I'm not buying property yet, but will be... once I have the startup capital.

To those experience here, I have read thru other post and I found out that landed property may provide higher selling return while apartment promises higher rental return.

Lets say I wanted to purchase a landed property in Bukit Mertajam. It is built by a reliable developer and the property is not built yet. Therefore, the selling price should be cheaper. I am planning to sell the house after 5 years.

What are the strategies?
I believe that the interest rate should be as low as possible during the earliest years.
Should I put in as minimum downpayment as possible or higher better?
What other thing should I take in account?
Will renovating the house a little bit such as fitting plaster ceiling, grille (developer does not provide) etc bring the house value much higher? I will most probably hire contractor to do the renovation work.

what other strategies?

or do you guys know any good book that guide this kind of investment?

if u have read many of the threads here, u would have know the key is LOCATION, it doesn't matter whether it is landed or highrise.

since u r looking at flipping, entry price n potential appreciation of the property at the same area should be taken in account.

Location and potential buyer's purchasing power(i.e class of buyer)

This post has been edited by ehl: Sep 10 2009, 09:38 AM

One strategy rules all, location.

The value of your property depends on who is staying in it.

hmm, Could u explain further on this ? do u mean tenant ?

I think he meant who is staying around that same area.

eg like..Low income, mid income, high income, or businessmen

I'm not buying property yet, but will be... once I have the startup capital.
Since you decided to be an real estate investor, how much per month and percentage do you put aside every month?

What are the strategies?
I believe that the interest rate should be as low as possible during the earliest years.
Should I put in as minimum downpayment as possible or higher better?
What other thing should I take in account?
Will renovating the house a little bit such as fitting plaster ceiling, grille (developer does not provide) etc bring the house value much higher? I will most probably hire contractor to do the renovation work.

what other strategies?

or do you guys know any good book that guide this kind of investment?

Buying developing project is more of a gamble, you won't know what will the future price it will be after completion. If the price remains the same when you bought it, you pay the most interest compare to resale properties.

I currently know 3 strategies in property investing.
Flip - works well in hot market
Buy and hold - when the housing price is low, buy and wait for the market to improve. Rented out but don't profit much, may even lose money.
cashflow - works well in all market, you don't need money to make money.

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Added on September 11, 2009, 3:20 pmLet's say you have a 100k property but you rent it out to someone who don't pay and he trashes the place.
You want him to move out but he kept staying.

You got fed up and wanted to sell with that tenant in there, so what is that value of that property now?
At that location, other units still selling for RM100k but this unit may go as low as RM50k.


Also, if that area has high unemployment rate.
People staying there generally move out.
Even though it's a good area, price will still drop.


When looking at real estate, look at the people staying there.

This post has been edited by jasonhanjk: Sep 11 2009, 03:20 PM

all is true...

I believe that LOCATION is very important to secure a firm pricing when the property is completed.

Well from your post u mentioned a landed property in bukit mertajam.
So say u buy a landed property in Bukit Mertajam which is 500K.
Or you buy a medium size apartment in Penang Island, say nearby Gurney(hard to find!) for 500K also.

I believe you gonna see the gurney property appreciate faster compare to the bukit mertajam ones.

Hence LOCATION.

2nd the people that stay in the area, apartment also is a deciding factor to the property price.

I'm not meaning to talk bad about people... but let's just say you move a block of ppl from low cost flat area like maccallum street/rifle range to silverton gurney drive.

What happens when ppl start putting graffiti in the lifts, on the apartment wall.. throwing rubbish everywhere... have wiravos/rempit/etc that rev their vehicle in the building like no tomorrow.. put karaoke set till 5am in the morning... i think you get my point... then naturally the value of the place will drop... and drop like hell..

You won't pay 1million to go buy that apartment... when u know u have 1million, you rather stay in a place where the ppl there are of equal league and status... so say the regency.. and you would buy the property there instead.

wow long 2 cents worth... lol.. cheers.. i'm also learning.

+1