i take 2months rental deposit , bills deposit n IC photocopies from my tenants, but they are good student tenants , so there is nothing much to worry about rental payment every month, they even considered my offer to pay lump sum for 1 yr tenancy with discount given, too bad they didn't come to a full agreement...

students do come and go.. and the cycle can be as short as per-semester basis. thus, there's a lot of work involve in keeping the property occupied.

if you work closely with the school/college, it would be much easier on your part, right?

a 1-year advance rental can be quite alot.. have you considered per-semester rental?

1yr advanced would be easier coz i can make back the discounted rental from investment with the advanced , per-semester the amount not much n the discount oso not so much difference from monthly rental which i hav oready given discount for early payment by 10th.

tenancy should be a problem coz the unit is new & big built up, close to college & uni , more importantly, they are my juniors who will pass on the tenancy to their juniors after 3yrs....touch wood...

looks like you've got a good setup there..
did you create additional partition to your unit to accomodate more rooms?

IMO, there is 2 way how one can make $$$$$ from property investment.

1. Rental income - The slow and steady way, and good way to make some passive income. If one can have 5 fully paid property for rental income at his/her retirement, most likely you'll have a good retirement income without the need to depend solely on kids or EPF funds. Boring and slow, but a sure way to build one's wealth and REAL assets.

2. Flippers - Higher risk and much faster method, where one usually speculate and buy developers unit and then sell it off for decent gains upon completion. Decent properties in KV tends to appreciate on average of 20% from its developers price. Of course when you speculate, there a higher chance that u migh get burn if the deal went wrong. Below are real examples for flipped properties in a simplified version :



Property name : Parkview tower @ KLCC by Mayland
Developer's price : from RM180k
Current asking price : from RM330k


ROI

Tenure of investment : Bought in early 2004 duering developers launch and sells it off early 2007, few months after CF issuance, 3 years

COST
Downpayment@10% : 20k
Interest paid in 3 years : 10k(approximately)
Other misc cost (lock-in, legal etc) : 10k
Total cost : 40k

PROFIT
Sell off for 310k early 2007 : 310k- 180k(purchase price)
Gross profit : 130k


Nett profit after 3 years : 90k
ROI per anum : 108.33%



Cool huh?

Man I wish I was born earlier and bought one back in 2004. Just started working back then hence no $$$$$

if i made up my mind to pay (loan ? ) 20K extra to get another unit tht has a space between the rooms (developer decorated as TV hall separated from living room) ,which can be easily put up only 1 partition wall to make it a room....but tht time it wasn't in my budget...

anyway,there is a limit for access card for each unit, my current unit oready hit max 10cards , so don't think making any partition in any apartment can accomodate more students....