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.
