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.