How to be smart before the event

Every now and then, I read about new ‘geniuses’ in the property market today. Apparently, their winning formula is simple: they locate a new property (usually condos), buy five units by paying the minimum down payment and borrowing the rest. And because the prices of the properties rose significantly in the last two years, they are certainly in the money, at least on paper. (Until they sell, all the profits are just paper profits.)

Now, I must admit that I am happy for them. The higher the number of wealthy people in this country, the better it is for everyone.

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Assalamualaikum,
Kebelakangan ni mmg banyak sangat berita2 tentang keadaan ekonomi yg semakin meruncing, dimulai dengan krisis matawang Euro yang menyaksikan negara Greece hampir diisytiharkan bangkrap lantaran tidak mampu membayar semula hutang negara yang berjumlah berbillion Euro. Lebih malang lagi, berita ini hanya permulaan (beginning of the end) bagi krisis matawang, dimana ianya merupakan permulaan tumbangnya matawang fiat dunia, yang telahpun ‘overdue’ (bagi USD) lantaran sikap Amerika yang sesuka hati mencetak wang bagi menampung defisit perbelanjaan yang meningkat setiap saat.

Berita yang lebih menyedihkan ialah matawang dunia, termasuklah matawang Malaysia sendiri, disandarkan pada USD, bermakna bila jatuhnya nilai USD, maka jatuh jugalah matawang Malaysia sendiri… ’side effect’ ini juga dapat dilihat dari kadar inflasi yg dianggarkan 4-5% setahun (sebenarnya nilai inflasi sebenar adalah sekitar 8-9%, berdasarkan kajian sesetengah pihak berkecuali).

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A RM20,000 mattress

A friend of mine, Ong, recently bought a RM20,000 mattress.
Now I can see that some of you are shaking your head, which was exactly what I did when he told me about it. “What happened, man? I thought you were extremely savvy with your finances. But buying a RM20,000 mattress…” I told him. “Isn’t that a little bit too much? I mean, RM20,000 for a mattress.”

Ong smiled thinly and then raised his hands to begin his explanation. He broke out gently, “Okay, let’s look at sheer time – how much time we spend at a particular place. If you work at an office, you’d probably spend some five hours of that sitting down on your chair. You’d spend two hours (tops) in your car commuting to and back from work. Then you’d spend three hours in your sofa and various chairs in the house. Then you would spend eight hours sleeping on your bed. The remaining four hours would be for other things such as walking and running around your day. Of course, all these are just ballpark figures and done without any survey but you would get my drift.”
I nodded my head in agreement.

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TOO MUCH MATHS, NOT ENOUGH HISTORY

A new coaching client of mine was thinking of remortgaging her current house. She bought the house more than 10 years ago, the amount of her mortgage has dropped while the market value of the property has risen considerably. So now, she wants to take advantage of the situation by taking on a higher loan from another bank, paying off the original loan and yes, have the balance at her disposal. “I can use the extra money as capital for investments so I make more money,” she added gleefully.

“Where did you get the idea of remortgaging the house?” I asked her.

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BE CAREFUL OF DEBTS

Every now and then I would receive a question on mortgage refinancing.“Azizi, should I refinance my mortgage?” They would ask. “I took a mortgage 10 years ago when the interest rate was 6.75 percent. Now that the interest rate has gone down, I want to refinance the mortgage so that my monthly repayments would drop. This will help ease my cash flow. Furthermore, as the value of my house has gone up considerably, I can get a much higher mortgage, which means I will have some money for investments.

What do you think of the idea?” Though the details about the interest rate and the period may differ, the point of the questions remained the same – should they refinance the mortgage to take advantage of the low interest rate and also the rise in value of their property? In other words, should they take on a new larger debt? I told them that the answer is yes and no!Let me explain the ‘yes’ part first. Yes, they should refinance if the intention is to take advantage of the current low interest rate. By doing so, their monthly repayments would drop (assuming that the loan amount remains the same, of course).

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Traps At Property Auctions

I wrote about the incredible opportunities at property auctions recently. To remind you about the possibilities here, I’ll share my own experience. A couple of years ago, I bought a double-storey link house in Subang Jaya at an auction for RM220,000, below the market price of RM300,000. I spent RM13,000 to do up the house and then sold it seven months later for RM280,000. Despite having to pay the RPGT that was still applicable then, I still made a decent profit. Just as important is the fact that I incurred zero risk during the whole episode. Decent profit, zero risk – it was a perfect investing story.

A couple of my friends did even better. One bought an apartment in KL worth RM200,000 for just RM98,000. A second friend bought a house worth RM360,000 for RM240,000. Both properties were purchased at auctions. And these are the ones that I have personal knowledge of. You can bet there are even more exciting and grander stories out there.
So there are great opportunities at property auctions. The main attraction is of course the low price of the properties. You can often get discounts of 20, 30 or even 50 percent from the market value of the property. What’s more, the supply is plentiful. You’ll run out of money before you run out of properties.

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Dipetik dari Blog Dr Azwan:

Biar saya outline kan point-point penting untuk tatapan anda… DI dalam laporan tersebut ada banyak lagi point2 penting seperti bagaimana nak pilih loan, jenis-jenis loan dan kelebihan masing-masing dan macam2 tips nak melangsaikan loan rumah…

Antara point untuk melangsaikan pinjaman rumah dengan cepat oleh Sdr. Azizi Ali:-
1. Bayar loan setelah dapat wang

Apabila kita kena bayar loan rumah setiap 30 hb setiap bulan… tetapi gaji masuk 25 hb contohnya… tak perlu tunggu sampai 30hb baru nak bayar, sebaliknya bayar terus bila dapat gaji… Ramai yang tak tahu anda boleh bayar sebelum due date… dengan cara ini interest dapat dikurangkan dari 30 hari interest ke 25 hari… Jimat untuk 5 hari…

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Hi All,

I created a new section called ‘Fraud’ that is focusing on the fraud activities related to real estate. As I plan to get involve more seriously in this soon, so it’s good to know the tricks used by those scammers. I started with the link of one of the famous fraud case in Malaysia.

Here it is: Lagenda Group

Dari: http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2news&pg=bm_p2news_press&ac=2196

KWSP Perjelas Syarat Pengeluaran Ansuran Bulanan Pinjaman Perumahan

Kumpulan Wang Simpanan Pekerja (KWSP) hari ini mengumumkan syarat-syarat terperinci pengeluaran untuk membayar ansuran bulanan pinjaman perumahan seperti yang telah dimaklumkan dalam kenyataan media pada 7 September lalu.

Mulai 1 Januari 2008 ahli yang mempunyai simpanan sekurang-kurangnya RM600 dalam Akaun 2 boleh membuat pengeluaran untuk membayar ansuran bulanan pinjaman perumahan mereka.

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Dari: http://www.tipshartanah.com

Sebenarnya perkara ni dah lama bermain di fikiran saya dan saya rasa amat penting untuk saya kongsikan bersama..

Apa yang saya maksudkan?… sebenarnya perbezaan yang perlu anda ketahui antara 3 perkara ini iaitu..
1) HARGA PERMINTAAN (Asking Price)
2) HARGA JUALAN (Selling Price)
3) NILAI PASARAN (Market Value).

Kenapa ini penting untuk anda ketahui?

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Dari tipshartanah blog:

Pengecualian Cukai Keuntungan Harta Tanah (CKHT)
Pemansuhan (Ya.. sebenarnya adalah PENGECUALIAN dan bukannya pemansuhan) CKHT yang diumumkan oleh PM baru-baru ini amat menggembirakan banyak pihak terutamanya mereka yang terlibat secara terus dengan penjualan dan pelaburan hartanah.

Pemansuhan Pengecualian ini adalah bertujuan untuk merancakkan semula prestasi sektor hartanah yang agak lembab terutamanya kategori ‘medium’ dan ‘high-end’. Dengan pembangunan kategori ini yang berterusan dan memberikan bekalan yang banyak di pasaran sejak beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini, unit-unit hartanah kategori ini dilihat mengalami permintaan yang agak suram kerana kebanyakannya berharga melebihi RM1,000,000 dan memerlukan mereka yang benar-benar mampu sahaja - yang mana sudah tentunya majoritinya adalah syarikat-syarikat atau pelabur-pelabur asing.

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Dipetik dari: Blog Tips hartanah…

Sekarang ini bagi anda yang biasa membaca kolum-kolum berita mengenai perniagaan, pelaburan dan hartanah pastinya akan terlintas atau terbaca mengenai REIT. Bagi anda yang sememangnya di dalam bidang pelaburan saya pasti anda biasa dengannya tetapi bagi anda yang berada di dalam perniagaan atau hartanah, mungkin tidak semua yang arif mengenainya.. dan bagaimana pula dengan anda yang sememangnya tidak pernah ambil tahu mengenai pelaburan dan hartanah?.. hahh… saya pasti anda tentu tidak jelas mengenainya..

Jangan risau… posting kali ini saya terlintas pula dan ingin membincangkan serba ringkas mengenai apakah sebenarnya REIT ini dan apa yang menarik sangat mengenainya.. bagi anda yang sememangnya tidak pernah tahu mengenainya sebelum ini… saya harap anda teruskan membaca, kerana saya akan menyatakan kepada anda bagaimana anda boleh memiliki sebahagian hotel, pusat membeli-belah, hospital dan sebagainya yang bernilai jutaan ringgit ini hanya melalui REIT..

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