Update on Lagoon Perdana Apartment, Sunway

Finally after many months of work, Sara's apartment at Bandar Sunway is ready for rental.  Hopefully, the rental is smooth and without any anxiety to her.  Her hubby has almost done everything himself on the wiring, lights and even plumbing.  Sara only engaged contractor to do the grills.  The rest of the items are from the earlier "borong" sale, or picked up later.  Some of the items are brand new because they require delivery.

The selling point of this unit that it is bright and tastefully decorated. Sara even installed an RO water filter system in the kitchen because she knows that students are too busy to boil water for themselves and having safe and clean drinking water is a priority to students and their parents.
The apartment has 3 rooms, all equipped with study tables and chairs, beds and mattresses, wardrobe, lights and fans.  The common sharing items include fridge, tv, washing machine and a brand new microwave oven.
Good luck, Sara, hope you can get all your tenants soon.

Auction property course with Dr Peter Yee

Today Sara and I spent a day with Dr Peter Yee in his auction course.  It was filled with practical steps, great strategy and laughter throughout the whole session.

Dr Yee in his auction cap

One of the real-life properties for inspection

As shared by many who are inspired by him, Dr Yee is unassuming, always humble and shares from his heart.  It's been a great session, hopefully I can also be successful in auction properties after my first unsuccessful attempt.
I think I have 2 friends who are similarly inspired by him, as reported in How to Choose Investment Shop-Offices  and Property Virgin March 2011.

Property Sharing Session

Dear all,  I would like to promote the sharing session run by my property investor/blogger friends.
This is happening in March and I believe that if you readers would like to learn more about property investments, this is an opportunity not to be missed.
For details please visit Property & Co.

Do RENs have to give preference to their company lawyers?

Is there such a regulation for real estate negotiators (REN) that they must recommend their company lawyer to both the buyer and seller for processing of the sales & purchase agreement (SPA)?  Because I come across a REN who introduced his company lawyer to me (buyer) and the seller.  When I did not appoint his company lawyer because I already have my regular lawyer, the REN also refused to give the contact of the seller to my lawyer.  I had hoped that the seller could use my lawyer too, then it will ease the process of the SPA.

The REN told me he must follow procedure, which is he must wait until the seller either appoints or rejects his company lawyer, before moving on to next step, which is giving the contact to my lawyer to send the draft SPA.
By the time the seller decides to appoint or not to appoint his company lawyer, it is likely the seller has chosen his own representation, and would not have got the chance to hear from my lawyer.

I am a bit frustrated that the REN is not helping to ease the transaction for me, but rather hindering it through "folllowing procedures".  So if anyone is familiar with this, please help clarify, do RENs really have such a strict procedure to follow regarding lawyers, or is there personal vested interest in this?

Photo from: http://www.betadaily.com/2010/03/28/how-to-become-a-real-estate-agent/

Tenant who is not friendly to neighbours

While my tenant at the Kepong house moved out last December, another new tenant, D, moved in in January.
Today I got a call from one of the neighbours there, informing me about some of the things that they are unhappy about this new tenant.

Pic from www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110063969047070

1.  D, has a lot of people living in the house. Husband, wife, 2 kids, brother and brother's wife, and the dad of the husband. So altogether they have 5 cars.  The porch can only park 2 cars, which means the other 3 cars are parked outside the house, sometimes haphazardly, according to my neighbour.
2. The elderly father likes to puff cigarettes outside the house, in the carpark porch, which results in 2nd-hand smoke seeping into the neighbours' houses, and they usually close the sliding door in the evening.
3. During CNY, they played firecrackers loudly, disturbing the other neighbours, and don't bother to sweep off the paper remnants so that when the wind blows, bits of red colour paper flew into the neighbours' houses.

So my complaining neighbour asked me how long they are going to stay, and I said that the contract is for a year.  She seemed relieved and said they would bear with this tenant for 1 year.

So I really have a little dilemma here, which I would appreciate your comments on what you would do:
1. Should I tell the tenant gently about not parking the cars haphazardly?  What about the elderly father, tell him not to smoke outside the house?  And not to play firecrackers during CNY?
2.  It is very possible that this tenant would want to renew the tenancy for another year, because he indicated to me at the beginning.  While I have full intention to renew with him (good paymaster, hardly ever calls to complain about maintenance issues, and of course, if he agrees to a slight increase in rental), how do I manage the neighbours' expectations?  I don't expect to refuse renewal just to please my neighbours ( I can't run the risk of vacancy period, agent fees etc, while my neighbours would not compensate me, kan?)

Quit Rent bill from PTGWP

If you are owner of a land-property in Kuala Lumpur, you would have received a Bil Cukai Tanah from Pejabat Pengarah Tanah dan Galian WP.
On the bill, you will see that online payment with credit card is available on its website at  www.ptgwp.gov.my.
So instead of paying at the counter, I decided to try out the website.

At first I found the webpage not very user-friendly.  I was looking at the tabs on the left and going through one-by-one, before I finally found the icon for payment. It is circled in red at the right corner, click there and it will take you to the page to view your online bill if you enter your account number.  Next you must deactivate your pop-up blocker, because clicking on the payment will activate a pop-up window where you key in your credit card details.
What is pleasantly surprising are 3 things:
1. a discount of 5% is given if you pay online via credit card
2. an e-receipt that you can print out instantly confirming the payment
3. when you check your online bill again, it tells you that the bill has already been paid.
Impressive!

Guest Feature at propertywaltz.com

Today I am at a guest blogger being featured in my friend, Eun-yong's blog, PropertyWaltz.

She has a column which features her guests' first experience in buying properties and the lessons contained within.  

I am grateful to her for featuring my article so that we can all share our learnings. Please leave comments there if you like the feature.

The photo here is one she requested of us guest bloggers. It is to symbolize that we are real people with real experiences, and anyone can take part in property investments. My photo has the backdrop of the view from my apartment balcony. It's a symbolism of freedom ;-)