building condition survey 28/12/2011

This house has been abandoned for a year. the floor area is about 500sq ft. 2 rooms walk up flat. Located in the heart of Kepala Batas town. Still in very good condition but there are leaks at some location due to 2 reason 1. pipe leask 2. roof leaks. A few missing glasses on the louvered windows. some birds droppings in one of the room due to the missing glasses. And some defects on the existing piping.

The house belongs to a retired middle aged man. When i took over, there were no water supply or electricity so i have to apply for new reconnection for both ulitities. Now the water and electricity is running smoothly. since the house is in an acceptable condition, the only repair that it needed is for the roof leaks and the pipe leaks nevertheless, these two are quite challenging jobs because i need to climb into the roof cavity to tackle the problem.

Below are some photos taken during my surface survey, done on 28 Dec 2011.

The survey pic in video format for those who are unwilling to scroll down..

The first flow of water from the tap after the new reconnection

water leakage on a wall

water leakage on the kitchen ceiling and wall

bird droppings

Missing glasses

missing glasses

hole in the ceiling

hol ein the ceiling

water ponding

roof leak

existing water tub

existing sitting WC

plumbing to the WC

existing plumbing in the toilet

water leak on the toilet roof

broken lamp shade

bedroom door still in good condition

the main entrance door

main entrance door will be replaced with a solid wood door

pipe leaks in the toilet/bathroom

pipe leaks close up

toilet/bathroom existing metal door will be replaced with PVC sliding door

theres an elephant in the room.. post mortem continues

I'm not really good at understanding idioms.. i'm so straightforward; sometimes i hardly understand silly jokes.. i am always the last one to laught. Ok that is me.

I already replied in the comments section in Make The Pitch website but my comment does not appear, i replied on every comment, composing long explaination but sadly nothing came out, i got so annoyed. Something is really wrong with the system.. or i don't know what happened! So i decided to reply in my blog instead. Better! and i have plenty more room to write!

When i got a comment from TS, the 1st thing that came across my mind was "what elephant?" a few seconds later after reading the whole thing i finally got it. Ahaa!! the real BIG issue.

Before i was selected to the top 30, i went to an audition in Penang on 17th September, i knew about this pitch 4 days prior to the audition date. So in 4 days i was really working very hard (24/7) to gather as much resources that i could because this project has been in my mind and my hard disk since forever!! (since the day i revisited my dad's gloomy and deteriorating house)

I'd love to emphasis again that, the houses i'm referring to belongs to legal owners. not the local government. The project belongs to Perda. YES, the land type is 99 years leasehold. My dad is one of the owner. He has an S&P agreement as a proof.

First of all, i wouldn't want to do things if it is illegal. 2ndly, this issue did came out during my audition. And the panel during audition; even though i've explained the fact very thoroughly, still want me to do the double checking. I did talk to one of the state assemblyman and he verified, happened to be he is also interested to join me if he managed to buy one of those abandoned houses.

Even though it is a leasehold, doesn't mean that we couldnt do anything with it isn't it? I anticipate the next question would be can we rent it out? Of course! everybody is renting out their houses whether it is leasehold or freehold. It doesn't matter. in my case, we have to prepare a special agreement between my company and the rightful owners to cover specific matters and the owners that i've managed to meet have no problem with that.

A lot of people who watched the show have came out with different feedback and again the 1st thing is the shades issue, 2nd is the way i presented and 3rdly my idea. Nevertheless, I am glad that everybody like it and told me it was great.

I think this would suffice for the time being..

Post mortem - post pitch review

Post Mortem – post pitch reviews


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmAyKOONzWo

After reviewing my pitch a few times, first of all why with the Big Sun Shades? I want to declare to everyone that during the pitch day, I had an eye injury due to contacts lenses fixing gone wrong, and my eyes were unbearably painful and all teary and I was literally blind. I had to count my steps when walking to the boardroom and nobody noticed that. I had to always pat the eye surrounding area which appear to people that I was a nervous freak. Make The Pitch should explain that to the audience instead because people apparently are more concern about me wearing the big shades rather than pay attention to my pitch. 

Secondly I found out that there were a lot of misunderstandings coming from the panels such as the target market.

1^st my target market is not at all students I couldn't read the other day due to an acute eye injury. It is stated very clearly in my proposal that the target markets are the people below:

1.    Local visitors/relatives

a.    Comes back for kenduri (weddings) & festive season
b.    Needs affordable lodging prior to registration & graduation day of their children in colleges nearby (imagine graduation and registration every other month)
 i.    MRSM Balik Pulau
 ii.    Kolej Kolej Kemahiran Tinggi MARA (KKTM),
 iii.    Kolej Teknologi Pulau (KTP)
 iv.    Tourism University being developed near its western coast of Pantai Acheh (just 1km from the proposed site)

2.    Foreigners/ researchers because of the many local attractions

1. Nature
1. i.    Penang National park,
2. ii.    firefly watching 
3. iii.    Local Fruit orchard  
4. iv.    traditional fishing village, open sea fishing trip
5. v.    Scenic view of nature, rice fields, mangroves tress with so many species of exotic birds (ornithologist favorite spots)
6. vi.    traditional local food, cultural performance, local handicraft                           

2. Places of worships 
1. i.    Xuan Wu Chinese Temple - Constructed in the 1800s , this bright-red, Chinese temple is home to traditional Chinese operas in March and July.
2. ii.    Sacret Heart Catholic Church, Balik Pulau Built in 1854.

No wonder I stumbled upon my words to answer their question because I don’t even remember mentioning students in my proposal; students registering and graduating yes but not student renting.

And they kept repeating the RM4000 a month rental. To make it clear I will show you the breakdown so you will have a better idea how things actually are:-

Options                                                                      Chargers (RM)

Room/house rates   
Per room per night                                                   60**

Per room per week (7 days)                                   350 

Whole house per night                                           150

Whole house per week (7 days)                             900

**the charges are subject to change from time to time 

And all the houses (2 bedrooms, living room, kitchen and bathroom) are equipped with:-

•      Simple & basic –

•      For budget traveller

q  Bed, Fan, hot shower & sitting WC

q  Stove, Fridge, TV, Wi-Fi
q  Basic amenities that promises comfort and a good night sleep

•      For people who needed the little extras 

q  Air conditioning

q  Cable TV

Is that still expensive? Compared to a hotel RM160.00 per room per night, and you get a whole house for RM130.00 per day which is comparatively affordable.

As for the professionals who will run the business:-

Most transaction will be carry out online, there will be a mini front desk and an operation centre since there will be a lot of units there. At present, i only assinged a caretaker to pass keys to the visitors and clean up the place when they leave and when the occupants request or it. there is no need to hire professionals for time being but if the scale of the business eventually expanded, we will definitely cater to it.

I really hope that this will clear up the misunderstandings that were highlighted during my pitch.

design failures and more!

i have traveled to a lot and places and my eyes notice a lot of designs/construction/buildings that look fine to the commoners eyes but they seems not quite right to mine..

For instance, last week i went to B-Suite Hotel for my son's graduation and saw this:-

Disregard the lady with the ballon, pay attention to the HANDRAIL instead. What is the purpose of a handrail build on staircase? It is no doubt for SAFETY. I don't think using a fragile material for handrail is a good idea. Esthetic yes but safety NO! there is no compromise to safety!

I went there for my kid graduation, so there were so many kids around. kids love to run around the places and push each other really hard and jump on each other like what people did in wresting anywhere they feel like. Imagine what would happened if they suddenly throw themselves against the glasses.. the glas would break and they will  get hurt by the pieces and miggt even fall off.. it is going to be a nightmare..

The glass is thick all right it is half inch in thickness, but i am not at all confident. advise to all building owners and designers especially, if you want to design something for safety, please do it right!

Abandoned houses.. the hidden jewels

People might not be aware of this until i bring this up to them. You might not be aware of the number of "empty" houses left abandoned and deteriorating around you after after this, i'll bet you would start noticing and even counting. No doubt, the law of attraction applies immediately.

I don't even bother about abandoned houses until i have the chance to work on one. The owner work in KL, he used to rent out the house to some people and they turn out to be drug addicts. it was a horrible experience to begin with. The house was left for 8 years and you must see the pile of garbage that they left. And the dust was about an inch in depth. I have to use a shovel to clear the garbage. there are no pipes and no wires due to the previous Mc Gyver living there who sold all metals to scrap shop (is that what we call them, professionally they are called scrap contractors but informally i always heard people called these operators "scrap metal" as long as there is a word scrap there, it will be fine with our people, i guess?)

The process was somewhat starightforward but a little tedious at first. we have to clean the house, get in the water and electrical connection, install whatever is being "stolen" from the house the sinks, ceiling fans, water taps, (recycle as much item from other houses as i could), give it a new coat of paint and finally wash is throughly.. make it look sparkly clean and before i knew it people are calling/queing to rent it, they even started a scene (quarelling, crying you can't even imagine!) and i have only one house to be rented out. There are a lot more houses in the area that has the same potential.

In term of financial, repairing a house especially when it is being abandoned is very costly. But i manage to do it under a mere 5K (by carefully budgeting every single item plus mileage/fuel/food/labour unbelievable isn't it?). Admitting the fact that i have networking with the local hardware store, i got a contractor price for everyting. Me and my dad make an effort to go round the area and pick whatever item that can be reused. Eg: some people are renovating their houses and getting rid of a sink and they just left it in a dumpster. We collect it. Clean it and it looks new and the same goes to the ceiling fan.. some are using a remote control fan and they dont know what to do with their old ones, they give it to me because they know my business. It is all about knowing what to do, how to do it and the right person to support us. It does sound pathetic, but look, someone elses trash is somebody elses treasure and you have to agree with me on this one.

Because it is a cheap house, or it is located in an Indonesian/Bangadesh/Vietnamese doninated area, it doesn't mean that you couldnt make money out of it. The market in that area is for these foreigners who work at a nearby industrial area. I did everything myself, from cleaning, repairing, marketing and now managing the house. We have agreements, and thank God that the tenant is a very responsible person. They never miss their rent, and the owner is very happy with it.  He is still ignoring the house but this time he got some positive cashflow coming in.

However, this rental rule only applies for certain "high volume" location, for places that is less crowded like in my 5th unit in some rural area, it is very suitable for homestays. Definition of homestays in commoners understanding nowadays is actually "a cheap, less hassle, and ideal alternatives for hotels". Not a fancy 5 star hotel or anything like that. Just a simple house fully furnishes, you feel at home when you are in one of those. Or accurately a guest house.

Anyway, some businessperson is worried that this is only going to be a seasonal thing. I have to admit that it could be a seasonal thing when there are no other attraction around the area. That the business have to depends only to "kenduri"/ festival or school holiday/graduation season. Nevertheless the feedback that i got from homestays operators, they are really making money even though the houses are not fully occupied all year round. Think of what will happen if the area has a lot of potential. Existing potential and maybe something that could be developed later.. a special spa, some boot camps, some cultural show. These are the atrractions that we could use to bait people from abroad. And no doubt, the place would be fully utilized. and God knows we have all the marketing expert to do the job for us just a matter of a click or maybe a phone call away.

Some people are concern about the expertise to run homestays, if is is the seasonal type, i'm not much worried. but if it sudenly turn up to be a professional and globally renowned raking for profit homestays, we have to definitely do some adjustment on the human resourses area and hire some professionals undergraduates to run it. I've learnt this trick from my previous employer (undisclose name), he always hire students who do industrial training to work for him. And these students were really good and very responsible, and it is also a win-win for both parties. Hands on job experience for the student and minimal wages for the students. Looking at it, I did my industrial training without getting anything for a few months. My students were not getting anything too, my sister got only RM100 a month, and another former company of mine, paid RM300.. some MNC pays RM500 (my last company i work with was an a globally renowned MNC so i know stuff). A minimun wages will really make these students happy. At first i thought that the companies are only taking these student for granted but on second thought, hey we are exposing our business operation to them. they would learn all the trade secrets and stuff like that which is priceless. and of course put them where they belong, we don't hire an engineering student to be at the front office. Sounds a bit unprofessional huh? but think again!!!he might be a natural dealing with people, God knows best! In this REAL world we have to be multitasking! like it or not. i like to use this.. "SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST and the most creative(this is from me actually)" to back up my statement.

Anyway, I will try to upload some of the work i've done on my previous houses. i would want to share my experience. Starting off as a building surveyor and ended as a property manager is seriously a tough job. In between i also have to learn legal, administrative, PR and carpentary, plumbing etc. basically i have become an all rounder if not a superwoman. FULL STOP.

balance life & success???

Is there such a thing? a balance life. between success and life.. sucessful life, life success.. i just finished reading  a book from another property investor Dr. Peter Yee. he was too, from a humble beginning. i found that his approach is rather more aplllicable than our so called property Queen Renesial Leong or our Millionaire planet founder Azizi Ali.

I'd like to emphasis here that property investement is not for novice, u must at least have 20K in your bank to start investing.. it is a lot of money if you are only making RM1800 a month (the wages that was offered to me for the job i asked for recently) unless you have a rich parents/ in laws/ spouse... you coudlnt run away from the fact that to purchase your 1st unit of property you must have that minimum cash in hand. Dont be surprised, some people who live luxuriously might not even have that little in their savings, and i dont understand why or how. Or because everything is provided by the company company car, company house.. et cetera

Say, you want to purchase a RM100K worth of house, you need 10K for d/payment.. and about RM2.5K for legal fees and a couple or more K's for utilities connection, minor renovation etc..etc.. that is why i put it 20K. It is the standard minimum amount for buying a decent 1st house..

I believe Dr. Peter Yee was also a fan of Dr. Joseph Murphy, who wrote "the power of your subconscious mind". i come to this conclusion when i found the word "creative visualization" on his 1st few paragraph.. no doubt.. This man is also using his subconsious in order to be where he is now. like i'm using my subconscious to get my 2 million.

However, after i've gone through the whole book, i still found that the location of properties they mentioned only concentrated in Klang Valley area.  In Penang, real time reality, there is no way for you to rent out an apartment for twice the cost of what you pay monthly to the bank. No way.. you have to wait for another decade for the rental to hike.. i did mentioned this in my previous post, the relation between cost of rental and time.. if my parents choose to rent out the terrace they bought 30 years ago (at the price of RM25K and were only paying RM190 to the bank), they will easily get RM1K per month.. RM810 positive cash flow if the house is not fully paid, but it is fully paid now, so they will get RM1K nett per month. dont forget the 30 yrs duration that you have to wait.. their property is located in a prime location, a few minutes away to the aiport, a few seconds away to free industrial trade zone, near "u name it" amenities.. a few shopping complexes.. so many schools.. a few minutes away to USM.. well.. its a gold mine., but again. 30 years is a very long wait dear.. i'm already 30 now.

So, what i'm telling here is base on my experience. property investment in Klang Valley is no doubt too good to be true, but it is totally a different scenario in Penang, and i believe in most of other states too.. Hence, for those who wanted to start investing for properties in Penang, you couldnt take either Dr. Yee, Mdm Renesial nor Azizi Ali advices, they could somehow be misleading.. hell yeah, they are the expert..  But  if you want to be like them, start investing in Klang valley instead :)...

Nevertheless,  Dr. Yee's writings is more approachable to me.. i really reccommend his book for those who are really interested in property investment. More realistic.. the book entitle "You can Be Rich In property" (they should add there in BOLD  - but not "OVERNIGHT")

P/S:
And hes making money giving seminars and writing books, so which is actually making him rich? Question???

my version of anwer will be:
invest in property, write a book and give talks and seminar and charged people for it...  coz that is what i'm gonna do too.. cheers.. :)

nasty..nasty & unprofessional

I've been working out quite vigorously lately, jogging and cycling. I was using the service road in front of my house instead of jogging around the football field at the back of my house. Some contractors are doing drainage upgrading job over there and they really do a BAD job.

Coming from a construction background there are a few things that we contractors/workers needs to adhere.. despite of the 5M which is money, manpower, material, machinery and method there are a few more things that is fairly important and most of the people either working or just being plain civilian overlooked. It is SAFETY. 2 types of safety - during work (how the man deliver) and the safety in the construction site. How they keep the site out off danger or possible hazard. especially when working in an open site as this " a public football field" in a residential area.

In my observation, this poor contractor has totally failed to maintain the safety standards that is so simple to follow. they dont even bother to cover up their iron bars/cement bags/gravels/sand.. it either they are so rich they dont care if people might steale it or they are just plainly stupid and ignorant. This is a public area where kids running around and cyling and play ball.. not just kids, its a community meeting area, they exercise together, so much activities going on. As a professional, i wouldnt approved something nasty like this happens in my neighbourhood.

They kind of vandalise everything that kept them from working, the pebble walk is now covered with hardened cement, not just the pebble walk, the poor field is also affected.. and the trees.. OMG. What are they doing? The workers might be dump but what happened to the people in charge? the managers? What are they going to do when the job is completed? Compensate? Blimey! I just have to do something, i need to know who is in charge of this whole thing. the RC bars are exposed and any kids could just fall and hurt themselves. and the gravels, i could see that the kids again (because they are the most excited and affected people) were throwing gravels everywhere. Thank God, my car is never parked around here.

This is seriously one bad example of safety management in an open contruction site, there is no such thing as OPEN construction site, we need a special license from CIDB to enter one. These idiots dont even care if people die because of their negligence. Too much of a hassle for them to do it the right way i guess.   The least that they could do, is barricading the area. at  least the parents are aware that the site is dangerous and they will be more alert. Please for God sake, take away their construction license.. (as if it is ever going to happen)..

There goes our Green Grass and look, they even left a measuring tape,
and it is a very dangeruous tools if used sideways, it could kill!!

They have practically ruined everything!! And the BRC is so exposed, waiting to hurt people or waiting to be taken away. (that is even better i guess)

Look! how nasty this looks!!

between Azizi Ali and Renesial Leong - the reality

These two names has becomes so significant in Malaysian Real Estate Industry. Who are they? well a short brief, Azizi is a Billionaire Planet Founder who was an author to a series of business and how to be rich books, and Renesial has become a multinational property owner who wrote the series of property jewels books.

Those two are billionaires..i read their books apart from Robert Kiyosaki (again everybody lets be rich book) huh come on. everybody wants to be rich nowadays.. if you or your book want to be on the best sellers list make sure the title consist the word rich/secret/millionaire... its predictable.. sure HIT.. whatever it is, for me, being rich is not just money or material rich.. it has a deeper meaning.. skin deep...

Ok actually i wanted to compare between Azizi Ali and Renesial Leong. I am a landlord. (even though i am only managing my parents/grandmother/uncles/close friends houses) even though i am actually the property manager but but i still consider myself a landlord. The house owner just want me to hand them the rental every month without wanting to know any other things. Apparently i have become a non official landlord to so many houses simply because i am the one dealing  with the tenants and the properties.

It has been almost 3 years since i first begun renting out properties. All the property experts were right. 1st criteria to look for if  you are considering to invest in rental property are : 1st the LOCATION. 2nd DOMINATION and 3rd SYSTEM and you'll be a happy landlord.

I read through My Property My Jewel from Renesial and another one by Azizi Millionaire landlord, and i do read 3/4 of Robert Kiyosaki books trying to unveil his secret (but there is no secret actually).. those people are only concentrating on property that located in PRIME area that give 100% return but little that they know that not all property ownesr have property in KL or New York. I come from Penang, and i realized that most of the landlord trying so hard to increase their rental (by fully furnishing it or fully renovated the unit). They thought that they could be the next Renesial or Azizi by putting the extra effort, but the fact is they just couldn't.

Say, Miss A bought a house in some place near to a local college (which is a good buy). The cost of the house is RM100K, now we could even get 100% loan from the bank so they monthly repayment is around 500 (i take 4% per year for 30 years), the rental for that area is only RM300 and Miss A will end up with a negative cash flow of RM200 per month. This is bad but at least Miss A purchase a house in the year 2010. This is the reality OK? But.. what will happen in another 10 years, say in year 2020? do you think that Miss A will continue getting RM300 from rental? have you ever heard of value appreciation? Do you get what i am trying to say here? Ok next explanation.

I have a living evidence. My parents bought a house in Bayan Baru in 1978, just next to Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone.. It was hard enough for my Dad because he had to sell his motorbike and cycle to work (Bayan Baru in the Island to Kepala Batas in the mainland about 40km by highway remind you there was only Kampung Road and ferry services back in 1978) he was quite lucky that he was a national cyclist and represent Malaysia for 1977 and 1979 Sea Games so he doesn't have to worry about people badmouthing him. Dad's salary was RM250, and he has to pay the house for RM195. my parents have to rent out one of the room for RM80 to make ends meet.. it was 33 years back. in 1980's my parents has been renting out the house for RM300, more than enough to pay their debt with some extra cash in hand. I remember in 1998 the rental had hike to RM700,.Now the same house is being rented out at RM1200 per month. Can you imagine the return that they get for investing to get the house in 1977? worth every effort.

But it is a very different scenario if you purchase the same house now. in 2011. and the latest selling price (the neighbor next to my parents house) is RM280K. but if you look at the ratio. Simple math, RM100K repayment RM500 monthly, RM200K repayment RM1000 monthly, RM280K repayment is more than RM1500. from here we immediately know that the selling price is a bit absurd, but there is still people who bought it. the owner has to wait for another 10 years in order to get a positive cash flow from his investment. the key word here is wait! but can u wait? Kimora Lee Simmons (the fashion moghul) use to say that time is money.. money is time... waste time waste money..

Well, I am in the middle of purchasing my 1st unit of house. It is nothing grand, just a flat with 2 bedrooms. Fall in love at the 1st sight. The price is affordable, the best thing about it. It is cheaper than buying a new Viva. and i could rent it out at least for RM300 per month! isn't that awesome?!! cheap houses does exist, you just have to look very hard. i'd love to quote Renesial she says something like, "it doesn't matter to look for 100 houses before you buy your 1st one that you like".. rather than not looking and end up in deep trouble.. (this is from me actually)  And i am eying for another unit, a terrace next to grandma's (which is now under my care). the selling price is a bit high. hubby is the only one can apply for loans, but he was quite reluctant because he fear that the house wont give us any positive cash flow (i should add yet).

Both Renesial and Azizi did agree on 1 thing, if you want capital appreciation get a landed property, if you are aiming for higher income from rental, go for flats or apartment. the next unit (no18) that i mention has a price tag of RM130K. well, hubby has to pay around RM600 but the rental rate now is only RM450 the most. I could push to RM500 if i dominate the whole row. but no matter how many units i'd owned, i will still be getting a negative cash flow but i did mention value appreciation earlier didn't i?.. the rental will comes up eventually..

Robert and Azizi mention about good debt. initially i was going to to pay my 1st unit in cold hard cash (god knows how hard to raise cash in such a short time (even though it is not as much).. i have to sell everything i got but suddenly i remember the experts advice regarding good debt. well i don't mind getting a loan to pay for my 1st house. the most important thing is, hubby agree to get a personal loan to process with the purchase. yay!!! it is going to give me a good return anyway.

Ok that's about it. Between Renesial and Azizi...Both have ideas, both have valid points, they talk through their experience but other people experience might not be the same as ours.. i am just giving my opinion based on my own experience; that i think more realistic to be applied in local non metropolitan property market. i'm more practical. i'm just like you.. i  think my points are more valid.. don't you think so?

all you need to know about your property management contract.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Property-Management-Contract---What-You-Need-to-Know&id=571543

Easy tips to choose reliable contractors

Idea, Design concept, sketch, blueprint and choosing of material. this is a very important element in a renovation. Wrongly done and you would suffer. I will cover this topic in other post because it is a very wide topic and people commonly make mistake choosing the wrong thing.

Above all, you have to choose a contractor to execute the renovation. They are the one who will let you know if your budget is enough or you need to hack your children education savings. One way to source for a good contractor is to ask your nearby hardware store for contacts. It did wonders. One day, i was looking for tiles at a tile shop and i asked the salesgirl if she knew any contractors that is good and she gave me several numbers. I called and the rest is history.

But you have to understand, contractors always wanted to get away doing things easily. they dont want to trouble themselves. You need to be firm with the choices of material. Sometimes contractor overlooked. they might be an expert in building things but you need to learn of the material that you want to choose say, for your kitchen tiles. I mentioned because i've been there, done that. Mistakes that cannot be undo. Tell you more in the next post.

My MIL (Mother in Law) build a house and lucky me to find out that the contractor FORGOT to install sanitary outlet in the toilet. In normal condition sanitary and plumbing need to be installed at the very first minute. I still remember my contractor rushing me for SHOP DRAWING when i was managing a big scale housing project back then. It simply means that they want a sketch of how the sanitary fixing is installed underneath the floor slab. Just imagine how it would be if i failed to notice the absent of the sanitary outlet? they have to hack the whole floor. That is going to be a nightmare. More unnessary additional job and apparently more money spent.

Another cheap way to make your house renovation a reality is to source for any 'expatriates' that is doing the job. I have  Bangladeshian renting in one of my flats, he has many friends in this line and he told me that i could call them anytime if i needed their help to lay cement, or tiles or erect a wall or do some painting. This second method is advisable if you have a good relationship with the hardware owner, you will get the construction material at 'contractor's price and you only need to pay RM50-RM70 per day per labourer. The cons is, you need to be a project manager and a project coordinator and a quatity surveyor to do this. If it is a huge renovation,just forget about it. hire a professional contractor instead, it will  save you lots of troubles and headaches.

Wrap up from this post:

1. Try to source for a contractor from a hardware store (the one buying most from them) OR

2. Try to source for a 'freelance' laborer that accept daily wages

3. Finalized on your design and choices of material

Applying the FIRST rule - "Design concept" in a blueprint..

For the industry player like me, i have no problem understanding what is a design concept. Another architectural or interior designer jargons that other people should understand clearly. A design concept is actually how do you want  your house to look like. The choices are endless. Traditional, contemporary like retro, fusion, Zen, futuristic, posh, luxurious or simply simple. It could be inspired by certain tradition say English, Malay,  Japanese, Balinese, Thais, Romans, Egyptians, Indians or Oriental. Endless list. It is actually what you like. If you need a guidance ask yourself what do you like? If you are a simple person, you woudnt want your house to have Roman pillars everywhere would you?If you are a fan of roman pillars, ask yourself if you have sufficient and suitable space to erect them around the house. And consider if you have the budget to transform your house into a roman mansion. If you answer yes for both question, you could proceed with the idea happily.

Somehow or rather, most of the modern society will opt for simplicity and practicality. I know they are a lot of English design fan out there but due to budget concern, the former is widely choosen. Bear in mind, that this is an FOC consultancy for people who wants to get their housse renovated considering every aspects. All the millionaire wont be neeeding this free consultancy because they could afford designers. This is for mass public reading. It is no offend to say that most mass public have economical limitation.. or we simply don't want to spend on something that is avoidable. Nevertheless, exclusive design sometimes doesn't carry hefty price tag. It is a very good news that i want to share my experiences with people. Mark my word, doesn't matter if you don't have that much to burst in you  bank account, as long as you have proper planning, everything is possible.

So, You already have the design concept or simply say a rough idea as a guideline. The next thing you need is to sketch your space area on a paper and try to map what you want on the map. forget about your flaw in drawing, as long as you could understand it,  it doesn't matter. You might need to have a measuring tape handy. This is important if you want to build a kitchen cabinet, the contractor will charge you by a "foot run". That means, 1ft will cost you certain amount. Longer ft will charge you more. So measure and measure to make sure that you could stuff all your things and some extras into the kitchen cabinet.

Next, after the sketching, the best thing to do is to make a blueprint. and everything must be accurate with measurements at this time. There is a cheaper way to get a blueprint, get a student from  architectural/planning/Interior Design or anyone who knows AutoCad  to draw it for you (Bettter still if they could furnished you with a 3D drawing, you would have a better idea of how your end result would look like) and had a printing shop to print it out, in A3size. Students won't be so fussy with the payment because they will accept anything as long as the currency is valid at no professional charges. If you live nearby a university or a politechnic or a college that offers those courses, you'll easily find a plan printing shop nearby. That is a tip. If you need a list of colleges that offers the courses near your hometown in order for you to locate the printing shop, you should start Googling it yourself. :), i definitely know USM (as in University of Science Malaysia in Penang have some printing shops nearby)

Oh, it doesn't have to be the real 'blueprint'. Real blueprint is expensive and the odor that came from a real blueprint is really uncomfortable. So, I  would suggest that, If you have an A3 printer at home or at your office, this is the best time to make full use of it. This is important so that your contractor will know exactly what you want. At least how you want your house to look like. Pictures speaks a  thousand words. It will save a lot of arguments along the building process because the contractors and you have the same picture in mind.

Wrap up from this post:
1. get inspired by any concept - ask what you like and what you need
2. ask how much you have
3. start sketching, expand your creativity
4. ask students to digitalized your sketch
5. get it printed

Mistakes that could never be undo..

Everybody are now estatic when it comes to house renovation. Renovating houses could cost people a lot of headache if done without proper planning. Renovating a house is the next major investment after putting up the downpayment to secure the house itself. In recent days, some banks even offer loans for house renovation. It is a blooming industry and the happiest people of all is of course the contractors..

I am taking this opportunity to share with people what i've gone through my point of view as a house owner, end user and even a contractor myself.

Before considering of any renovation, you must always have a clear picture of what you need. Not what you want. You could want everything, the sky is the limit, but it is actually your budget that will determined what you will have at the end. So 1st of all set aside a practical amount every month into your house reno piggy bank, or special envelope or a secret treasure chest. When the time really come, you wouldnt have to rob a bank to get the money. House renovation is normally settled in cash term. You are lucky enough if the contractor accept credit term but it is not good for your future financial planning. Trust me.. i know better..