1st the first cheque to book the property is to be written to agency?(as agent fee) ?

penang is both buyer and seller have to pay right?

Depends on what unit is that. If highend in good location then no problem

Actually buying a property for your baby is a better education fund than those insurance education

Real estate quagmire sinks Gen X, Y fiscal hopes

CNBC Digital presents the second in a series of five articles by members of its Financial Advisor Council on worst-case financial scenarios affecting clients in four age brackets: millennials and younger Gen Xers; people in their 40s and 50s; 60-somethings and pre-retirees; and those already in retirement. This week's guest contributor is Tim Maurer , director of personal finance at the BAM Alliance.

Throughout the course of my career, I've heard a lot of financial horror stories. The majority of these stories are told by baby boomers whose aggressive stock market strategies went bust, often at the behest of a transaction-oriented "advisor."

The most pain-yes, even marginally greater than that of former Enron employees and Bernie Madoff scam victims-has been felt by a younger generation, however, in America's suburbs, far from Wall Street.

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Relinquishing its collective Abercrombie & Fitch flannel shirts for suits and ties, Generation X was buying its first homes just as the Farrelly brothers-directors of "There's Something About Mary"-were hitting the movie scene and the real estate market was warming up.

These initial purchases were greeted with solid gains and falling interest rates, so when Scott and Ann-as we'll call them-were ready to move up from their starter home to make room for their growing family, they decided to refinance and rent their first home. They got good renters, made a monthly profit and saw their net worth begin a sharp upward climb.

Read More The next worst-case scenario could be you

People just not buying homesPlay VideoPeople just not buying homes
Since it worked so well the first time, why not do it again? Scott and Ann took meaningful chunks of their ever-expanding equity from their growing real estate portfolio to fund new home purchases. After all, the banks wouldn't lend them this money if they actually thought it was dangerous, would they? In their early 30s, Scott and Ann were poised to become millionaires soon, at least on paper.

This strategy worked great-until it didn't.

They lost a renter in one house and started having less amiable phone calls with lenders, soon resorting to unsecured credit cards for excess expenses. Their equity shrunk, seemingly overnight, and kept shrinking until it ceased to exist. Adjustable mortgage rates started adjusting in unfavorable directions, while their net worth accelerated into the red.

Scott and Ann's household income-more than $150,000 annually but comingled with their real estate "business"-could no longer support their family, until all was eventually lost in a dual personal bankruptcy that shattered them personally and threatened them professionally.

Read More Giving to charity? Check this list first

Plagued by guilt and embarrassment, Scott, who'd shielded Ann from most of their financial woes until they were impossible to hide, had trouble sleeping through the night, until he woke one morning with a freeing picture in his mind.

He saw the number zero preceded by a dollar sign. "$0," he told me, "is the amount of money and material possessions we take with us when we leave this world." His vision provided a valuable lesson, indeed, but one I'd have preferred Scott to learn in a book.

Scott and Ann's story is 100 percent true, but sadly it's not unique. The intense compounding of leverage-fueled rates of return on seemingly safe hard assets wooed entirely too many Gen Xers into part-time landlord gigs that eventually failed. For many more, home equity dwindled, thanks to cars, vacations and even more noble uses, landing vast numbers of 30-somethings among the millions still underwater on their homesteads.

As a generation, however, we've learned several lessons that will serve us well into the future:
-Real estate can be a good investment, but it is not a safe investment, made even less safe because it is typically bought with leverage.
-Without leverage, the most you can lose is your initial investment. With leverage, you can lose substantially more than your initial investment.
-In order to benefit from rental real estate, you must be willing and able to be a landlord. Most aren't.
-Owning more of a good thing is not always better. Concentrating is gambling; diversifying is investing.

Read More Avoid these retirement screwups

Studies have shown that Generations X and now Y are more conservative than their predecessors, which is completely understandable after they saw the financial crash of 2008 follow the real estate crash of 2006, which has been preceded by the tech bubble bursting in the early 2000s.

Some say younger generations are being too conservative, but I think it's a good lesson to learn: No investment is likely to make us, and therefore it shouldn't be put in a position to break us.

People like to say this but michael dell, steve jobs not completing college are really not good examples without providing the context behind. They were already making headways in their businesses by then and had inherent qualities common people dont. They didnt quit because they were lazy or didnt value developing themselves.

You must be a bumi bro 

Ya right no need fund, your father is agong ke? or like above said bumi? local Uni, non-bumi u think can enter so easy meh? u paid for us la zzz

I always like optimistic people  When a person think of the brighter side, usually good things will also happen to them. For pessimistic people, even opportunity sit in front of them, they will not see it as opportunity.

If can afford I think no harm to send your children to oversea. After all u provided them another alternate way of living. Some of my friend even get a Pr in uk and Australia after complete study in oversea and have a pretty good salary.

If can't afford study locally lo no need stress. If u are dragon sooner later u will become dragon, if u pai kar chai no matter give u how much also finish.

If still cannot take ptptn, 4% only what. Got first class even can waive all.

Always take life easy, no stress

Worst more..after study dont want come back..Like dumping money to sea.

Whose going to taking care PAMA...if keeping property still can get rental income for retirement.

Sell for children - may not easy to get it back.

yumcha that time can have additional education bubble talk, nowadays cannot afford to send kids to higher education liao, at least rm500k per kids.

bro... 500k is study medicine in UK la.. 

if children can become dr in UK.. he can buy few houses for u instead lo. 

Beside u show off ur 1.4mil condo, u can talk about ur kids graduate oversea, many people envy la bro.

Bill Gates was dropped out of harvard.
And he got top 10 highest score for his Sat.

If your children scored top 10 in a level or spm/stpm,  and managed to get into harvard,  then,  yes,  he/she will be successful even if he/she does not complete his /her study

out of topic though.

Whatever opinion already said. I am more interested whether bear bear has signed the dotted line?

Was speaking with some well-heeled investors over dinner at the Majestic at the weekend. It was clear that the guys with the big cash are buying properties with a sense of urgency. They are soaking up older properties, shophouses and anything unique in terms of location or provenance. I heard more than one person say that the window is closing. Not sure if it's true, but the smart money seems to think so.

These people are not buying off-plan props. They're searching for unique older properties such as shophouses and bigger flats in older well-kept buildings. They're buying with a view to the longer term, although I heard stories about props bought for LT investment, but then flipped when a bigger fish came along and grabbed it away a few months later.

We spent most of the evening talking about older districts full of shophouses, the ones everyone has been avoiding for years.

Who knows,

noko

People want NEW cos

1) No need to renovate
2) No need to come out with Big DP
3) No need to move in immediately
4) Many sub-sales property are not well maintained

Ppl think too much why new sales are up and sub-sales down

Finding properties to live in and finding investments are two different things. If I'm looking for a place to live, I buy the ugliest property I can find in the best neighbouorhood and then press the owner as far as I think I can. I then used the cash to reno the prop and made it the best in the neighbourhood. It's worked for me a few times.

If I am investing, I focus on yield and risks to that yield. In the back of my mind I think about cap appreciation, but you never really know about that, so you have to rely on your gut. I also think about my transaction costs and try to keep them low. In stock investing, transaction costs are killers, moreso in prop investing. That's why I'm a LT investor.

This I also agree.

My current place has doubled in value in 6-yrs

Based on today MV, more than 50% of my Bangsat neighbours will not be able to buy it already.  Bangsat neighbours who simply park their cars, bikes and throw rubbish into the drains.

LOL. There is nothing awful awful about that, when you are able to afford it AND you like it. I don't think people who buy it for own stay would think of it that way.

Investment is a different matter. And again, I don't think genuine investor think that way. They would however, think about future appreciation, and rental yields, plus a host of other tiny minute details, all to do with money and sense.

If that is the mind set, then ppl will start asking you to buy properties in Melaka, or rural areas. Where's the fun in that? Or better still, perhaps bying land is more your type of investment.

WOKAYYYY,, is that thinking rocks your boat buddy

you will always have Bangsat Neighbours everywhere.

Just think it does make you feel better that all your Bangsats are of the same class.

Cos if you pay RM600K, u wanna stay with RM600K bangsats and not RM100K Bnagsats (for very old neighborhoods)

but it's cheaper to move around if you encounter rm100k bnagsats, with rm600k bnagsats, you might stick with them for a long time