My three-bedroom Chiang Mai requires maintenance, just like houses everywhere. This is my home maintenance diary, with costs and mistakes that come with caring for houses regardless of where you live.

Electrical Work

Last week my bathroom light went out and, since replacing it required going to the electrical supply shop for a replacement, balancing on top of a stepladder, unwiring the LED ring and ballast, and rewiring the new one, I took the coward’s way out and called the electrician. He came, took a look, vanished, returned with the new unit and installed it–all within 40 minutes. The bill? 250 baht ($8.80). I gave him 500.

Painting

I got tired of looking at my fence and decided to repaint it. Two guys and a lady showed up and started by pruning my giant hedge back so the sliding gate can roll easily. Then they welded four decorative metal arrows (along the top of the gate in picture) back on. Then they painted the metal parts of the fence and gate white and gold, and painted the concrete fence–both front and side–gray, to match the house. Then, for good measure, they re-plumbed my kitchen sink so it doesn’t leak any more. Total: 7,500 Bt. (US $227.00).

Moving into my house in Chiang Mai was a little tricky. Here’s a list of what our Concierge service provides. Before you part company with your realtor and the owner–who should both be present with you at the signing–here’s the minimum:

• Cash–to pay your first and last month’s rent.
• Your new address in both English and Thai–typed into your smartphone and checked by both of them. You will need both for different audiences.
• Mail delivery arrangements–especially if you are in a condo with a front desk. You’ll be receiving all kinds of important mail in the first week or two and you don’t want it piling up under the desk because the clerk was too shy to tell you that they don’t deliver it.
• TV/Internet subscription–get the agent to set up the appointment (if any) for the installers because it’s a pain in the ass doing it yourself.
• Ditto water and electricity–get them to handle it while they’re still your friends, preferably before you even hand over the money.
• Your TM-30 Form, the Proof of Legal Residence that must accompany your permanent visa application and must be filled out and signed by your landlord.
• Your new address, in English and Thai. She also emails this to them
• The names and addresses of your new electricity and water suppliers and how to pay their bills.
• Your cable company. (She helps them subscribe).
• Your trash collector and how to pay them.

The Cost of Living in My House in Chiang Mai? When clients ask about houses and the cost of living in Chiang Mai the first place we visit is my house In the picture): It’s a useful place to start, for several reasons. It’s a real, typical house and we can walk around inside and discuss how much everything costs. It’s very significant to new arrivals that they can repaint an entire house for 15,000 Baht ($500) because now they;’re not afraid to take on a place that needs some renovation or whose color scheme doesn’t suit them. And to know how much each piece of custom-made furniture cost, because now they can think realistically about renting an unfurnished place (most Thai houses are furnished). Ditto appliance costs, my custom electrical work, fiberoptic internet and bottled water delivery. That’s why I call it ‘useful’: in a matter of minutes they have a down to earth, dollars and cents budget in mind, they understand the tradeoffs between location (mine is so-so), size, quality and monthly rent. If you’re planning to move to Thailand I recommend getting inside a real house and asking the owner every question imaginable before you start looking for your own place.

Back Story: My Thai house is on a quiet (no through traffic) street in a mixed neighborhood with expensive houses, a small bus depot and an ice factory. All neighborhoods are ‘mixed’ here: there’s no zoning. Three bedrooms, 2 tiled bathrooms, small Western kitchen, solid concrete that’s cool in summer and warm in winter for 10,000 Baht (US$300)/month. Ten minutes from Chiang Mai Old Town. I’m slowly getting it livable. Before I  moved in 12 months ago I had the interior repainted for 14,000 baht; installed new, custom-made drapes to match the color scheme (8,000 Baht) and a new garden and lawn (2,500 baht).

At dinner last month Christophe admired my windows, “Wow! You’re lucky that your house is sealable. You could run an air purifier!” I grunted and forgot about it until the local Hill People started burning the underbrush two weeks ago. The hills that protect Chiang Mai from violent weather also prevent smoke from blowing away so I followed Christophe’s advice. Siam TV, an electronics chain, has the deepest range of purifiers and I bought the cheapest. My 3,000 Baht (US$100)

Hatari has now been running 24×7 for three weeks and I’m delighted. Its 3-stage filter – mechanical + plasma + ionization – has relaxed my nasal passages and I breathe easier day and night. Highly recommended! I also spent 60,000 Baht on line for a new 27″ iMac from Apple Thailand. It arrived three days later, freight and duty free, by UPS from China! Very cool to see that the ASEAN duty-free market is starting to deliver – literally.

Knowing I was planning to spend Christmas-New Year in Australia a Thai friend suggested that, for 10,000 baht, he’d handle some tasks I’d put off: touch up the 1-year-old interior paint; get some scrapes on the car resprayed; remove the failed outside garden and its brick wall; replace the door tracks….
I returned this week to find that – if the jobs had been done at all – they’d been done half-assedly. The garden was gone but the bricks remained; the door tracks were removed but not replaced; my friend had discovered the car’s insurance policy in the glove compartment, located a body shop accredited by my insurer and charged God knows how much to the policy as an ‘accident’ (the difference will, no doubt, end up in my friend’s pocket) and, though the work was minor, the car won’t be ready for another week. My request that we cancel the job and pick up my car was met with changing excuses, so I’ve rented a car. You get the picture…

An expat friend called and I mentioned my to-do list. “None of it was done, right?” he asked. We both laughed uproariously. I would have been pleasantly surprised if the work had been completed, of course, but I wasn’t surprised at the outcome. There’s a good reason mai pen rai is the national mantra: Thais’ handling of responsibilities is unlike ours. My friend is still my friend. I still love Thailand.  I tell you this story now so that, by the time it’s your turn you’ll be relaxed and humorous about such matters. Now, here are some prices for

Services

• Water delivery costs 30 Baht/case of 24 one-liter bottles.
• Garbage collection (almost unlimited quantity) 30 Baht/week
• Electricity 900 baht/month
• Internet: 30 Gb download fiberoptic: 1200 baht/month.
• iPhone: unlimited service 960 baht/month.

Furniture

I ordered the furniture from a furniture cooperative in the countryside south of Chiang Mai. A very cool place and their solid teak stuff was amazing to look at and amazingly affordable. More on that in my next post. Meanwhile, here‘s a video of the arrival of the plants and the first of the furniture:

Reading

• 3 Phase Power – TeakDoor.com – The Thailand Forum – If you want to build a luxury house in Thailand then this is the forum for you.

January 2015: I Just Found My House in Chiang Mai. I’ll move in next week. Here’s the story:

My house in Chiang Mai was an accident. I’d saved $70,000 from the business over the past 2 years and resolved to buy an ordinary, 2 bedroom condo in a nondescript part of the inner city. But tying up my meagre capital in a piece of (very ordinary) real estate raised some problems:

1. I’d be back to square one – zero capital – while still needing to grow the business (I’ve had two requests to franchise it).
2. ‘Used’ real estate is much harder to sell in Thailand. People don’t like moving in with the former occupants’ vibes (phi) – especially foreigner vibes!
3. There’s a building boom going on with no end in sight. The economy is running very nicely (unemployment is under 1%/ Yes, that’s a’1′.) and Chinese cash is seeping in under the doors and over the transom. Everyone here is suddenly rediscovering old Chinese cousins….
4. I’d be in the middle of a grimy (Asian air quality is OK, but grimy), noisy city.
5. To go for a walk I’d have to walk to somewhere via narrow streets in the pre-dawn light.

So when a client recently told me he was moving out of his 10,000 Bt/mo., 3 bedroom, 2 ba, Western kitchen house with a lawn and off-street parking in a very quiet neighborhood 10 minutes from the city, you can guess my response. And since he was moving out 12 months into a 24 month lease, he offered to pay my first month’s rent so I could make a smooth transition.

Which is what I’m now doing. I’ve had it repainted – interior and some outside changes. The whole job cost me 15,000 Bt ($500) and took 3 days.

I hired three Thai ladies to spend a day cleaning it. They did a great job. The entire bill for that was 900 Bt ($30). I bought lunch, so that added 100 Bt to the total.

Then Aimie took me down to the curtain and drapes shop where I ordered a custom made set of handsome drapes for every window in the house, and the sliding doors. 14 separate pieces. Installed. 15,000 Bt.

Next, it was off to the furniture factory for some custom built teak furniture. And that’ll be the subject of the next episode of this piece about my house in Chiang Mai.

I also get food delivered to my house in Chiang Mai. Here’s how..

The post My House in Chiang Mai appeared first on Thai Retirement Helpers: Retiring in Thailand Made Easy.

Chris Buys a House. “Well to start with, purchasing property in Thailand has really only one restriction, foreigners cannot own land. So ways around this are for companies (registered in Thailand) to buy and own land and then develop it … condos, houses, gated communities etc.  This works out well for those coming to Thailand and wish to purchase or rent without having to deal with issues regarding the land itself. One leases the land from the owner. More about that later …

“My Case:  I came to Thailand under the aegis of Godfree’s business.  I had a short term hotel room while I was put onto Godfree’s pet real estate agent (the energizer bunny with no kickbacks!) who led me around heaps of places to rent for what I wished – I took a condo for a period of 6 months. You can do shorter if you know where you want to live.  I spent this time looking around Thailand looking for a place to settle.  The place has changed sooo much over the years I thought it best to take the time to revisit old stamping grounds.
Found myself a beachside town with most of the expected facilities in place and proceeded to search the net for suitable places to rent.  Most rentals ran from 16,000 thb per month on up, averaging around 25,000 thb per month.  This seemed a bit rich for me so I switched to looking for a place to buy.  Again using the same property search websites I was using for rentals. Looked at a few until I found a place that suited, got in touch with the sales person who had the listing and then agreed to buy it.

“Buying is no different to how you would go about looking for a place in the US.  Use the Internet, go look at heaps of places until you finally find what you want. Here in Thailand you will firstly need a bank account (Godfree will assist you there – usually on the second day after arrival – assuming you are coming to Chiang Mai to start your journey).Then the sale of the property will require a deposit of 10% of the sale price.  (bank transfer)

“The sales person will then introduce you to the lawyers who will conduct all the necessary stuff to ensure transfer of the property into your name.  This of course will incur a fee (not small – mine was 3.25% of the sale price).  Settlement will take place some thirty days later.  You will get the keys and you will also get what is known as a Blue Book. This identifies you as the person who owns the property.  You will then need to go to Immigration and have them put you on their data base using this Blue Book.  Immigration here in the land of smiles run a very tight ship.  They will always want to know where you are at – mainly because of the millions crossing in and out of their borders each month.

Anyway back to the main story:  because you cannot own the land the house is on you will need to lease it from the owner – in my case it is for 30 years recurring – for a onetime fee included in the lawyer’s charges. Finally a bit of advice – rent for 3 to 6 months to make sure that where you want to be is exactly that.  Like I said earlier, the places I loved in earlier days have change immensely and mostly not for the better.

Rules of the Game

Since farangs cannot legally own land, buying a condo in Thailand is the way to go. Buying a condo in Thailand is cheap and easy because condo-building is booming [see these videos]. ‘Cookie cutter’ houses in moobaan (gated communities) are hard to sell: the developer will always offer to build a new, customer-specific house for the same price as the ‘old’ one. There are several other reasons for this:

• Thais hate old houses.
• Farangs cannot own land
• Farings can buy a condo in Thailand and ownership will be in their own name;
• Condos come with a title deed;
• Condo owners can use the title deed as collateral;
• Maintenance fees are low as $10/mo;
• Condo resale is faster and easier than houses.

I’ve just been through a condo-buying extravaganza with two clients and picked up some tips that you might find useful when buying an apartment in Thailand. We may love Thailand’s loosey-goosey attitude to everything but, in major financial transactions, it can be dangerous for folks unfamiliar with local conditions. Here are some precautions:

1. Use only a registered, licenced REAL ESTATE lawyer. Thai lawyers specialize narrowly and most Thai lawyers – though they’ll gladly take you as a client – are ignorant of Thai real estate law and practices. (As a special bonus, if you hire a scammy lawyer you can expect him to stop answering your calls as soon as the money is in his possession).
2. Study up on Thai real estate scams: In 2006 on Koh Samui, thousands of plots of land were issued title deeds illegally. The ‘titled’ area exceeded the total land on the entire island! Elsewhere, beautiful land that borders national parks and mountainous areas has been developed and sold – without legal titles. It’s fairly common for scammy developers to deliver a valid title when you’re signing the contract – but the title you’re getting is to property that’s not the property you thought you were buying. You should visit your chosen property again with title in hand to be sure that the description on the title matches the location of the condo. Otherwise you could end up living behind the parking lot! Skipping promised features and amenities promised by the developer in his prospectus is another reason to do multiple inspections.
3. Get lots of advice when you are buying a condo before completion (“off plan”). Talk to others who have done it and make sure that the developer is sound and has a good track record.
4. There is a transfer tax on your condo. I’ll cover that in next month’s newsletter.
5. It’s possible for farangs to get mortgages in Thailand. Both my bank, Bangkok Bank, and United Overseas Bank (UOB) issue mortgage bonds denominated in foreign currencies (Yen, Euro, USD) from their Singapore branches. Their interest rates vary with the currency.
6. Thai real estate agents are unlicensed, untrained, and uninterested in your well-being. They mark up the asking price of properties to suit themselves: all farangs are rich so, as soon as you walk into their office they’ll add hundreds of thousands of baht to their prices. Try using a Thai friend as a front, to get prices first (or after your inspection). Try avoiding real estate agents and talk to your local banker (he finances most of the properties and knows what’s going on).

In short, talk to as many people as possible before buying a condo in Thailand. If you don’t know many people just ask your local expats club and you’ll be overwhelmed with help and, generally, good advice.

Buying a condo in Thailand can be fun and easy. Or it can be the other thing. It’s up to you.

More reading on how to buy a condo in Thailand can be found here: 8 Questions You Must Ask Yourself Before Buying A Condo … – If you’re thinking about buying a condo in Thailand then read this essential checklist of questions before you part with your money. And this video gives you an idea of Chiang Mai’s skyline and visits a Chiang Mai condo building:

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