QUOTE(ej_italia @ Dec 22 2008, 05:20 PM)
Dear Dr. Re,
Seeking for your advice once again. I need a sanity check, as I'm falling in love with a property.
1. The property which I'm looking at is slightly below market value. But here's the catch, the direction is West, actually about North-west i would say. Nevertheless I think the sun still somewhat affect the hall.
Will it affect much when i want to sell it next time? From your experience, do you think it will be very difficult to sell a west facing prop at market value? Will i get very much less than non-west facing props?
2. I'm not sure if this would be an advantage > disadvantage because it's facing two roads, the inner and outer(main road). I like it because there's space in front as in if there's visitors parking is not a prob compared to those facing similar DSL opposite and parking is most likely cramp.
The prob is I'm not sure if it'll be super dusty, what do you think? Outer road is about 50ft from gate.
Just want to make sure that it's not just about what i like but what other ppl think for investment purpose.
Thanks in advance Doc!
Sorry for the late reply been partying alot lately so haven't been sober enough to write here. Staying at home today because rudolph left a big pile of shit on my roof last night ...
Hmmmmmm .......... now the biggest no no is still the T-junction rule. I don't know why la but people nowadays are starting to get more and more into the fengshui thing. Chinese and indians have traditionally believed in fengshui and chinese and indians have the same basic fundamentals in fengshui ... but one thing you'd be suprise is that the educated malays are also starting to get into feng shui ... u can see lotsa malay datuks in KL la with lucky numbers for car plates ... ... i think maybe thanks to that fat lady which i forgot her name for commercializing feng shui and making the knowledge more accesible to people ... anyway here is what i think about feng shui ... feng shui is about the art of living the most important thing is the feel of the house.. having gone and seen so many pieces of land ... you sorta get that gut feel of a good of piece of land .. sorry again i don't really do completed units .. but starting to want to do because times are bad ... it's the same for houses as well ... always look for that feel good feeling ... i believe that if you have bad luck when u're looking for a house, your gonna get that feel good feeling on a bad feng shui property ... so always ask for a second opinion .. bring a friend along or a girl ... infact i have found girls to be more intune to these types of things then men.
Anyway inregards to market value, it is very subjective ... u might meet a mat salleh who just loves how he can shit in the morning and have to face the bright sun ... but again u might meet ten house buyers before the mat salleh that just don't like the fact that it is facing west ... infact facing west or not .. is only 20% compared to the difficulty of selling a house at a junction .. houses at junctions, big no no .. that's why u can see a new trend in development where they try to avoid junction houses at all cost ...
anyway i am not a feng shui guy so u could ask some master to go see for you ... but again it is very subjective la ...
conclusion
yes will affect .. but not a great deal .. in fact not on the price .. but might have to see more people to sell .. if circumstances are right
if your lucky might just sell to the first buyer
Again people always talk about selling at market or higher ... i think i'll tell u a story la ... my friend owns a unit in somerset near bukit bintang, unit reno about 40k he's good in interior design cause he always invest and then reno well .. he always "flip" properties ... when he bought it 4 years before he sold it, he bought it at 250k ... when the buyer came to see, he immediately liked the unit because of the reno and had a good feel to the property .. at then the market value was about 500k .. he sold it to the fella for 600k ... and another factor was that the buyer's mistress just wanted to get the buyer to get her a property ASAP .. so very hard to say .. i'd say sometimes depends on luck ...
investment purpose ... when investing ... think rationally .. think rental .. think capital appreciation and think ease of selling ...
Added on December 25, 2008, 12:12 pmQUOTE(Phoeni_142 @ Dec 23 2008, 12:01 PM)
Hi looqsonline,
I'm new to this forum, and I have been reading this thread with interest. Presently, I'm looking at the Faber Condo's, namely Ria and Heights for investment purposes. Whilst I must admit that they are fairly old, they are reasonably priced (approx 210 psqft, if not mistaken), and rental demand there seems quite stable....
What are your views with regards to its investment potential, particularly on the studio units (<600 sq ft) there? Thanks.
now .. if it's a studio .. i say 50 50 for investment .. because a taman desa is a place where people working in KL or PJ earning between 2k-6k live .. people who are in this income gap .. usually prefer renting rooms because they are cheaper .. so your target market is narrowed .. you can't rent to families cause they'd rather rent a bigger unit with 3 rooms or more ... studio in tamna desa no no ... now let's say the studio unit you are refering to is 160k ... your gonna loan 80% or about 127k then for 30 years ur paying RM850 amonth ... now you have to rent it out at at least 700 cause your gonna at least have to pay about RM100-Rm150 for maintenance then u take away the cost of upkeeping your unit ... and also the period which you have no tenant so your gonna have to hope that rental on your unit rises in the next 30 years ... i guess monthly probably all your really left with is RM450 so your actually forking out about RM400 every month for your installment but i doubt your even gonna get RM700 probably RM500... as for capital appreciation, your not gonna have much ... cause it's a studio in taman desa and your gonna have problems selling cause you can only sell to single mid income earners .. infact for the resale market, a moajority of buyers are family people and investors .. further more it's old .. prices of condos generally plateu and then decrease after 15-20 years .. again generally ah .. some condo projects have remained good investments even past 20-30 years because of alot of reasons ... so again this is my opinion ... but personally i wouldn't buy .. i'd rather fork out about 210k to 300k and rent out the rooms individually ... anyway now is seriously not the time to buy .. but time to educate yourselves .. and learn the ropes of becoming a property investor .. there are lotsa tricks that you don't learn from books .. buy mid 09 onwards .. now just look see and learn ..
Added on December 25, 2008, 12:45 pmQUOTE(hspace @ Dec 25 2008, 12:02 AM)
Dr. RE:
good insights. Man I read through 9 pages in the last hour or so. (Yeah I'm stayin out of the Christmas crowds for tonight).
Some brief thoughts.
- good RE agent. I know a few friends who won't mind paying finder's fee for a good agent - can just hand him a list of criteria and then he does the research. Right now, 99% of RE agents here are crap. Just put up some ad, answer the phone half-heartedly. Message to such agents: we can really detect it when you're just looking for a "shui yu" - don't show us the crap houses, quote a high price then tell so many lies and gloss over the flaws. Waste of time. RE agents in the US or elsewhere are much more professional.
- economy. you're right, it will be slow descent for Malaysia. slow to go up, slow to go down, hahaha.
- the rich. Some people have a tons of cash right now. After they lost a bit from stocks, they just pulled everything out. They are all asking about fire sales - all ready to buy, and patient. But like you said, prices won't drop that much like in 97 etc.
- delusion of some house owners. Because they've been living there for a long time, in mostly their eyes they think their house is an absolute gem and everywhere else is no competition. So they want to sell at sky high prices. They would hold on to this inflated idea of the "fair value" of their house. For eg, he wants to sell at RM600K when market is RM550K. If he sells at RM550K-RM560K, he can put that money into FD and get 3.7% a year. Or even pick up stocks or other investments, business that safely get dividend/returns of 5-20% a year. But he will not. He will hold until he can sell at RM600K... 5 years later. (at only 3.7% he gets RM659K in 5 yrs) Some will say he has "holding power" to "wait out the recession". That's bull. I say he could have done much better by looking at all options.
- business. you should write a book. A few people has, abt making money, etc. If I'm not wrong, first RM20K royalty is tax-free. Imagine still earning money when you're doing the horizontal boogie or playing mahjong. I've got first dibs on my booklet, "How to Survive an Economic Downturn in Malaysia" and "How to be a Real Estate Agent" No body copy me, OK??
- real estate portfolio. How did your friend Stanley from Miri structure his portfolio..? All the properties in his personal name, or in a Sdn Bhd? When he went to get the loan, does he have to mortgage some of his existing properties, or the bank just look at the rental income stream to approve the loan for the new property? I don't have anything other than rental income right now from fully paid properties. I'm wondering what is the best way to get access to financing. Any idea?
- your IT business. The sales skills you learned from RE should be useful here. Sell, sell, sell. Especially if you say the product saves money, that will even sell better in a downturn when company wants to cut costs. Really cut down your overheads as much as possible. Show potential clients your spirit and really work for it. Like you said, if you make it now, the experience will be very useful later on, even if the immediate income might not seem like it's worth it right now.
OK.. I can hear the fireworks goin off.. Gonna go watch it. Cheers! Hope to see your reply soon.
Hey man thanks you just made me feel my worth in starting this thread ...
Alot of people don't understand, especially the casual property investor or the first time home buyer that agents are motivated by commision ... people are never willing to pay for good advice ... especially asians... we simply don't believe in paying for the intangible ... why are americans and brritish and even the japanese are so succesful because they are willing to pay high fees for specialist ... example .. business man A sells clothes he is very good at cutting costs ... he is really really good .. he knows how to make quality clothes at low costs .. but his business will always be that a low cost manufacturer ... he tries to make a designer lable but not willing to pay for a marketing consultant to find out what is the latest trends ... infact in the US there are even trend consultants that just go out and party all the time to see what is the trendiest things people want .... A thinks he wants to save cost and he thinks he knows it all .. but please he is not a marketer ... he maybe a good businessman but he is not a maerketer .. his specialty is in cutting cost ... everyone has their own specialty .. and they should not assume the job of another specialist ... so it's the same in property
You work 9-5 everyday and u occasinally look at property news or on my thread for advice .. heheheheh ... anyway you also occasionally look at property .. but a property agent lives and breathes property he is there everyday . at the tip of his fingers, he's got information on what sold for how much .... he knows so much more things that you don't ... buyers always only want to get free advice and they think that the seller's commision is enough .. but if you want that extra mile out of that agent .. stop treating him like a sales man .. but take him on as a consultant ...
here's how agents work .. they only have a handful of property in their hand if you're not gonna pay them extra .. they will just keep rotating you around they few properties they have ... but if you give them a finder's fee ... you'll see how much wonders they can do .. they will find properties from other agents and suddenly u see that they have a few hundred properties on hand cause they are willing to share theire commisions with other agents cause they will also be earning from your finders fee.
conclusion. you pay peanuts you get peanuts .. but of course be smart la .. know how to indentify a good agent ...
anyway my outlook on the malaysian economy ... in 97 we were like a business man that started booming right before the recession ... we put everything at stake to grow the business ... but now .. we are like a middle income family ... so since times are bad .. let's just tighten our belts ... but again malaysia has always been lucky ... we've always had something to fall back on ... in 2009 u will see shift in banking trends towards an islamic banking system ... arabs will start using more islamic banking methods and if malaysia uses this to its advantage, we won't fall as hard ... infact, i think malaysia is in a good postiion, lot's of liquidity .. and i hope lotsa brains as well .. companies like genting and YTL as cash rich .. even genting is using 50-50 D:E to finance its project in singapore ... i hope they wont be like MUI buying into shit companies like laura ashley .. but the middle income market will be the hardest hit .. like i've said in my previous threads ..
well my friend stanley .. had a substantial amount when he first invested .. like 200-300k which he saved up ... thoruhg his first property he made like 100k and he just leveraged off his good relations and good CCRISS with the banks . his bank is public bank and they know him so well and he only meets the branch managers .... they even borrowed him 10million for a boutique hotel whioch didn't work out la .. but it took him just 5 years .. but he is a true blue property investor .. he lives and breathes it and he is a cut throat negotiator ... and he is always willing to walk away from the deal ... another thing is that he always gets good rental on his properties .. i.e. And he puts all the properties under his property holdings company ... and pays himself a salary and hoards the rest in the company as working capital ... so it remains tax free until he takes it all out from his company .. He always leverages off his rental income ... but again his strength was that he kept loyal to one bank and hung around the people who decides his loan ... but again .. he invests in ..errr ... sideline businesses called "Kongsi" i won't explain further about this ...
infact i closed the IT thing down .. vision was good but time not right ... another 2 - 3 years maybe .. we are always a few year behind .. so wait till it becomes big elsewhere only will i do it in malaysia .. anyway i am writing a magazine .. hope to have it out in january or febuary .. i prefer magazines then books ... magazines i'm constantly writing for the readers .. whereas books it's a one time off thing ... i'm hoping to be able to tap into an uncatered market ... hehe but not saying what it is first ..
Anyway if u wanna hear my opinion on how to utilise your rental income stream maybe write another post and i'll answer it from there .. how old are u by the way?
Added on December 25, 2008, 12:52 pmQUOTE(looqsonline @ Dec 25 2008, 11:59 AM)
Sorry for the late reply been partying alot lately so haven't been sober enough to write here. Staying at home today because rudolph left a big pile of shit on my roof last night ...
Hmmmmmm .......... now the biggest no no is still the T-junction rule. I don't know why la but people nowadays are starting to get more and more into the fengshui thing. Chinese and indians have traditionally believed in fengshui and chinese and indians have the same basic fundamentals in fengshui ... but one thing you'd be suprise is that the educated malays are also starting to get into feng shui ... u can see lotsa malay datuks in KL la with lucky numbers for car plates ... ... i think maybe thanks to that fat lady which i forgot her name for commercializing feng shui and making the knowledge more accesible to people ... anyway here is what i think about feng shui ... feng shui is about the art of living the most important thing is the feel of the house.. having gone and seen so many pieces of land ... you sorta get that gut feel of a good of piece of land .. sorry again i don't really do completed units .. but starting to want to do because times are bad ... it's the same for houses as well ... always look for that feel good feeling ... i believe that if you have bad luck when u're looking for a house, your gonna get that feel good feeling on a bad feng shui property ... so always ask for a second opinion .. bring a friend along or a girl ... infact i have found girls to be more intune to these types of things then men.
Anyway inregards to market value, it is very subjective ... u might meet a mat salleh who just loves how he can shit in the morning and have to face the bright sun ... but again u might meet ten house buyers before the mat salleh that just don't like the fact that it is facing west ... infact facing west or not .. is only 20% compared to the difficulty of selling a house at a junction .. houses at junctions, big no no .. that's why u can see a new trend in development where they try to avoid junction houses at all cost ...
anyway i am not a feng shui guy so u could ask some master to go see for you ... but again it is very subjective la ...
conclusion
yes will affect .. but not a great deal .. in fact not on the price .. but might have to see more people to sell .. if circumstances are right
if your lucky might just sell to the first buyer
Again people always talk about selling at market or higher ... i think i'll tell u a story la ... my friend owns a unit in somerset near bukit bintang, unit reno about 40k he's good in interior design cause he always invest and then reno well .. he always "flip" properties ... when he bought it 4 years before he sold it, he bought it at 250k ... when the buyer came to see, he immediately liked the unit because of the reno and had a good feel to the property .. at then the market value was about 500k .. he sold it to the fella for 600k ... and another factor was that the buyer's mistress just wanted to get the buyer to get her a property ASAP .. so very hard to say .. i'd say sometimes depends on luck ...
investment purpose ... when investing ... think rationally .. think rental .. think capital appreciation and think ease of selling ...
Added on December 25, 2008, 12:12 pmnow .. if it's a studio .. i say 50 50 for investment .. because a taman desa is a place where people working in KL or PJ earning between 2k-6k live .. people who are in this income gap .. usually prefer renting rooms because they are cheaper .. so your target market is narrowed .. you can't rent to families cause they'd rather rent a bigger unit with 3 rooms or more ... studio in tamna desa no no ... now let's say the studio unit you are refering to is 160k ... your gonna loan 80% or about 127k then for 30 years ur paying RM850 amonth ... now you have to rent it out at at least 700 cause your gonna at least have to pay about RM100-Rm150 for maintenance then u take away the cost of upkeeping your unit ... and also the period which you have no tenant so your gonna have to hope that rental on your unit rises in the next 30 years ... i guess monthly probably all your really left with is RM450 so your actually forking out about RM400 every month for your installment but i doubt your even gonna get RM700 probably RM500... as for capital appreciation, your not gonna have much ... cause it's a studio in taman desa and your gonna have problems selling cause you can only sell to single mid income earners .. infact for the resale market, a moajority of buyers are family people and investors .. further more it's old .. prices of condos generally plateu and then decrease after 15-20 years .. again generally ah .. some condo projects have remained good investments even past 20-30 years because of alot of reasons ... so again this is my opinion ... but personally i wouldn't buy .. i'd rather fork out about 210k to 300k and rent out the rooms individually ... anyway now is seriously not the time to buy .. but time to educate yourselves .. and learn the ropes of becoming a property investor .. there are lotsa tricks that you don't learn from books .. buy mid 09 onwards .. now just look see and learn ..
Added on December 25, 2008, 12:45 pmHey man thanks you just made me feel my worth in starting this thread ...
Alot of people don't understand, especially the casual property investor or the first time home buyer that agents are motivated by commision ... people are never willing to pay for good advice ... especially asians... we simply don't believe in paying for the intangible ... why are americans and brritish and even the japanese are so succesful because they are willing to pay high fees for specialist ... example .. business man A sells clothes he is very good at cutting costs ... he is really really good .. he knows how to make quality clothes at low costs .. but his business will always be that a low cost manufacturer ... he tries to make a designer lable but not willing to pay for a marketing consultant to find out what is the latest trends ... infact in the US there are even trend consultants that just go out and party all the time to see what is the trendiest things people want .... A thinks he wants to save cost and he thinks he knows it all .. but please he is not a marketer ... he maybe a good businessman but he is not a maerketer .. his specialty is in cutting cost ... everyone has their own specialty .. and they should not assume the job of another specialist ... so it's the same in property
You work 9-5 everyday and u occasinally look at property news or on my thread for advice .. heheheheh ... anyway you also occasionally look at property .. but a property agent lives and breathes property he is there everyday . at the tip of his fingers, he's got information on what sold for how much .... he knows so much more things that you don't ... buyers always only want to get free advice and they think that the seller's commision is enough .. but if you want that extra mile out of that agent .. stop treating him like a sales man .. but take him on as a consultant ...
here's how agents work .. they only have a handful of property in their hand if you're not gonna pay them extra .. they will just keep rotating you around they few properties they have ... but if you give them a finder's fee ... you'll see how much wonders they can do .. they will find properties from other agents and suddenly u see that they have a few hundred properties on hand cause they are willing to share theire commisions with other agents cause they will also be earning from your finders fee.
conclusion. you pay peanuts you get peanuts .. but of course be smart la .. know how to indentify a good agent ...
anyway my outlook on the malaysian economy ... in 97 we were like a business man that started booming right before the recession ... we put everything at stake to grow the business ... but now .. we are like a middle income family ... so since times are bad .. let's just tighten our belts ... but again malaysia has always been lucky ... we've always had something to fall back on ... in 2009 u will see shift in banking trends towards an islamic banking system ... arabs will start using more islamic banking methods and if malaysia uses this to its advantage, we won't fall as hard ... infact, i think malaysia is in a good postiion, lot's of liquidity .. and i hope lotsa brains as well .. companies like genting and YTL as cash rich .. even genting is using 50-50 D:E to finance its project in singapore ... i hope they wont be like MUI buying into shit companies like laura ashley .. but the middle income market will be the hardest hit .. like i've said in my previous threads ..
well my friend stanley .. had a substantial amount when he first invested .. like 200-300k which he saved up ... thoruhg his first property he made like 100k and he just leveraged off his good relations and good CCRISS with the banks . his bank is public bank and they know him so well and he only meets the branch managers .... they even borrowed him 10million for a boutique hotel whioch didn't work out la .. but it took him just 5 years .. but he is a true blue property investor .. he lives and breathes it and he is a cut throat negotiator ... and he is always willing to walk away from the deal ... another thing is that he always gets good rental on his properties .. i.e. And he puts all the properties under his property holdings company ... and pays himself a salary and hoards the rest in the company as working capital ... so it remains tax free until he takes it all out from his company .. He always leverages off his rental income ... but again his strength was that he kept loyal to one bank and hung around the people who decides his loan ... but again .. he invests in ..errr ... sideline businesses called "Kongsi" i won't explain further about this ... oh ya stanley is one big f***er ... he even get's people to become his employee so he can write of hundreds of dollars of tax ... he will put them in the 2k bracket .. or something like that lar .. then he saves on 24k of his own tax
infact i closed the IT thing down .. vision was good but time not right ... another 2 - 3 years maybe .. we are always a few year behind .. so wait till it becomes big elsewhere only will i do it in malaysia .. anyway i am writing a magazine .. hope to have it out in january or febuary .. i prefer magazines then books ... magazines i'm constantly writing for the readers .. whereas books it's a one time off thing ... i'm hoping to be able to tap into an uncatered market ... hehe but not saying what it is first ..
Anyway if u wanna hear my opinion on how to utilise your rental income stream maybe write another post and i'll answer it from there .. how old are u by the way?
Dec 10 2008, 05:10 PM
Quote
Am even putting off plans to buy a sporty car that I've always wanted. I'm now saving a bit to look for opportunities in equities, commodities and properties. I like liquidity of equities, and volatility in commodities presents opportunities as well whether it goes up or down. I'm weak at forex - aunties who have time to stare at Bloomberg seem GREAT at forex! Good thing commodities helped me for this year. I wouldn't want to put everything in one asset class. My dream would be to invest in overseas Asian properties, but the cost of entry and management issue is there. What advice would you have for utilizing the rental income?
0.0300sec
0.80
6 queries
GZIP Disabled