~G~

So... 65,000 people in 2004, and some of these won't be coming in on visa on arrivals either, so actually the real number is lower again. So therefore, by my own criteria, not a big deal.

Probably no major impact on Thailand's income from tourism, but can be a major impact on other areas, even from the Thai perpective.

Take the fact that most foreign teachers in Thailand are working illegally. I assume most of them are doing the monthly visa runs.

What will that do to English Teaching in Thailand?

Much higher wages!!!!

I assume you are joking? I was thinking more in the line of: fewer foreign teachers -> more Thais -> lower English teaching level (yes, even lower than now...)

So... 65,000 people in 2004, and some of these won't be coming in on visa on arrivals either, so actually the real number is lower again. So therefore, by my own criteria, not a big deal.

Probably no major impact on Thailand's income from tourism, but can be a major impact on other areas, even from the Thai perpective.

Take the fact that most foreign teachers in Thailand are working illegally. I assume most of them are doing the monthly visa runs.

What will that do to English Teaching in Thailand?

Makes me wonder whether just having a particular skill set would change the choice much, but lets see what people have to say.

Of course. Can you do something of value yourself or do you need to hire expensive experts? Bill Gates didn't start by hiring a bunch of PHDs. He started by doing the work himself. Donald Trump's father got into real estate by using his two hands to build houses. Do you have any kind of specilaized knowledge? Are you a professional in any field, or at least, have some good experience doing anything? Do you have good contacts that can help you start?:-)

Nothing? just supplying the cash? Well... to buy a condo and rent it... I think you can get better returns for your money in a conservative and diversified investment portfolio (conservative in this sense does not include Thailand). To just purchase a business, sit back and count the money flowing in, starting with 1M baht budget? keep dreaming.

Try to think what you can contribute to the market, what is your added value to your customers. As Bill Heineke says, "Find a Gap and Fill It".

Nothing of that kind? Don't start a business.

I stand corrected, although there are interesting topics that could be brought up after reading the prohibited occupation list

For example, cat A lists "Selling food and drinks" as prohibited yet cat B lists "selling food, beverages that promote tourism" as an allowed occupation provided a permit is obtained prior to stating work... That brings the question, why do so many bar owners go on 30 day visa runs?

Brokerage, Accounting and Law are also listed prohibited occupations, which is strange given the amount of adverts for Sunbelt Asia I have seen on ThaiVisa.

Sunbelt is a Thai majority company and the foreigners working there are "advisors" or "managers" rather than brokers, lawyers, etc.

Now that you mentioned "right" locations, this is where I'm totally clueless again. Would you be kind enough to point me out to certain roads or districts that I should include on my trip to Bangkok. I do have a Thai-local friend bringing me around but I wish to gather more perspective from an expatriate point of view.

Best locations for a foreign food restaurant in Bangkok will be Sukhumvit and Silom areas. The better the location is, the more you will pay in rent, of course.

You are looking for Native English speakers living in places where cost of living is cheap. Coming to Thailand means night shifts, which mean you need to pay some premium as a compensation.

Why not look for Expats at other regions, geograhically closer? South America, for example?

if you were my guest i would nt waste the time presenting to you...

And that would have been a very clever step, since there is not a slight chance I'd buy anything from you

check this its no timeshare site its the economist....brought up by google hotel price inflation average....

check out the graph of common items relating to inflation.....OH HOTEL PRICE INFLATION IS THE HIGHEST!!!!

http://www.economist.com/printedition/disp...Story_ID=457272

LOL. Lecturing people about financial logic and cannot even add 1 + 1...

According to YOUR own data, hotel rooms prices rose only 5.8% between 1900 and 2000. That is not even close to your claimed 8% to 10%. And that is in New York, hardly an average vacation site, nor a representative measure, and over a century, which is not a time to measure ROI. Nobody goes for vacations for 100 years. 15-20 years is the acceptable period for long term investment.

So Let's have a look at the second chart, that shows prices change during 1990 to 2000, which is more relevant. Even in New York, the rise was 70% over the last decade. That is less than 5.5% a year, again, not even close. And that does not include the slowdown in 2001-2003.

And even that pathetic 5.5% or 5.8% (the S&P did over 10% a year on average in the last 40 years) is completely irrelevant. If Phuket gets too expensive and crowded, people go to vacation in Samui, they don't just pay higher and higher prices. When Samui gets too expensive people switch to Ko Phangan or Ko Chang,. There is NO GAIN in timeshare, JUST LOSS, except for the companies who sell them, and for the agents who manage to con people into buying them.

we can assume that time share is certainly not a wise financial decision, but not necessarily a bad one either; it all depends on the individual case.

Two problems with your analysis:

1. The hotel inflation rate DOES NOT rise 8%-10% a year. Let's get the facts right.

2. Secondary market is very problmatic: low liquidity, supply exceeds demand in such a way the make the units fall to 20%-30% of their original value, high costs to sell - advertisments or large comissions (you only have one or few units to sell, you cannot afford the marketing expenses those companies have).

Add those consideration, and it can be easily seen that buying a timeshare unit from the timeshare companies is a BAD FINANCIAL DECISION in all cases.

hotel price inflation also goes up at 8-10%

No, they don't. Average daily rates (ADR) can rise and decline from one year to another. Sometimes the declines are VERY significant. On the long term, I'd say about only 2% rise a year, which is less than what a safe, conservative investment protfolio can do.

Oh and Ive still got the timeshare for another 20-freehold amount of years to sell, pass to the kids etc

Second hand timeshares are selling for 20%-30% of the price they were bought, if they manage to sell at all. Taking into consideration the TVM, as explained by steve, shows even a bigger loss.

I am not familiar with bidc, but I can recommend http://www.bangkokdental.com which is located near Central Ladphrao, so not too far from Ratchada.

Thanks, Withnail. They seem to concentrate on aesthetic treatments, or at least that is the impression I get from their site.

Any other feedbacks?

All's b.s.

frist of all - go to any shop and buy cheapest tape or digital recorder.

second, go to motherF... and try to "negotiate", but make him say that he did rent that s**t hole to you and received 35K

third, go to any nice law company and ask them to put what you taped on the paper and verify it.

forth. go to police and claim felony.

don't let them lure you into any other coinversation than full 100% refund. Promise to call to MFA, to Bangkok head office, get all policemen involved, get their names, call to UN, to C.Annann, C.Rise - make as much noise as possible -> you'll play on thai weakness of "keeping face" or "not loosing one"

smart ass will pay you back just to get out from the spotlight, beleive me.

Don't give up, or else you'll be screwed in siam on daily basis

Only problem. There is no felony, there is a verbal contract for 6 months, and the OP has decided that they don't want to honour the terms of the contract.

6 month lease at 9k per month = 63k. Has already paid up 35,000b. Therefore... your tape and going to a court will require an additional payment, not refund.

This is not the point - Oleg_Rus is suggesting that the OP will try to intimidate the landlord . Didn't you know we have a Mafia Boss on board?

smart ass will pay you back just to get out from the spotlight, beleive me.

Chances are the landlord is much better connected with Pattaya police than this guy.

And what kind of spotlight do you expect to get for a 35K deal?

If I was the landlord and someone pulled this kind of shit on me, I'd file a complaint for harrasment plus sue the tenant not only for the next 3 months, but for hundrends of thousands of baht "damages" to the unit. Then see who blinks first.

Timeshares are a scam because:

1. The Agents create the illusion that the buyer may sell his unit whenever he pleases, for a reasonable price, many even say the value appreciates over the years. In fact, those that try to sell their time shares units may get as little as 20% of the price they paid. If you really want to buy a timeshare unit, don't buy them from an agent, buy from a desperate owner.

2. The biggest problem is the maintenance fees. Some places even raise them over the years. And if you refuse to pay maintainance fees, then you lose the time share unit.

This is a scam and the agents who sell them should be ready to be treated as scam (there are going to very angry people after you ) By the way, AFAIK, sales is not a profession for which you can get a WP as a foreigner, even in theory. You can manage sales, supervise sales, but not to be a "sales person".

The OP is clearly inspired by Thai politics, in which money buys votes. Yes, it works, but no, it's not in the books.

Negotiate. Offer to move out now in return for some of the money.

If it's easy to find tenants in that area, the landlord might agree.

I refer to the newly opened (a few months ago) center, in Ratchadapisek, 7 story building.

I am interested to know if anyone had experiences with this place, is it any good?

If not familiar with this place, what other place will you recommend?

Thanks in advance,

~G~

Hi,

I entered a verbal agreement to rent a house in Pattaya. The landlord wanted a 6 month contract. I gave him about 3 months rent and a little more (9K a month; 35K total). I stayed there only 2 weeks before I realized it was not right place for me. Now he refuses to return any of the deposit. He claims that this is the way it is done here.

He is no pauper by any means.

So. ... Is he right? If I am entitled to a return of some of the deposit, is there like a small claims court or arbitration. Open to suggestions.

Thx.

I just don't see your point. You agreed to stay for 6 motths and paid for 3. Now you suddenly want to cancel the agreement unilateraly? why should he agree? That is exactly the point in paying in advance - making sure you stay.

Thailand should also continue to focus on English.

Exactly. All of the above is quite meaningless without the language skills. But... didn't Thailand lately revised its policy to make it harder on foreign english teachers?

funny.. there are a couple of web versions of this topic. Flucid and Startup.com

I suppose...

93% keep the best ideas to themselves and never do anything about it

6% do something about it, and fail without working hard enough

.05% actually do something about their ideas, and try try try until they succeed

.02% keel over and die before anything else

And... 0.93%? BTW: What does "keel over" mean?

BoI secretary-general Sathit Charnchaokul (สาธิต ชาญเชาว์กุล) said currently, only one-third of Thai entrepreneurs fully own the businesses. The rest is joint ventures with foreign partners, Mr. Sathit said.

And what's wrong with that?

Come now G, surely you know the answer to that.

All together now – “Xe – no – pho – bi – a”

No way. In the Land Of Smiles?!

BoI secretary-general Sathit Charnchaokul (สาธิต ชาญเชาว์กุล) said currently, only one-third of Thai entrepreneurs fully own the businesses. The rest is joint ventures with foreign partners, Mr. Sathit said.

And what's wrong with that? Foreign partners contribute contacts, distribution channels abroad, and of course, investment capital. Those are probably not neccessary any more for Thailand.. Very wise.

That would be to good to be true or did I understand something wrong?

What makes me wounder is, the shipping costs must vary a lot if I order 1 kg or 1000 kg, so I have the feeling I miss some information.

Ask them what is their minimum order quantity. They will not ship 1kg at that price..

If it's sea freight, with big enough volume, shipping per kg can be very low.

I already got the source from Baiyoke 2 (Bangkok) but did not know 1) where to find forwarder by land 2) about tax imposed by Thai authorities 3) transport fee (from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur) 4) the rules & regulations of importing t-shirts to Malaysia to sell 5) whether I had left out anything important.

Apart from sensitive items, Thailand does not restrict or tax exports. Generally, the taxing and restrictions are done by the Custom Authorities in the importing country - it this case, malaysia.

You should contact a customs agent in Malaysia for advice about the relevant tax issues.

Do you have a Thai company? If not, you can't really act as the exporter. You can have your supplier be the exporter, Issuing an Invoice to your address in Malaysia, with you being the Malaysian importer. I do not know the Malaysian laws, but in most coutries you need to be at least registered for VAT in order to perform a commercial import.

Dunno if it answers your question, but I got a call from Standard Chartered the other day, offering loans with no collaterals, up to 3M baht for SMEs. Crazy interest rates, but who cares if you only need it for a few months.

Anyway, 1.5M baht is not a lot, and I'd guess the answer to your question is yes, but I am not sure they will be as quick with it as you need them to be.

I have had the same idea as you, heart.

The main reason I did not do it was because I realized, that it would not be stress-less at all, and that it is very possible to optain the same level of return from other much more maintainable investments. I invested in a mutual fund.

And what kind of yield did your mutual fund do since the beginning of the year?

ask about last 3 years miones averaged about 10% but this year since jan has been bad lost about half gain but still up about 5-7% per annum compounded - i look at long term 10+ years and in UK and USA property has been thing but here in LOS i tihnk your better of with mutuals - but who knows u takes your chance and live with it or just blow it all and go back to UK or USA and live of social

I asked about this year for a reason... did around 25% in 2005, 3% so far 2006. Mutuals funds? No. Stick to ETFs. Anyway, markets are on their way down I believe. But, enough with that, this is a real estate thread.