Rumah Lelong: Siapa Kata Rugi Kalau Beli Lebih Dari Harga Pasaran?

Aku sebenarnya baru berjinak di dalam pembelian rumah lelong dan aku banyak mengikuti beberapa blog yang banyak bercerita mengenai pengalaman mereka yang terlibat di dalam industri rumah lelong nie. Aku pun baru sekali jer beli rumah lelong nie dan alhamdullilah, rumah yang aku beli tue senang nak dapat penyewa dan mendatangkan positive cashflow untuk aku.

Biler bab nak beli rumah lelong nie, ramai yang berpendapat bahawa kalau kita nak beli rumah lelong nie, kita mesti beli rumah tue pada harga at least 10-20% below market value, otherwise tak berbaloi. Baik beli direct terus dari owner kalau nak beli ikut harga pasaran, at least kita dapat tengok condition rumah tue samada rumah tue berkondisi ok ke ataupun teruk. Aku ada terbaca kat blog faridzaswadi yang ada orang pernah bid rumah lelong low cost sampai melampau, hingga melebihi RM100k which is really ridiculous for rumah low cost. Itulah kalau emosi untuk menang dah menguasai diri hinggakan dah tak sedar objecktif utama nak beli rumah lelong nie.

Aku pun setuju bahawa better kiter tak payah masuk bid rumah lelong kalau beli pada harga above market value..memang tak berbaloilah. Lagi satu, biler bab financing nanti confirm bank akan tengok market value dulu before nak bagi loan,sebab bank bukannya bagi loan ikut kontrak lelong tue. Kalau harga tak munasabah, bank akan restrict loan tue sampai harga market value jer, which one is lower. So mahu tak mahu, the difference tue kita kena pakai duit sendiri la pulak.

Tapi ada satu artikel aku terbaca dalam The Star hari Sabtu lepas yang bercerita mengenai property auction. Ada satu property yang berjaya dibid pada harga melebihi market value tapi the successful bidder believe dia made the right decision sebab dia percaya pasaran kat area yang dia beli tue memang hot giler. Lagi satu aku percaya, yang dia nie memang banyak duit, so memang tak jadi masalahlah kalau nak bayar cash property tue kalau bank tak bagi loan pun.
Tapi property yang dia beli tue bukannya residential type tapi adalah sebuah kilang. So mungkin ada exception untuk kita beli hartanah kilang biarpun harga yang kita bid tue lebih dari harga pasaran. Tapi nasihat aku, janganlah beli kalau korang takde cash, takut-takut nanti loan tak lepas.

Aku post article The Star tue kat bawah nie.

Saturday September 18, 2010
Property auctions take on a new lease of life
By ANDREW LEE andrewlee@thestar.com.my

THE idea of an auction seems to be the creation of a market for goods that would otherwise not exist. For instance, antiques and second hand merchandise are rare goods that would be difficult to obtain without going through an auction.

In light of recent economic hardship, another segment appears to have entered the auction market in a relatively big way and that is property.

Property auctions are far from new, but they have taken on a new lease of life in the west since the credit crunch.
The Daily Telegraph reported that only 15,000 properties changed hands in the United Kingdom at auctions in 1998, but by 2007 the figure had more than doubled. This was just before the financial crisis hit its peak, when 45,000 repossessed homes flooded the UK property auction market in 2008.
Back home in Malaysia, acquiring properties through auctions seems to have become popular as well.
However, although the number of purchases have risen in recent years, Ehsan Auctioneers Sdn Bhd sales manager Mohd Ali Abdul Majis argues that this increase, unlike the trend in the west, is not related to the credit crunch.

“We have recorded a steady rise in the number of auction purchases in recent years. Business started picking up in 2007, and although there is an indirect link between the credit crunch and this increase, I would say that public awareness was the most important factor,” he says.
He cites the ease at which people can get details of auctions via the Internet as a major contribution to this awareness.
“As a result, investors nowadays are more willing to invest in different ways if it benefits them. It seems that they have associated good opportunities with property auctions,” he adds.
Good opportunities indeed. Most properties are auctioned off at 20% below their market value, with a reserve price of up to 50% below its market value, in some cases.
It is not difficult to take part in a property auction – all that is needed is a bank draft of between 5% - 10% (depending on the property and auctioneer) of the reserve price, as well as the ability to pay the difference of amount in cash if the final auction price moves up.
This, in addition to being over the age of 18 and having an identity card, and you are ready to take part in the bidding process.

However, many investors interested in purchasing property from an auction seem to be taken aback by how cheap the prices are and forget to do the most important thing – research the property itself.
“Most of our customers have done thorough research of the properties they are interested in before attending our auctions. However, there are a small number who neglect this, and get into all sorts of bother after the purchase,” says Mohd Ali.

Properties are sold on an ‘as is where is’ basis, which by law means that the purchaser is responsible for all handling, transport and insurance to remove goods from their current location. The buyer also assumes the risk that the goods might be defective or damaged.

“Once the buyer has paid down the full amount, he bears the brunt of all hidden costs and assumes responsibility over the property on an ‘as is where is’ basis, and it is his prerogative to sort things out,” he continues. A major problem exists if the property is being rented out by a previous tenant. One purchaser tells of how she ran into some trouble after a successful bid.

“I had previously driven to the unit I was interested in purchasing before the auction and took for granted that it was empty,” she says. It wasn’t. The tenant refused contact with me even after my successful purchase. I could not do anything as I had only paid the 5% deposit, so by law I was not in full ownership of the unit.
“Once I obtained my bank loan and signed the proclamation of sale with the auctioneer, I had to hire lawyers to remove the tenant. It cost me over RM16,000,” she continues. That figure did not include her share of property maintenance, agency fees and other legal fees, all of which amounted to just under RM60,000.
“I was lucky that my unit is in a strategic area so fingers crossed, I will manage to recoup these costs in the long term,” she hopes.

There are other stories about new owners resorting to cut electricity and water supply to force the stubborn tenants out – and rather more serious ones where the police had to be called in. The moral of the story? Do your homework.

Another matter of concern is the planting of schemers on behalf of parties with vested interests.
For instance, some wealthy syndicates might form collusions whereby they only bid against outsiders, i.e. those not inside their ‘ring’. This weakens competition and distorts the value of the property, which will be auctioned off, again among members of the ‘ring’ at a later time, with the members splitting the difference in price among themselves.
Other types of schemes involve syndicates paying off individual bidders to stay away from certain properties, ensuring that the remaining bidders will not have the financial muscle to challenge them. However, these problems are present in all types of auctions and are not restricted to property ones alone – so don’t let these issues deter you from making a purchase. It certainly didn’t deter one property agent from bidding up to, after fierce competition, a final raise of RM170,000 above market price for a factory in Kepong.
When asked about the rationale behind such perceived folly, he was in no doubt that he did the right thing.
“This practice (bidding above the market price) is commonplace. Although I paid RM800,000, which is more than I wanted to for this property, industrial property around the Kepong area is in very high demand.
“It is extremely difficult to obtain such property on the secondary market, and we still stand to benefit from capital appreciation in the future,” he explains.
Despite the recent increase in transactions, Mohd Ali concedes that the property auction market in Malaysia is still not as developed as those in the west.
“There is a lack of high-end property in the auction market in Malaysia at the moment. This is because auctions in Malaysia only deal with forced sales, whereby banks repossess property due to non-performing loans. The banks then look for auctioneers to help them sell these properties, and we then market them in auctions,” he adds, hoping that in the future, Malaysia’s property auctions can provide a complimentary market to that of the secondary.