Generating money from property rental is always what most people will think of when they see a house. These days property investors must stretch their imagination and challenge themselves beyond the common investing paths. Just few months ago I came across an amazing book titled “Propreneur” which was published by MasteryAsia Property Series – I find the book brilliant! The book shared many ways of utilizing your properties to make profitable businesses and it’s a collaboration of many property experts from their respective area of expertise. Here I will share 3 creative ways to make best use of your property and make good money out of it.
1.Virtual Office and Serviced Office Business
When it comes to virtual office, this would mean that the business entity or individual subscribing are only interested to obtain the corporate address and call handling services. Normally, those who subscribe to this services is due to its very low cost. How much? It can cost to only RM 35! But having a virtual office would also mean not having a physical office space such as meeting rooms, office spaces or the pantry. The type of people subscribing to this service are freelancers (ie. photographers, graphic designers, etc.), branch representatives (people who open branches in other areas but have too little staffs in the new branch), and startups (ie. friends who just started their first business after graduating). These people generally would not need physical space but they need the office address which is from their subscription of services with virtual office providers. Why is this important? When they present their business cards to their clients, they need a corporate address to attract clients’ confidence which is an important aspect to grow their business. Service Office
With a service office, customers would be able to enjoy their personal physical space. This is surely better than virtual space and the advantage spans from readily available phone system, IT infrastructure, network coverage, and basic amenities such as water and electricity. Renting a space will definitely have way better perks than just subscribing for a virtual office space. Normally such spaces are rented by multinational companies, branch or sales offices. However, buying such space to carry on this type of business would require an ideal location and have the right size of office depending which type of target customers you are aiming. Maybe you can start to have a look around for properties that can maximize your rental as a start – this is because running a service office would require similar booster indicators when you rent it out.
2. Tourist Attraction
You may came across vacant properties when you were walking down the usual street to buy your daily groceries and you might think “who would stay or make even make use of this place?”. The windows are broken, holes in the ceiling, and high grasses all over the unit but truth is – you can turn it to better use! You just have to think outside the box. We have a look at Steven Tan, a CEO of Inpromastery Sdn Bhd which he started at age 24 and has a vast portfolio of 158 properties within 7 years through group investment model – how did he do it? One of his project is turning a property into the first 3D art museum in Penang, Malaysia – a place that is famous with tourism. According to Steven, they receive approximately 1000 visitors on a normal day but the number boosts to 3000 visitors a day on festive seasons in addition to be able to achieve their ROI within a year. Now that we know about the idea, what about the costs? From my personal view, I believe the costs of setting up these kinds of business depends on how big you want to launch your business. However, Steven’s business costs RM 1 Million which took about 5 shop lots to be able to cater up to high traffic in Penang. You might wonder, “how about recurring costs?” – well, it will take up RM 35,000 to RM 40,000 which covers areas such as staff salaries, property
rental, maintenance, and others. Making this business a success would require a great deal of research, know your target market, have a unique business idea, and a great mindset. You may even have to liaise with local taxi or bus drivers as part of your marketing to get the word spread about your business. None the less, the fun is seeing you and your business grow and feeling satisfied through the process.
3. Airbnb
Started since 2007, Airbnb has topped their revenue up to 2.6 Billion USD! I remembered what my property coach taught me, “when you venture into Airbnb, you have to think tourism!” – and in tourism, the best location to have your property is at places with entertainment, business, tourism and/or hospitals. In terms of which type of property to invest in for airbnb services would be apartments or small houses – why? On general, people who opts for airbnb services would normally prefer cheap places to stay but also offer an experience of living in another person’s home. However, there is no right or wrong to this – I have even met successful airbnb hosts that makes great ROI from his property and its a landed unit. However, I noticed that successful landed unit airbnb hosts are able to obtain such great ROI because their homes offer unique perks such as near to the beach or university where parents or families from other countries or states can have an overnight stay before their children’s graduation at the university. But then again, demands for vacation has always been there – the question is whether you want to make a serious business out of airbnb or doing it for fun, it can be either way or both!
The Hustler Investor 