House number 4~! Taman Melati, Setapak.

By mid 1991, finally, the new corner unit of town house we bought in Taman Melati were ready. We paid RM150k for two units, the upper and lower level units. Each one came with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. There was also a 20 feet of extra land, and an open field at the back.

The developer, SPPK, even paid us a rebate for late delivery. Enough money for us to pay for a swing, the fencing and a rather nice gate.

One of the flaws in the construction of the house was the absence of concrete wall to the roof. This meant that above the ceiling, there was no barrier between units. Due to this, intruders can walk from one end of the row of houses to the other end by stepping over the beams above the ceiling. Our house was once broken into by one of such intruders!

This was the start of our property investment; chasing a vision of one child one house. Our belief then was to invest in properties as a way to hedge against inflation and to cash in when we need the money for our children's education.**We discovered later that selling a house can be very time consuming!  It can take for as long as one year before a sales can be finalised and all payments can be received in full.**

We lived in the lower unit and rented out the upper unit for a cool RM620.00 per month, sufficient to pay the monthly mortgage.

Like most new home owner, we enthusiastically worked on land scaping the extra 20 feet land. We made a few trips to the Sungai Buloh nursery, bought a few plants, amongst them a cashew, a 'belimbing buluh', a couple of coconut trees, and a rambutan tree too. The cashew tree which was planted just outside our fence was very popular amongst the neighbors who helped themselves to the 'pucuk Gajus'. The belimbing buluh and rambutan trees bore fruits generously.

Our neighbors were great! Right opposite was a family with whom we have been friends up to this day.

Our tenants were also very good. Rental was paid on time, and there were also the occasional exchange of dishes.

We felt settled. That feeling contributed to Lil's maternal instint, she became pregnant for our fourth child. Amirul Fikri was born in Jan of 1993, and a mango tree was  planted to commemorate the day. The mango however, refused to bear fruit!

In later part of 1993 we bought our next house - a bungalow in Taman Setia. At that point we rented both units of the town house, and for the first time, we started to earn passive income. There was a total of net positive cash flow of about RM500.00 from both units. Although it was not much, we were already practicing what was later preached by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki through their book, ' Why We Want You to be Rich' .

During this period too, we made an investment which went bad. We lost lots of money~! I will more about this later. Perhaps, we should have waited until we have fully understood what Trump and Kiyosaki have written!

Our Taman Melati town house, at the intersection of road Taman Melati 5 and road Taman Melati 6, backing to the open field.

Two LRT stations were later built within walking distance from our house, which escalated the value of the properties. 

We have since, sold both units. All the proceeds were re-invested into buying other properties.