123ace

Infinity will complete - search the web and you can find all you need to know.

Personally I find the issue on samui to be the rampant shop house development that creeps all over the island. These usless, ugly shop/dwellings are built by locals with no regard for asthetics or demand and supply considerations. This is the blight in samui. A few foreign developers making the news is small play in comparison.

Many of your views on estate agents are from a very simplistic and narrow perspective. It seems fashionable to bash agents and tar them all with the same brush, much as lawyers or car sales men are slated. If we all declared our professions on here we would have less room to hide perhaps.

Agents will always be necessary, to consdier it to be a dying trade because we can go on line is dim and disingenious. How would you get a valuation for a mortgage? how would you find a shop where there are no vacancies, or a warehosue? get comaparable evidence to reduce your office rent before the lease expires? market a property overseas in 10 countries at the same time? obtain market research on a specific sector? I could go on for hours, but you will still think its a dying trade....

Few Thai's rent. they almost only rent a the low end of the market (sub 15k) and you will be wasting your time possibly. Wealthy young locals tend to live at home or owner occupy. Renting a home from a farang would be abhorrent to them.

I do not advise you buy anything in a hurry as your depth of knowledge on the market appears limited. Buying 5 can only be to rent them out, tr to re-sell for profit. It is a hard game.

What area are you considering?

Simple:

1. Use more cals than you consume and you will see weight loss. the 2,000 k's per day is an absurd quideline put out by the US food industry.

2. Keep running. Adopt felxible running styles such a sprinting between lamp posts, or 20 seconds burts followed by 20 second jogs, for 5 mins etc. Your body is used to running an dif you stop you may balloon!

3. This 'fartlek' style will shock the system and potentially burn fat at a far acceleted rate, and will much improve your running performance.

4. Eat late if you want, the dont eat after 7pm is for sedentary people. It is so irrelevant for an athlete. 3 meals a day is not ideal 5 - 6 small meals is better - so enjoy yr snacks.

5. You will probably injure self doing weights and may burn less cals - certainly when compared with running. It helps building muscle mass but that takes time, burning fat can be done in days - literally a few days.

6. You will have heard about carbs etc - try eating none, literally 100% none for a week only and you will shed kilo's. During this week eat what ever else you want, so need to feel starved and empty.

7. Beer is a shocker - but who cares.

I see your point, but surely (and assuming this is a freehold condo) the Juristic Person woudl have to make a statement that the property is free of debt and leins? I could be wrong, but the JP should have highlited this prior to enabling transfer at the Land Dept.

I would not recommned grey unless you are very well seasoned in cras and living here. A uk car will have some different spec parts, notably air con tuned for the uk, but no big deal. Its a specialty car here even from BMW, and spare parts are an issue. I have had specilaty cars here before and if its going to be your daily driver it may become a bore.

Better to buy a real sports car from a local main dealer, take the huge tax hit on the chin and keep it for 4 - 6 years. The Z4 may be also an auto, and if so will rapidly bore you to tears.

I have seen horror stoies here with super marques in bangkok and promised myself to never go there again...

Subaru WRX or STI are the only options availble in Thailand that are real sports cars and don't require modding.

Expats can get finance, even the WRX has 220 bhp (detuned fro the Thai market) and a 2.5l turbo engine. If you want it can be modded to 270bhp very, very easily. With 4 wheel drive it out perfoms everything on the road except supercars, in the dry and in the wet. It is amazingly reliable and is the real deal.

I have not found anything to beat it - there are no EVO's sold by Mitsu so fogrt them, the GTI has just arrived and is not sold by teh VW main dealer (read spare risk for both).

Forget everthing else and at least test drive the scooby - you will be smitten!

Ride it there. If that does not work you can take of the pedads & loose items and bubble wrap it. I have done this a few times. Local flights are different to inter and you can get out at Phkt and see it being uloaded & shout at them if needed.

Yes, it is fine.

They are all useless and in some cases they try to steer you to the

property that will pay THEM the best leasing fee.

Renters don't need to go through agents in any case because all you need do is

choose where you want to live and just walk around the various buildings on your own.

I would rather one of their staff members get a small fee than the parasite agents

You also have a much better negotiating position because no one

knows what you have seen or what you might prefer in other buildings.

If you go around with an agent they know too much about your options because they see what you like

and dont forget they are not acting in your interests anyway.

To say all agents are useless parasites is hostile, ignorant and prejudicial. Agents are people, some are good some are bad. Another point, condo office employees are not empowered to show individually owned condos and most will refer you to an agent, their job is to manage the property, they are not compensated to show rental units, they are not leasing agents and don't receive commissions, they are paid a salary by the management company to manage the property. If you don't want to use an agent to find a property, don't use one. If you leave the country and want to rent out your condo, either do it your self, find a friend to help, use an agent or let the property sit vacant. If you don't like the agent get another one, same thing with a doctor, dentist, lawyer, cook, maid, auto mechanic or any other service provider, if you are not happy with their service, find someone else. But to bash all agents as parasites and useless is a juvenile attitude and ridiculous...

"condo office employees are not empowered to show individually owned condos and most will refer you to an agent, "

No they don't – in many cases they refer you to the PROPERTY OWNER so you can deal direct with the owner which yields better, cheaper and faster results all around.

And a doctor, dentist, lawyer, cook, maid, auto mechanic or any other service provider are paid BY YOU to carry out a service FOR YOU. A leasing agent is paid by another party altogether and is therefore not acting in your best interests. Then you could pay the agent to act on your behalf, but few people are enlightened enough to do this and then balme the agent WHO IS ACTING FOR THE PARTY PAYING THE FEE!!

The only reason people have to deal with agents ( regrettably ) is if there in no one on the site- which isn't the case in Bangkok condo's.

I fail to understand your complaint..

Your lease is out, correct ?? Now unless it is contractually agreed previously, your new lease can be anything.. It can be a billion baht or a satang.. Its down to the land owner or sub leasee.. Does this surprise you ??

In fact I am stunned hes offering you 500k to leave, most here would just raise the price and have you walk, I guess it must have >500k worth of fixtures and fittings.

This is normal standard biz practice.

I agree, on the basis that the current lessee has no right of renewal - this has not been clearly established.

I assume that it's a shophouse and not in a centre, therefore it's a commodity in over-supply (notwithstanding we don't know where it is) and the landlord would not be able to replicate the current business without the 2m in fixtures & fittings, and by retaining the Chef (possibly the OP?) as such he is probably better with the existing tenant staying put and negotiating a fair deal. I imagine he would face a bareshell mess once vacated as the lease will hardly have a repairing clause and a long void period before he can replace the tenant.

Does the landlord expect to get the fixtures and fittings for THB 500k?

I would look at simply relocating the contents to another shop, and assuming you have sufficient lease time left, let the landlord know you have been 'offered' a great deal somewhere else (but have not accepted any offer) and he will only get a bareshell back if you move. The bareshell is worthless to him as the 'goodwill' was created by you.

Have your wife go to the landlord complaining that you can move but she does not want to. Ask for him to help by reducing the key money, as she needs to play that she prefers to stay but you have great offer and the whole situation has changed - and you are the decision maker. I suggest you do not meet the landlord directly and agree now the future renewal basis after 3 years lease not 2.

It will be hard to sell the business without the landlord signing a new lease with the new tenant - he will want his share at that time and it will likley prevent a sale & transfer of the business contained within the shop.

I would have highlited the Juristic Person's legal requirement to indicate that there are no outstanding debts on the property before allowing the sale to proceed. The deposit may be construed as a debt / liabilty on the property that should have led to consultation tri-party prior to transfer..perhaps.

Upon future re-sale you will compete with new supply that will always absorb the new foreign freehold demand.

My advice would be to buy elsewhere, there is ample new supply in all locations and at most price points.

Is the house in Bangkok and do you plan to rent it out? I can introduce based on this info.

I agree that it probably a tax issue with the owner. It is not illegal as far as I am aware as a 'lease premium' or 'goodwill' 'key money' payment is relatively common and has no or little bearing on economic reality. It happens with school entry fees in much the same way here although termed as something else.

Can you be more specific about what the 'business' is? since if you are just renting premises from this party it may be best to just relocate and put a lot more attention in to securing a better deal at a new location.

Whilst this up front payment may be expected at a new site, many landlords are sitting on empty units as Pattaya is awash with these shophouses (mostly derelict) and you can quite easily remove all your fixtures and fittings and transplant them elsewhere.

Threats in Pattaya are to be expected, and take heed as they can be obstructive in many ways (cutting electricity, smashing windows etc) and you will have little or no recourse. Suffice to say that you will not likley ever get your deposit back now or in another 3 years, so factor that in to any decsion you make at this stage.

Have you (the sarcatic plebs) actually read the article?? it is actually quite critical of the Pattaya market if you take time to understand it. I think a large proportion of expats dossing in Pattaya are simply unable to understand anything about the buisness community they are in aside from the price of beer. The article basically said less than 25% of the high end condos launched since 2004 have been sold. Are these these words of someone talking the market up??