It pays to do your homework

Rule No 1 when buying a property on the secondary market; inspect the real estate more than once, especially if you intend to stay there.

Buying a home is a once-in-a-lifetime event for many of us; so one needs to avoid at all costs any potential pitfalls in the process.

It is advisable to check on the prospective property at varying times of the day, and on different days of the week. If this is not possible, try to make at least two trips to the building – once during the broad daylight and another at night.

This is necessary because what may seem like a dream buy in the dancing shadows of chandeliers could potentially be your nightmare of an investment. It is no rocket science that faults in a building and their tell-tale signs are easily missed at night.

Then why bother to make the trip at night, you might ask. If you are going to live there, be it a landed property or a condominium, you need information such as whether parking is an issue if you are a car owner. This question is best answered in the evenings when most residents in the locale are home from work.

It is important to visit the property during the peak hours – you must know how long it will take you to just get out of the neighbourhood in the mornings when every other motorist is also in a terrible hurry on the roads. If relocating to this new address means you will have to cut short your sleep by an hour on workdays, are you physically and mentally prepared for such a prospect?

Remember the super property boom days when city folks in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor rushed to put their money on properties mushrooming in suburban areas such as Rawang, north of Kuala Lumpur? So convincing was the Rawang hype that one of my friends sold her 2-storey terraced house located in the sought-after Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) home in Kuala Lumpur in exchange for a spacious bungalow there. Her family moved to the sprawling and spanking new property in Rawang but unfortunately, the sense of euphoria of living in a huge bungalow did not last long as the daily KL-Rawang commute proved quickly to be unbearable. It did not take long for the family to move back to TTDI, even though it meant renting a house.

It pays to do your homework about a property – never take for granted what your realtor has to say. While most realtors are knowledgeable and professional, there will always be the black sheep of the industry.

Find out more by chatting with residents in the neighbourhood – though this task may be a tad daunting these days what with the crime situation. Still, what do you have to lose? Do not underestimate what invaluable information you could unearth about your prospective investment.

Some time ago, a real estate agent introduced a friend of mine to what seemed to be a fantastic buy located in a traditional but upper crust address in Kuala Lumpur. My excited friend visited the bungalow only to be greeted by a totally unkempt building amidst very healthy looking weeds. The sight of the property, to say the least, was pretty scary – even ghostly looking!

My friend, being the astute investor that he is, was not deterred. He talked to residents in the area and was convinced there was no negative story to the property; stories such as those that will hamper any capital appreciation on the property. He bought, renovated and sold the property for a tidy profit.

In short, never allow yourself to be bowled over by any prospective property buy, no matter how terrific it may appear. Do your homework, and do it fast or someone might just beat you to a great buy.

Au Foong Yee is editor of theedgeproperty.com and City & Country, the property pullout of The Edge Malaysia weekly.