Guide to the Process of Selling a House in Malaysia

Want to sell your real estate at the best price and in the shortest time, but don’t know how to proceed? The process of selling a house may sound cumbersome, but as long as you break down the process into a few simple steps, you will find that selling a house is actually not that complicated. This is the purpose of this article: to provide you with a simple and easy-to-understand complete guide by combing through the procedures for selling houses in Malaysia! Whether it is looking for a suitable property agent to help you sell your house, or what you need to pay attention to when signing a Letter of Offer with a buyer, this article can answer your doubts.

1. Investigate the market price before setting the selling price of the house

The first step in the process of selling a house in Malaysia is to determine its current value before you sell it. Therefore, you can investigate the current prices of other similar real estate. If you want to get a more accurate grasp of the value of your house, you can ask a professional real estate agent, or find an appraiser (valuer) to appraise your house. This step is very important because it can help you find a reasonable selling price for the house, thereby increasing the chances of a successful sale of the real estate.

What I want to remind you here is that most banks will only provide up to 90% of the house’s appraisal for housing loans, not 90% of the agreed price between the buyer and the seller! In other words, if you set the selling price of the house higher than the market price, then the buyer may not be able to borrow 90% of the loan from the bank, so you must give a higher down payment to buy your house.

For example: Suppose your house is estimated at RM100,000, and the bank can provide up to 90% of the total mortgage loan based on this estimate, or RM90,000. Therefore, the down payment that the buyer needs to pay is 10% of the estimated price, which is RM10,000. However, if you do not conduct an appraisal and then offer a high price of RM160,000, the down payment required by the buyer at this time will become RM70,000, because the bank can only provide a loan of RM90,000 at most. Therefore, even if buyers can afford it, they are likely to abandon the purchase and look for other cheaper options.

Therefore, after the valuation of your house is completed, you can go to the market to investigate in person to find a reasonable and satisfactory selling price.

2. Ask a real estate agent (property agent) for help

If you want to sell the house at the best price in the shortest time, you’d better find a professional real estate agent for help. They have received professional training and are familiar with the entire real estate buying and selling process, so they can quickly help you find a suitable buyer and help you get the best price.

However, you have to make sure that they have registered with the Malaysian Real Estate Appraiser, Valuer, Real Estate Agency and Property Authority (LPPEH) and are a legal property agent. In addition, you should have heard of the names “Real Estate Agent” (REA) and “Real Estate Negotiator” (REN). The difference between the two is that REN can only work full-time with an LPPeh-certified real estate agency, and cannot take jobs privately, and cannot work for many companies at the same time. The REA is a professional property agent that has been fully certified and registered by LPPeh. They can open their own real estate agency, and each REA can employ up to 30 RENs to work for themselves. Before REA was fully certified by LPPEH, they had completed a complete set of professional academic training and worked under the guidance of another REA for at least two years.

When meeting with a real estate agent, don’t be too nervous, ask him as many questions as possible, such as which properties he has successfully sold recently, and even ask him if he can contact his past clients and ask them what they think of this property agent.

3. Hiring a lawyer to handle the legal procedures related to the sale of the house

The procedure of selling houses in Malaysia also involves many legal procedures, especially in the transfer of property rights of real estate, which requires coordination and communication with several different government departments. Therefore, we recommend that you hire a lawyer from the beginning to ensure that you can obtain professional help and guidance when drafting relevant legal documents. And when you encounter any legal problems or questions, your lawyer can help you solve them in time.

4. Decorate your house

When you want to sell your real estate, you should tidy up the house a bit, so as to increase its attractiveness in the minds of buyers. The first impression is very important. Buyers will not spend too much time looking at the house, so you should try to give them the best impression of the house in the shortest possible time. You can ask your real estate agent to help check the house, and let them use a professional and neutral vision to help you find out what needs to be noticed and improved in the house. Moreover, the real estate agent has rich experience and can know exactly where to check. If your house is dirty and messy, it will somewhat discourage buyers. And they will negotiate with you based on the current condition of the house, rather than the condition of the house after renovation in the future.

Therefore, remember to tidy up your houses and put new paint on them to make them look like new. If your house has a garden or lawn, remember to weed and clean up all the trash. Also fix any defective or broken things, such as water pipes, creaky doors, or protruding tiles.

5. Advertise your real estate

If you want more people to know that you are selling your real estate, the best way is to advertise. This is also one of the indispensable links in the process of selling a house in Malaysia.

The most important thing for advertising is photos and videos, so you should spend a little time shooting for the house. You can use a high-quality camera or a mobile phone with powerful video recording capabilities when taking pictures and videos, and open the windows to let the house have plenty of light, so that the pictures you take will be good to see. Of course, you can also spend money to hire a professional photographer to do it for you. With these exquisite materials, your property agent can start to put these photos and videos on different platforms to help you advertise. In addition, you can also use your own social media and ask friends or family to help promote, sometimes this way of word of mouth is more effective!

6. Preparing for the buyer to view the house

When buyers are interested in your real estate, they will definitely ask to visit the house, which is another indispensable procedure for selling a house. Before arranging them to see the house, you should clean up the house and open the windows to allow natural light and fresh air from the outdoors to enter the room as much as possible to create a comfortable and bright environment. Remember: the first impression is very important! In the process of viewing the house, you should also allow buyers to explore and view the house freely, and try not to disturb them too much. Try to establish a good relationship and first impression with the buyer, so as to increase the success rate, but don’t be too enthusiastic, it will often backfire.

7. Negotiation and bargaining with buyers

If you have found a buyer who really wants to buy, then congratulations! Now, you can start negotiating the selling price of the house. The negotiation process generally depends on several factors, including your asking price, current real estate market conditions, and whether you are eager to sell your house. When you are negotiating with buyers, you can set a bargaining space in your mind. Assuming you plan to sell a house at RM600,000, you can set the selling price at RM630,000 so that you can have room for negotiation of RM30,000. Real estate agents can provide you with valuable advice in this regard and help you reach an agreement with the buyer.

8. Prepare Letter of Offer

Once you reach an agreement with the buyer, both parties must sign a Letter of Offer at this time. When drafting this Letter of Offer, the real estate agency will require the buyer to pay an earnest deposit, which is usually 2% to 3% of the house price.

The Letter of Offer should contain the following information:

* Name of buyer and seller

* Legal address of the real estate

* Real estate transaction price agreed by both parties

* Deposit

* Any items in the room, such as furniture and accessories

* Time limit for signing the real estate sale and purchase agreement

9. Prepare and sign the Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA)

After the buyer signs the Letter of Offer, your lawyer will begin preparing the legal documents for the sale, including the sale and purchase agreement. After the buyer signs the sale and purchase agreement, they must pay a down payment equal to 10% of the house price. Then, as the seller, you will receive the relevant documents, and then you must ask the lawyer to take these documents to the relevant government department for stamping, and you must complete this operation within 14 days after receiving the Letter of Offer. As for the remaining 90%, the buyer must pay within three months after the Sale and Purchase Agreement is signed and stamped. However, depending on the terms of the contract, the type of real estate and the type of buyer, the time of this process may vary.

10. Execution of transactions and transfer of property rights of the house

After all payment procedures and documents have been signed, your real estate can be deemed to have been successfully sold, and the ownership of the house has been transferred to the buyer. At this time, you may have to pay Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT)

As you can see, the process of selling a house in Malaysia can actually be broken down into 10 simple steps without any complexity at all!

Originally published at https://www.tlw.com.