Thread: Buying, renovating and selling Thai houses

Originally Posted by blackgang

I have checked on a lot of houses here from bank repos and if I wanted to talk deal they said No fucking way, thats the price and thats it.
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I would think that if looking for a detatched house this could well be the way it is. The person I mentioned brought a terraced house ( in Khon Kaen ) and let his girlfriend do all the negotiating. They didn't know a falang was involved from begining to end ? Don't know if that made the difference. A Thai friend of mine ( taxi driver ) had his terraced house repossed as he failed to meet the payments. His wife ( not registered )approached the bank, made an offer and they got the house back at a lower price than it had been valued at on the previous mortgage. As another poster pointed out , I guess if the place is desireable the bank is prepared to hold out whereas if they've been stuck with it for a while they might be open to offers.

Originally Posted by Bangyai

I would think that if looking for a detatched house this could well be the way it is. The person I mentioned brought a terraced house

OK Ya got me on that one, whats a terraced house, I know what terraced land and farming is but how to terrace a house has got me..

Originally Posted by blackgang

Originally Posted by Bangyai

I would think that if looking for a detatched house this could well be the way it is. The person I mentioned brought a terraced house

OK Ya got me on that one, whats a terraced house, I know what terraced land and farming is but how to terrace a house has got me..

Sorry, thats the common term in England. I don't know what the American term is. Basically, a terraced house means one that shares both its side walls with its immediate neighboours. In Thailand they call them townhouses. There can be as few as 4 or 5 houses in a typical terrace up to dozens. I believe that in Thailand they passed a law some years ago restricting the number of houses in a terrace to something around the 12 mark ( not sure the exact number ) . Prior to this you could have found 20 or more houses in a row.
As my girlfriend lives in one I am familier with what I think is their biggest drawback. The Thais on low income that buy them have an absolute obsession with ' Dtor Dterm ' , or building on a front extension. There are no planning laws regarding these barnacles and everyone builds one according to their budget and taste. The result is usually a hodge podge of colours and styles that result in the area looking like a slum so that they can often be hard to sell on. These are the type of houses that banks often get lumbered with and will make a deal on. They might be structurally sound etc but because the terrace they are part of looks like a veritable shit hole, no one wants to buy them.

Beeing in the contruction buisness which is my source of income in my homeland,
I really enjoy all the construtions threads on this fora.
I also enjoy looking around on construction sites in th and elsewhere to see how things are done etc.
Regarding thai town houses my impression after the ones I ve seen is the inefficient floor planning. Two much floor area are waisted on stairways and transportation area. Seems to me in some cases 30 % of 2./3. floor is wasted.
I really dont like the layout in the ones I ve seen. And three storey in some cases
pooohh you better enjoy walking in stairs.

Regarding the construction I belive in thailand you have high end companies like raimon land etc, with a higly experienced skilled workforce with a profeccional approach,
and in the other end all the "small companies" with cheap unskilled workers from thailand/cambodia etc .
Driving around Pattaya it is very easy to see the difference.
I bought a small room in a low quality project and the workers really have no clue. But is it cheap and a good location in Wong Amat, but it displeases me .

And from all the constrution threads hereasy to see the inefficiency and how unskilled they are, but its cheap...

Or is it ????
Having 5/10/15 workers on a site making a family home. I dont think so.

4 skilled workers raise and close a two storey buildind in two weeks in Norway.
Higly efficient, high tempo, very accurate, bonus system.
Condos and larger buildings is a bit different.

I really enjoy being toured around in high end projects like Northpoint and the Cave (top noch) and see the great design and the use of top class materials and design brands, and high end developers are quite good at this in thailand compared to norway.
( in Norway most people wants big but are cheap charlies regardig spending money on interiour and top noch finishing.)

So choosing your developer is quite important in Thailand.
And reading in this forum most construction sites seems to be a combination of a club for unemployed and a family reunion.., but hey... thats propably the local ways

Originally Posted by Bangyai

Sorry, thats the common term in England.

And everywhere else that English is spoken.

You cant really expect the yanks to understand English. They have their own language.

Originally Posted by skidley

Originally Posted by skidley

In saying that the Missus family (3 sisters and Mama) are looking at buying a 2 storey, 180sqm, 5 bedroom house on 450sqm of land where they are currently renting in Chachoengsao. Asking price 1.5mil.

Just talked to the Missus. The family got approval in principle to borrow the money and went to set up a contract purchase for the property but just found out it has now been sold. Thats not bad, sold in just over 2 weeks, i am impressed.

Now that word is out that they have the means to buy a property, they have been approached about 3 more between 1.6 & 1.8 mil. They had a look yesterday and this was the conversation I had with the Missus.

Me: "How was the houses, were they OK"
Missus: "Not Good"
Me: "What do you mean 'Not good'"
Missus: "Like shit"

Don't you just love it!

Seems the original house was actually great value and a good buy.

Lots of nice houses for sale in chacheongsao.

Could anyone recommend any nice housing developments in Bangkok/Skytrain area, with houses 4-5million? Links to websites would be good too.

Today I went to one called The Plant which was in Bankair (Spelling) and was very nice, sorry no website. 3 story town houses with great floor plans but no facilities. Security was tighter than a ducks arse. They searched the cab before letting us in. The nearest sky train is 2K and is the last stop on the new part of the Silom line.

And then after a long Google search I found The Cube by Noble:

ºÃÔÉÑ· â¹àºÔÅ ´ÕàÇÅÅÍ»àÁ¹·ì ¨Ó¡Ñ´ (ÁËÒª¹)

These have better facilities but the closest skytrain is an airport link station and I can imagine a lot of fuckin around with that single track system.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Originally Posted by Bangyai

Sorry, thats the common term in England. I don't know what the American term is. Basically, a terraced house means one that shares both its side walls with its immediate neighboours. In Thailand they call them

Thanks Bangya, In the states they have town houses too, but mostly they are 2 or 3 story and built in a long row of them, then they have a new thing, well it was new to me 20 years ago where they call multi family dwellings and are single story and like a duplex and the dividing wall is [at least in the one I lived in for awhile] was a very well built wall and never a sound was heard from the other end, not like motels where the TV keeps me awake all fucking night or the whore the guy brings in is a loud mouthed bitch reminiscent of Lily....

Originally Posted by The Fresh Prince

Any help would be much appreciated

Only recommendation I would have is, Move a couple hundred miles North.

[quote=blackgang;1005883]

Originally Posted by Bangyai

the whore the guy brings in is a loud mouthed bitch reminiscent of Lily....

Would that be Lily Thai by any chance ?? If so you have been watching the same T.V channels as me .......purely by accident of course...the batteries in my remote packed up.

I asked my wife, who has watched various TV shows in UK, House under the Hammer etc, about this phenomenon and she explained it so;

Thais want new house because everyting will not be broken.
Old house you spend much money to make dis right, dis right, dis right. (much waving of arms)
So you buy new you have no probrems.

I asked her about the fact that a new house costs 3 mill and an old one is 1.5 mill so you can spend .5 mill to renovate to good as new. You get 1 mill in your bank and an established garden.

Better is when you have new, believe me!

End of discussion.

I had the same thought when I was sitting watching those same programmes in UK before I came here. I looked into it and came to the conclusion that you can do it for rental or selling to Farangs but not for selling to Thais.

I know a Thai woman who renovated her family home in Bangkok. Made a nice job of it, she did.

But, she was western educated and an artist, so not a retard like 99.99999% of the rest of them.

Not all artists are retards.

Originally Posted by Loy Toy

Location, location, location.

The one and only factor I would consider and mostly find you have to rip the whole house down and start again.

Dead right.

Or is it position, position, position?

One opportunity is buying up bank repossessions which could be good in these dfficult times.

You could renovate and rent and hope for an upturn to sell, but broadly it's a risky business. If there are unwanted houses in large quantities and Thais can't see a profit to be made in doing them up, then probably there's no profit to be made.

Unless perhaps you could sell on to farang buyers.

Andrew

Still on the subject of building, does anyone know where I can get a Hamburger Stand built in the Pattaya / Jomtien area ?
About 2.5 x 1.5m footprint with timber facade, electrical, s/steel shelving etc.
I had a Farang quote but it seems a bit high.

The house in my Mooban is definitely not renovated and all goes down ! Pity was a good building.

The Fresh Prince, if you plan stay for a while, look forward after Silom as the Skytrain should soon start operation. Prices will only get up afterward, i think it is the good time now, up to Bang Khae...

Plenty of Moobans, new ones and older ones. Best way is go inside, see what there is and try to talk with people in the Mooban. If you talk only at the selling office, prices migth be crazy, for me they had nothing under 80 K, but by talking with the insiders, i got a house for 20k after negotiating it down from 30k. The neighboor told tha this should be for rent for 10K if Thais only...

Thonburi side has good deals and nice houses, specially if you do not need skytrain nearby, along the Putamonthon 2 - 3 -4 -5 very nice places, just out of town...

someone who can pm me about european construction sites around pattaya and rayong area?? would be nice

I'd only do it with houses that actually look nice, and which you by and large can't buy because they're in a town and owned by a Thai/Thai-Chinese family for generations. You never know though..

For bog standard old wooden or concrete houses.. don't bother.