Time for paying Cukai Pintu again

Today is Merdeka Day, Happy Celebration to all Malaysians!
Today is also the last day for paying Cukai Pintu to DBKL and MBPJ.
You can still do so today via Maybank2u even though all offices are closed for the national holidays ;-)  Otherwise there will be a nominal denda of RM5.

What were the last 3 Self-Development / Business Books that You Bought?

Steve Aitchison, a blogger and self-development coach, asked his readers this question.

I think it is a great question, it is a reality check whether we are reading enough in areas we want to improve, not just novels and stories....

So I decided to list them down here, the last 3 books that I bought.

Now, to get off the computer and to do some serious reading ;-)

Anyone else wants to share the 3 financial/business/self-development books that they bought? 

TNB Bill at the Domain - Part 3: Mystery Solved

Following my 2 posts previously (Strange TNB bill at the Domain & TNB Bill Part 2) on the strange TNB bill that arrived at the Domain mailbox, which was not in my name, even though Laketown made the name change; as well as not reflecting the total payments that were made in July, we finally found out what went wrong.
First, the name change was a slip-up from TNB, it was rectified almost immediately. Secondly, we realized that when TNB changed the name, it changed the account number as well.  So my tenants made payment to the old account number last month, and TNB took Laketown's deposit to pay in the new account number - therefore, there was no double payment reflected.
So the mystery is solved, and En. Jauhari clarified he would claim back Laketown's deposit from TNB from the old account number.  Case closed.

Should I rent out furnished or unfurnished?

A friend asked me if she should rent out her apartment furnished or unfurnished.  The rental for empty unit is around RM900, and she plans to furnish it fully and rent out at higher rental - RM1000.
In my opinion, if you were to put in furnishings into a 3-bedroom apartment, the furniture and home appliance could easily cost RM4000.  At RM100 increased rental per month, it will take 40 months (3 years and 4 months) just to recover the costs of the furnishings. For me, I would furnish only if the increase in rental is substantial, for example RM400 more.  Then it will take 10 months to recover the furniture costs, and then from the 11th month onwards it would be really cash flow for a few years.  So I told my friend if a furnished unit could only fetch RM100 more per month, then rent it out as bare unit.

Ho Chin Soon's Location, Timing & Branding Book

Sunday, 7th Aug - the last speaker at 5pm was Ho Chin Soon. Although tired from travelling and fasting during  Ramadhan, he gave his best at the talk about how the MRT system will affect properties and the economy.  And I remembered to bring my book for him to autograph, after the session.
And Sara, so impressed by him, immediately bought his new book on the spot to get his autograph too.

Commercial Property Buying Tips

Today was the 2nd day of the Property Investment Convention, which was again packed with information.  Here I pen down Gerard Kho's  (Reapfield) commercial property buying tips:

1. If you bought a commercial property from the developer, hold it for 3 years after vacant possession before selling.  That's because from his analysis, prices go up following the 3-year maturity rule.
2. Choose properties that have booming business all around - you can tell from the limited parking space.
3. Choose properties that face massive activities, not just the main road.
4. Choose properties that have residential homes supporting the shops.  Not a row of shops out of nowhere along the highway.
5. Choose areas that are big magnets (draws crowd). For example, Mont Kiara and Ampang are big magnets to expats in Malaysia because of availability of international schools and existing friends who live there.
6. More floors to the shop office does not equal more value.
7. 5 commercial property hotspots suggested are: Solaris Dutamas, Sri Kembangan, Kota Damansara, Kota Kemuning and Puchong.

Property Investment Convention

A sleepy Saturday morning saw me getting up early and all excited about the 2-day Property Investment Convention that members of Property & Co have signed up for.  Even though we share our learnings, there are so much more we can learn and it is important to keep ourselves updated.  So after dropping Wei at school for his chess class, I headed to Gardens, where there is a huge crowd of about 1000.

Sara and I, Anie and Fara, all had something else to do but we choose to spend our full weekend, learning.  

Fortunately the program was packed full of things to learn and never boring.  The speakers include Vincent Wong and John Lee from Wealth Dragons, Milan Doshi who needs no introduction, Dominic Lee about Hong Kong landbanking, George Lebrooy about REITs and Samantha Payne about Australian properties.  A Saturday well spent.  Tomorrow, can't wait to hear from Ho Chin Soon and get him to sign my book ;-)

TNB Bill at Neocyber Domain - part 2

Following my previous post, Strange TNB bill at Neocyber Domain, after informing En. Jauhari by email, he replied to say that he would check.  Today he sent another confirmation from TNB stating that TNB had made the correction.  This is very efficient.
However, there is still the dispute on the double payment last month, one by Laketown and another by my tenant, which is still not reflected in the bill.  I have informed my tenants to hold on to the payment until this has been resolved, and have further asked En. Jauhari to clarify.  Let's see what happens.