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. :)