the end...

I was browsing through a few blogs that I used to follow when I started blogging back in the mid-2000, and no surprises when I say most of them have left their blogs unattended, or perhaps updating only once a month. Mind you, these were few of the ‘celebrity’ bloggers back then when Project Petaling Street was still a useful link to find wonderful writings, news and jokes. These days almost everyone owns a blog, and may I add, everyone claims themselves as a blogger just because they own one.

Maybe internet was much more of a luxury back then. I can remember almost every single blogger who has graced the blogsphere because almost every post I read in PPS were properly thought, written and expressed. I enjoyed spending time online reading blogs until 3-4 years back when everyone began to have something to say (or they think they do) and blogs become the best tool for them to express their inner thoughts and feelings.

I have no issues with that, really. But when everyone are sharing it on a public blog-ping of sorts, that’s when PPS became a junk-generator webpage. I grew tired of it, stopped blogging regularly, stopped reading the great articles and posts (because it’s too hard to filter which posts are genuine with misleading titles and adverts a common sight), and subsequently had no interest whatsoever anymore.

Some great bloggers survived, some improvised. Few turned to twitter and maintained a good fan crowd. Some decided that they’ve grown out of it. There is, after all, life outside the room.

I certainly am no celebrity blogger, nor was I an avid blogger to begin with. But 2013 could yet be the year that sees my last post, I don’t know.

I don’t have much to tell nowadays, life’s great, the end. Once or twice in a year I’ve thought of shutting down this blog for good, but wiping out my written memories for the past 7 years does seem a little wasteful. I don’t know, but perhaps 2013 will see my last ever post. One year before my 10 years anniversary in blogging. And this being my 333rd post since my first one in 2004.

If that holds any meaning at all.

How time has changed, and how blogging has changed.

demotivated...

Sometimes I wonder if I should just take it all in, or is that a wrong decision.

I'm sick and tired of the traveling, working all day long, all night long, every single day, my aching foot has been a thorn for over two months, stupid traffic jams, lack of sleep, sometimes going a full day with not a dot of rice going into my mouth.

All because I give a fuck.

The doctor said I am too stressed and need to take the pressure off my chest. I wish it's as easy as she says.

Perhaps I should just don't give a flying fuck.

Or is that what she's hinting me?

where students go, real estate follows...

How true is the statement above from today's News Straits Times?

Well, no doubt, wherever the student population clusters, we tend to see a demand in amount of rental properties. And with that, certain types of real estate investors will venture into these markets and try to make some profit out of it. But are students good tenant prospects for long term?

On the positive side, one will almost need not worry about their property being left vacant for long. Even for a semester break, chances are you will hardly have the unit unoccupied for 3 months.

But reading the paper's statistic I somehow believe the figures are poorly compiled and it's somewhat misleading to generate a feel good factor to justify the articles published.

Well yes, it's not hard to find students who are willing to fork out RM1,100.00 monthly on rental alone, but does the author honestly think there are tons of these wealthy students across the country? Apparently a unit of 1500sf to 1600sf is worth between RM700,000.00 to RM800,000.00 and rentals can averagely fetch a cool RM4,000.00 to RM5,000.00 which makes the rental yielding a 7-8% return.

Either I'm detached from reality. Or the author is.

I was a student not too long ago, but surely inflation has not gone that bad.

Back in 2006, a corner unit of a double-storey terrace with over 2000sf was worth RM550,000.00 can only fetch RM1,500.00 in rental. I was one of those students renting at such price and I paid RM130.00 monthly in a household of 10.

We can barely find expats willing to pay rental over RM3,000.00 for fully furnished units these days and the author would like to make us believe there are groups of few students who're willing to pay much more.

And even if these students exist, 7-8% rental yield is very much, in most savvy investors' eyes, a very laughable return. None of my rented units yield as low as the figure given, and if anyone thinks that's a great deal then I'm secretly rejoicing for the lack of astute competitors.

Perhaps one will think I'm overreacting, but I will most definitely not (though I'll never say never) venture into students' market in this country, sadly because returns is not as good as the author projected it to be. And the ever changing pool of tenants (students do graduate don't they?) will prove to be a hassle and waste of resources to those who seek agent assistance in letting out. And finally, I can almost never find a property returned in good condition after a tenancy expires. This I speak from experience: I pity my landlord when we returned the keys. He actually sold it off to someone who demolished the whole unit to rebuild something else.

I wonder with the current trend of journalism how further backward will we continue to go? I don't mean to criticize all journalists, but I would rather read lame Bieber-related news, than real estate articles with outrageously optimistic datas written by journalists who I suspect have not even bought one property, just because they have to write up an article to submit on a deadline.

YNWA my king...

The sacking of of Kenny Dalglish didn't seem much like a surprise, but still the manner of how he was made to leave the club made my heart twitch a little.

Yes, he may not be the modern day saviour as most LFC fans had hoped for, but honestly how many of us would've thought FSG would have things end this way?

Here is a king who scored 167 goals in 322 games for LFC. A king who won 9 league titles and 3 European cups. A king who, along with a handful only, to have won every domestic trophy in England with a single club. A king, when the club fell into its darkest days in the late 80s with tragic deaths, led the knights and supporters to discover the silver lining in the sky. The king, who mourn the deaths of supporters with the rest of us, every single year until today without fail.

And the king is sacked? That could've been done with a lot more taste. But sacking is not the Liverpool Way.

Not once in LFC's history that a manager has been sacked by the board, not every Roy Hodgson. And surely Kenny Dalglish should not go down in history to be the first.

8th place is by far the worst position I have witnessed LFC in the last decade, but after all the mayhem by the US cowboys it does spiral a bit out of control eh? All the promises unkept, all the merry-go-rounds, all the legal tangles, and FSG came along to pull us out from the well. But as ruthless as we know, like all business tycoons, FSG means business and business is all there is.

With Dalglish's sacking it signals the end of the bootroom legacy and whatever is left to the traditions. Some fans got their way in calling for Dalglish's head towards the end of the season. Now who will emerge to lead LFC to better days in the future? Martinez? Villa-Boas? Really?

Fans should know better, and should've learnt from the lesson for calling Rafa's head 2 seasons back. For a man who breathes LFC, Benitez surely didn't expect some fans to ask for his resignation, only to be replaced by Roy 'Puppet' Hodgson. The woy who rubs his face like a genie lamp every time things go wrong. The woy who brought us as low as 19th place in the league.

Do we not learn from the past? Where do we go from here? Now that the king is gone, we will have to start from scratch. Again.

Was the season really that bad that Dalglish does not deserve any more than what he received? It was a season of bad referee decisions, woodwork shots (over 30 of them) and bad penalties that could've cost us more than 20 points in the season just ended. Can he be blamed for even half of these situations?

Now that the decision has been made, we'll have to dust ourselves and get ready to get dirty again. Now FSG can thank King Kenny for flatly refusing his severance package so the club can take whatever is there to reinvest into the club's buying policy.

King Kenny, you'll never walk alone.

wtf?

Reading Faizul Ridzuan's 'WTF? 23 Properties by 30'. Must say it brings back lots of memories of internet forum days. Probably more than half of what he wrote in the book were in forum chats over the years accumulated (or at least I knew the stuff were discussed before anyway), but it's a great book nonetheless.

And it reminds me of a middle-aged man (probably closing into his retirement age now?) who made a sneering remark about me being the 'talk a lot, pretending to be smart kind, but unfortunately without much substance or investments'. And also wishing me luck because I will be needing a lot of it.

Makes me smile every time I think about it.

Man was über proud he was renting out his studio unit at a mere RM1.1k. Started a forum thread pretending to be asking for advice, then revealing he's already investing and basked in his glory for shooting down my opinions.

Poor chap didn't know I was making better rental returns.

I eventually slowed down in forum participation in the coming years. Well, talks on the internet are, and always will remain cheap. Chap thought he won the battle and loved all the attention when clueless 'investors' seek his expert advices in property investment thereafter.

Me? Lost to a keyboard warrior. But at least I got a consolation: when what he revealed has confirmed that I am actually making more money than he was, for every single month from that day onwards.

Until today.

.

.

.

Bwahahahahaha!!!

landed finally...

Well, the title itself doesn't explain anything.

But like I mentioned a couple of posts back, I have finally found the nerves to sign an agreement to tie myself down to a whole life of commitment. That 'dream' landed property for my own family.

Surprising sometimes how some things seem to work the way it does. The Mrs and I have been discussing about getting a landed home for years, and for years I have pushed back the idea because I thought at our age and the size of our family, a proper condominium would've suffice.

Having said that, it is still my dream to find a landed for both of us to grow old in. That special home where we will get to decorate with arty farty paintings on the walls, argue over the shades of brown in the livingroom's wall, how the kitchen should be extended, how the bathroom tiles should match the floor tiles, you get what I mean.

I always thought this place will be there, maybe just 5-10 years down the road. Yes, I get somewhat worried with the current escalating price of properties in the country, but in a way I have always tried to assure myself that I will be financially equipped when the day comes I will have no hesitation in signing the dotted line.

And unexpectedly, that day came a little bit too soon for me, or for us?

Nevertheless, it is still a dream home, and all signs and circumstances have it that we will be staying here for a long time. And so we decided to go all in, even though it means that I will never get to buy another property for investment again. Ever.

A huge step to take, and a huge responsibility to shoulder. But every time I look into my Mrs' eyes when we talk about this home, that is all the convincing I need that I have made the right decision.

I can never be happier than to see the person I love that happy.

posting from phones...

Recently got myself an IPhone 4S and found a Blog App, although I've downloaded this app for a while I haven't really tried utilizing it.

Will see if this app will help me blog more often in 2012. Hectic end of 2011 and am glad it's all over for now. On the sunny side, I'm now an uncle to two nephews, time sure flies. :)

ending 2011 in style...

Blogging seems like a difficult chore these days, I always wonder how some blogger find the time to commit. I mean, don't these people have a full-time job or something?

First it was twice a week, then once a week, once a month, once every two months, and now I guess I'll be blogging once every quarter of a year. Soon I'll be posting twice a year if the graphs indicate whatever it looks like it's going to be.

Anyway, an update is still an update, no one shall complain that I never blog anymore (the least I am updating my blog more often that my friends do, you guys know who you are).

October came and it's gonna be gone in a few hours, and we're into the final 2 months of 2011. What exactly have I done in the year 2011? Need a quick refresh.

Quarter 1 - Got married, best celebration party of my life. Honeymoon in Club Med Kani, Maldives, best holiday in my life. Went into a subsale purchase, met the worst agent and banker in my life.

Quarter 2 - Joined Business Network International, got to know individuals from dozens of different industries. Went to Bali, but was working while holidaying. Had no break throughout June, spent 10 hours at work when lucky, or 20 hours when unlucky.

Quarter 3 - Work spill over from June to July. August was meant to be better but didn't happen, but at least finally closed the deal started in February. Schedule became hectic as outstation assignments started piling in. Started looking out for the next property.

Quarter 4 - First month into the last quarter of the year, and already traveled 5 states in a little over a month. Made the bravest decision in purchasing the most expensive property in my short working life.

With 2 months left of 2011, I would've wanted to make the most of out it, but knowing the nature of my business, chances are 2 or 3 days off in the next 60 days will be considered a luxury. Already worked through Deepavali, will be working through Hari Raya Haji, Awal Muharram and Christmas. My best bet for a day off work will be New Year, provided that I won't need to work from home.

What more, with one of my best friend's wedding coming in the coming few weeks, I have actually considered for a couple of months whether to make the bold decision and fly to NZ for a short break and celebrate my buddy's big day in Christchurch, but in the end decided that it will be somewhat irresponsible considering that my colleagues will be battling and working their a$$e$ off when I am away.

So sorry, bro if you're reading this, would really love to be there to witness your biggest day in your life. But I can assure you that even though I'm thousands of miles away I will be cheering for you on the day you end your bachelorhood, congratulations brother!

weeks to come...

It's probably a year since I last posted twice in a month, that probably shows how idle I am these couple of weeks, hahaha...

Anyway, the Mrs is away in Cameron Highlands attending her close friend's wedding, so here I am again with nothing much to do on a weekend. Now, perhaps I have mentioned this too many times that people might think that I only get to blog when the Mrs is not around, that may be partly true, but also only because when she's not around, I have nothing much to do and the boredom creeps into my head. ;)

The coming few weeks will be extremely hectic for me, nothing less than 30 sessions of graduations to cover in a little over 6 weeks to come, it will be a challenge to stand up straight after the end of the ordeal in August; good challenge nonetheless, and perhaps I will be away longer than usual. Not just in blogsphere, but in person as well. I can't remember the last time we had so many assignments to cover in such a short span of time, but it's a good indication that our client portfolio is growing stronger by the day.

Besides that, 2011 seems to be the Comics year. I've just watched X-Men: First Class last week after catching Thor earlier last month, it was awesome, I could be a little biased but coming up there will Transformer 3, Captain America, and Green Lantern just came to the big screens.

Work comes first, but there's always some time to destress, and movies like these, I like!

:)

hola from butterworth...

Same old way in starting my write up: 'It's been a long while since I wrote something here'.

Same excuses, haha...

Quite a lot has happened in the two months since my last post. Well, one of the 'happening' is that the Mrs and I have already been to our second honeymoon to Bali. :) We've taken quite some pictures but like the lazy guy I am I won't be bothered to post them all up here. Perhaps the Mrs will upload into her Facebook albums sometime soon, better view there than here.

Also in these two months, we've managed to acquire a property, Shop Office Home Unit actually. Anyway, this place has been in my radar even before our big day earlier this year, but because of the commitment we'll have to choose where our priority lies so this come in second best. After the wedding is over, we went back in the market and the price appreciated a good 15% from what I was quoted before. Oh well, there's a price to pay for procrastination, but I don't regret the decision to have a wonderful wedding as our main priority (despite making myself RM30,000 poorer).

In the past two months, I have also officially joined a business network group, where a group of businessmen and businesswomen gather together once a week at 6 in the morning to brainstorm and refer businesses to each other. It's a different experience altogether; I get to learn about how other businesses are run, how people market their products or services, how to develop good social skills, and most importantly, how to make these people understand my business so to be able to refer me my desired referrals. It's about time that I approach my work in a different direction, I no longer have to sit at my desk doing paperwork, cold calls, occasional appointments, and busy with the production work. These days I am always on the run, normally spending half the day on the road, very little time in the office (mostly to prepare my presentation items), and very little time with the computer, hence the lack of effort in blogging.

In fact, the only reason why I get to post this right now is because I have 4 hours to spare, stranded here in Butterworth with the Mrs at the saloon to straighten her hair.

Time is getting more and more precious.

And I am loving life more each day. :)

back to the city...

It's a boring Saturday. I haven't had a good weekend break for a long time, and now I actually get to sit in a cafe, blogging away after having lunch here, right after a gym session late morning.

Wouldn't it be great if I get to have the same routine every weekend? Ah, wishful thinking.

Anyway, I'm back from Kani, Maldives. It was a wonderful getaway from the busy city of Kuala Lumpur.

Wait. Wonderful isn't good enough a term. Awesome? Orgasmic?

Heck, nevermind. I couldn't find a good enough word to describe the holiday.

Anyway, we were at Maldives' Club Med in Kani Island earlier this month, celebrating our honeymoon two months after our wedding. I hate to repeat myself, but it's a very wonderful place to be. You always hear people talking about finding that 'heaven' on earth, well, we practically found it. It's located northeast of Maldives' capital city of Male.

We spent 6 days there, doing practically nothing other than enjoying the sun. Okay, we did some things. Sailing, snorkelling, took a scenic flight and had an aerial tour of the islands around Kani, kayaking, etc. The point is, never had I went to a holiday where I really got disconnected from the world.

I don't want to write a bloody essay on our honeymoon, I'll leave the rest of the pictures in my Facebook page sometime soon, but this is probably the best ever vacation one can experience. I guess when the pictures are uploaded people will figure out what I was trying to say.

Perhaps I can consider having more holidays like this in the future.

________________________

On another note, finally got back into the game, the Mrs and I have managed to secure another property (provided the vendor doesn't try anything funny). Comparatively I might've paid a little over the market value, but it doesn't matter when it comes with a secured tenancy which brings me positive cashflow for at least a year while I wait for it to appreciate further.

Came across plenty of discussions with different people of different backgrounds lately, and apparently real estate investment can be quite a difficult issue to discuss. There are people who want to invest but expects the property price to come down to what he perceives as the worthy valuation. Then there are people who just whack whatever properties there are and hope for the best.

Then there are people who ask others, 'I am a real estate investor, can you tell me what are the developments I should invest in?'

Hmm.

back to business...

Okay, it has been a quiet 2011 thus far, and fair enough with the wedding and stuff ongoing.

Mid of February, I'm back. Perhaps I should blog monthly, at least I'll make up to 12 posts a year. Which isn't too bad.

Wedding was a blast, and great that everything went by smoothly. Since then, 3 pairs of friends got engaged. Now that our wedding is out of the picture, we're scheduled to attend at least 10 weddings throughout the rest of 2011, two of which are my cousins'. November will be a busy wedding month, it's gonna be fully booked every weekend.

Saving a penny here and there since the wedding's over, I guess I can go back to what I enjoyed doing all these while, and get back going in the market. One year out from the field and feeling rusty, but 2-3 weeks of practice and things started to feel like how it used to be. And if everything's going good hopefully a good deal before next month, and one of my goals for 2011 will be fulfilled. Boy, I have a really expensive hobby, sigh...

hello 2011...

Turn of the year. Weird things have happened. Life's the same. Vision's still intact. Mission is compromised. Happiness is shared.

Two weeks before the big day.

Butterflies in my stomach?

Hundreds of butterflies all over the place on 15th January 2011.

greed and fear...

I considered myself to be somewhat lucky to have an interest in something that generates some passive income every month. I have to admit that I am still pretty new in property investments but several years on, I am starting to feel disillusioned with the growing crop of so-called 'investors'.

Over the years I've got to know some pretty good investors who I thought shared a common interest, but lately things seem to be getting a little out of hand. Generally I have no problems with how one manipulates his/her own financial tools to diversify their own investments. But I do have my reservations when a company is formed to 'train' new investors into jumping into the bandwagon.

Personally, I believe property investment is not the kind of activity where a huge group of people can just join and be a member. Surely there is something that benefits the core group of investors who formed the 'group' that gives such training and seminars, such as huge membership fees up front. While one can gather much knowledge through these activities, but to introduce ONE project to 300 registrants I think we are misleading a whole group of 'newbies' into the BUY BUY BUY trend.

Surely no one is obliged to join and buy but the situation now creates an army of mindless zombie-like 'investors' who would be more than willing to jump in with the rest of the crowd, and let's be honest, with thousands of like-minded 'investors' in the same project, do one still think it is a good investment? I have my conclusion on that, but I'm keen to know what these people are thinking.

In the end of the day, the core group of investors will be the main beneficiary. Hundreds of registrants will mean over a million ringgits of membership fee received, and no doubt these 'seed monies' will be distributed amongst themselves as 'bullets' for their own agenda, possibly other developments not known by commoners like me. Do one honestly think that a smart investor will buy something where thousands of others are investing into?

Think again.

By motivating a group of people to BUY unconditionally we're creating a bubble which will eventually burst in the near future, and when that happens who will benefit, again?

Things are getting a little out of hand, and you either join the bandwagon which will guarantee to make some profit IF you can predict the timing of the bursting bubble correctly; or you take a road which holds lesser risks and let others have make the money first.

You may be greedy when people around you are fearful, but be fearful when people around you are greedy.

rings...

Well, most would've already know that we have registered last month, while this is not really a proper post, I am posting up the photos of the Proposal Ring and our Wedding Bands, as promised previously.

This is to toast the end of bachelorhood. Less than 4 months to go before the big day.

qualifications...

These days, you only need to grab a big DSLR and take a photo with you holding it near your face, crop the image to hide the bad angles, add a little airbrush using Adobe Photoshop, adjust the colour tones and post that photo on your Facebook profile and voila! You call yourself a professional photographer.

Sometimes, it feels like everything is getting too easy and people earn titles without having to work for it. 15 years ago, a photographer will take one shot and his reputation will be based on that naked photograph that comes straight out from the darkroom.

Come 2010, a person holding a DSLR will take hundreds of images of the same object, go back to his computer and select the least ugly shot, make overwhelming editings and he'll come out with that great 'photograph'. He then uploads it online and earn plaudits and compliments for a capturing a fantastic shot.

Photographer? Cameraman? Or just plain photo editor?

new look...

Since I wasn't going to post any updates, a little revamp on this little blog to compensate.

Busy weeks; probably months, ahead.

It's official: I will be tied down after 20th August 2010. It will be fun to know how life will pan out to be after that.

A picture of our wedding bands shortly, once I got it downloaded into the laptop.

my way or no way...

I still remember someone asking me that if given a choice of two properties with identical specs, apart from one being freehold and the other leasehold priced 20% lower than the former, which would I choose.

I chose the latter, without hesitation.

I won't be discussing my reasons for doing so, especially so since it's going to derail from today's topic.

But if someone's going to come up to me and say that when you buy freehold you own the land, I'd say bull and go flip today's paper to see what's the latest crap.

Condo owners shocked by land acquisition

In Malaysia, it doesn't matter whether you buy free- or leasehold, 10- or 99-years lease, if your government suddenly decides during their teh tarik session last night that they want to acquire your land to build a Legoland they'll just issue a statement of compulsory acquisition and you're left there screwing your own behind yourself.

In Malaysia, the freehold title is as precious as toilet paper, you can use it to wipe your @$$ and flush it down the toilet, nobody gives a damn.

"want to rent"...

When I was 20 and searching for a place to rent near my university, my budget was RM150 per month for a room, and I don't mind having roommates.

I just saw a post put up by a student looking for a place to rent near his university, his budget is RM1,200 and he would prefer to have a studio apartment for himself.

Generation gap?

point to ponder...

When single-room units in KL begin to hit the RM400,000 mark, does that mean Mont Kiara can no longer be called the hub for luxury condos?