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Learn About Landlording With These Great Tips, BlueDuck's Way

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It takes special know-how to be a successful landlord, and with the tips below, you can be one yourself.

1. Manage Expectations on Rent from Tenants 

Since your rental income is the whole reason you do what you do (landlord), collecting it on time every month should be the priority. If the rent is due on the first of every month, each tenant should be paid by the first of each month – no excuses. Always manage expectations with your tenant and the rent arrangement. How will the rent be paid, by when a landlord should’ve received the rent, etc. It will always be good to include a clause on late rent payments! This is to protect your interest as a landlord a develop a mutual understanding of the rental arrangement.   

2. Learn Everything You Can And Know Your Rights

Landlording requires more than just collecting the rent once a month. Know your obligations and rights through news & articles about the property, building management, taxes, and insurance coverage. Psst, remember to maintain relationships with your tenant & property management team too! The more you know, the better equipped you are to tackle tricky situations, if there are.

3. Make Appropriate Renovations & keep it in a good hand

Landlords have a duty to maintain the overall structure and exterior of the property, make sure the property’s covered with the necessary insurance, as well as resolve any issues related to utilities (gas, water, electricity). In the event that any of the appliances break down or the furniture requires care, the landlord should be responsible for it – unless the items were blatantly spoiled by the tenant. Repairs should be carried out on malfunctioning appliances fast, so as to not inconvenience the tenant.

4. Get an Agent to assist you

As an investor and landlord, you probably look for every way possible to save money. This might include getting your property rented out early to avoid forking out cash from your pocket to finance the installment. An agent will help to rent out your property faster based on their networking and how they promote social media and listing platforms like PropertyGuru and many more.

5. Keep Organized

One of the keys to any successful business is organization. This holds especially true for landlords. With that, you need software or a proper place to keep up your tenancy and property-related documents! Fully utilize your BlueDuck landlord portal today. All you need to do is only to register an account and use it for free. You can keep all your forms, receipts, or even insurance certificates in the portal. Easy access anywhere, any time! 

So, how do you keep good tenants? By having clear communication and managing expectations with your tenant, honoring the agreement with mutual respect.  Through managing expectations, you can easily avoid the costs and headaches of unnecessary tenant turnover. By having mutual respect  and attending to relevant property maintenance needs, you can hold onto those dream tenants for years to come

If you’re still looking for ways to rent out your property faster, check out our BlueDuck Zero Deposit, covering both residential and commercial properties! 


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Worried If You Missed Your Monthly Rental? Read This.

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Sometimes when back in the old days when you rent a house and you pay the monthly rental via cash, or online transfer, some are using Cash Deposit Machine. I can say the method nowadays can be improved or the right word, have a better way to tackle that traditional method.

The good thing about when you purchase a Zero Deposit Package with BlueDuck is it not only save your cash flow and secure your deposit, another good value that tenants have is the BD Pay Eg; the last time tenant can only pay with cash, and they may forget. Now they have options to do direct debit and pay using a credit card.BD Pay is a payment gateway with the intention of simplifying complex payment structures, and digitizing collection, which means you don't need to make payments outside the ecosystem, just use BD Pay for your monthly rental and it will save all the records and time and it will benefit you as tenants in terms of timing and traditional payment process. The most convenient and seamless experience for your monthly payment is to sign up with recurring payments. 

What is a recurring payment?

Recurring payment with BD pay means you just sign up for Direct Debit as one-time authorization, your monthly rental will auto deduct from your FPX/Credit Card. So you don't need to repeat the same way every month. Here are the steps for tenants to automate their monthly rental with BD Pay;


The benefit of recurring Payment


Seamless experience

Enhance a positive user experience by reducing the friction that occurs with repeated manual payments and delays, but it also ensures rental income is for landlords.


Reduce Late Payments & Collection Time

Late payments are detrimental to the cash flow for Landlords, as they affect both tenants' and landlords' relationships. With recurring payments, you can set up the system once, and rest assured that your pay rent, based on a predefined schedule by BD Pay. With easy direct debit from your online banking, Debit card, and also Credit card with your convenience. Your rental commitment will spend less time chasing down payments and having awkward conversations about late payments.


Minimize Effort

Automated recurring payments cut down the cost and effort associated with manual payments like receipt safekeeping and payment processing. All you need to do is establish the original payment plan once, and then the software handles payment processing for you. Your intervention will be required only when changes need to be made to the payment type or amount charged.


Key Takeaways

The recurring payment system is convenient for both tenants and landlords. Not only does it enhance a positive experience by reducing the friction that occurs with repeated manual payments and delays, but it also ensures a stable cash flow for the landlords and rental commitment from tenants.


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Your Tenant runaway? Keep Calm & Read This

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If you suspect that your renter has disappeared and has no intention of returning to the rental property, In most cases, landlords deal with tenant abandonment due to a choice made by the tenant to leave the property without formally informing the landlord. If this is the case, Don't worry landlords, BlueDuck got you covered, that's the benefit of Landlords subscribing to Zero Deposit, Follow these steps to establish abandonment and re-lease the property.

 3 Events Can Be Claim  

1. Unpaid Rental 

Your tenant runs away without formally informing the agent /Landlord, Insurance gonna cover the unpaid rental for up to 2 months.

    2. Utility bills

Tenants run away without paying the Utility Bills, You can claim up to RM1500 based on the limit of the selected package  Kindly refer to the table below.

    3. Malicious damage

Malicious damage to property means the intentional, wrongful, or deliberately harmful infliction of substantial destruction, defacing, damaging, impairment, or removal of any part of the premises by the tenant, a member of his household, or his guest without just cause, excuse, or legal justification. Damage that was purposely done by the tenant. Examples like damaging the TV, sofa, or dining table, ripping off the sofa, or any act of vandalism. You can claim up to the sum assured of the selected package.

Here is an example of choosing Zero Deposit Package; Your rental is RM2,000 per month,  2.5months deposit it’s RM5,000 + advance RM2,000 total of RM7,000. 


3 Simple Steps When Tenant Runaway

1. Make a police report
If in the event that the tenant is not reachable, please proceed to make a police report within 24 hours and email claim@blueduck.my.

 2. Submit related documents to claim@blueduck.my
You shall submit us a police report, outstanding bills (if any), and photos of the unit if there are malicious damages. If there’s a need for extra supporting documents, we’ll get in touch with you via your registered email.
Please submit documents to claim@blueduck.my as soon as possible for the claim to be processed. In most cases, BlueDuck liaises with agents on the claim issues. However, some landlords do not mind being involved. If so, do let BlueDuck know, so that all parties can work on this matter consistently.

3. Claim timeline
It takes about 15-21 working days once all documents are complete. You can always follow up with BlueDuck to check on the status of the claim via email at claim@blueduck.my.

Summary
The most important quality of a good tenant is honesty. Landlords must have clear communication with tenants and manage expectations from the beginning. In most scenarios tenant are responsible for informing the landlord of their situation in the event tenant wish to terminate the contract landlord has the right to negotiate with tenants for compensation without claiming insurance so the landlord does not have to wait for insurance claim payout and the tenant’s name remain clean in CTOS.


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BlueDuck X Rumah-i, Modern Way To Find Your New Place To Stay? Lets find out

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Well hello, BlueDuck awesome blog readers  It’s September, a brand new month, and we’ve brand new partnerships to announce. For those who’ve been with BlueDuck for a while, know that we're 100% for leveraging strength with our partners. We are proud to announce our new partnership with Rumah -i, a property management company in Klang Valley.

Rumah-i - The Prominent Rental Services Company

 

Rumah-i's vision is to be the best forward-thinking provider of property management services in the market, giving clients and end-users the highest level of service at all times.

 

Their experienced team has had a strong background in the property industry since 2014. Thus, Rumah- i provide professional and effective strategies to improve property value and maximize potential. With this partnership, renters can browse on Rumah- i listing page, and choose the property they wish to rent, maybe it is rooms or whole units with Zero Deposit as their preferred package. 

 

 

BlueDuck x Rumah-i

With this strategic collaboration, BlueDuck will support Rumah-i with our Zero Deposit solution - which means any new tenant to be onboard will have zero deposit benefit as their preferred deposit solution. Due to a hard time with the world economy not in a good condition, many are still in recovery mode for businesses to pick up. Most people would rather save for rainy days than spend as a rental deposit which limits their freedom in spending on things that are more urgent.

 

A simple illustration was found on Rumah-i’s website as a show of the differentiator in using Zero Deposit way to rent a house which shows savings of up to 80% upfront.



With this collaboration with Rumah-i, renters can now search your desired properties from Rumah-i, and for landlords that wish to have Rumah-i to help out on property management, I believe this is for you.


How to reach out to Rumah-i?

Check out https://rent.rumah-i.com/   to find out more. We strongly believe this partnership will bring the rental industry to a higher level of convenience and user experience.  Honestly, all we wish is for renters to say bye-bye to the rental deposits.

We have a few more partnerships lined up with different solution providers in the market. We just can't wait to share with you more. Let's together revolutionize the rental market in Malaysia."

Yes, together.

For more visit www.blueduck.my

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Being a landlord is not easy as you’ll never know who you’re renting to

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Two days ago an ex colleague of mine sent me a worldofbuzz.com article about a Malaysian couple leaving an ipoh rental room in horrifically dirty condition and skipping out on debt. You can read that article here. I agree with the article which starts off by saying that being a landlord is not easy as you’ll never know if you’re renting to honest and consistent tenants or ones from hell. I don’t want to comment about the particular tenant mentioned in the article as I believe that they probably have their reasons why they would leave the place in a mess and run away owing unpaid rental and other monies but it brings me to this point. 


No doubt, renting out your property to tenants helps you pay for the monthly installment of your rental property. I believe that with the surplus of properties for rent nowadays, the majority of rent monies received can’t give you a positive cashflow after paying off the mortgage of your property (maybe only in certain cases but not in the majority of cases). However, in today’s rental market, being able to cover at least half your monthly installment is considered good enough, and with capital appreciation over 10-20 years, you may be able to recover your losses if you refinance the property or sell it off for a profit. 


If you didn’t know yet, BlueDuck offers a solution for landlords to screen tenants to see what kind of people they are dealing with. Our service ties in to the CTOS system and landlords get to see financial information on the prospective tenants they are considering renting out their units to. You can know what kind of CTOS score this person has, whether they have any special attention account, whether they are blacklisted and more. Because when a tenant wants to sign up for a zero deposit package, they are required to purchase this Tenant Profile first as a first requirement in order to be eligible to rent a property with zero deposit. 


The next question you may ask is, why would I want to rent out my property without collecting any security or utilities deposit? Have I gone mad? Well for one, having the tenant’s security and utilities deposit on hand and getting paid back the same amount by the insurance company that provides the zero deposit coverage is the same thing. You still get back the money in the end. Sometimes, the utilities deposit collected isn’t even enough to cover the unpaid utility bills by a runaway tenant. Let’s say for a RM1500 per month rental, you collected RM750 for the utility bills but when you received the bill, it showed RM1000! You still need to pay another RM250 out of pocket. Personally I have seen a RM4800 TNB bill for one of the rental properties I rented out for a landlord before. The tenant used 3 aircons everyday and didn’t bother to pay the bill for months. The funny thing was TNB didn’t cut the electricity even though the bill raked up till that amount. I guess the tenant was smart enough to make payments in small amounts and negotiated with TNB to not cut the electricity until the bill became so high. 


Taking a security deposit vs renting out with zero deposit


Personally if you ask me, if I would prefer to take a security deposit vs renting out my unit through zero deposit coverage, I’d choose the second option, not just because I’m with BlueDuck but it makes more sense. First of all as a landlord you do not need to pay anything upfront for it to start. The tenant pays for the zero deposit coverage which is valid for a year. With this I am assured that in the event this tenant does run away, I am assured of getting back up to 2 months security deposit owed to me and for utility bills as well as malicious damage to my property if there’s any up to the sum assured of the plan my tenant has bought. For a residential whole unit which is RM450 per month (which provides RM5000 sum assured), the utilities bill coverage is up to RM1,000. If I rent out my property for RM1500 per month, the 2 months security deposit amount would be RM3,000 and the utility bill is covered up to RM1,000. (total RM4,000) With the traditional security deposit collected in cash, I would have collected only RM3750 and through my experience shared about, sometimes this may not even be enough to cover excessive utility bill spending of some tenants. 


On top of that with the same amount of RM3,750 collected as security and utilities deposit, the amount may not even be enough to cover for malicious damage to my property which is very common nowadays. Things like broken furniture, broken electrical appliances like tv or fridge, or even damage to my fixtures like kitchen cabinets or wardrobes in the bedroom done on purpose by the tenant. This might require a few thousand to fix and replace to its original condition so that I can rent out my unit to the next tenant who is interested (should my current tenant run away without paying and messes up my house like the one in the worldofbuzz article)


Is zero deposit rental something new?


Zero deposit renting is not something new. In fact even with BlueDuck there are already over 3,000 tenants renting this way. What does this mean? It means that more and more landlords like yourself are open to this idea and it’s not something novel or experimental anymore. If you do the math you will know for sure that it is definitely something you might want to seriously consider the next time your property is up for rent in the property market. If there is a lot of stigma and uncertainty attached to it, we wouldn’t have over 3,000 tenants renting with zero deposit today would we?


So to have peace of mind when renting out your property, and not have your story in articles like the one shared above, do consider us as a viable solution. Visit us at www.blueduck.my to discover more and get your tenants to start on their zero deposit rental journey today!

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BlueDuck has officially launched TenancyCash in collaboration with Alliance Bank!

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We hit an important milestone yesterday with the launch of our latest product, which stemmed from a successful tie-up with an established financial institution in Malaysia, Alliance Bank. Our latest product from this tie-up is called BlueDuck TenancyCash. It is a cash financing product targeted at Landlords, owners of properties which are currently tenanted. We did a simple official launch on Facebook Live on our FB page BlueDuckMY at 8pm on Thursday, 23 June 2022. You can watch it here


Basically this is how this new product works. If you are a landlord with an active tenancy, you can use that tenancy to get a loan from Alliance Bank for up to 80% of the amount of your annual tenancy. So for example, you have an apartment and you’re currently renting it out for RM1,500 per month. Per annum the rental you collected from your tenant would be RM18,000. 80% of this amount would be RM14,400. That would be the amount that you can advance from Alliance Bank with TenancyCash. 

What would the repayment be like?

The repayment tenure can either be a 12 or 24-months repayment tenure. The annual interest rate is either 3.99% per annum for a 12 months repayment tenure or 4.99% per annum for a 24 months repayment tenure. This is how the calculation for monthly repayment looks like with the example above. 


RM14,400 loan

3.99% per annum x 12 months

= RM1,247.88 per month


RM14,400 loan

4.99% per annum x 24 months

= RM659.88 per month


Approval for loan application would take as fast as 24-hours if all loan documents are complete and in place. What you need as a landlord to apply for TenancyCash is your identification card (front and back) and a copy of your current stamped tenancy agreement. You can sign up for this facility at https://www.blueduck.my/tenancycashsignup 

Why would I need such a credit facility?

For some landlords, having cash in hand for emergencies especially in uncertain times like these is a real blessing in disguise. You never know when you need it. If you’re not one of those who are lucky enough to be able to withdraw up to RM10,000 from their EPF account 2 or wish to touch your future savings inside the EPF account then this may be your alternative option. 


    Others may need the money for personal, spouse or parents’ medical expenses, children’s education, home renovation, or maybe putting a downpayment for another house or car for investment or maybe to have enough capital to start your own business or invest in one then it is definitely a viable option, considering the interest rates on other cash financing options such as a personal loan can be extremely high in some cases.

Who is TenancyCash for?

To be eligible for TenancyCash you need to be a Malaysian aged between 21 and 60 years old. You need to be a landlord with an active Tenancy (with a signed and stamped tenancy agreement of course) and you need to be either a salaried employee, a business owner or self-employed. 

What is the procedure to apply for BlueDuck TenancyCash

A landlord can go to our website to start the application process without the help of any third party. The website ie https://www.blueduck.my/tenancycashsignup and when you go into the page, you need to key in your name and nric number and attach your NRIC copy (front and back) as well as a scanned copy of your tenancy agreement and key in your referral code/promo code if you have one. 


    There is a processing fee of RM25 to apply for TenancyCash, but because you are reading this article, we would like to share a promocode with you. This promo code will enable you to take RM24 off the processing fee and only pay RM1. It’s RM1TenancyCash. Remember to also share this promocode with your friends and family who would find TenanchCash beneficial to them so that they may apply for it as well. 


    Once you apply for TenancyCash, a bank officer from Alliance Bank will give you a call to do some credit checking and to verify if you are indeed the person who is applying for this credit facility. Once you have been successfully verified and approved, you will be notified about it, either through SMS or email and the financed amount will be credited into your nominated bank account and you can start enjoying the extra cash in hand. 


    However do keep in mind that you should only consider taking up a loan if you really need the money and if you have the ability to service the installments every month until it is fully settled. 

Our Disclaimer
Blue Duck Tech Sdn. Bhd. (hereinafter referred to as BlueDuck) is an independent fintech service provider for the property market. BlueDuck is not a financial services provider and cannot give direct financial advice.

    The content on TenancyCash page (on our website) is provided “as is” for general information purposes only. As a result of collaboration, Blue Duck and Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad (“Issuer”) will jointly launch and provide a credit facility to the property market, also known as “TenancyCash”. TenancyCash is a form of personal loan and the contract of TenancyCash is between you and the Issuer. As such, by your application for TenancyCash made on the Site, you are bound to the specific terms and conditions governing the credit facility stipulated by the respective Issuer.

    Any content uploaded, submitted and/or posted by users are pre-screened or reviewed by us for its appropriateness, reliability and or compliance with any laws. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied as to the content uploaded or submitted by users. Regardless, without assuming any obligation to do so, we may at our sole and absolute discretion, with or without notice and without liability delete any content, suspend or delete any account that in our sole judgment violates any Term of Use.

    We believe that there is no other cash financing product such as this in the market and we are the first in Malaysia to offer such an innovative product and it will definitely benefit all landlords in helping them unlock their cash flow to be able to participate in new opportunities that arises as well as have cash in hand to weather uncertainties in their lives. For whatever reason you choose to apply for this loan for we are sure you will find it extremely useful in your time of need. 

Do visit us at https://www.blueduck.my/tenancycash to find out more and to start your application process or visit our website to find out more about the other exciting products we offer such as BlueDuck Zero Deposit where you can rent your next house or business premises with zero security/utilities deposit. 


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