Financial Talk

Owning your dream house or selling your property to reap huge profit is a wonderful experience but are you famililiar with your rights as the buyer or seller of properties especially from the secondary market? Secondary market means  buying from an existing owner. It is important to learn on the legalities of buying and selling to fully understand the rights of an investor to maximise the profit.

Things that you need to do when buying your secondary property :

1) Conduct search of the property title to ensure that the seller is the legal owner.

2) Consult the lawyer from the beginning and not after you have paid the deposit or signing the S&P.

3) Get details  on the property, the deadline for the payment, the penaltty for non payment, and the rules of termination if you fail to secure your loans from the bank.

4) The sales process will be deemed complete after the full amount is paid by the bank if you are taking loans. If you failed to get your loan approved, the 10% deposit will be forfeited and the agreement will be terminated.

5) If the seller promises you the furnitures or fittings, make sure it is included in the contract as you may take legal actions on the seller if the items are missing.

6) Upon full payment of purchase price, you can start with your renovation work or rent it out to other people.

7) Taking loans from the bank prevents you to sell your property immediately at least for the period of 6months. Flipping your property quickly could only happens if it is a cash transaction.

Things that you should know if you are the seller:

1) Avoid handing over the keys after signing S&P and receiving 10% deposit. If it is unavoidable, come up with a tenancy agreement until the title is handed over to the buyer.

2) Do not just leave everything to the buyer’s lawyer, watch out for the terms and condition.

3) If your property is a hot item, you can state your wish to release to the other buyer if money is not released withing the promised time frame.

4) Take note on when you would be free from paying your installments and other bills.

The high court rule that the  maximum to be charged on the credit card holder who has lost his credit card is RM200. In  early June, the lawyer told Malaysian Insider that Diana Chee Vun Hsia has reported the lost of the credit card a day after theft that has happened to her to the bank. Citibank informed her that RM1851 has been charged to the credit before the lost report, therefore she has to be responsible for the payment as she did not report the incident within an hour.

The high court ruled that according to Bank Negara guidelines, the maximum that credit card companies can charge a card holder is RM200, regardless of any company policy. Justice Datuk Mohamed Apandi Ali said the Bank Negara guidelines have the force of law.

Over spending ! Credit card debts ! Not enough for my car loan, my house loan, my insurance premium, my parents, my rental, utilities,……

For girls, we have to look good all the time. Make ups, designer handbags, facials, fragrance, heels, clothes, and accessories, these are life and death favorite a lady would truely understand.

For gentlemen, they have to look 101% good too. Manicure, pedicure, hair styling, and facials are not the ladies’ item now. They spend on cars, watches, body building, holidays, we call it lifetyle.

We all need to shop, it;s irresistible, it’s important, it’s genetic, and before we realise it, we are already broke. There are reason for all these, the culprit is the dopamine. A chemical from the brain that trigger plessure in us. We always claimed that spending make us feel happy, it’s no longer true. The fact is that the process of shopping itself that trigger the release of dopamine.

In this financial crisis, it is important not to shop with your heart. I personally feel that there are few incidents that will encourage us spending more. No harm spending more for the necessity, but what i’m emphasizing here is spending excessively on something which we don’t need at all.

** Try to plan before shopping especially in new places as it is always more thrilling exploring new places. That is why we tend to spend more in new outlets and while travelling.

** Believe it or not  ?   We will tend to spend more if we shop with a friend as peers can increase the urge to purchase. We are encourage to form better image with the presence of other people, thus, we are willing to pay more for the satisfaction.

** The longer i wonder in the mall, the more things we will end up buying. Sometimes, we buy something of no use at all just because it’s weird to go home empty handed.

** This sound ridiculous but it’s always true. The more we interact with the sales person, the higher chances that we will end up buying something.

** Once using it, we’ll be hooked. Research indicates that we are more likely to purchase that particular thing after trying it. That is why sampling is such a common practice.

Shopping is really exciting but paying the credit bills later can be devastating. Convince ourselves with rational reasons of buying and buy understanding how our brain works as well as how marketers make use of this little secret, can help us to avoid over spending.