22.02.2016 - I founded this blog while flying from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu.
I have been dreaming to own a commercial property since many years ago - probably even when I was a school kid.
It was unimaginable as I had no idea how much shoplots would cost. My family had no one who owned a shop, needless to say who operated a business in a commercial outlet. Shop or commercial property to me was something of an astronomical figure. I was fully convinced in my life time that it was near impossible for me to own a shoplot. And yet, now I actually own one! Opph! Allow me to rephrase, own it in name but owe money to bank! But, it is rather extraordinary for me! (Consolation to myself)
However, since my young age - before primary school, I remembered my father who used to visit his old friend who owned a sundry business in a shop fronting the Sekama Road. We used to play on the first floor of his shop which was wooden on top and concrete at the ground floor. It gave me a vivid experience of a shoplot. At that time, owning a shop was like being 'boss' and you take no orders from others! My father's friend used to boost about how early he woke up and how late he worked on his accounts that his thriving business was.
From the outlook, my father was more of a Worker bee, and he was the Soldier bee. It was something which I did not quite understand, but yet look up to. Not as a fathery figure but as some form of comparison, inevitably, for the contrast that a government primary school teacher were against a thriving business owner.
There was another friend of his - who came to Kuching in the same boat, was also a businessman. He was involved in sundry business too! Both of them made their money while my father was salaried till retirement to good old age. This uncle is still alive but his children squandered his money and he is now left penniless living in a rented house. So, "life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - a saying in the Forrest Gump movie.
Though not obviously seen, my father owned a single-storey house and a beetle car - good old Volkswagen. That old uncle did not need to own any car. He had a small lorry to ferry gunny sacks of rice to his customers. Therefore, to the small mind of a kid, the businessman would anytime win over a primary school teacher. Not because of any material variables, but the ownership of business.
It was like a sense of security, a true-on-the-ground feeling. Probably I was naive then, and really looked up to the taukei who passed away much younger after a heart attack, than my father (who is still alive kicking at 88 years old at time of writing). In my mind, in fact beginning till now, I thought it must be lots of enjoyment and lavish lifestyle - high cholesterol food and wine and women - something that you are fond of when at young age. Anyway, who's not young before? And, as I surpassed 45, (and started Estate Agent Exam) thing gets really rusty, and I realized time is no more on my side. I had to quickly decide what I need to do in 10 years to be able to retire at 58 - if ever I do live that long!
So, having said that I am actually quite lucky to be the first in my family of three siblings to own a strata shop. The type that in fact, costs less than a new semi D house in Kuching nowadays. Yet, I am pretty contented and proud if it. At least it is a place to carry out business. At last, I can start a business no matter how small or pathetic it is or rent it out and be taukei of some kind!
Maybe, just maybe my ambition is now achievable, so I am at peace with myself. In spite of echoing with rigor over my head, I had to restrain myself silently at heart. You can never know what is installed for you in life. And, ironically life is too short to live, so you just have to start doing something despite the risks involved.
In view of my gradual realization that corporate world is not my cup of tea, I had to look for some retirement plan too. So, that is it - a small startup of chain property agency firm with the concept of mixing leisure and work together.
I aspire to nurture a band of property enthusiasts who can come join me in the ambient of fragrance of coffee and tea - called 'ProperTea and Kopi'. It will support My-RealEstateForum - another blog with more consultative nature.
My hope is that the group of my eventual agents and negotiators would find this place a meeting of like-minds, a common place for sharing, learning and growing together.
Let us hope that this idea will flourish to become a brand of itself!
Thomas Sim
B Boss Inn,
Bundusan, KK
