Speaking at Investors Expo 2010

As I mentioned earlier, I was invited as a speaker at Malaysia Investors Expo 2010 on 18th of July 2010 to talk about 'Beyond the Handshake : How to Invest in Real Estate with a Partner'. The 2-days event was a successful that some seminar rooms were so full that there was only standing-room only situation. Mine was moderately attended though there are still some people who had to stand. After the talk, I had to attend to around 5 more inquiries from attendees who wanted personal attention to their problems on real estate, company law and banking.

Here are some pictures from that day :

More pictures can be seen here in my Facebook page.

Investor Expo 2010 : How to Invest in Real Estate with a Partner

I am invited to give a talk thanks to an old friend who is currently working in Bursa Malaysia. The best thing about it, as I have lost touch with her, she finds out that I have written a book through social media. Either it was my Facebook fanpage or my web presence through my blogs, my non-stop tweets or the occasional Foursquare check-in, I was not sure but she did say it was through the web. Isn't seocial media wonderful?

So, here is my event. I am to give a talk about 'Beyond the Handshake : How to Invest in Real Estate with a Partner'. It will be held at Investor Expo 2010, an event organised by a private company called Share Investor and MIRA but is supported by so many public institutions in Malaysia like the Malaysia stock market : Bursa Malaysia; Malaysia's Central Bank : Bank Negara Malaysia and Employee Provident Fund of Malaysia (EPF) among others. My session will be between 12.30 to 1pm on Sunday. The whole schedule and information can be found at Investor Expo 2010 website. It will be at Exhibition Hall 5, Ground Level of KL Convention Centre. Do come if you have the time either to hear me talk or some other people talk like Mr. Martin Wong whose blog I always follow and taken tips from. He is an author and a blogger but he also trains people to invest in stock market smartly. Here is his blog : Traders Truth Reveals.

The topic which I am to present is not really something which I cover in my book but something which I have gone through with a few people among them my wife and my business partner(s). In fact in one property investment, I made nearly a RM200,000 from the buying and selling a high-end property which I only held for more than 1 year. I was interviewed by a local magazine called Personal Money on the same topic and that will be my starting point.

It is a FREE event but you can always RSVP in my Facebook event page here : Beyond the Handshake invite. The partner and associates from my firm will be there too so anyone with questions can ask them too. Even something outside the topic

Interviewed for Personal Money July issue

For 2 months in a row, I have appeared in Personal Money, a financial magazine for those who want to be informed about how to be financially independent. Last month, in June 2010, my book '40 Questions You Should Ask Your Lawyer Before Buying a Residential Property in Malaysia' was reviewed.

As that was it first review done by a financial reporter, I was quite nervous when Siew-May Lim (the reporter) came to my office and interviewed me. The interview was about what advice would I have about the issue of 'Legalities of Buying Property in Malaysia'. When it came out, I was relieved when she said my book is great as a basic book about legal matters when buying a property. Read my take on that review here.

As for the July issue, which you can see the cover below, I was interviewed, through e-mails (a first for me), under the title 'Co-owning Property : Dos and Don't'. I was first told that it would be about my experience in co-owning properties with other investors, but I think it was changed to a panel discussion (as if we were interviewed together) on how to co-own property with enough coverage to ensure that the sharing of property either for those where we live in or for investment wouldn't be impeding our ability to enjoy the property.

Basically, I am all for it as long as you can find the right partner.  The benefit of sharing the capital expenditures, the maintenance and the cost of marketing or looking for tenant(s) and/or buyer(s) can be a plus points. The best way to ensure these matters are shared equally, agreements stating these terms need to be entered into. Equal sharing can be between two people or even a few people. A panellist in the discussion said that he believed you can also do a better arrangement by incorporating a company though the cost may be higher as you need to pay the cost of maintaining the company. As for financing the purchase, with a partner, you may get the advantage of setting of each other shortcoming financially but you may also some problem in encountering bankers who are unwilling to finance purchase by unrelated parties.

In my experience in sharing the purchase and the maintenance of property with partner(s), whom are not my spouse (which is another matter altogether), I can say that the success lies in the understanding of the exit strategy for the investment. As we were using other sources for the purchase, the cost and the profit from the sale became the point of contention which we finally managed to settle amicably. It is not an easy option but my reason for entering such arrangement is due to the fact that risk should always be spread around that be burdened on one party. As some would say, Sharing is Caring (either the risk or the profit).

BFM Radio : The Business Station podcast

The place where the podcast was recorded

Last month, I was interviewed by BFM Radio for a segment called The Property Show where I answered about what happened to quit rent when you sell your house. I didn't realised that they kept a podcast of the session until I went to an event where BFM Radio was telling everyone about their popular podcast which people are always downloading. 

So, I searched their website and I found it. BFMRadio is well known in social media and the BFM stands for Business FM and around town they advertised themselves as Be Fast Macha or Bribe Free Malaysia to make them interesting.

So, here is the podcast which some say makes my voice sounds like Mickey Mouse (need to work on my macho voice more). The podcast was titled :

"The Property Show on 12th June 2010. Lawyer, Khairul Anuar Shaharudin answers to queries on what happens to quit rent when you sell your home."

Here, listen for yourself :