Hello all.

I plan to buy my first property, a low-rise apartment, priced 70k as quoted by the owner.

Since it is my first property, I am not sure with the procedures,
especially since I am buying through owner, and not via developer.

Here are some of the questions I have :

[1] Do I need to appoint a lawyer to act on by behalf, and if it advisable to do so, how much will it cost ?

[2] Who will bear the cost of SPA signing, & any other fees for the sales ?

[3] If the owner bought the house by taking bank loan, do I need to pay the remaining balance to the bank
or is it the owner's responsibility to pay it ?

Thanks in advance.

1) as buyer yes you need to appoint a lawyer and definitely advisable to do so. cost is about 1% of purchase price or min RM300.
2) SPA and other disbursements will be borned by buyer.
3) the lawyer will arrange for the redemption sum to be paid to the vendor bank.

The vendor has to get his own lawyer as well in which case he will need to pay the required fee himself. he may decide to use your lawyer
as well to save costs but that is his perogative.

Just ensure that you do not pay any deposit direct to the owner, get your lawyer to deal with this. lawyer will make sure he is the legal owner etc before
releasing the money to him.

good luck!

abit risky if go without agent/ direct to owner

when you pay booking fee, can you trust the owner that he wont run away with the booking money? Is there receipt?

1. yes, advisable to appoint a lawyer even for placing the booking fee....and you have to have lawyer regardless of dealing with or without agent
2. spa is by buyer...other fees like loan agreement, etc - buyer
3. you will pass the money to your lawyer, and your lawyer will transfer to owner - if everything in order

And at which point do I need to go to the bank to take up loan?
Is it when the owner has provided me with the SPA?

And usually, say the purchase price is 70k, what figure am I looking at to pay for the additional charges and fees ?

You better start hunting and compare the bank loan. Normally, if you buy from agent, just summit the booking slip together with yr salary slip and income documentations. I buy direct from owner last time, not complicated.

Make sure you have your own lawyer.

How much are we looking at additional money I need to pay, other than the legal fees?

Actually buying through an agent might not be as good as buying through your appointed lawyer. The problem is the 2% booking fee. How can you tell if the owner is the rightful owner? Unfortunately you cannot unless your own lawyer has done a search via the land office to see who is the rightful owner, if it is charged or caveatted. But in good faith if they can provide you a copy of the land title and their I/C, you should be able to safely part your 2%. Agents do nothing more than that. At first sign of trouble, agents will run away. Unfortunately, this is so true in Malaysia and I personally have experienced more than once.

The problem with appointing a lawyer is that you want good lawyers, yet you want discount. I prefer heavy discount but personally i need to follow up quite heavily with their staffs. Normally partners of big legal firms are good but conveyancing is just a boring paper work procedures and they leave it to their conveyancing clerks to do up the paperwork. But when you have stubborn vendors, having a strong lawyer on your side is a good thing. I have different lawyers for different sets of purchase. One of my lawyers, who is damn fierce, was quite good with his PR against vendor rather than for his paperwork. For potentially trouble making vendors, I used him and I have personally seen him scold the shit out of a high ranking police officer telling him to adhere to paperwork.

Picking a good lawyer is a very important step in ensuring your deal goes through smoothly. If a lawyer is free to meet you at a fast food joint, it doesn't say much about his/her business. Conveyancing in Australia does not even need a lawyer as there is a schedule in their Law.

Costs of SPA and disbursement should be payable by you.

Your lawyer should be able to advise you on how your bank would redeem the other bank's loan.