suriamas homestay: prepare rumah untuk tetamu baru!!

hari ni lepas meeting kerja kat kl, terus pecut pegi sunway untuk kemas and prepare apartment suriamas tu. ada guest nak masuk awal bulan depan.

part ni yang susah dan mencabar sikit jadi tokey homestay. bukan senang mau senang woo. lainlah kalau dapat join mlm scheme awal2 and be near the top level of the pyramid.

bila guest dah check out, antara kerja-kerja yang kena buat untuk prepare the apartment for next guest:

• sapu sampah, vacuum rumah, lap debu-debu dan mop lantai.
• basuh tandas.
• cuci pinggan mangkuk, kemas dapur.
• basuh cadar, sarung bantal, tuala, etc. kalau malas comforter yang tebal tu boleh hantar dobi je.
• top up makanan macam cereal, coffee and sugar, jus, etc.
• refill utilities macam sabun mandi, shampoo, sabun basuh baju, minyak masak, etc.
• repair / touch up any minor damages. 

perggh letih memang letih. tapi bila itu duit sudah masuk, terus hilang rasa letih!!!

hopefully our new guest will have a great time at the apartment. amin!

homestay or guest home: punca pendapatan hebat menggunakan airbnb.

earlier this year once our tenancy for suriamas apartment ended in march, we decided to give homestay a go. mostly because we thought that we needed a place to stay from time to time if we want to go or lepak in kl. even though the demand for long term rental by students was attractive, some are even willing to pay rm2,100 a month for our apartment. banyak tu (note: rental market at sunway area memang terbaek)...

we used airbnb.com as our main (actually only) marketing platform. the website offers a listing of apartments and studios and houses to be rented on short term basis (daily, weekly or monthly). all over the world, all types of accommodation. unique accommodations like tree houses pun ada. it even has an iphone app that will trigger a message if anyone is interested with our apartment. we can reply messages, manage bookings, edit our listings on the go. convenient maaa!!!

how airbnb works.

1. potential tenants can check the description and photos of a property they like and also the reviews posted by previous tenants as a reference.

2. they can message for any additional info required from the owner, including arrangements on how to collect the keys, etc. owner must reply in order to keep their good rating.

3. once agreed, a booking shall be made by tenants and accepted by owner, upon which a full payment is deducted from tenant's credit card.

4. the website will charge both the tenants (up to 10%) and the owner (3%) for each successful booking made.

5. money will be deposited to owner's account on the day that the tenants checked in.

6. tenants leave a review the apartment and the service given by the owner after their stay. owner leave a review on the tenants too.

7. airbnb gives rating to both the owner and tenants so that people can use the rating as reference.

so far we have rented out the apartment via airbnb website for four times. alhamdulillah they all went well and we managed to pocket some decent money from it. dapat tenants from singapore, phillipines and australia. layan jugakk. it was pretty interesting to listen to their live stories.

apart from that, we have also managed to rent out the unit to two other customers. in fact our first ever customer rented the apartment for a full month! memang masyuk laa masuk duit. terus dapat cover three months of instalment. waktu ni baru tahu kehebatan tokey-tokey homestay ni..

we also have been on the other side, as a tenant using this service. we rented a room for our holiday in new york last year and also an apartment for our family vacation in hong kong this year. memang saved a lot of money. furthermore stay kat apartments ni boleh masak2 kat dapur tu..

all in all, i am fully satisfied with airbnb as an effective marketing tool for homestay accommodation, both for owner and tenants, malaysia or anywhere. any enquiries are supported by 24 hour helpline. memang website ni bagi service terbaik bagi promosi rumah sewa atau home stay. boleh masuk part of tips untuk menjadikan homestay business berjaya laa kiranya.

but of course it is not always pretty and happy stories all the time being a homestay operator ni. there are a lot of commitments required and challenges that need to be tackled. but then mana ada sumber duit senang sekarang ni apart from joining some shoddy pyramid schemes, right?

but those are stories for another day...

do we really make money being landlords?

yesterday i went to our suriamas apartment. it's been six month since my last visit, wayyy overdue. the main purpose was to pay for maintenance fee. dah six months tak bayar, so i went there well prepared (dah attack atm dulu siap2). bila check with the management office, perrgghhh banyak jugak benda lain kena bayar rupenya. the detail:

1. maintenance fee per month: rm186.75
2. sinking fund per month: rm18.68
3. insurance per year: rm87.80
4. quit rent per year: rm11.60
5. local council assessment tax per year: rm568.80

so the total 'maintenance fee' averaged per month is rm261.61.

this is of course does not include other costs (minor repair, cleaning for every change of tenants, petrol for visits, etc etc).

luckily the rental we received for our suriamas so far can cover these and the monthly mortgage and still give a respectable +ve cash every month.

so for our next purchase, we must bear in mind of the real cost in maintaining an apartment. whether the big initial investment worth the income it can generate (deposit, lawyer fee, repair, renovation, etc) as well as the time and energy put into it.

then i spent some time checking out the common area. it looks better. probably because there was less renovating works ongoing. plus the trees and grasses grown fuller and taller, nampak makin tenang and teduh, making it a nice place to relax. the areas around the pool are kept clean. there's also a launderette, cafeteria, and also a sundry shop. the gym, tennis, playground and multipurpose hall are in good shape too. the parking area are well lit up now compared to a year ago.

this is all a good sign. hope this can continue and improving all the time.

suriamas: episode 2

i just finished talking to our suriamas tenants about a new rental contract. it's almost one year since we've rented out the unit and it's time to negotiate a new contract! they have been great as tenants, keeping the apartment squeaky clean, and of course, prompt rental each month.

anyway, they requested to reduce the rent from rm1.9k to around rm1.7k. quite a lot, isn't it? but, considering the hassle of getting new tenants and how good our existing ones have been, we're willing to reduce the rent, but still want to make similar return as what we've enjoyed before. after discussion with the tenants, both sides agreed that we won't be using the agent service for the next contract. this has lead to substantial saving in agent's fee (equivalent of one month rent), therefore we could afford to reduce the rent. we finally come to an agreement of rm1750 per month rent.

for old contract period:
rm1900 x 12 months - rm1900 (agent's fee) = rm20,900.

for new contract period:
rm1750 x 12 months - 0 (no agent's fee) = rm21,000.

win win situation, eh? tenants are happy with reduced rent, we are happy with similar returns and good tenants. the only downside is that now we have to draw up new contract ourselves and get it stamped.

hopefully our suriamas project will go well for another year. who knows, another trip to u.s might be on the horizon...

insyaallah!

late rental payment... almost!

today is 7th sept, but our tenant has not yet paid the rental for suriamas apartment. this is a bit weird since they have been very very good in terms of rental payment so far. usually by 2nd or 3rd of the month, the money is already in the bank. but not this month.

so i sent an sms early in the morning, just before wifey and i went to pkns shah alam for some baju raya shopping. the sms reads:

"morning! have you bank in the rental for this month yet? i've checked online and still haven't received it. please let me know if you have problem regarding this matter..."

i know the sms is a little friendly considering they haven't paid the rental yet. but our landlord-tenant relationship has been great so far, and i just don't wanna jeopardise it by being too stern. it's not like they have done this before anyway. truth be told, the tenant replied immediately:

"queuing up in the bank right now. sorry yah..."

ahh, sight of relief. off we went to shah alam. back from the shopping trip, i immediately checked m2u and was happy that the rental has been credited to our account. alhamdulillah.

next weekend we will visit suriamas to check out the apartment condition, give some kuih raya to them and also to settle a few issues with the management, which i will share later..

adios!

suriamas update shogun buffet & the proposal.

last weekend, despite full schedule, i managed to squeeze in a little bit of time to visit our aparment at suriamas bandar sunway to settle a few stuff.

1) new car sticker
our tenant needs consent letter to get new car stickers and gate access cards. the management now produces new car stickers every 6 months laa pulak. not sure ni dah jadi standard to all other apartments or not. ni rupa bentuk sticker car yang baru:



2) claim back rm1k renovation deposit
we paid rm1k deposit prior to start of renovation works. baru skrang nak claim balik. bukan apa, susah nak timing balik kl and tenant available at the house. this is because the management needs to do inspection to make sure that renovation works comply to the standards. unluckily, we didn't pass the inspection due to our aircond piping yang colour hitam tu telah menurunkan kecantikan apartment building tu. huhu. a very minor thing, right? anyway, rules are rules, so we need to find people to paint over the piping with the same colour as the background wall. only then we can claim the deposit.
need to wait for next kl trip laa gini...

3) tenant visit
kena melawat jugak tenant ni sekali sekala... i am happy to report that they are keeping the apartment squeaky clean! memang geng2 metro laa. dinner table siap ada fresh flower lagi, so say no more. cuma diorang report yg lampu kat wet kitchen tak nyala even tough dah tukar bulb and starter. so need to get electrician to check that one too.

dah letih melayan hal2 apartment ni, wifey ajak buffet lunch at shogun sunway pyramid! ingatkan buffet makanan jepun yang mentah, tapi ada banyakkkkkkkkk lauk pauk yang lain! kebab, pasta, ikan, beryani, etc etc etc. best and cheap @ rm35 per person. compare makan shushi king, yang rm6/plate, makan 6 plate dah rm36.... huhuhu.





but our activities didn't end there. that night we went to a movie premier at tropicana city mall. we watched 'the proposal', ticket courtesy of our soon to be new family member, han (dek a's fiance).



the movie ended at 1115pm, terus drive balik and arrived at kerteh around 2.30am. esok pagi gi kerja. and we are back to reality...

suriamas is up and running!

our suriamas apartment is up and running!

actually we rented it out since february this year lagi. carol, our agent, managed to find a group of indonesian students as our tenants. they are all students at the nearby sunway college. we rented it out as a fully furnish unit, complete with 3 units of aircond beb! carol on her part, prepared all the contracts and negotiated the price on our behalf. if i not mistaken the contract is for 1 year + 1. standard deposit is equivalent to 2 months of rent and a further 0.5 month for electricity and water bills. the rent is to paid before the 7th of each month. so far the tenants are very cooperative and paid on time.

the downside is of course the fee that needs to be paid for her service which is equivalent of one month rent. pikir2 balik, banyak gak duit agent ni buat. kalau dia close satu rumah seminggu, the monthly income can reach nearly five figures wooooo!

after months of hard work in renovating the apartment and finding suitable (read: quality but cheap) furniture, in the end we finally became landlord and landlady!

i really savour the experience in dealing with the contractors (banyak auta woo), the management of the apartment (banyak songeh woo), and so many others that we both went through. it was an indeed exhausting experience!

here is the list of shops that we went to find our precious furniture:

- ikea (wardrobe, langsir hanger, dinner table with stools)

- tesco (bathroom mirror and soap place-thingy)

- jusco (study table and chairs, coffee table)
- ttdi's 2nd hand furniture shop (divan beds, tv cabinet, l-shape sofa)

- mudah.com (washing machine, fridge)

- kamdar (langsir)

- sen heng (kitchen stove)

the only thing yg tak settle lagi is renovation on our mini bar cabinet. the contractor buat taik. janji the cabinet to be ready and installed before february, tapi sampai la ni tak ready2 lagi. yg dia siapkan hanyalah wall untuk bar tu. dia punya table top entah bila laa nak ready. buat malu landlord jer. segan kita nak mintak rent bulan2. nasib baik our tenant tak kisah sangat.

anyway, enjoy the snapshots of our apartment:

suriamas sunway, 1245sqft, ground floor, 4 rooms 2 baths. fully furnish with 3 airconds, fridge and washing machine:

adios!

kena auta...

this week kita kena auta by the suriamas contractor. he promised everything will be completed by this weekend, so that our new tenants can move their stuff into the apartment. tapi, bila kita pergi inspect rumah on friday morning, tergezut beruk! tengok laa condition aparment ni, macamana nak bagi tenants masuk. gila ke apa?

+ cabinet untuk bar tak siap lagi.
+ piping washing machine leaking.
+ aircond tak siap pasang.
+ toilet kotor.
+ a lot of other stuff that i'm not bothered to list down.





next time takleh caye sangat contractor ni. kita layan baik, dia amek kesempatan pulak. chiss..

suriamas: renovation update #2

latest update on our suriamas apartment:

dry kitchen cabinet is almost completed. the only thing left is the glass window to be installed. the table top is solid surface-type, different from the table top for wet kitchen cabinet, with is made from 2x2 tiles. fridge pun dah ready.



reno for wet kitchen completed dah. ada built in stove and double sink. other than that, a special platform for washing machine.

in the living room, the contractor paint the feature wall mellon-red as promised. cun jugak laa. so far we only installed the curtain (missus yang pilih ni..) and letak the sofa that we bought at ttdi.

that's all. nanti final update when all furniture is ready...