whosyourdaddy Posted March 1, 2005 Report Share Posted March 1, 2005 Buying a house. After years of paying rent my wife and I decided it was time to set down roots. Luckily an investment property came up for sale in our soi and we jumped at it. The process is a long one but not too complicated. In fact the mortgage takes forever. The banks have really changed the rules since 1997 where they had severe trouble reposing the houses. I think they have gone too far. The mortgage contract was 14 pages and basically signed our first born away if we are 30 seconds late for a payment. We decided on Krung Thai Bank since they had competitive rates and easy early payment rules. They were willing to give 90% of the appraised value of the house based on our combined salaries. Thai Farmers did not want anything to do with a foreigner without a residency status. Siam Commercial was willing to lend us 70% of the appraised value. The problem with Siam commercial was that the appraised value is generally much less than the market value and in reality they will only give about 50-60% of the actual value. If you are there with the appraiser I would suggest to $encourage the appraiser to value the house at market value$. Asia Bank was willing to give 80% but the house we wanted to not match their criteria. They are basically looking for new houses at a certain price range. Local branches tend to make their own decision on who gets the mortgage and then head office puts the final stamp on it. So if one branch does not grant you what you want, head to the next soi over and try the other branch. It took the bank about 2 weeks to get the appraiser out there and then the application sat on the desk of the loan agent for weeks despite weekly pleas. The result is that someone came with cash and bought the house 2 days before we were going to close. Damn. Since we have come that far and were approved for the mortgage for THAT particular house we just made an offer to the new owner that they could not refuse and paid them cash for the extra amount. The land transfer was easy. They checked the house and stamped the new paper. Taxes were quite a bit at about 4-5% of the sale price, plus a 10,000B fee to transfer the house from us to the bank. (Get you every time). After talking with my lawyer he insured me that the transfer process was easy and foolproof and there was no need to pay him to be there. Plus I thought since the bank had their representative there, they would double check everything. Boy was I wrong. I am sure they sent the bank?s janitor. At the end of the day all went according to plan but it was a bit stressful. When we buy the next house I will pay the extra 10,000B to have the lawyer there to double check anything, the bank was useless. Renovation costs. (costs can be cheaper than this but you get what you pay for. Extremely pleased with our contractor!) Western style kitchen installed. 60,000B for 5m cabinets from Progressive Kitchen Rewire the entire house including ground and breaker panel, add drop lights, and 10 new grounded plugs.. 25,000B Paint the house and varnish the hardwood floors, windows and doors.. 35000B Redo the downstairs bathroom tiles ? 20,000B including imported tiles. Odds and ends- fix stairs, windows, roof, tiles, plumbing, clean the place etc. 50,000 Added a roof in the back. 12000B New pump and water tank. 12000B Things to think about. Visit the area at night. Are there little hole in the wall bars open around the place? (I hate Thailand?s lack of zoning) Visit the place in the day and listen for factory, sweat shop workers. Look for water marks for signs of flooding. Any open field in the area will draw in mosquitoes; even screens won?t keep these bastards out. No needs to pay a deposit on the house until you get the local branches approval on the house. Many owners will ask for a deposit from 10,000B up to 30%. The banks/ lawyers suggest waiting as the deposits really don?t mean much and you can loose it all if you don?t get approved. Ask for 90 days to close on the contract. Thai bureaucracy takes time!!! Get a lawyer. Prices range from 15,000- 50,000B for the sale. Mortgages are also a good idea since the mortgage is in both of our names and the house is in the wife?s name. Since the mortgage is above my wife?s extra income, we need each other and there is less chance of someone trying to run away with the house. You can also pay at the amphur office to legally lease the land from your wife but you need to pay the transfer tax again. This helps you if something should happen to your wife and you have no legal heirs to inherit the house. Children can own the house but can not sell the house till ( a) they get married or ( turn 20 years of age. Again a nice safeguard for a foreigner. Current Problems. Bought a new water pump 150W should have bought a 250 W. ( opps) Damn noisy dogs in the evening. (Replacing bedroom window with double pane/glazed PVC window ? 10000B) Termites in the back door. 3000B for spraying. Plus door 5000B I am sure the list will continue to get longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CondomKing Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 whosyourdaddy said:the bank was useless. Tell me about it!!! My wife an I took a bank loan to build our house. It was paid in four installments as the house was constructed. The first payment required bank approval and signing some documents. The person representing the bank was a clueless 20 year old trainee. We had to explain how to complete the bank's checklist! After we finally got the cash we took her to lunch and gave her a 100 B tip. She was all smiles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted March 2, 2005 Report Share Posted March 2, 2005 Hi, Very interesting read, thanks! My wife and I have also been considering buying a house and finally found one we like. Price is decent as well, but after consideration we have decided to wait another year or so to be able to make a bigger downpayment and get a bit more paperwork to back us up when applying for a mortgage. Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Petchburi Pete Posted March 5, 2005 Report Share Posted March 5, 2005 Congratulations, and good luck with your new home. We bought a nice 'garden' home in a fine development in East Pattaya. We're very happy with the home and area. I too was/still am amazed at the din created by the hounds at night. But, remember, they not only deter thieves; but, also keep away the evil spirits! I tried ear plugs for a night; but, couldn't sleep at all with those. We sleep with the A/C on low in the bedroom; and, that helps offset the howling! And yes, I can relate to the mosquitos' ability to somehow penetrate the screens. What's the alternative? ... keep the windows shut and run up a huge electric bill for A/C? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopburi3 Posted March 6, 2005 Report Share Posted March 6, 2005 Those 99 baht recharge zappers make a good last line of defense. If you have a dressing mirror turn light on above it and wait - they are easy to see in the mirror and almost always come to check out the light in five minutes or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2005 Report Share Posted March 8, 2005 Hi whosyourdaddy, Nice post. Thanks for sharing. Very informative. Congratulations! PS. They don't sell those electronic bug zappers there? I got one several months ago, and works great. Has a 'black light' to attract, along with a chemical attractant (Octonol). The light only runs $20 here in US. Gotta replace the octonol every 450 hours. Zapper alone will work well, but Octonol increases efficiency 400%. It's heat activated by the black light, so doesn't emit anything unless turned on. They also sell one that runs around $350 US. It runs off a tank of propane, is one bad machine. That thing will rid the whole neighborhood of the devils. Used for farms, etc. HT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted March 10, 2005 Report Share Posted March 10, 2005 whosyourdaddy, Nice post. Very interesting and full of potentially useful info. Thank you for posting all the details with the story. Living in a high-rise has some problems, but the few soi dogs down at ground level are usually pretty quiet. The complaints about dogs barking at night hardens my resolve to not move into a house anytime soon. At least until we can put it in the middle of a 20 rai farm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yehtmae Posted March 10, 2005 Report Share Posted March 10, 2005 Interesting I've just bought a house here and we ended up going with Siam Commercial as well for the mortgage. The approval process took 3 days. 2 days later we paid the 30% down and the house was ours Just lucky I guess. I think our combined salary, length of residency, marriage duration, etc. made approval almost automatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CondomKing Posted March 13, 2005 Report Share Posted March 13, 2005 rickfarang said:Living in a high-rise has some problems, but the few soi dogs down at ground level are usually pretty quiet. The complaints about dogs barking at night hardens my resolve to not move into a house anytime soon. At least until we can put it in the middle of a 20 rai farm Yeah, OK, but then what about your dogs? :: You will have dogs, wont you? Without dogs you will have "night visitors" almost for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HonoluluJimmy Posted March 21, 2005 Report Share Posted March 21, 2005 Night visitors......Well, I am also in tghe house hunt market. Will start looking to make buy in about 4 weeks. More simple as ther will be no need for a mortage etc. However, since I cannot have a gun or mace cans and I will not tolerate NIGHT VISITORS the answer is in a gated community or private security service. Many Mamy years ago I had some good friends whom lived n Manila where all houses had guards. I will pay about 5000 baht a month for a guard from sun down to sunrise. BTW, ther is no lay about a base ball bat! AKA Irish Bodyguard! I will be eauipted with police issue riot batton which, btw I imported and resides in a Patong hillside home! Dogs, a good possibility! But then I will be asked " who let the dogs out"...sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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