1.What kind of credit report do I have?

In Malaysia, banks generally use the Central Credit Reference Information System by Bank Negara. Besides that, there are also two private credit reference agencies which are Credit Tip Off Service (CTOS) and Financial Information System (FIS).

These will track an individual’s spending habits, repayment patterns, credit card and other electronic transactions, and credit standing with other banks for the last 10 to 20 years.

So when an individual applies for a loan, banks will check his/her credit rating before deciding to approve or reject it. It may sound scary that everything you do is literally being tracked but it’s necessary for banks to do this to avoid giving money to people who are not genuine.

It’s all about how you manage your money. If you do it well, odds are you’re probably ready to own a house. However, if you spend your life tied up in debts, then maybe you should consider renting for a little while more until you get yourself stabilised.

2.How High is My Debt Ratio?

By adding up the total amount of your monthly payments and comparing the total to your monthly income as a percentage, you get your possible debt ratio. The higher your debt ratio is, the more difficult it will be for you to pay off your loan.

So, if, after calculation, you have a low debt ratio, then go for it! But if your debt ratio is high, we wouldn’t recommend buying a house just yet. Renting is the choice for you, at least, until you manage to lower the ratio.

3. Do I Have a Stable Job?

Before buying a house, you should make sure that your job is stable.  If you’re still unsure of your future in the company that you work in, it is best to stick to renting. You don’t want to be stuck with mortgage payments in the event that you get laid off or decide to look for a new job.

4. Am I Psychologically and Financially Ready to Deal with Maintenance Issues?

When you rent a place, the maintenance of the house is taken care of by your landlord. With just a phone call, that pipe leak is likely to be fixed within the week itself. When you own a house, however, this luxury is not there. Leaky roof? Malfunctioning lights? The cost to fix all of these would have to come out of your own pocket. Therefore, when you buy a house, you need to make sure that you have some cash stashed aside for emergency maintenance purposes.

If the down payment itself takes away all of your cash so that you have none left for these, maybe you should rent for a little while more until you’re really sure you’ll be able to afford any emergencies. These are things you have to be psychologically and financially prepared for if you intend to buy a house.

5.How Long Do I Plan to Stay?

Ideally, you should plan to stay at a house you want to buy for at least 3 years, if you want to get back what you spent. It has been said that generally, it takes about three to six years for a house to appreciate enough to make up for the cost of selling and moving as well as the amount you’ve paid in down payment and mortgages. Therefore, if you don’t have plans to move anytime soon, then buying a house is a good choice. However, if you are still uncertain about where you will be in the future, renting is the better option.

6. Is it Cheaper to Rent or to Buy?

Some people say that when you rent, you’ll forever be poor. That may be true because at the end of the day, no matter how long you stay at a rented house, it will never be yours. However, sometimes it’s good to look at the simplest of arguments: which one costs more?

Depending on your salary and the stability of your job, a costly mortgage payment may take a toll on your overall expenses. So sometimes, it’s better to save up that extra cash until you’re sure of your financial stability. However, if, after calculating everything you’d have to pay a month, it’s more beneficial to buy, then by all means, go for it!

By the way, we found a very handy tool for calculating your best option. Just enter the required information into the fields provided and let the calculator tell you which is the better option for you.

Looking at potential houses?

Once you’ve found a few potentials online or through the newspaper, of course, you’d want to see the house in person. But don’t get dazzled by the place yet. There are some things you need to check out or ask the agent/owner before you make your decision.

1. Ask the person you are dealing with about the traffic density and noise of the area.

If you are a student, a highly noisy location would disrupt your studies. If you’re working, high traffic during rush hours would mean that it would take you longer to get to and from work.

2. Are there any amenities near the place?

Ideally, a house that has convenience stores, clinics, places of worship nearby is good. That would mean you wouldn’t have to travel all that far to get necessities. Furthermore, try to find out if there are any public transports near the house. For those without cars, this is convenient, since going places won’t be such a big problem.

3. Be sure to check for any leaks (water, gas, etc) from pipes.

If there are, you should make sure that the agent/landlord knows and fixes it, should you choose to rent the place.

4. Make sure the plumbing works.

Ask about the water pressure, and test it to be sure. Hot water should come out of showers or pipes which are connected to water heaters. Last but not least, the toilets should flush properly and be in decent condition. You don’t want to sign papers and find out that your plumbing is bad, trust us.

5. Turn on all electricity and appliances that comes with the house. They should be in working condition.

6. Check all windows and doors in order to make sure that they open, close and lock properly.

7. If you intend to have a pet, find out beforehand the policy the landlord has on pets.

What you need to know before renting a house/apartment

If you are one of these: a college student in your second degree year, a fresh graduate just starting out on your new job venture or a newlywed building a nest for yourself and your spouse, then odds are, you’re confronted with the fresh dilemma of finding a house or an apartment to rent.

The process is tedious. There are so many places to look into and so many ways to do it that sometimes, the task is daunting to even the most confident of people, especially when it is the first time that they are embarking on this ‘adventure’.

Well, here are some things you should know before renting a house or an apartment.

Part One: Looking for the house/apartment

1. Your Budget

Before you start cracking open those newspapers or going online to those search engines, you need to know what your budget is. Take into account how much your income is and work it out.

The general rule is that you should not be paying more than 30% of the total of your household income.

If you’re a single college student or fresh graduate, you might want to consider looking for roommates in order to lessen your financial burden. If you’re married, take into account both of your incomes.

That would widen the scope a bit more for you to find something that fits your budget.

2. What to search for

Another thing to do before the actual search is to determine what your requirements are. What kind of location are you looking at? Does it need to be near your place of study/work? Do you want a house or an apartment?

What facilities do you want? Car park? Gym? Swimming Pool? Are you looking to rent an empty house or a furnished one? Do you need a house that allows pets? How many bedrooms would you like?

These are all things that you really need to take into account, so that your future home will be one tat is comfortable and convenient for you.

3. Where to start searching

Newspapers still have the classified ads these days so you can start there, if you want.

However, in this day and age, searching for houses is made much easier, what with the presence of search engines, or, better yet, property websites such as hartanah.net.

With these, you can specify your search instead of having to look through each and every property, some which may not even be within your means or wants at all.

Besides searching, you could also let your house find you. We’ve already mentioned the importance of listing down your requirements.

Well, those can be used to place a ‘wanted’ ad. Websites like hartanah.net allows for you to put in an ad where you list down exactly what type of house you are looking to rent, and literally let it find you.

Will continue with part 2: Looking at potential houses

As much as I’d like to say there is a tried and tested formula to help you decide if a new or old property is more suitable for you, there isn’t.

The decision lies with you depending on your tolerance of certain issues.

Thus, I can only list out a list of pros and cons of a new home vs. an old one for your own evaluation.

Ask yourself this first:

• What kind of neighborhood am I interested in?
• How much am I willing to spend on the house?
• Do I have the time and money to invest in renovation projects and home improvement?
• How long do I plan to live in this house?

So it really depends on individuals what they are looking for. Some may find living in outskirts has its attraction as it’s less hectic and don’t mind the extra travelling time. Some thinks it’s not a good idea.

I hope the above comparison chart has at least brought to your attention the pros and cons for both types of properties. And will help you in making your decision.

There are very few simple steps to shoot property picture that helps you sell your property faster on the internet. You don’t need a professional camera for that. Any basic point and shoot camera will do the job. You can even use your mobile phone camera if you like. The most important thing here is the technique.

1. USE THE HIGHEST QUALITY IMAGE CAPTURE
Before you start shooting, don’t forget to set your digital camera to capture the image in its highest quality with the largest size. In other words, the picture file must be as large as possible. With this setting, you can get the best quality picture in terms of sharpness, tone and color.

2. BEST TIME OF THE DAY
The best time to shoot the property picture is early in the morning (around 8.00am-9.00am) or late in the evening (around 5.00pm-6.00pm). At these times, the sun is quite low on the horizon, giving you a nice side lighting. The sunlight is also not too harsh as in the afternoon, and there are no ugly shadows during that time. Additionally, the early morning and late evening sunlight will give you a warm and slightly diffused lighting effect. In the art of photography, good lighting means good pictures!

3. CORRECT ANGLE OF THE LIGHT
To get the best picture, the sunlight must not come from the back of your subject. This will usually make the subject appear dark in the picture and you will not be able to capture the details of the property. The light should be coming either from the side or from the front of your subject. It’s good if you know the position of the sun according to the property beforehand.

4. GET THE BEST ANGLE
Don’t just stand in front of the property and snap the picture. Move and look around for the best angle. Maybe the property looks better from the side or maybe its look better from a high angle. Take as many shots as possible from various angles. You can decide later which angle is the best for your subject.

5. TAKE OUT THE RUBBISH
A property should look good in a picture, especially if you want to sell it. Take out any unnecessary elements around the property. Make sure there is no rubbish around the property, take out anything that doesn’t look good in the picture and hide anything that is not related to the property. Remember, you want to sell the property and you want your potential buyer to focus on the property. Do not distract their view with anything else.

6. COMPOSITION
Compose your picture nicely before you snap the picture. Only include necessary objects in your picture. Crop out anything else that doesn’t relate to your main subject. If there is a nice big tree beside the property, maybe you should include it in the picture. On the other hand, if there is a telephone pole near the property, you should move in closer and exclude the telephone pole from the picture. Think before you snap the picture. Try to capture the picture of the property in its best possible view and condition.

For the last few months, we have been advertising our free banner giveaway throughout hartanah.net.

The response from both negotiators and property owners has been extremely overwhelming, and we have received countless requests for our customised banners.

Therefore, we would like to announce that redemption for these freebies are now closed. For those who managed to redeem their banners, the first batch is ready for collection! Please wait for our call as your cue to come and collect them.

Thanks to all members for your loyalty thus far. We hope to receive your continued support because we are now working even harder to serve your needs.

We will certainly be coming up with new and exciting promotions and features, just for you, so make sure you keep logging on for more updates!

1. How to choose an agent.

As with most sales people, you might want to go to a familiar name. Be it a family friend or friend’s friend or just someone you know have a good record. If all else fails, try to go for big agencies. Chances f getting a con or dishonest agent can be reduced tremendously.

Make sure you pick only registered agents as they are bound by the law and you will know exactly where to catch them if things don’t work out. Run through the list of registered agent in the Malaysian Institute of Estate Agents (MIEA) here http://www.miea.com.my/

The cost of an agent could also be a deciding factor on your choice of agents.

You should expect the structure is something like:

* X% of price of the property.

Also, decide if you want just this agent to be the SOLE agent selling your property. If not, you will most probably be paying a higher %. Make sure that this is stated clearly.

Find out what exactly is offered.

Before you commit to an agent of choice, make sure you get these in black and white.

* How and where will they market the property?
* How will viewings be conducted?
* How many similar properties has the agent sold in the area in the last few months – and at what price?
* Are providing a lawyer ?

Also surf the net, ask around, check out his past sales. Anything to give you a better idea of how good his service is. If he is really as good as he says, he will have no hesitation to let you see his past records.

2. Getting valuation for your property

Once you have appointed your chosen agent / agency. It’s time to find out the worth of your property.

Try to get more than 1 valuation before deciding whether to put the property on the market. Some estate agents offer this service for free – in effect all they have to do is come to the property, have a look around and then say what price they think it should be marketed at.

OR you could always just hop on to the internet and refer to some property websites (like http://www.hartanah.net) and find for similar properties like yours in the same areas. It should give a pretty good idea of how much your property can be sold at.

*Do be cautious that some agents might give you a very high valuation compared to another just to flatter you. Do your own homework.

3. Advertising your property

Once all the contractual agreement has been committed, your selected agent will be responsible to advertise your property to the property hunting market. Make sure that if there are interesting things about your property that makes it special, let your agent know.

Areas that they may choose to advertise in includes newspapers, online sites, posters, etc.

Try to get the agent to put up photos of your property in the ads. It might help it sell faster.

4. Viewings

Good agents will be able to advice you on what are the potential buyers looking for and how you should prepare for a viewing. You can choose to be there or not be there for the viewing. Some owners prefer to be there as they want to know who is buying their property.

2 types of viewings:

Open House

A few potential buyers will be shown the property at the same time. Sometimes it may encourage the viewers to feel an urgency to make an offer as other viewers can be seen as competition for the property

Closed

The agent will set a time for only 1 potential buyer at a time. Complete opposite of the latter, this encourages more discussions and some buyers may prefer it this way as it’s more comfortable and relaxed.

5. Closing the sale.

As with all properties, the norm is for the buyer to pay at least 10% deposit for your house (certain cases vary). The agent may charge them a booking fee first. However, the buyer should not take longer than 14 days to settle the whole 10%.

You should only sign off the Sale & Purchase Agreement (SPA) when the full 10% has been paid up. The buyer will normally only sign the agreement when his loan is approved.

IF after this 14 days and still no full payment is made, you have a choice to let another prospective buyer take over the deal or wait for this buyer.

6. Are there any fees I must pay as a seller?

No, there should be no additional charges or payments that’s due to you other than the agent’s commission and possibly the penalty fee for ending your housing loan early.

Tips: Some questions you can ask your prospective agent to help you understand more about them.

1. Are you a full time Agent?
2. How long have you been in the Real Estate business?
3. How familiar are you with the area where our home is located?
4. How many homes did you sell in this area in the last year?
5. Can you supply 3 names and addresses of recent clients for whom you sold a home that we can contact for reference purposes?
6. How did you arrive at the suggested listing price for our home?
7. What is your specific marketing plan for our house?
8. How do you plan on keeping us informed of the progress of the sale of our home?

In addition to that, hartanah SUGGEST also made its debut appearance on the page whenever someone searches or posts something. How helpful right?

Oh, property agent friends, make sure you come on to our website and redeem that SALE/RENT signage of yours! It’s our token of appreciation to your loyalty.

It takes alot to make a happy home owner

Before you rush into paying your down payment for that nice house, why not spend a little time running through these items first?

1. Find out more about the house.

Talk to the neighbours, surf the net or just ask around for a history into the area and what kind of news made it to the newspaper. That way you’ll be less likely to be surprised by strange things happening to you or the house that may have been caused by previous owners.

2. Check the amenities in the house.

2nd hand houses may come with problems that can range from a stuck toilet, leaking faucet or even a broken window. Make sure to inspect every room in the house and test all the amenities. Make sure there are no water damaged walls and ceilings.

3. Make sure the structure of the house is stable and in good condition.

This includes foundation, walls, floors, ceiling, roof and attic. Watch out for water penetration and structural damage like floor beams that have been cut or altered. Any irregularities like warping, bulging or cracks can be signs of much bigger problems hiding.

If all satisfactory, the next thing that should be of concern is; Financing and legal.

- Try to negotiate for a minimal booking fee… normally 1% to 3% is the norm. Make sure that in the booking receipt, it is stated that the booking fee is refundable in  the event that you fail to secure a loan on time.

- The rule of thumb is, you need to pay off the remaining downpayment (normally 10% of selling price) in 14 days and sign off the SPA then. However this is also negotiable.

- If you’re withdrawing your EPF to purchase , remember to bring your signed SPA to apply.

- If you’re applying for a loan, the bank will run a few things to process your application. This includes getting a valuer to ensure the selling price is as per the market, legal processes, etc. (This can easily take 2-6 months) Most of the time, you will have to bear the cost of these processes. However, try to get a ZERO ENTRY loan so that the bank will absorb your:

• Processing fee
• Property valuation fee
• All legal fees pertaining to loan agreement including scale legal fees, stamp duties, caveat, disbursement fees, search,

- Most of the time, you are expected to settle all loan approvals and final agreements in 3 + 1 months where the seller can choose to terminate the contract due to non-payment.

Fees you need to be prepared for as a buyer (May differ from case to case)

1. Lawyer fees for SPA (1% on the first RM100,000.00, 0.5% on the next RM4,900,000.00, 0.25% on the remainder).
2. Stamp duty for property transfer – At the moment any property below RM250,000 is entitled you to 50% exemption on stamp duty. (1% on the first RM100,000.00, 2% on the next RM400,000.00, 3% on the nest RM1,500,000.00 and 4% on the remainder)
3. Cukai Tanah and Cukai Pintu.
4. Restoration/ renovation (if required)
5. Permit for renovation (if required)
6. MRTA – Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance (Very important)
7. Utilities deposits

ps: Although not entirely truthful, it is quite common that under an agreement between buyer and the seller/agent, selling price of the property is stated at a slightly higher price so that a higher amount of loan can be applied. That way, you get a bit of extra cash to pay for unexpected expenses. HOWEVER, please do not abuse this. Any extreme hiking up of the price of a property may get you sued for fraud.

Additional guidance can be checked out HERE

Looking for the perfect home? Searching for the sweet spot to relax and enjoy life? Or just looking for a great investment opportunity? Look no further…..Locapedia has it all.

Locapedia has all the details that will make life easier and much happier for you. It contains all the main aspects which a person will and has to consider in buying a property. The locapedia features are divided into 8 main aspects which is the history of the area, dwellings, landmarks, amenities around the area, schools and collages, transportation and highway excess, neighbouring locations, area proximity and more.

This is a one-stop information for all your needs…..The will be no need to go else where…..Come now and see it for yourself.

You need to see it to believe it!

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