- 4 days ago
In this episode of The Money Goal, Emir and producer Aishah spill the real tea on their own renting experiences, from living with housemates to renting solo, and what actually makes the most sense for your wallet.
Category
🎵
MusicTranscript
00:00if you don't rent with friends it's easier because then your relationship with your roommates is
00:04purely transactional you know right and i had a bit of fomo maybe i want to rent with them yeah
00:09because i was younger you know and i was like i want to go stay with them but i didn't end up
00:12doing it i wouldn't want to be the master tenant that's the thing yeah how do you handle it one
00:16person leaves then if the others don't want to share the course what can you do right
00:20what's up guys welcome back to another episode of the money goal today i have aisha with me again
00:32hi what do you want to talk about today today i want to talk about renting okay are you renting
00:38yeah i'm renting i'm not okay you're all okay i forgot i know but i used to rent when i was in
00:45university because recently i i saw on social media how um there's people who when they rent
00:53a house can sometimes they have to pay like advance or deposits what they call it can not
00:57sometimes all the time all the time really unless you're renting from your parents
01:00two months forward two months forward and then they have like a security deposit
01:07they have a electric bill deposit so clearly i'm not renting because i don't know all this thing
01:13yep so okay so recently um i saw on social that there's these two people who were trying to rent
01:21their friends okay but then they were arguing about who were gonna pay the deposit money first but one
01:29of the friend isn't working so she asked the working one to the working one to pay first how is she
01:35going to pay rent then didn't explain that part you know what i didn't explain that part okay and then
01:39the friend who paid the deposit um now they're living together for 11 months and she still has
01:45not paid back okay so now i'm wondering kan if you're renting is it better that you rent alone or
01:53you rent with housemates because at the end of the day like okay i get that if you're renting more
01:59people are renting in the house that you can split everything 50 50 or evenly kan because i've
02:05rented a house before for uni for uni when i was in uni but because i studied at a local uni
02:13um one house we fit like seven people where you guys shared rooms or even one room okay that's one
02:22room that's with two people one room with three people i feel like whoever went to a local university
02:27could relate to this yeah okay i don't want to mention any university okay okay is it uh
02:36public university i mean public university oh sorry it's not local university public university
02:41yeah so people who are in public university i feel like can relate to this because you know people
02:47come from different backgrounds and all kan and i want i want to try and make it work for my friends
02:52yep so because my friends ran together yeah so okay satu bilet go around satu bilet go around
02:58sure why not so i paid only 130 a month a month for that whole house that's super cheap but it was so
03:06cramped in that house i feel like this is a uni thing lah if i was in uni at an age i wouldn't mind
03:11also yeah yeah i feel like now that we're older we don't know better would we want to have three
03:17people in the room not really yeah but i i stayed in a room with three people wow so it was crazy
03:23three girls there's uh one bunk bed and one single bed oh and i was in the bottom of the lower
03:28bunk bed okay okay it was an experience yeah and it's also my first time renting out so is it your
03:35first time living outside of your house as well yes no i mean uh this was during my degree so my
03:41diploma i stayed at a dorm ah okay okay so it was it was not no different because at my dorm pun we
03:49stayed three people but it was a bit bigger and also you don't have to pay so not oh yeah because
03:54if you live in a public uni you don't pay certain unis i feel like some maybe you have to pay
04:01but yeah so on my second semester during my degree i have to live with my friends okay we rented this
04:08three-bedroom house um it it cost us a thousand three hundred a month each uh for the whole house
04:16okay so i paid a hundred thirty hundred forty like that it's cheap though thousand three hundred
04:19where is this it's inshallah now everybody's gonna know right
04:23just beat the outline okay and then yeah so for me it was an experience but because i was a student
04:32i feel like okay sure why not kind but now that i'm working i feel like renting is not my thing
04:42because i like coming back home and having a space to myself like if i want to lay part in the living
04:50room or my bedroom and then i have a separate room for other things but of course it's costly
04:56because if you're you rent one house on your own it's very expensive maintenance you have to
05:01payah sendiri security you have to payah sendiri all that you have to because you cannot split
05:06groceries dulu i sabun baso baju pun kadang-kadang oh you'll share because it's so big and we're here
05:12for like three months let's just buy together yeah yeah water api and all we just share yeah yeah so
05:22right now i'm living alone so it's a bit more costly more expensive and i also have a friend
05:30who has uh rented a house and stayed with three people so each person gets their own room okay
05:36i think that's more normal for our age now yeah yeah and they feel like like oh it's comfortable
05:42but sometimes whenever a roommate leave yeah then they have to like cover oh yeah yeah yeah yeah
05:48what about you have you rented a house before okay so i i am renting now you are renting but i
05:53don't share yeah yeah i don't share so i think this is really uh comfort versus costing lah i think
05:59for sure if you rent and have roommates it's going to be cheaper for sure so i had a bunch of friends
06:03it's like a friend group lah and uh they were renting together for a while yeah and i had a bit of
06:07fomo lah maybe i want to rent with them yeah because i was younger you know and i was like i want to go
06:12stay with them but i didn't end up doing it and um good thing i didn't do it because
06:16some of the friends were complaining like oh this guy is dirty this guy doesn't like to throw
06:20the trash and stuff so good thing a lot of that wasn't there but you definitely save money if you
06:24have um roommates whether it's your friends or even renting a room so i think this is actually one of
06:30the easiest way to have like lower accommodation costs if you work in kl because you know kl especially
06:36kl yeah yeah yeah yeah you know people who are on like a salary of 2005 uh 3000 if it's you know
06:43expensive for you then getting a room is definitely the best option lah because if you want to rent
06:48your own place then i will assume you get a studio or one bedroom right that's like a space for just
06:53one person but even then i think minimum in kl you still gotta pay like i'll say a thousand one
06:58a thousand two for that minimum yeah yeah for studio that's one of my colleagues uh he was looking
07:04for a house in bangsa um expect area la okay yeah one of the condo is sixteen thousand a month
07:12a number last year yeah it's a bulan and i'm like that's ridiculous there's no way and it's like you
07:17don't believe because you're not looking for a house to rent but if you try looking around that's
07:21like sixteen thousand there's like twenty thousand it's all people from japan or from canada who works
07:28here yeah that the company paid for and you actually much um oh if you have a house if you
07:33own a house and you rent it out here in kl you can actually make money okay that's a topic another
07:39day maybe another maybe another topic we'll talk about those but yeah rent can be super expensive
07:45i say in uh okay i think bangsa south or kampong krinci depending on what you want to call it
07:49okay so kampong krinci right and there are studios which is like 600 square feet which is quite small i
07:56don't know for you yeah 600 square feet is quite small and it goes for like 1005 to 1008 which i
08:00think is crazy whereas if you rent a room or even a house and you split the cost you can get it down
08:06to like 500 ringgit if you don't get the master bedroom and stuff and yeah like you said i didn't
08:10think about that but you can share other costs as well dish washing liquid detergent groceries so
08:18there are a lot of savings but then the trade-off is of course comfort but okay for because for
08:24someone who has never rented a house on your own yeah okay what if i want to move out of kelka or
08:31if i want to move for work somewhere else that is further and i want to find some a place that is
08:36closer to my work so what do you how do you prepare what do you what are the costs associated with it
08:44yeah like if you're renting your own place right yes okay so that's a good thing about renting you're
08:49very flexible in terms of you know when you can move or and all this stuff right actually i think
08:54you don't need to prepare that much it's just about i think in total all the fees deposits and
08:59stuff you come up to about three to four months worth of your rent so that's up front yeah and
09:04after that it says your monthly rent it's like five or six thousand you have to prepare yeah
09:08depending on how much i mean if your rent is sixteen thousand a month then uh you gotta have
09:11thirty thousand it was fifty to sixty k but yeah those are the main costs and then if you're moving
09:17out of town you know if you have moving to do gotta get movers and stuff yeah yeah yeah also speaking of
09:22my friend who stayed um in the house that i recently treated tadi okay the one who shared like three
09:29okay so one of his housemate always forgets to buy out on time so yeah okay yeah so he always had to
09:39cover first okay okay sometimes it's like two months that he forgot to pay yep and then he has
09:45to like cover for him yeah so these are some of the problems that he faces and also another thing
09:52that he faced is um so there's three people and there's two bathrooms so two of them have to share
09:58bathroom okay so one day a shower uh the shower broke okay and none of them wanted to fix it
10:05fix it okay so they just let the shower pecah like that but at the same time none of them
10:11want to mengaku who broke it okay so like that one person would be like macam i didn't break it so
10:20why should i pay for it so these are the issues that my friend has been facing yeah yeah there were
10:25these issues yeah and because he was the one who rented the house from the owner yeah so he took
10:32responsibility and he fixed the shower okay yeah and there's other there's other time that um the
10:39toilet broke lah the pump kan yeah you have to tarik to flush to yeah and tu pula patah and i
10:45have to cover that pula okay so in these cases you've never rented with anybody in uni lah but it's a
10:53different sort of setup yeah yeah and uni but different setup so i was gonna say also actually
11:13there's there's basically two ways about going this either you rent a room where the landlord is
11:18basically already renting out as individual rooms or like your friends where there's one
11:23master tenant oh so you there's a landlord who rents rooms yeah yeah yeah sometimes landlords just
11:28rent the room because they actually make more money from it oh yeah i mean they can lah they can make
11:32more money from it you just partition and then just rent individually but usually most people do it
11:36like your friend lah there's one master tenant and then the master tenant will handle the rest
11:39but i wouldn't want i wouldn't want to be handle it i wouldn't want to be the master tenant that's
11:44the thing yeah how do you handle it one person leaves then if the others don't want to share the
11:49cost what can you do right you are the tenant to the landlord the landlord only collects money from
11:53you so these are the issues i wouldn't want to be the master tenant that's the thing yeah i feel
11:57like the best way to do it is like an agreement like okay if anything happens like something
12:04broke ke like the punya bill tibetim maha ke apa you just split everything just equally yeah yeah
12:10yeah for sure because some people some housemates would be like oh if i'm not using it why would i
12:18yeah so there will be all the disagreements lah that's why if you want to rent in this setup i
12:22recommend renting with people that you're close with that you can trust and who are sort of you
12:27know matching your vibe but then again if you bunk with like friends like close friends and then all
12:33these issues pop up you sort of have like a straight relationship with your friends not just
12:37because of this right so another thing to consider lah best case i think um make more money and then
12:42rent on your own lah what would you like to would you ever run with someone i don't think so not
12:50really i think yeah if i if i have enough to rent on my own i would definitely rent on my own
12:56i think now at this age lah yeah yeah yeah also another thing about what you're talking about if you
13:01guys are renting most of the times landlords should actually cover any issues so if like the flush
13:07thing breaks or shower breaks and stuff you can actually ask a landlord to fix it oh really yeah
13:11they will see clearly i do not rent the house so that's why it sucks with a landlord as well yeah
13:16but i because i'm renting so whenever there's issues like oh the drain is clothed or oh this toilet is
13:21not flushing anymore i just call my landlord and then he comes oh i know you come and fix it yeah
13:25i mean most of the times landlords because they're working they will pay a plumber to come lah but i think
13:29my landlord is retired and he just does it for fun so he actually comes to my house and fixes it
13:33so who covers that cost do you have to pay or like he covers the cost oh yeah okay but this one also
13:38depends on your agreement no no no no no out of his own pocket that's his cost of yeah yeah it is
13:43that's how it works so this one you can also negotiate with your landlord so i have also been
13:47in other agreements where they say okay anything that is below 200 ringgit you just repair it and you
13:52pay for it anything above 200 so big damages you let me know and i'll pay for it yeah so all these
13:58things that's so nice you should negotiate with uh your landlord right it's not nice actually it's
14:02not okay it is nice it is a nice thing for him to do but that is a responsibility of a landlord
14:08actually yeah yeah you need to pick someone who is responsible to of taking care of the house
14:14if there's major structural damage i'm not gonna pay for it i'm just a tenant you know i'm gonna leave
14:18yeah right okay so when is it time you think for us to move out on your own yeah when you can
14:27afford it when you can afford it really yeah i would say when you can afford it when you have
14:30everything settled everything yeah yeah of course if you don't have a choice if you need a cheaper
14:34place then share a room i actually think that if you don't rent with friends it's easier because
14:41then your relationship with your roommates is purely transactional you know right right whereas
14:45with friends you're like hey bro you know we've known each other since kids you know you want to
14:49still i just split everything because your friends will understand you can so let's just split everything
14:53yeah yeah yeah but yeah i mean it's just personal but i think a lot of people are the same if you can
14:59if you earn enough you can afford it then just move out i guess unless you really like to stay with
15:03your friends and stuff like then what is a housemate much a red flag for you the first time you meet a
15:09person as your housemate and you feel like oh okay if you don't have a job that's a red flag to me
15:13honestly i don't know if they don't pay me the rent for me if you don't take care of your area
15:19like if you're very dirty yeah then you're not responsible for anything else if you're not
15:24responsible for your place for your own like cut tail kappa exactly like if i'm renting with you
15:29and then your bed is not made or you when your baju is like piled up and you're very messy i feel
15:37like if you're not responsible for yourself then i feel like you're not going to responsible for other
15:41people so and the common areas the living room the picture they're not going to care about it
15:44your own bedroom is like that right yeah so that's number two for me number one is if you're
15:49financially troubled or jobless then sorry yeah that's right how are you going to play okay so
15:55we have a few stories that people have sent in the first one alia is looking at me okay the first one
16:05my rent was 900 ringgit and sharing with two others brought it down to 600 each okay at first
16:11it seemed like a smart move to save money but one housemate always paid late while the other left
16:16without notice oh no i ended up covering almost the full rent for two months and even had to pay off
16:22unpaid utility bills yeah that was when i realized cheaper rent can quickly become expensive if you do not
16:27set clear boundaries the question is what's one financial habit or rule you follow to protect
16:36yourself when sharing expenses with housemates oh it's tough you gotta ask them to like sort of give
16:43you a deposit of their own right especially if you are the one that is the master tenant but i think my
16:47advice for this in general is don't be the master tenant don't be the one who is dealing with the
16:52landlord because then you have a lot of responsibility for people that you don't really know
16:56so i would go and look for a room on its own directly yourself you still get the savings right
17:01you still pay your 600 ringgit a month but at least you're not responsible for all this if someone
17:05else leaves that's not my problem it's either landlord's problem or it's someone else's problem
17:09not mine because once you are this person then you are exposed to this risk and also i feel like
17:14if you are the main tenant yep i feel like you just have to have like an emergency savings for this
17:24yeah just in case kan if you like tiba-tiba dapat a housemate that is not responsible like this
17:29like if something breaks or if suddenly they leave ke apa you need that extra money to at least be able
17:37to pay your landlord oh i guess one thing you could do is you tell your roommates to contribute towards
17:43like a sinking fund so every month yeah each of us will contribute 50 ringgit to this fund for the
17:48house in case anything were to happen or anything and if let's say after one year nothing happens
17:54you just take the money and you know buy a new tv because you're also collecting that rent their rent
18:00kan you're collecting and then paying for a tenant maybe you can ask for like an extra for like a
18:04security and then put it aside for like just housing punya account in a tabong ke kan yep yep yep that
18:13just in case that's a smart way that maybe could help okay the next one second story
18:19this one this person i feel like they live alone okay so after years of sharing houses i decided to
18:26rent a small studio on my own okay my rent doubled but my stress disappeared okay without the noise or
18:33drama i started cooking more managing my groceries better and cutting down on takeout over time my
18:39monthly spending balance out and i finally felt like i was in control of both my space and my money
18:44living alone taught me that higher rent does not always mean higher expenses sometimes spending a
18:50little more gives you the stability to make better financial choices the question what's an expense that
18:57seems costly at first but actually helps you save or manage your money more wisely in the long run
19:02when it comes to renting when it comes to anything that is related to it is related to the house
19:09la right can also okay okay let's see that for me it's at first it's my car okay uh initially they
19:17must have oh you have to pay the down payment and then the insurance and one go but once you buy it
19:24it's just the monthly and then the maintenance is like 200 it's fine wait so the question was what is
19:29one thing that's initially costly but over the long run yes over the long run i have a good answer
19:33for this okay i think quality things uh and this relates to the household as well right so if you
19:38buy like for example when i was a student i used to buy like the cheapest thing i can find let's say
19:43i need a microwave oven i'll just salt low to high and buy the cheapest one the thing about buying the
19:47cheapest ones is it doesn't last but and then when it breaks you have to buy another one and it
19:52breaks you have to buy another one so then eventually you're gonna spend more anyway so i think
19:55buying quality things things that you're going to use long term right we're talking about like
19:59washing machine and stuff don't just change on it la another thing is air con i think a lot of
20:04people buy air con and then you know it's cheap you know there's the energy efficient air cons yes and
20:09those ones the one with the stars go yeah yeah yeah so those are the ones uh that are more expensive
20:14they're more expensive than normal air cons but it uses less energy which means you pay less
20:18electricity your bill is cheaper so some people like i don't want to pay for you know an expensive
20:23account up front i want to buy the cheapest one but then your electricity bill is going to be higher
20:27every month and then over the long run you pay more so these are things i think you should consider
20:30especially your fridge yeah your tv yeah yeah these things that use a lot of electric right a lot of
20:36electric and also you want it to last longer if you're sick if you're buying a house or renting
20:42you're staying anywhere yeah long kan yeah if you're moving you're moving with the household items yeah
20:48so if it's a tv a washing machine a freezer air con fridge brinda brinda that you can you want to
20:56use for like 20 years make sure it's a good brand and also a good quality like you said exactly that
21:02is exactly okay so i guess to wrap this up um i think sharing or renting and having roommates depends on
21:11you yeah but it's a really good option for you to save money i think it's probably the cheapest
21:15accommodation arrangement that you can get especially if you're living in kl klang valley
21:20but just set your boundaries with your roommates early on so you don't get into tricky situations
21:25like you know people leaving people don't want to pay etc etc if you can afford it and if you want to
21:30it is definitely more comfortable to move on your own buying a house will save that for another topic
21:35i think buying versus renting is an interesting one but yeah i think that's pretty much it and if you
21:39guys want to you know buy stuff for your house whether you're renting or owning the house
21:43just don't be so cheap on it that you're gonna have to pay more later on buy a good quality one
21:49exactly cool nice talking to you ayesha thank you hope you guys enjoyed this episode see you guys in the
21:54next one bye
21:55just a
22:03you
22:05you
22:07you
22:13you
22:16you
22:17you
22:19you
Be the first to comment