Hi,

I was wondering if I could get some advice from property experts here.

I'm expat that moved here from Canada about 2 years ago, and I currently work for a manufacturing company that deals with import/export. The work however is quite okay, but pay is not as great as it could be. I married a local woman here and we're pretty happy, last year I purchased a house in the area of Desa park city.

I am suppose to be able to get the consent letter and everything this month. Just then a few days ago I recieved a job offer from a friend back in the US paying alot more. I'm most likely going to move with my wife to this new company.

The question I have here, is I purchased my house , but now since I dont think I'll be coming back here to stay anymore. What type of pricing could I look at for selling the house off quickly? From what I understand the house was on sale for a very long time and never really sold, and it just appealed to me and I went for it. Now I'm in a huge predicament of thinking to keep the house and use it when I return to Malaysia on vacation or sell off the house and keep my money in my pocket. If anyone can please advise, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks

This post has been edited by rainpocky: Jun 2 2009, 06:00 PM

In this type of market, it's pretty much difficult to sell off the property in a hurry, as you said it is pretty much a luxury property that was on sale for long time.
As for the pricing, if you are going to sell off in a hurry, best bet is selling it at a lost which made it more appealing to potential buyer. But the question here is whether do you really need the money to the extend in selling it at a lost bearing in mind that you just bought it. You said that most likely you won't be back here, so keeping it is not a wise option. Maybe the best thing is selling it through agency?

I thought about selling it thru an agency, but I'm not sure how this works. I understand I give them a price I want to sell at and they try to sell above that and keep the rest as commission. I believe this is correct but again not very sure.

Only time I'll come back to Malaysia is if I need to visit family and friends but thats only to a maximum of 2 weeks per year. So the other question I'm wondering is, are there any hidden fees or upkeep per year to maintain the house, other than the norm utilities if any. For example cars need to maintain their roadtax sticker, is there anything similar in nature to this for homes?

As far as I know, selling it thru agency is exactly as you said. Maybe you can try calling up a few agency to enquire about the procedure. BTW try to go for some reputable co, it may cost a bit more but it'll save you on headaches.
Personally if you're only back for 2 weeks or even a month per year, it's not feasible to keep the house. As norm goes, a vacant house will dilapidates faster than occupied house, so by keeping it, you'll have to take into account those $$$ involved to maintain it.
For DPC, think there'll be monthly maintenance to be paid while I believe you need to pay for assessment twice per year & also quit rent yearly.

Thanks alot for the advice. I'll look for a few agencies and see what I can find.

The assessment, is it expensive?

Assessment is to be paid to local authorities, ie DBKL in this case. I'm not sure about actual cost but it depends on property size I believe. For mine, its about RM1xx (can't recalled exact amount) but my house built up is way smaller than DPC houses. So probably you are looking at ard few hundreds.
As for Quit rent, its paid to Land office but I'm not sure how they comes up with the amount (can't help on this)
Both these payments can be made in any post office or DBKL office (besides Jinjang Fire station).
BTW DPC environment is very nice, it's a dream for me to have a property there, me lives just outside of DPC. Glad my post is of help to you.

@rainpocky,
Do U need to pay a monthy maintenance fees for this house?! Also, if you can afford it, perhaps you could check if you can rent the place out until a good offer comes up.

PS: Is this house located inside Desa Park City? Care to share the land size and built up size?! And how much you're planning to dispose the property off at?!

Generally a 10% disc should do the trick.

Its the Ridgewood luxury semi-d, at 6700sq feet land size, built up is 4800 sq ft.

I'm hoping to break even, or at the very least maybe the same amount i bought it fort. I thought of offering 10%, but I'm not keen on losing 260k plus the stamp duty on top of that.

This post has been edited by rainpocky: Jun 2 2009, 06:01 PM

i agree with tinkerbel that renting it out for the time being till a good offer comes would be a more feasible option instead of keeping it. of course, if u would be able to let it go for the price u bought would be even better. but imho, its pretty tough unless u're willing to reduce the price by 10 - 20%. although 10% might seem like a trivial number but ur purchase price is RM2.6 mil, hence as what u said, its still RM260k. unless u need the money urgently, don't see a reason why u should let go ur Ridgewood now.

This post has been edited by babana: May 26 2009, 09:17 AM

@rainpocky,
Er.. RM2.6m for 6700 square feet seems a little expensive. I haven't checked out the actual property so I'm not too sure; I suspect this is the one that's located @ DPC but atop the hill; facing the bungalow lands, am I right?!

Too bad I can't afford RM2.6m so can't help U there. But as what we've suggested, perhaps the best thing to do right now (if U don't need the cash) is to rent it off until the property market improves

tinkerbel,

If the renter is NO GOOD, the house will be destroyed at no time. It may not worth the money.

Dreamer

@dreamer101,
That's true; but I guess that's something TS needs to weigh when 'interviewing' his tenant

U bought cash?

@rainpocky,
I just did a quick google on Ridgewood; it seems as if it's situated in a gated and guarded community; that would mean there's going to be a monthly maintenance involved - do U know what is the cost like?

Right now there is no monthly maintenance fee as they've not set it. Its been this way for awhile, but they say they will set it soon. Weird I posted something in here earlier, but now its gone...

---

Added on May 26, 2009, 10:16 pmyeah, i bought cash. I didnt want to go thru the unnecessary hassles of a mortgage.

Dreamer, interviewing people doesn't help... I find that in the beginning people seem to be so simple and normal, and then later when least expected it they destroy something. If I can help it I won't rent out ever. I've seen the horrors of what has happened to my other family members when they rented out to others even after interviewing for a long time. I'm not saying people out there are all horrible but alot are, and I don't even want to risk it as its expensive as hell to fix afterwards. As this house is so oddly shaped and designed.

This post has been edited by rainpocky: May 27 2009, 01:30 AM

Since you'll have almost zero holding cost, then might as well furnish nicely then rent it to expats. Better than nothing.

Thanks to everyone that gave me opinions and I've come to the conclusion after talking with several others and family members, I'll probably just keep the house furnish it and maybe share it with some other immediate family members in the future. I searched for a long time and of all the housings around I really enjoyed this one house. So I'll probably just keep it.

Moderator, if you can close this thread, I have found my answer. Thanks.

@rainpocky,
U mentioned odd shape, is it a corner unit with loads of land space?! Am glad to know you came to a decision

I don't think renting out is good idea when the owner is too far away to monitor his property. And it's hard to acquire someone locally to be entrusted to do so, not to mention the $$ involved to hire him.

Eventually the house will become a warzone and TS might lose even more, the time, effort, and a portion of rental $$$ be spent to spruce it up again before finally selling it off once and for all.

After the ordeal, it returns him to back square one - How to "dispose" this house of his quickly.