Now that we have shown our sincerity in buying the house by putting an earnest deposit (roughly 2-3% of the market value of the house) its time to call in the lawyers to seal the deal.

Lawyers

Either you love them or you hate. Then again they play a critical role in the transaction by ensuring that the rights of both parties ie you and the developer are protected.

There are a lot of lawyers in the market these days, both good and bad are available for hire. Certain developers do tend to make the buying process easier by providing a panel of lawyers for you to pick and choose.

My advice, get to know as much as you can from the lawyers in term of understanding your rights, the lawyers role and responsibility in the property purchasing process, and last but not least, the cost!!

However, don’t just be blinded by the cost, go for lawyers who are able to provide you with excellent service. Cause end of the day, its the service that counts.

 SnP (Sales and Purchase Agreement)

A legally binding agreement which is made between the buyer (you) and the seller (developer, owner etc). The agreement will document your purchase price, lot no, date (most important), your name, developers name and etc.

The document also spell out all the necessary terms and conditions as approved by Malaysian law. Honestly I havent seen one yet as I have yet to sign my SnP. However i was told that all Snp agreements are taken off a template that has been approved by the government.

 Taxes

A great man once said, “There’s 2 things thats certain in life, death and taxes”. Yupz, you have to pay taxes in order to buy a house. Thats the Malaysian Law and the taxes are called Stamp Duty.

In order to buy a house, you would have to pay a Stamp duty Tax on the SnP. This is actually the cost of transferring the land title of your house over to your name. Here’s how it is calculated

On the first $100,000 - 1%

On the next $100,000 to $ 4,900,000 - 0.7%

Note though that this is only payable to your lawyers in order to get the land title transferred to your name. In certain cases, you may save on this stampduty all together, but i am not gonna covered it here

The second tax that a buyer needs to pay is for the bank loan documents. Almost allnew and first time home buyers would have to pay for this unless of course, you’re buying you rnew home with cash.

The rates are as follows

0.5% of total loan amount.

This tax is payable upon signing the bank loan agreement.

 Hmmm other than that, there are a few more annual taxes that you’ll have to pay your local land authorities once you occupy your new home. We’ll cover that as we experience it.

Thats all for now… oh yah…never never pay your earnest deposit directly to the developer or the owner of the house that you plan to buy. Always go through a lawyer

Can you believe that we have been to the show house more than four times in 5 days?  

And it still looks fabulous! Wow, at least, I think the interior designer did a very good job in decorating the whole place. Especially the kitchen part *wink*. Even the empty show house beside it is looking more homely by the day

 Actually, I took some photos (shhh… don’t tell, keke) but I don’t have the privilege to post it here, in case the interior designer decides that his/her work is privileged stuff.

But, maybe I can feed some of your curiosity with this floor plan I took from the brochure.

Can see? Maybe you have to strain your eyes a bit. And put your imagination to overdrive. haha just kidding. :p

Just click on the picture thumbnail, and it will bring you to a bigger picture of the house floor plan. Then you can have a fun time exploring the house, imagining yourself in the house.

After many sleepless nights, tossing and turning in bed, with hundred and one things flying through my mind, finally the decision is made. I finally bought my first house! :D 

A double-storey semi-detached house in Juru, Butterworth, Penang. A good location I would say, if you look at the maps.

The maps below give the idea of the surroundings, the buildings and the amenities around that area. If you notice, it is very near the Juru toll of the North-South Highway.

Click on the picture thumbnails to get a bigger picture, unless of course you prefer to work your imaginative brain juices.

As you can see here, it is right smack in between the existing Penang bridge and the proposed Second Penang Bridge that the Malaysian government is building under the Ninth Malaysia Plan. The Second Penang Bridge will start construction on Nov 12, 2006.

These maps are taken from the brochure by the developer, who is also developing other types of houses such as two-storey bungalows, two-and-a-half-storey houses and three-storey semi-detached houses, on top of the two-storey semi-detached houses.

This google map below would give you a bird’s eye view of the development.

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Have a better idea of where the location is now? How about this?

If you are still wondering where is Penang Island, it is an island on the north west of Peninsula Malaysia. A tropical island with beautiful scenery and has the feel of a big city, just like Kuala Lumpur, minus the air pollution.

It comes complete with an international airport so if you are flying in from overseas, this is good news!

Our first Dream Home, wow!! I never really thought i could really afford one at such a young age, being barely in the workforce for 2 years now. Then again, nothing is impossible. Its only a matter of brain versus brawn.

We bought our first dream home on Weds the 11th of October 2006 to be exact, we paid our earnest deposit for our Dream Home measuring 33″*91″ on this date. Our Dream Home, a semi-D, has a built up area of 23″ by 50″ and comes with 4 bedrooms, 2 halls, 3 bathrooms, and a wet and a dry kitchen. Hmmm kinda big for a young couple like us but hey, i’ll love the extra space.

Price Tag?? Hmmm…. slightly above RM300k after a small discount from the developer. This is the third housing project from the developer.

The developer being a local, has developed two other projects, one being a housing estate consisiting only of bungalow lots. I guess this is not what you would call a solid track record. So lets hope everything works out to be fine.

Oh yah, this housing project is a based on a gated community concept. The entrance in and out of the housing estate will be watched by security guards. Now thats what i call security

Oh yah…. here’s how the house looks like…. the show house of course

 Let me know what you think

Oh great! Our personal blog is finally up! After many hours of trudging through the technicalities, the mystery is finally solved!

Putting the exhilaration aside, we would like to welcome you to our website, our personal blog, which will document the whole journey of buying our first home in Malaysia.

We want something to record down our whole experience, the things we learn along the way; be it the pitfalls, the benefits and even the emotional rollercoaster we had during the ride of buying our first home in Malaysia.

We want to share all these, with people out there who are like us, who are going through the same stage in life, facing the same process and we felt, we could learn a lot from each other.

Not forgetting too, those who have taken the ride, who care enough to share their experience too, for the benefit of everyone.

As for those who are not there yet, but thinking of buying their first home in Malaysia in the future, we hope, this blog will be their one-stop portal for everything they need to know, should know and must know about buying their first home in Malaysia.

Borrowing a quote:

Smart people learn from other’s mistakes;

Ordinary people learn from their own mistakes; and

Fools learn from nobody’s mistakes.

Sit back, relax, have a cup of coffee and have the ride of your life!