Allow me to powder your nose
So let's say you've got your home. Already. The next step would be to do renovation and repair work, if needed. Assuming that you've already scoped the place out; checking for damages and parts that need to be replaced/repaired. Again, pay attention to slopes, walls, and ceilings for cracks or missing pieces as well as water leakage.
Image by www.lumaxart.com
God knows what will happen when it rains.
Once you've put on make up for your unit, you need to look for prospects.
Come hither
A lot of people prefer to do it the old-school way which is to hang a card saying 'room for rent' and their phone number at the bottom. Still very useful. If your prospects happen to pass by.
Image by www.lumaxart.com
I'm sure lots of landlords/ladies are not stupid either. They would also make use of agents, word-of-mouth, and the Internet to get their message across to prospective tenants.
Image by www.lumaxart.com
You've got the Classifieds, i-Property, Mudah.my, Cari.com.my, and other forums that cater to the property market.
Recently, I came to know about another website, Caribilik.my, which is new to me, that functions fairly similar to the other sites mentioned above.
*dessert break*
*OMG. My cupcakes failed*
Image by Caribilik.com
They claim to be "Malaysia's largest and No.1 Room For Rent / Room To Let website, with over 20,000 rooms for rent posted online" (Caribilik.com, 2009). I was cynical at first because I was thinking, how can they claim to be 'Malaysia's largest' and 'No. 1' site when I've never heard of it!?
Perhaps it's possible la. If it's the largest, wouldn't it make sense that it is No.1 because it's used so often? Mmm. *nods*
Screened-shot from Caribilik.my
It reminds me a little of Wordpress. Must be the blue and black colours and the clean, simple layout. It's got two tabs (Home & Rooms) at the top and a sidebar on the left. It's main content column is on the right.
The first thing I do when I come to a new website is to look at it's About page or FAQ section. Nada. Not nice lo I feel. Makes it lack the credibility and professionalism. Sorta.
Also, its claim of having over 20k postings is inclusive of people who are looking for places for rent. As a tenant, it's clutter. I don't want to waste my time going through results that isn't useful to me. But as an owner, it's heaven. You learn about what people are looking for. They also include results that have been withdrawn. They really need to do something about that.
My favourite part of the whole site is one of its two search mechanisms: keyword-based and location-based. Keyword, pretty straightforward la. Like Google; it's all in the keywords you use. I find it very difficult, personally, because I'm not sure what keywords are/to use(d).
Location-based is much easier. Just click which state you'd like to browse on the left sidebar, and there'll be more specific locations within that state for you to choose from to narrow down your results. Awesome.
Eeny meeny miny moe
Now that you know where to attract tenants, you need to know how to choose and treat your tenants.
Image by www.lumaxart.com
But I'm not going to talk about that. Because I'm not a landlady yet, hence, no experience. Very subjective wan la, I think. You can't place certain attributes to mark a person as a model tenant ma. Just be wise and make sure you ask questions about their job and their family, who is moving in, that kinda thing.
As for how to treat your tenants, nice and friendly lo. Don't be si beh strict la. You also won't like wert. You cannot be too timid either and get climbed all over.
Here. Read up.
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