil estate

If you have a land ranging 5 acres to 10 acres then this might be an ideal business for you to start – probably with a small palm oil estate. A lot of local businesses are looking for palm oil suppliers to use it in food production, biofuel and even medicines. For coconuts, you can either sell it to local coconut sellers or directly with customers.

19. Lavender estate

Nothing beats good use of land especially for a lavender farm. If you have been to Tasmania, Australia then you have to stop by and visit the Bridestowe Lavender Estate. The estate would be a good example of a lavender farm. It has a wide cover range of lavender plants, a boutique shop that sells lavender related products (soaps/perfumes/cards/etc.), and cute lavender coffee shop (selling lavender cakes, icecreams, teas, etc.). Every single day that place is crowded with tourists – be it localy and internationally.

20. Factory / Warehouse

If you have a piece of land that you can build a factory and then lease it out or sell it – why not? There is a lot of businesses out there that are looking for the best location to start with, maybe your land will fit their expectations – have a try!

21. Empty lot for rent

So you have a piece of land and you are not sure what to do. You don’t have enough money to build anything on it nor do you have any ideas how to use it. Have you tried renting it empty? you should! It’s not half bad because the tenants will know what to do so long as you know what your tenants are planning to use your land for and the fact that you get your money every month. It’s a good start for people have no idea on what to do with their vacant lands.

22. Food truck dine area

These days there is a lot if food truck business on the rise which is probably due to high cost of rental on brick and mortar stores. Having a food truck business would mean lower cost of rental/ownership but also being able to go mobile. This is a perfect opportunities for land owners to setup their land for a food truck gathering festival. Take Tapak, a venue in Kuala Lumpur that features a food truck park at night – you will receive lease payments from the food truck owners in return for them being able to conduct business in your compound or having the food truck owners working for you permanently in your company.

23. Daycare Centre

With the rise of population in the world, there is always a growing demand for schools or kindergartens. If your land is near office areas, you might want to consider opening a children daycare centre so that parents find it easier to care for their kids while they are out working – not bad eyy!

24. Charity

Some people just felt like they want to achieve a greater purpose in life – hence, putting their lands to charity allows them to feel contempt in life. There are people who give their lands to the government or the NGO for charity because these organizations have plans and knows well on how to best utilize resources for the benefits of the masses.

25. Restaurants

If you have the passion for foods and that secret recipe granny taught you and you think people will love those recipes – then this might be for you 🙂 There is a lot of cuisine choices to look for, plan well and have a go!

26. Shopping malls

Have you ever wondered why big developer companies love to build shopping malls? That’s because these developers earn a consistent high lease payments from local brands that leased with them. This also includes payment of parking lots from customers who comes in for shopping sprees.

27. Petrol stations

Though setting a petrol station would require a huge upfront capital, it might be a brilliant strategy to start one up if you have a great location (somewhere along the highway/a town with no gas stations). You can also boost your revenues by setting up few small shops on the side such as Dunkin Doughnuts or Starbucks to attract higher people!

28. Gym

It’s an increasing trend these days that people are going to the gym more often than they do in back in the old days. With the increasing trend on a more health conscious lifestyle especially for millennials – opening a gym is a great idea!

29. Skiing

If you own a piece of land in the snowy mountains – and a big area too! This may be an interesting proposition for you. Thousands of people look forward to skiing on mountain tops on weekends or long holidays.

30. Cinema/open theatre

An open air cinema normally have a big inflatable screen, a great sound system and a small food store providing popcorns and drinks on the side street within the cinema compound. Normally an area may have lots of indoor cinemas but they rarely have an open air ones. If you think you have a sizeable piece of land and you are not sure what to do about it then this may be your greatest answer! Who knows, you’ll be able to enjoy collecting the ticket fees and enjoy movies all night long – while slurping on cold Pepsi of course!

Stock Trading For Beginners

So you have been thinking a lot about earning money from the stock markets. Going through all the dilemmas and risks associated with investing in the stock market – fret not! It is true that investing in the stock market has its risks but it also has its own perks.

This article will mainly talk about how you can start your investing experience in the stock market but most importantly – how you can get a great start!

To start off, we will go through the basics.

Here is the first one!

1. Choosing your trusted remisier/dealer

Who’s a remisier?

He’s like a middleman between the investor and the company you want to invest in. A remisier earns commision from every transactions of stock trading that takes place.

These are the things you need to ask before choosing your remisier:

a) Are they licensed?

b) Do they have wide knowledge of stocks investments?

c) Can they advise you well in stock investments?

d) How experienced are they in the stock trading field? 10 years? 30 years?

If you think all the 4 questions above gives you a confident nod then you are good to go!

Do check on the link below to ensure that your business representative/ remisier are registered with the Securities Commision Malaysia > https://www.sc.com.my/

This is to help avoid unnecessary losses or scams at the start of your investing journeys 🙂

2. Registering your Central Depository System (CDS) Account

A CDS account is just like your bank account but a CDS account keeps the shareholdings of companies you invested in the form of stocks.

How do you create a CDS account?

Here are the general things (or at least applicable in Malaysia) :

a) A copy of your identification card (IC)

b) RM 10.60 to open a cds account with the Malaysian Central Depository Sdn Bhd

c) Finally, that is, opening a trading account with your trusted remisier

Normally you can just inquire your remisier and they’ll guide you through the whole registration process – it’s really simple and straight forward.

3. Don’t trade stocks yet – join a class!

That’s right, you don’t want to put in $10,000 and end up with a loss – you will need reliable coaches to teach you how and which stocks to invest. You can start by looking into the social media (facebook, twitter, or instagram) for reputable classes organized or ask your friends who have traded stocks before and how they go about it.

However, most classes may require you to pay – just make sure its not a scam!

Here’s some tips before you decide to attend any paid classes:

• Attend the free classes initiated by Securities Commision known as the “InvestSmart” series, check this out > https://www.investsmartsc.my/index.php/
• Better yet, you can also get free basic stock trading knowledge from Bursa Market Place, have a visit at > http://www.bursamarketplace.com/mkt/learn
• Or, you can try and find great mentors/coaches that have been in the stock trading industry in a long time – people like Faizal Yusup or Dato’ Dr Nazri Khan are corporate people who are still working in investment companies and at the same time still organize classes.

Also, a great advice I received from a good friend of mine,

“Avoid trading stocks using your bread money”,

meaning – invest using the surplus money that you have and not the money you use to run your daily routine. What I would advise is to invest using money that you are willing to lose. Also note one of the benefits of stock investing is that you can accumulate cash faster than investing in properties due to its liquidity characteristic.

With that said, you will be able to accumulate your capital faster with stock investing to proceed with purchase of a much stable investment which is property investments. Have a look on 7 steps guide to buy a house – the complete guide, 5 things you should consider before buying your first house or 5 Traits of a good property to invest and get good rental for starters.

Now that you have read until the end, I believe the above should suffice for you to have a general idea on how and where to start. Have a great investing exploration ahead!

How You Can Save $1300 A Month With $3000 Salary

I am no expert in this but I am very much aware of the importance when it comes to savings. Why is this crucial?

Opportunities or emergencies may arise surprisingly at any time. There will be a time when out of a sudden someone would want to sell their business, a company is looking funds to grow business, or there is that hot property going on auction way below market value!

Hence, It is up to us to ensure that we can grasp the opportunities when the time comes or at least prepare ourselves financially in event any emergencies arise. Here are the ways you can save $1,300 a month with $3,000 of salary.

Travel Cost

We all have places to go each and every week. Like many, we would have to incur costs to travel to work. I’m staying on a suburb far from the city center, Kuala Lumpur.

It would normally take me more than 1 hour on busy days to work – that is about 28 kilometres (km) per trip, a total of 56 km one day. Below are the costs I incurred per month:

Fuel = $400 ($20 per day)

Toll = $200 ($50 per week)

That would be a high $600 a month! And I ain’t liking it.

Solutions?

I opted to use public transport instead. Since then, travelling cost was cut approximately half! Which is roughly $400 a month now for both car fuel and toll fees.

Not only this help save a lot money but also help to save my travel time and reduce stress of going through traffic jams.

Food intakes

Another way to save is that I chose to cook my own meal – most of the days normally costs me around $100 – $150 for a month worth of food stocks or ingredients.

Aside that, I would simply buy my daily lunch supplies at cheaper price at a petrol station selling cheap cooked foods where I normally pass through everyday when I go to work – that is if I have too packed of a schedule. Costs me $3.50 per lunch box containing fried rice, an egg and a bit of gravy – pretty cheap and neat right?

But then again, there are days that we have that friends night out or Friday night outings so I wouldn’t mind spending a bit for that particular session since I have already saved a lot of margins on other areas. In total, food supplies would cost me around $150 – $250 a month.

Education loans

Yes, you read that right – education loan payments. I’m still actively repaying my education loans every month. That would cost me $100 a month which is not too high of a burden but still a great obligation to meet.

Phone bills

This would normally costs me $120 for my phone bills and I think that is still quite high for me.

I believe you can try and minimize your phone bills by finding better phone plans. If you can reduce your phone bills by $20 a week, that is $200 extra savings a month! and I’m quite sure there are way more awesome phone plan deals out there.

Home installments

This would costs me $800 per month inclusive of maintenance. However, now that I rented it out – the rental income I generated with the right strategies gave me an extra boost of $200 – definitely great! Check out 4 Unbelievable Ways You Can Maximize Your Rental Income and 5 Traits of a good property to invest and get good rental for greater knowledge of how you can boost your property investing game.

Life insurance

I focused on life insurance because if ever I am faced with a critical sickness and I am unable to work any longer, my insurance would be able to settle all my bank loans pertaining my debt on properties owned. Not only that, the insurance package would also allow the accumulation of cash value where it would have a certain amount I can withdraw as extra money after certain period has passed – you can say that it is like investing while insuring yourself.

By doing so, I would not have to burden my family members to pay the housing loans if I am cripple and not having enough capabilities to work any longer. It costs me as low as $100 a month and it helped cover so much trouble for me in future to come. So if you find yourself still young and just started your career life, take up an insurance but be careful of scams and take up insurance coverage on areas you deem only important for the coverage you want.

Let’s say if your company already have unlimited coverage for your medical expenses, then maybe you can opt not to take medical insurance – for example. I would suggest you to take up insurance from reputable companies.

Have a read on “MRTT vs MLTT? Get yourself insured before buying a property” to get a good glimpse of general insurance knowledge that can settle all your housing debts in event you can’t work anymore. However, this condition will only work if your insurance coverage is more than your full housing debt.

Be mindful that insurance companies find it hard to consider your insurance applications after you are critically ill because it would be a loss to the company – sad truth unfortunately. So take advantage of your good health and ability to generate income now and apply one before the aforementioned happens alright! :))

Costs breakdown:

Car fuel and toll = $400

Food intakes = $150

Phone bills = $120

Education loans = $100

Home installments = $ 800

Life insurance = $100

Total expenses = $1,670

Amount saved = $3,000 – $1670

= $1,330! 

“A penny saved is a penny earned” 

~ Benjamin Franklin

So what can you do with these much savings?

1. Apply an auto-debit (Standing Instruction) from your salary account into your compounding bank account. Doing this will help you Making money while you sleep – the compounding bank account (ASB) just like Tony Robbins advised in his greatest book, “Money: Master The Game”.

2. Invest the money in stock market.

3. Save all of them as your next home deposit.

4. Give to charity (help people in need). Always bear in mind that Giving to Charity Makes You Richer!

5. Provide some money to your parents or family members as presents.

6. Gather enough money and be ready to launch or buy a potential business.

7. Put it in your flexi-bank account to reduce your monthly home loan interest (yep, that’s what it’s called in banks, flexi-bank loans).

And the list goes on….

But whatever it is, always bear in mind that for every dollar you saved would give you better chances of grasping the opportunities when it comes. Have a read at 5 Simple Ways To Save Money to get bold ideas to save money better.

You can’t simply start saving when the opportunity or emergency happened right there and at that time right? That is insane! If you start saving at that very time, the opportunity would have gone into other people’s hands.

You need time to save money enough to be able to take advantage of the opportunities that falls before you. Never the less, knowing that you are reading this article till the end would mean that you care for your financial securities and your future – that YOU want to make that change! Good luck hustlers!

From Abandoned/Auctioned House (Lelong House) Into Cash Machine

Have you been walking passed that same house – that gloomy, window broken, cracked door house for countless times and has never been occupied? You might think there is no hope at all to restore that property into good function – you might have to think twice!

Why are abandoned properties considered an amazing investment opportunities?

Simple, normally an abandoned property is sold below the market value! This gets even better if it is auctioned by the bank because it will be auctioned by higher margins below market value. Even though you might need to incur some costs to repair – hey, you got the house way the market value, meaning you are buying it cheaper than most people bought the same unit in the same neighbourhood. On a side note, “Lelong” is a term called by Malaysians as auctioned house.

According to Leslie Low, an auctioned specialist from Malaysia stated that an auctioned property would offer 30% to 40% below the market price based on The Star newspaper. Who would give you a property offer of 40% below market value? A decent newly launched terrace home these days costs RM 500,000. That means you’ll get an offer of RM 300,000 for the same property type – or even better.

How would you know if that property can make money?

Then you might ask, how do you buy a property that will make good investments? It’s simple! So long as it’s below market value, returns positive cashflows during rent, potential capital appreciation, within your usual place of hanging out or work, good neighbourhood and…. that area have a 5 year upgrading/expansion plan (check with your local developer) – then you are all set!

All the good signs are there already giving you the positive signals. Sometimes only that particular house looked all scary and dark but the other houses looked neat and tidy, that’s a sign of a good neighbourhood. Especially if it’s nearby public transport, malls, offices or any kind of public attraction. All these characteristics will definitely drive high population into that area making it having high demands for basic needs and wants – in our case it’s a roof over our heads. People would definitely need a place to stay.

How much money can an abandoned property make?

That actually depends on many factors. One of it is the marginal percentage below market price you are purchasing it. Let’s say you are buying a RM 500,000 worth of property at RM 300,000 during auction, you already have a capital appreciation gap of RM 200,000 there! Even though that capital appreciation will slowly catch up to the market value once the function of the house is fully recovered – hey, that means you are investing at a lower capital.

Wouldn’t it be great to invest a lower capital and have a high return? Everybody else is investing at higher price but still have a return approximately close to yours. Whose the winner? You are! But you still have to do your homework. You must know how much Return on Investments (ROI) that property makes, the future developments that area will undertake, who will be your target customers, and your overall costs short term as well as long term.

Not all properties can make great returns, what is a good property for you may not be the best property for another friend – always keep the foundations in mind. Have a read on 5 Traits of a good property to invest and get good rental to get general ideas on what is a good property to invest.

What is the best way to take advantage of the capital appreciation and low purchase price?

The magic word is “refinance” your house. The gap between market value (bank’s value of the said property) vs property purchase price = extra cash! There are two ways that I know of which is available in Malaysian and international banks – you can use term loans or an overdraft. Take an example of the same RM 500,000 property bought for RM 300,000 and after some time your property value had a capital appreciation to RM 700,000 because there is a new train station built in front of your neighborhood.  Then you decided to settle your loans fast and you apply “refinancing”.

The banks will reimburse you loans at the current market value of RM 700,000 – this will give you extra money to settle your old loan of RM 300,000 and on top of that, getting extra RM 400,000 (RM 700,000 – RM 300,000) that you can use to settle other outstanding loans (education or car) and you even use the extra money to invest in another property or open a new business!

But always bear in mind that the banks will always win. The amount of loans you get will need to be repaid on top of bank interest. Have a backup plan on how you will repay the bank loans before and after you utilized your loans. A good way to utilize your loans is to use it for matters that will improve your life financially such as settling outstanding loans (to avoid long term interest incur), start a profitable business, or to buy assets that can give positive cash flows in the future which outruns the bank loan installments itself. Good luck fellas!!

Giving to Charity Makes You Richer

Money has been mostly what people chase in their life to ensure they can meet whichever needs or desires may come. While many think that money makes them happy – money is actually a tool to make us happy. Some people are happy because they get that new Mercedes, or they get that new pair of shoes, or even that latest iPhone – but what is actually used to have all these? That’s right, it’s money.

But believe it or not, people tend to become happier when they commit a portion of their money not on themselves – but towards other people. People will become happier when they contribute to others, they feel life has a meaning because they feel like they are making a change – and indeed they are!

By now you will be asking – man, how will by giving to charity make me richer?

Based on an article from the Entrepreneur, a research from The Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey by Harvard University stated that giving more of your money for charity leads to higher income. This fact takes into account of the differences in race, religion, age and other personal characteristics in America. How is this possible?

According to another research from the United States and the Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University provided an essential example – $100 increase in income per person leads to an increase in $1.47 of additional money given to charity. Simultaneously, an increase in the same $100 given to charity boosts GDP by a marginal $1,800. It is amazing to observe that small amount of money channelled into the society would impact such large multiplier effect and stimulates economic growth.

There is also another research called “Feeling Good About Giving” conducted by Harvard Business School discovered that people who experienced positive events such as receiving cookies or finding dimes in a payphone place are more likely to help other people afterwards which is believed to be due to the happiness they felt. This is further backed up by another experiment conducted where a group of people were to report their general level of happiness after disclosing how their monthly expenses are utilized; either towards personal use and/or public social purposes.

Surprisingly, people who give more money for charities experienced greater happiness. I would say that is also a type of richness in life, I mean, there are people out there who have billions of dollars in their banks but are still unhappy, worried or sad most of the time – hey, look on the bright side! You are already rich when you are happy and content with what you have and found meaning in life – that’s a great deal!

Analytically, when people feel happy – they will give more money towards other individuals or institutions for charity purposes. Simultaneously, when we look on a countrywide perspective, the charities (be it in money or other forms of charities) distributed will then encourage people to spend in the market. As a result, the country’s productivity is boosted – hence resulting in economic growth.

What happens if there’s economic growth? More of the consumers will have better incomes or stronger purchasing power – it will become a continuous cycle of pure goodness. Not only you are making yourself feel happy but you are also helping people become happy too! More people will have high likelihood to make charity and help more people who are in need. If ever, you feel like things always go wrong in your life, try and give charity a shot – who knows what you might discover along the way. Giving is living and you will always get more than you give. 

4 Great Tips For Getting your Housing Loan Approved

1. Usage of credit cards

There is nothing wrong with having 10 credit cards but you must pay on time. The problem with credit cards is abusing the given credit amount – you swiped your credit card one time.. and then one more… and another swipe.. and at the end of the month you found out you have used more than you can pay – yikes!

I attend a talk by a professional bank officer regarding credit cards and it was an eye-opener. I found out that bankers will see you as having little money the more you use your credit cards. It is also recommended that you use a maximum usage of 75% of your full credit amount – recommendably 50% for better chances of getting your loan approved.

It is also recommended that you use a maximum usage of 75% of your full credit amount –

recommendably 50% for better

chances of getting your loan

approved.

It was also discovered that if ever, there is a record that shows you paid your credit cards late – there is high likelihood that your loan applications get rejected. To sum up, high use of credit cards equals high chances loan applications gets rejected.

So what’s a good credit card practice to get most of your loan applications approved?

1. Maintain good track record of credit card payments
2. Maintain credit card usage approximately 50% of total amount

2. Status of work or company

Lets say if you are a creditor or a bank yourself, would you be concerned what your debtors are working as? – of course you do!

From bank’s perspective, they do not know how credible you are and whether or not you are able to meet your commitments. This is why what you work as and who you work for are important.

Banks would normally opt to lend to people from companies with credible backgrounds and track records. A company that always pay their employees’ salaries or EPF fees late are excluded from being reliable.

The lenders would also need to have a job that can proof to the banks that they can ensure a continuous income to meet their monthly commitments to the banks. Banks would normally see contract-based workers as risky lenders because their work contract can be terminated at any time. But then again, in this situation maybe you will be able to convince the banks by your high savings amount – that may work.

3. Savings

Having a certain amount of savings is an extra point you get from the banks. It would be much easier for banks to assess your risks and behaviour from the money you saved. The best amount of savings is around 6 months of your salary – why so? This is because in normal circumstances people are able to settle down and look for a job or to restructure their short term plans within 6 months – I call this the calm down period.

‘The best amount of savings is around 6 months of your salary’

Savings can come from anywhere such as bank accounts, asb, tabung haji, or an investment account. However, savings are not income. Incomes are money that comes in your bank account on regular basis with an estimated amount each period unlike savings which you don’t earn on them.

What if you own company shares or you act as a shadow director for a company and receive dividends on it? Is it considered as income?

Yes! It is an income and I urge you to save the dividends as banks would see the dividend incomes as part of your earnings. Save around 30% to 40% of your income as this will help banks to determine your capability and credibility to meet your commitments with the banks – remember, every dollar you save is a dollar you earn.

4. CCRIS records

The Central Credit Reference Information System or commonly known as CCRIS is a system that helps gather credit information from borrowers who participates in financial institutions – banks, insurance brokers, or private companies in normal circumstances and produces credit reports (contains outstanding loans, special attention account, or bankruptcy status of a person) that will be utilise by the financial institutions. CCRIS record is important to gauge our financial capabilities.

So, what is a good CCRIS record?

1. Your credit report shows 0:0:0. This is the ideal record because the higher the number means no months having outstanding loan. PTPTN, housing, and car loan is normally included as part of CCRIS assessment.
2. No 12 months outstanding credit payments.
3. No outstanding amount in your special attention account. Take note that you may thought that the card can cancel itself after you have used up all your credits with the intention of not using it anymore and you think its okay not to manually cancel it – this is where it gets scary. The credit you didn’t pay will be transferred into your special attention account and it will be there forever until you manually call the banks to cancel and pay the outstandings. Whenever you want to apply for a housing loan, make sure to clear any outstandings you may have due for a long time.

To sum it all, you will be able to obtain higher chances of getting your loan approved by applying the 4 main tips as aforementioned. Also, you may need to take into consideration of what you can actually own. Sometimes the banks may approve of your loan but you may face difficulties to pay the banks’monthly installments – so don’t bite more than you can chew. Take things slowly and enjoy your wealth growing process.

5 Traits of a good property to invest and get good rental

Yes, you have read it right – the 5 traits of a good property to invest! In this article I will focus more on structural factors that can boosts a property’s value and with high possibility making the investment you will never regret out of it. Here are the top 5 traits.

1. Public transport

Accessibility factor has been the trump card out of all other factors in most times – who would not want to stay in a house that are convenient to go anywhere? You don’t even need to worry about traffic or where to park your car at your destination. This is why most properties that are beside train stations or bus stations has the best rental occupancy rate – people think its convenient.

2. Shopping mall

Doesn’t it tire you when you have to wait for a cab or a bus after you have your hands full of shopping bags or you are working at the mall and it is too far to walk to the train station to get home – it’s dreadful. Which is why having a property near a mall is one of the most strategic area to invest. Speaking about the rental game, you will be able to attract anybody to rent your unit or you can even pull in mall employees themselves, which is better because they normally would want to rent for at least 2 years.

3. Hospital

Having a property near health care centres have always been a comfort for everybody. People in general have higher likelihood to rent a unit near hospitals because you will never know when you are going to fall sick and the best thing is to know the hospitals are nearby – which one less thing to worry, right? Not to mention that the health care employees such as nurses or doctors might be interested to rent a unit nearby.

4. Offices

Properties near office areas generally would be attractive to the workers working there – specifically young executives. There have circumstances where some young executives or fresh graduates starting their first job would opt to move to the city or state-hopping from their suburbs or villages. (add stats!) This provides golden opportunities for landlords near office areas to have a good rental margin.

5. Education Facilities

One of the business that have the least impact towards economic downturn – education sector and the people in it. Even when the economy is not doing too great, there will always be people going to school or universities. These people will always need a place to stay and they might stay on their own or with friends which is why having a property near education facilities are a great investment. It can help generate continuous rental returns. After one semester ends, another one comes – it is constant and sustainable. Students, teachers, lecturers, or even the general workers at these places will normally opt to find a nearby housing area to rent.

7 steps guide to buy a house – the complete guide

According to CNBC, in their article “Here’s why millions of millennials are not homeowners“, the number one reason people can’t afford properties is because they can’t afford the down payment and number two would be not being able to qualify a mortgage loan. While some people think that the process of buying a house is complex, here is the good news – it’s pretty simple!

You may have drove into neighborhood areas, flipped through newpaper or the property websites and think that you are getting serious to commit – you think you are ready to buy a house. This guide will take you into simple steps to help your purchase experience more straightforward.

Step 1: Finding the right house

It never was easy to find the right house – even for myself. It takes a lot of time and effort to do this. You are going to have to check your financial strength, search on multiple websites, and ask someone with experience or a property coach – if you find one. Its a lot of work! Things like getting yourself insured or knowing “What’s the difference between master title, strata title, and individual title?” takes a lot of time and energy to absorb. But then again, this is the place you are going to live in or the asset that will grow you money. My property coach always said “if you don’t sweat looking for properties then you are not doing enough”. None the less, it is also the most exciting process to buy the right house. You may come across 2 or 3 houses shortlisted and I encourage you to visit all of them – you won’t know what you may missed!

Have a read on MRTT vs MLTT? Get yourself insured before buying a property to know what kind of insurance – in general, you would need to get a head start in your property investment journey.

Step 2: Call an agent/owner to inquire the property

Now that you have scoped down your choices, it’s time to call an agent for inspection – yippie!

This particular part is quite easy as most properties on sale or lease is either through a direct owner or an agent. Normally there will be advertisement boards at the front of the said units or listed in the property websites. But wait! This is very crucial step because you might have to wait longer if you screw up here – why?

Because we have to be careful of scams as some owners or agents are fake ones out there. How do we identify them? Here are some ways to ensure you won’t get scammed, I suggest the precautions as below:

• Request a land tax invoice/original sales and purchase agreement from the owner. This is to show that the owner owns the property by paying taxes to the government
• Request a ‘Real Estate Negotiator'(REN) number from the property agent. This can be done by asking for a card. You can check their numbers in the Board of Valuers, Appraisers, and Estate Agents Malaysia or your country’s respective Boards’ portal to see if their names are listed in the web. If they don’t, you may want to opt for another alternative to buy the house you wanted.

After all the verifications in terms of reliability is made for owners and agents, you can now rest assured and be in a more comfortable position to proceed with the inspection of your dream property – thumbs up!

Step 3: Arrange for an house inspection

During the inspection, make sure that there is no damage that may go unnoticed so that it will be easier to prove to the agent or owner that a certain damage has been there even before the purchase.

These are the things you should ask during house inspections, ask:

• To take pictures of the property
• How old is the property from the day it was built
• Has the land title been issued. Strata title (for high rise properties), individual title (for landed properties) and master title (for any type of properties not given any individual or strata title)
• Is there a caveat still attached to the property?
• How is the rental potential?
• Is it a leasehold or a freehold?
• Why is the current seller selling the unit?

There are many other questions but these are the questions I consider important to know when buying a home.

Step 4: Put down a booking fee 3%

After you have made up your mind and you think that everything is good to go – it’s  booking time!

You will have to transfer 3% of the total purchase price of the property. That means RM 4,500 for a RM 150,000 worth of property. This payment of 3% is inclusive of the total of 10% deposit that you need to pay as part of the purchasing policy set by Malaysian government.

The balanced 7% will have to settle through a lawyer – not through AGENT or OWNER! as some people got scammed by paying all 10% to an agent or the owner – this is very important to take note.

Step 5: Apply a bank loan and sign letter of offer upon bank approval

After you have placed your booking through payment of 3% – time to look for a banker!

Normally you would just apply to multiple banks. After that it is a matter of waiting for an approval decision by your banks – sometimes some of the banks will decline but hey, you still have few banks approved on your application. The last step is to compare the interest rates as derived from the bank loan agreement.

After you made up your mind and think you can live with the payment terms set by the banks, you let the banks know that you are ready to commit and you are all set! You will sign the Letter of Offer – this will officially grant you the funds you need to own your dream property.

“never sign sales & purchases agreement before you sign the  bank’s letter of offer”

You might get stuck with a property worth thousands without having a funder if you sign the S&P first before getting funded by the bank. That means, you may incur debt worth thousands which can get you into serious trouble for many years – so take note.

Interest Rates = 5% (base rate) + 1.3% (profit rate)

In most cases the profit rate does not or unlikely to change because the banks already set it at fix amount but the base rates are more likely to change over time – so pick your rates based on the profit rates of the banks!

Have a read on 4 Great Tips For Getting your Loan Approved to know more about loans 🙂

Step 6 : Appoint a lawyer

Now that your bank loan is approved – you have actually went through the storm. Now it is just a matter of appointing a lawyer to settle the rest. The lawyer help you prepare the ‘sales and purchases agreement’ and also the ‘loan agreement’ in order for the banks to be able to reimburse the agreed loan amount you made with the bank through the sign of the ‘letter of offer’ as stated in step 5.

Step 7: Sign the Sales and Purchases Agreement

Here is the moment you are waiting for – yahoo! Now that everything is in place, once you sign the Sales & Purchase (S&P) agreement – you can now wait to receive the keys to your dream house and ready to move in!

Having to read this article to the end means you are really serious about buying a house – hope you get the dream house you wanted, good luck with the house hunt!