Jumbo Mambo Sale!!

I want to clear off these items from my store room.

So here we go!!

1) CG14 58deg wedge! Going for RM250!!

Hot item and hardly used!!!

2) Odysset Putter, Rossie Blade-RM150_SOLD



3) Taylor Made R7 22deg Rescue Club-RM230-SOLD



4) Wilson 8862 Putter-RM120-SOLD


5) Pro-Launch Shaft 55R-RM150 (suitable for driver)



6) Callaway ERC Big Berta 11deg Driver-RM150


Suitable for beginners!!!

7) Carbonex 21/Prince Badminton rackets and Carlton Tour Bag
RM300 (knockdown price!!!)

Carbonex 21




Prince-Graphite Series


Carlton Tour Bag!!


Interested? Just list down your names at the comment section and will get back to ASAP!!!

Why bother paying my loans earlier??

I'm writing this as a continuation of my earlier blog.

Some of my friends has asks me, what would be the reason(s) we wanna pay off our loans earlier?


well...it's basically we want to be 'ahead' on the interest. Before writing further, it is important to know the basic concept of a housing loan,... the banks will charge you for the loan by the way of interest. This way, the bank earns the profit from your loan.....and you are basically using the bank's money to build up your wealth...

For example, for a RM90k loan, the total amount that you have to pay back to the bank would be RM165,600 (assuming RM460 per month with 4.55%, -1.95% BLR), Hence, it is safe to say that the interest portion on the total amount is about RM75,600. Am i right? In short, the bank makes RM75,600 from loaning the money to you.

In addition, for the first few years of repayment, we are basically paying off the interest amount of the loan. Hence, the banks are getting back their money earlier than the rest of us! Feckers!!!

Hope now you get the idea!!

So for every payment that we make in paying the loans, we are paying for two things. The interest and the principal amount. Like I mentioned earlier, for the first few years of repayment, we are basically paying a significant portion of the monthly interest and a minimal amount of principal. The secret here is once the interest portion of the monthly payment is covered, any extra payment will be able to reduce the principal portion of the loan for that month.

So, if we decided to pay more and as frequent as possible, the interest portion will reduce the principal portion for that month...And because of this, the balance of the loan at the end of the month is lower, the interest charge for the next month will be reduced as well!!

For example, let's assume John Doe took up a RM150k loan from FatJoe's Bank. The bank interest rate is 6%. John took the loan for 30 years. How much we be the monthly payment that John has to pay? Huh!!...macam soalan matematik plak...

Hahaha, basically, John has to pay a monthly payment of RM899.33 for the next 360 months!! That comes up to about RM323,758.80 in total for the RM150k loan!! Pheww!!..That's a lot of money. And the best thing is that, John has to pay RM173,758.80 worth of interest charges!!!
That's a lot money my friends!! Banks are the No 1 ah longs!!!

Period Interest Paid Principal Paid Remaining Balance 1 RM 750.00 RM 149.33 RM 149 850.67 2 RM 749.25 RM 150.07 RM 149 700.60 3 RM 748.50 RM 150.82 RM 149 549.78 4 RM 747.75 RM 151.58 RM 149 398.20 5 RM 746.99 RM 152.33 RM 149 245.87 6 RM 746.23 RM 153.10 RM 149 092.77 7 RM 745.46 RM 153.86 RM 148 938.91 8 RM 744.69 RM 154.63 RM 148 784.28 9 RM 743.92 RM 155.40 RM 148 628.87 10 RM 743.14 RM 156.18 RM 148 472.69 11 RM 742.36 RM 156.96 RM 148 315.73 12 RM 741.58 RM 157.75 RM 148 157.98

OK, based on the table above, the interest portion that John has pay in month is RM750. How much he has to pay monthly? RM899.33 right? That's like 83% of the monthly payment goes to pay the interest!! The balance of 17% goes to the principal amount, which is a very small amount!!

Imagine, for the whole year, John has to pay about RM8,949.87 just for the interest and the balance about RM1842.01 for the principal amount! Tak luak pun kan? How ironic that you have paid about RM10,800 and the loan balance is RM148,157.98!!!

Hence, the idea here is always stay ahead of the interest!! You may be able to save a few thousand of ringgits as well!!!

30%

What's with 30%? Well...I read somewhere the other day, all of us should try to target to save at least 30% of our income to our savings..

For example, if you're earning RM4000 per month, put aside RM1200 for your savings. That's like RM14,400 per year. If you save it in ASB, you'll something like RM1000 of dividend at the end of the year. The only effort that you'll need to do is to save 30% of your income every month. That doesn't require a lot, isn't it?

Well, I know the fact that 30% is a lot, so, let's try to save from 10% first. (which is what I'm currently doing). Perhaps, in the next 6 months or so, I'll head for 15%, then, 20% and perhaps 30% when my income is high enough! High enough???

Week ending 22 Feb...

Last Friday...I reached home from work about 7pm...After dinner about 8 or 830 like that, I said to the missus that I wanna have a quick nap. Unfortunately, it wasn't a quick nap but instead, it was a long sleep that I woke up at about 630am next morning. Hahahahah. I was supposed to meet a friend later on that night to collect my house keys but unfortunately, I over slept!!

Anyway, on saturday, I had an interesting day. Well...sort of...I went for the Diplmatic Corps assessment examination. Well, perhaps, you may be wondering why I even bother sitting for such exams. The story behind it was, after my MBA graduation last year..I said to myself, let's try and apply for this PTD thingy and see how it goes. Never did I expect it as I sat for such exam about 3-4 years ago. Anyway, the exams were kinda tough and at the same time confusing. But that's ok. If I'm not mistaken, there were about 5 different papers and the exams starts at 9am and ends at 4pm. Quite a day huh? I think, I managed to answer all the questions that were asked. Well...except for the mathematics paper where you have to answer 40 questions in 45 minutes. QUite a short time to be honest!!


After the exams, I made my way to taman tun to meet my aunt. I was there to discuss how to run her PD condo unit that were left empty for most part of the year. THe discussion was good and very frank. I haven't set a date as yet but perhaps, the project may be able to commence on the first week of March....

Later on Saturday, I spent a few hours with a friend of mine at the golfing range in Bukit Jelutong. We had fun and share a few tips. Thanks bro!!!

The next day, I went to PD with my family. It was a good trip I must say. We had lots of fun and I took the opportunity to do some audit (inventory listings, etcc..) on the property and snap few pictures. I also had a good chat with the maintenance section of the building management office. Perhaps, we can come up with a good and fair return for myself, my aunt and the maintenance office. The rates offered are quite reasonable. So as of now, I have choice to make. Whether to proceed on my own or to use someone else's business plan (in terms of the issuance of keys and maintenance)

Anyway, we reached at about 7pm and all of us were kinda of exhausted. I slept rather late last night as I watched the rather erratic Liverpool team against Man City. The game sux and wished I hadn't seen the game at all....

Well...I have all the plans laid up this week of what I should for the next 7 days. A lot of things actually!! By the way, my plan of getting a tenant for my house in Kota D'sara in the middle of February did not materialise. Well, the house is about 90% ready but I 'll wait for the grill to installed tthen I can proceed. It'll take time...it's ok...


Have a good week ahead...

A thought...

What will you do if you have RM100,000?

1) Keep it in the bank-savings or current account

2) SAve it in Fixed Deposits a/c ( an interest income of about 3.5% should be expected)

3) SAve it in Unit Trust...

4) Buy 10 properties where each costs RM100k with 10% deposits? Wow, you're a millionaire now for having 10 properties. 10 x 100,000 = 1,000,000

5) SAve it in ASB...(a dividend income of about 9-10% should be expected)

6) Buy Harley Davidson motorcycle?

Wow..so many options ehhh?

If I have the choice, I will go for no 4 and no 5. Why?

Well...basically...I'll put the whole lot of RM100k into ASB. Then I'll pledge to the bank. For that, I'm entitled to receive an overdraft facilities of about RM90k.

Then, that RM90k, I'll be using it for investment purposes, which ultimately could give me positve returns in 2-5 years time...heheheh

Azizi Ali.........

While I was finishing reading Azizi Ali's book(Lahirnya seorang jutawan) earlier, I saw a link to his website at the back of the book. So, I went to his site called millionairesplanet. com and I had a quick browse on his books/writings. I saw an ad about Property Powerpack that contains several of his writings on becoming a millionaire landlord as well as being a property millionaire plus some other books as well. So, what I did was, I took out my credit card and bought the 'property powerpack' for about RM150. Quite cheap considering the tips and ways that I hope he will be sharing with his readers.

As usual, I'm gonna keep an open mind and hope to learn a thing or two from his writings just like what I learnt from pie2020, farizwadi and the rest...Apart from learning, perhaps, I could put to practice what I learnt...hehehehe.....

So, I'm expecting to get those books soon and hopefully be able to write some reviews on them...

Stay tuned!!!

Good night!!

oh by the way....if you want, you can visit his website here..

News...and a piece of history....

During dinner earlier, I had the opportunity to catch up the news today. Well, I'm not well-versed in the world of Malaysian politics, but I think, nowadays, everybody is thinking about it...Well..as if you don't know what I'm talking about...hehehehe

I can't help but feeling a wee bit insecure of what's going on with our country nowadays. Too many things are happening and of course, the economic epidermic is currently sweeping the whole globe...From what I heard from the news, about 80,000 peeps around the country are out jobs...That's sad....On the other side, politicians are slaughtering and slendering at each other's throats!!

In saying that, I'm glad to be born in such a fine country. We might have our drawbacks, but believe me, we are much better off then some countries out there. In my opinion though, some of us are not thankful enough. Some of us nag at every little things that doesn't go our way. We criticise at every opportunity. We condemn at people at every second possible....

Well, I think, if we wanna change something, it is always a good start to change ourselves first. Be a better person! That's my motto though. Everyday I strive to be a little bit better in what I do. And of course, I have to identify my weaknesses first!! I've always said that I wanted to improve my level of english but I never took the initiative to improve it. Well, that's one of the reasons why I decide to write in English in the 1st place...I know that my writings contains a lot of grammatical or perhaps spelling errors...but it's ok as I think, it's one of the ways I can improve my English...

I still remember during my college days in Trolak. If I'm not mistaken it was in 1995. I've always been a bad student in mathematics. To be frank, I'm so bad in it that I despise every time I see figures in front of me. However, duing the course, all of us were required to take this business mathematics subject. I hated it. In the 1st semester, I failed terribly and I felt useless. However, after a strong encouragement from my mentor, Mr Fergus Gaughran, I rough it out, spent countless hours doing the exercises and questions and alhamdulillah, I managed to get an A for that subject for the final exam. That moment taught me that nothing comes easy. If you want something, you really have to work hard for it!!

Another incident was when my dad had his heart attack in 1997. The whole family were affected and I was deeply affected by it. It affected me so much that I didn't get the required marks for me to proceed to the 3rd year of my studies. I was down and at the same time I wasn't able to focus on my studies. But, praise to Allah, I had to resit the repeat exams held during the summer holidays and walla....I passed and managed to catch a flight to Ireland....

Anyway, that's a piece of history of myself and obviously we can't change the past. As I mentioned in my earlier blogs, it is what we do now that will affect our future.....It's our decisions that matters and make sure we make the correct ones.....

If possible, try to be a better person tomorrow and you'll feel good about it...trust me...

Outflow vs Inflow....

For the past few weeks,..I've noticed that I've been spending quite a lot of money. Perhaps, the money was spent towards buying/repairing/ paying the outstanding bills for both properties. Let's see what were the costs involve...

1) Deposits...
2) Outstanding maintenance bills (inclusive of Syabas)
3) Repairs..
4) Legal fees..

and more to come...hehehehe

As of late, I'm a wee bit short of cash that some projects need to take a back seat...But that's ok I guess. Perhaps, if you wanna do something like I did in investing in properties, you must not think of the short-term goals. That's the problem that some of us have. We want something fast but are not prepared to work on it...

Yes, I'm a bit worried when I look at my bank balance as at today, but believe me, it'll turn out ok at the end of the month. Hahahaha. Plus, the client finally decides to pay (although not all but perhaps 70% of the total due). Yey!! I'm happy!!

In saying that, let's be honest to ourselves for once. How many sources of income that you have now? Primarily, it should be one, which is your salary...what about other sources? Like Azizi Ali said, anyone in the world can be a millionaire. The key word there is CAN. But can I be a millionaire if my income entirely depending on my monthly salaries? Urmmm...let's say I'm earning RM60,000 per year. I'll be a millionaire in 16.7 years time (provided I'd save everything on the salary...and I don't take even a cent). That's not possible right? Everyone of us has got bills to pay, mouth to feed, golf to pay, bike to ride, holidays to go, etc..etc... So reaching RM1m is a wee bit impossible (for me though), if my income depend entirely on my salary....

I'm a bit lucky as I managed to start my own small trading company about 2 or 3 years back. No doubt, that I'm not making tons of money from it, but I managed to go Jakarta and Bandung to play golf, brought the missus to Cambodia for a lovely holiday....all without 'touching' my monthly salaries. I managed to get myself a nice bike as well. Hehehe..And to some extent, I have that extra cash whenever I need it. Like I said, it's not much, but based on my lifestyle, the amount is enough...hhehehehe

Without knowing it, I actually have an additional SPT (sumber pendapatan tambahan). So now, perhaps I got two sources of income. Maybe, one day soon enough, I'll write a book and perhaps it could be my third source of income. (hint! hint!) Actually, my third source of income would be the property investments that I did for the last few weeks. It's gonna take awhile for the me to see the results, but with properties, hopefully I made the correct ones!!

To be frank, the more sources of income the better!! COol!!...Now let's get back to reality, how many sources of expenditures do we have? Cars, bikes, holidays, golf, kids, education, therapy, eating out, fuel, tolls, house, rents, loans, cigarettes, bets, sales, electricity, bills, credit cards, mom & dad, adik kecik, mak ngah, pak ngah, atok, insurance, bills, ...and bills again....the list goes on and on.........Think about it boys and girls!! One source income against few sources of expenses!!

Well...it's entirely up to ourselves to determine our lives, and to a certain extent, our own finances!! If our salary is 2k, then don't live your life like you're earning 10k. The difference between a rich man and a poor man, in my own personal opinion is, the rich controls his spending efficiently and make the correct decisions and investments. While the poor man does is to hope that he will strike it rich when the time comes and spends more than what he actually earns!!

I read the news a couple of days ago, that Malaysians owes the credit card companies something like RM20 something billion!!! What does that tells us? Sad but true eh?


Have a nice day....

Note: The RM10 note is taken from here

DS6-5-W

Forgive me for my ignorance, but last weekend, the boys started to work on the repairs at my other flat in Desa Aman Puri. The condition of the flat was not great as major repairs needed to be done.

Perhaps, if you would like to see more details on the flat, please proceed here...

Desa Aman Puri

Baik pulih Desa Aman Puri

Auditors....Holidays!!..Buat kerja!!

For the past two weeks, the auditors has been coming to the office and disturbing me and my colleagues!! Hahaha. Being an ex-trainee auditor, I understand the feelings of having to 'melayan kerenah' clients. But I think, we have been a good 'client' to them and a good paymaster too. The drawback is that, the auditors asks too many unnecessary questions!! Fecks!!!

Anyway, now that they are gone, it's good and it's all quiet on the western front...Hrmm, did any of you noticed that since December, we have been enjoying our holidays like nobody's business. If I can recall correctly, in December, there was Hari Raya Haji at the beginning of the month, then there was Christmas and then Awal Muharram. That's 3 days of holidays. HOw many days were there in December? 31 days you egget!! Hehehehe. That's a stupid question to ask. ANyway. 31-3=28 days. How many weekends were there? 4 weekends means 8 days. Correct? So 28-8=20 days of working. Now, maybe some of us took a day off in December 26th (cause it was a friday) right? That left us with 19 days of working. 19 days? Can we be productive in 19 days with all the holidays that we have all month long???

Now, let's take a look at January. We have the 1st day of the year for holiday!! Then the Chinese New Year which was about 2 days for some and the rest of the week for the other some. Hehehe. That's 3 days of holidays in January. A month that was supposedly to be filled with new resolutions, aims and what not!! We're left with 28 days again. We have 8 days of weekends again. Another 20 days of working. Well, perhaps a little less as some business that are owned by Chinese, and some of them took the whole of week off !! So that left us with what, 15 productive days of working??

February...Well...we're in February kan...Was it a holiday on the 1st of February for KL folks? And was it a holiday the next monday on the 9th due to Thaipusam? Ck ck ck ck ck....let us do a simple mathematic calculation...

Dec: 3 days (w/e 8 days)
Jan 3 days (w/e 8 days)
Feb: 2 days ( w/e 7 days)

We have about 31 days of not working for the last 3 months. Hahahahahahaha....Basically we are getting paid a month's salary for staying at home. Isn't it true? Ironically, some of us still insist in getting our bonuses, increment and the lot!!

Anyhoos....I think it's about time that we be a little be productive and improve ourselves in terms of our work and so forth. We have about another 11 months to be productive (for some of us is about 10 as ramadhan month is usually being used as an excuse to do nothing)...Add one or two more skills per week and who knows you might be an expert!!

For me though, my so called projects are running smoothly as I type this. Perhaps, it is no more towards monetary issues rather than other things. But, that's ok. Duit boleh dicari maaaa...Time will fly....

I have one or two more things to do, but it will take some times. Let's see how it goes...

Have a good week everyone...

p/s: BUAT KERJA!!!

LTDL

I was on my way to work about 9am this morning. Unfortunately, upon reaching the Jalan Kuala Selangor junction, I saw myself trapped in a massive traffic. After waiting about 30 minutes or so, i decided to get out of the car and ask some bystanders what was goin on....

The answer I get was....cyclists competing in the Le Tour De Langkawi were on their way!! Cheehhhh....So I guess, rather than waiting there and watch bunch of cyclists doing their stuff, I'd rather turn back and perhaps go to the office later in the afternoon...hehehehehe

3-5-13

Just an update on my flat at Kota Damansara. Pie and his team spent the whole weekend last week to repair my flat. A lot of things were done, for example the grills, fan, wiring, etc...Perhaps, you may refer to their blogs for details....

It seems to me that the place is almost ready for rental except for few minor things that needed to be settle. Hope I can get it ready by next week....

Anyway, enjoy the pics...

Port Dickson-Tesco Melaka....Ride!!!

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to ride with a couple of friends from Brotherhood MG. We had some sort of a short ride to Port Dickson. Actually, the purpose of this ride is for me to have a look at my aunt's apartment in PD. So instead of going alone, I thought it wud be a great idea to tag along with some friends for some good fun..

I took off at about 645am in the morning and reached our RV place in Sg Besi slightly before 715am (just as promised). However, we were made to wait for another hour or so for the other riders before the others decide to show up. Heheheh.

We took off from Shell Sg Besi after about 830am and we made a stop at Seremban RnR for a quick breakfast before proceeding to PD. We met a biker group called themselves Reaper MG and they said that they are on their way to Sagil for a quick dip at the waterfall somewhere there. Hehehe

Anyway, upn reaching PD, I ask my friend Sylbi to lead the pack as I wasn't sure where the apartment was as he is quite familiar with the place. It's not that far though and it is situated in Teluk Kemang. We reached the apartment shortly after that and we decided to relax for awhile. I took the opportunity to snap some photos of the unit.




















After spending about an hour or so at the apartment, we decided to continue our 'breakfast' ride to Melaka. This time, the destination was Tesco Melaka for some nice Batu Pahat's Bariani Power. So from PD we pass through some interesting places and names that I'm not familiar with.

PD-Kempas-Ramuan China Besar-Masjid Tanah-Sg Udang-Melaka Town.

It was a good ride through the estates that belongs to Sime Darby with lots of twisty/uneven/patches roads. At some points, there seems to be road works work in progress. Hope, when it's completed, the road will be nicer and more comfortable to ride.

Anyhoos, upon reaching Melaka town, we found that this place is full of traffic lights. One light after another. Boring!!! And due to these lights, I was 'separated' from the pack for about half an hour where I lost my way to Tesco. After a quick chat with the locals, I was soon back on the back and reached Tesco barely 15 minutes after that. Hehehe.

It's funny though, we had lots of Tesco in KL but why bother riding hours after hours to Melaka just to go to Tesco. Hahahahah. Well, this place is a wee bit speacial at it houses the famous Briani Power from Batu Pahat. If you ever been to Batu Pahat, you should know this special place with its special menu-Beryani gam batu Pahat. Perhaps, if you ever had the time to Tesco Melaka, pay a visit to this restaurant. It's lovely..







(Heard that there's a similar Beriyani Gam power at Giant Kota Damansara. Will go there and write about it later....:P)

After gobbling our stomach with the beryani gam power!..We decided we should head back to KL via the PLUS highway. An uneventful ride along the highway and we made 2 quick stops (well...no so quick actually...) at Air Keroh and Seremban RnR before we decide to call it a day. I reached home at about 830am at night though.



LAter on at about 11pm, my missus along with her cousins (about 12 of them..) and a couple of friends of mine, we went to Ampang Bowl for a game of bowling again...hahahah. Like I mentioned earlier, I sucked at this game so no point of me writing about it...We played 2 games and reached home at almost 2am. Geeezzzzz

I'm not so looking forward for tomorrow as the bloody auditors are coming to the office.

Anyway,

Have a good week ahead

Lion Dance... Bowling...Geera's Birthday

My weekend started with my monthly (monthly ke?) hang out with my friends at Taman Melati. Arrived there quite late actually, perhaps about 12 or 1am in the morning. On my way there at Jalan Kuching, I can see Hindu devotees walking from Jalan Kuching towards Batu Caves for the Thaipusam. To a certain extent, I admire their devotion as some of them are not wearing shoes or sandals walking on the road...

Anyway, at Taman Melati, we talked and joke about till about 3 when I decided to head home.

On saturday morning, I spent sometime with Kecik. We had the opportunity to witness a lion dance show just nearby my mom's place. It was a hot day but it was ok as I think it's important for kecik to see other people's culture at a very young age.






and after lunch time my missus, kecik, my lil sis and myself we head towards to the Curve to play bowling. Hahahaha. I have to be frank though, I suck big time at this game. WE had fun and I finally managed to break the 100 points barrier!! Woohooo...that's an achievement....Kecik was having fun too clapping away from the beginning till the end of the game...heheheh



After the game, we head towards Kota Damansara to have a quick look at my flat. Pie told me that he's gonna start doing some repair job today but I later found out that he hasn't done anything as yet as he has other things to do. That's ok I guess....So we head back home and decide to just relax and chill at home watching tv..

Later on at night, we were invited to celebrate a cousin of ours surprise party at Kuang. It was some sort of family gathering for my missus as her uncles from Ipoh came down to KL earlier in the day. It was fun though...

Is it true??

Ok, here goes. Let's say that I purchased a property of about RM100,000. Take away the 10% deposit, I'm left with RM90,000. Correct? So I what I need to do is to take a loan of RM90k from the bank. Let's assume the bank will give us a rate of 4.55% BLR-1.95%. Hence, for a RM90k loan, (let's assume that I'm 30) I will need to fork out a monthly payment of about RM460 for the next 360 months (30 years).

In short, I'll be paying the RM460 per month for the next 360 months to service the loans. That's like RM460x12=RM5520 per year. Let's total it up. RM460x360=RM165,600. Hrrrmm....from that loan of RM90k, the bank makes a profit of about RM75k...

Ok now, what if, I decide to change the method of payment a bit. Instead of paying RM460 per month (one time payment), I pay the bank twice per month. Huh?? For what? Hrmm...Let's calculate. We divide RM460 into 2 payments. RM460/2=RM230. Let's pay RM230 on the 1st day of the month and another RM230 on the 15th day of the month. In short, I'm paying the bank once in every 2 week.

Ok...for one year, we have 52 weeks right? So basically we have about 26 times of payment (52/2). So, 26 x RM230= RM5,980. Huh!! I'm paying more isn't it? Why would I wanna do this? Is it true that I can finish off paying the loans earlier? In theory, I'll be able to finish off paying the loan on the 27.69th year ( About 3 years earlier than the loan agreement).

What about the interest? Hrmmm......................Is it true that I can save on the interest as well? Something to ponder on later tonight..........

Have a good weekend

Process of buying properties through auction

To be frank, I'm not an expert but this is what I experienced when I purchase my two flats through the auction a few weeks ago. I hope, with this simple process and explanation, anyone who reads this blog would have a better idea of what he or she needs to do or know before deciding to purchase one through an auction...


1) Deciding to buy

This is your first and important step. You must really decide whether you want buy a property or not. Your answer rely heavily on your current financial standing as well as your future planning. In addition, what do you plan to do with the property? FOr investment or for your own?

Azizi Ali said, buying a property is one of the many sources of SPT (Sumber Pendapatan Tambahan). In addition, buying a property is not like buying your daily fix of goreng pisang or rokok, it can eat up your savings or it can give you many happy returns in the long run. So think wisely...

Once you've decided to buy a property through an auction, browse through one of these sites for more info on the properties, auction dates, etc...

• lelongtips
• PAH
• Henry Butcher
• Ng Chan Mau
  

Again, browse through these sites may help you to identify the property that suits your budget. Perhaps, if you wanna be safe and a low-risk taker like myself, you could start of your property investments by purchasing low and medium cost flats first. Learn the tricks and trade along the way before moving up to buying high-end properties. A property with a reserve price of RM60k and below should be a good start (but this depends on the location of the subject property).

2) Location! Location! Location

Just like in sales where the keyword is promotion-promotion-promotion, the keyword in properties is LOCATION. Forgive me in saying this, you wouldn't wanna buy a property for investment in Bukit Beruntung right? (even though the RP is only RM18k?) From the websites that I've stated above, you could find the address and sometimes the pictures of the properties. SO from these addresses, it would be a good idea for you to identify which properties are located strategically and which area are not. For example, a few weeks back, I had bid for this property (Sri Penara flats) located in Cheras. The flat is strategically located and everything is there (LRT/Komuter/School/Shops/Banks, etc). Unfortunately, I lost the bid to someone else. Hehehe. However, my point is, look for property that is strategically located. (Cheras, Bangi, Puchong. Kota Damansara to name a few)

3) Visitation

Once you have identified your targeted property (through the websites), it is advisable for you to go and make a visit at the subject property. Talk to the people who are staying there and ask what would be the rental amount for the place. If possible, look around for shops/schools/public transportation nearby. On the property itself, unfortunately, you can't go in. Just look from the outside and anticipate any repair costs (grills/windows/wiring/etc)..

IF you have time, go to the maintenance office and enquire as to what will be the outstanding maintenance fee be. ( this is important as you may need to pay any outstanding fees upfront to make everything easier once you've purchased the said property)

It'll be also good to know whether the subject property is a leasehold or a freehold...(if time permits, I'll touch in this subject later)

Now, once you have done all this, it'll be good for you to register yourself with the auction to bid for the property.

4. AUction Day

Usually, at the auction, a bidder is requested to prepare a bank draft of 5% or 10% of the Reserve Price amount for the property. Depend on the POS so keep contact with the auctioneers for the amount that you need to prepare. Some places accept credit cards but there's a charge for using CC. Don't use unless necessary....

It is important to note that you should have reasonable budget when you go for an auction. For hot areas like Sri Penara for example, no doubt the RP is RM60k but it can go high up till RM80k during the auction. So set your budget and stick to it. If you win, then that's good and get ready for more headache (hehehehehe). If you don't get it, tough luck and try again.

Please note, that if you win at RP, then do nothing and proceed to sign the contract. However if you win a bid above the RP, you need to settle the difference with cash. For example, if the RP is RM60k, then you need to prepare a bank draft of about RM3k (5% of the RP). Then, if you win the property with a bidding price of let's say RM80k, you need to settle the RM1k in cash (5% of RM80k is RM4k. RM4k-RM3k=RM1k). Are we clear on this?

Another point I'd like to add, sometimes, during the auction, some officers from the banks would be there to assists you in getting the loans. So, talk to them and ask to what the process will be (which is very simple) and then perhaps, when the time comes, you can directly contact them to assist you with the loan application.

For my case, I applied through CIMB bank as they give the best rates available amongst other banks(especially loans below RM100k). I'm expecting a monthly payment of about less than RM400 for both properties. If I can remember correctly the rate is about 4.55% and BLR -1.95%....So, it's entirely up to you to decide..shop around and look for the best rates...

Please bear in mind that you need to settle the amount that you won within 90 or 120 days depending on the contract. So please, get your loans approved ASAP.

5) I won!! What should I do next?

Well, once the hammer falls, the property is yours like it or not. You will then need to pay about RM50 for stamping fees and perhaps you should collect the contract the very next day from the auction house. With the contract in hand, you could now enter the property and inspect what repair should be done. I know someone who can do this professional job of 'break-in' or pecah rumah for you and they will help you to estimate the repair cost as well. Refer to Mr Pie.

At the same time, get you loans done. Pay a visit to your nearest bank and get it approved. What you need is

• The contract (proclaimation of sale)
• Three months salary Slip
• Employer's letter
• EPF statement (latest)
• EA form

The bank will also advise you that legal fees and the valuer fees will be about RM2500 if I'm not mistaken. Check with the bank please for more infos especially on the legal fees for the loan arrangement as well as the valuer.

Ok, there's that.

Secondly, go to the maintenance office and clear off those outstanding maintenance fees. It's ok as you can claim the disbursement through your lawyer later. When can you get your money back?(I know this is the million dollar question) and the answer is...it depends on the bank and the lawyer. A good tip is, you could hassle them everyday so that they would process it faster for you. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait....

Third (provided that your loan has been approved).....you need to find yourself a good law firm to help you with the transfer of name. (memo of transfer or deed of assignment). I'm pretty sure all of us will know one or two lawyers on top of our head as we read this. Hehehe...For this legal services, I think, the fees for the legal services should be about 1% of your RP of the property.

Let's hope that all of this process can be done before the 120th day after you've won the property. If not, well...that's another story.

Well...that's basically it (from my personal experience...). I'm pretty sure that some things or infos are left out whether purposely or not. So, there you go, the simple process that I personally encountered from buying my properties through an auction. What you want to do with the property is entirely up to you, and for me, I hope that the property will be ready for rental before the 3rd week of February. Let's see how it goes...

Till then...

Have a nice day