newnative

Sorry to see him exit. He was the only one standing up to Trump. The remaining choices are all awful--which I suppose is good since I am a Democrat.

Certainly, it's always whatever floats your boat. Some like a mountain view, some the bright lights of a city, etc. My favorite view is both of the ocean and the beach shoreline.

Agreeing to be an Executor is not something to be taken lightly, as there is work involved, even if an estate is not 'complicated'. A person should never be named as Executor unless they have agreed to it and there should be an alternate named in the Will. Unless an Executor, such as a family member, specifically states he or she dos not want compensation for the work involved with being an Executor, I think it's a good idea to discuss this with the Executor and have monetary compensation written into the Will.

My spouse and I have loved our ocean views at all the condos we owned and, no, the views did not get old--quickly or otherwise. I think sea view condos are easier to sell and hold their value well--at least that has been our experience. If you have seaview it automatically sets you apart from all the condos for sale that don't have a seaview so a lot of the competition is eliminated. If you have an oceanfront condo you really don't need to be very high up. When we owned at an oceanfront condo project in Wong Amat we were on floor 4 of a 6 story condo and had a beautiful view of the ocean as the building sat on a rise of about 2 stories above the beach.

Totally useless and unworkable. Big ticket items excluded, newspapers and magazines (HUH?) included. Who thinks up such nonsence. Zero tax on any expat money brought into the country would make more of an impact, with the new tax mess.

I am in Pattaya but my spouse and I have sold a number of properties, both condos and houses, in Pattaya, Bangkok, and Rayong. Thailand does not have an MLS (multiple listing service) for real estate. This is what works for us: Since there is no MLS, we list with as many agencies as we possibly can, starting with the biggest and the closest to the property we are selling. Commissions can be negotiated, especially with unique and higher priced properties, but 5% is standard for established agencies with websites. We always start with 5% because we want agents to show our property, rather than the one next door with a 3% commission. It's important to list with as many agencies as you can because you don't know which agency a buyer perfect for your property might turn up at. You also don't know which agency realty site a buyer might search. Exposure with multiple agencies is key. We've sold properties with both big and small agencies. We get the email addresses of the agencies and we send an email to the agencies that has both detailed information and good photos. Some agencies will want to take their own photos for their websites and some in Pattaya will also do videos. We are as accommodating as we possibly can be with any agency requests and any property we have on the market for sale has been decluttered, is neat and clean, everything is in working order, and the property can be ready to be shown with 10 minutes advance notice. There was a recent thread on agencies and it garnered a number of negative comments. None from us--we value agencies. We always try to sell our proprties ourselves, and we have sold some, but the majority have been sold by agencies bringing buyers to us. You certainly can use things like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, as we also do, but, to date, we have not sold a single property using either--but we still try because, you never know where the buyer will come from. Good luck with your sale.

Your negative comments regarding Chinese and Indian tourists aren't supported by actual statistics. From 2015 to 2019, years in which Chinese and Indian tourists were increasing rapidly in Thailand, your so-called 'high spending tourists' did not decrease. European countries that are tracked were all up, not down, during those years. Tourists from the USA, another higher spending demographic, were up 34%. If you do some observation yourself, in places other than 7-11 and Big C, you will find Chinese and Indian families staying at some of the nicer resorts. A majority of the Chinese tourists in 2019, by the way, were independent travelers, not in tour groups. My spouse and I go to the gym twice a week at a very nice resort in Wong Amat. We see Chinese and Indian families staying there all the time. A few months ago we were at Dusit in north Pattaya for dinner and there was a big group of Indian dentists and their families staying there. Of course, tourists from these countries can also be found at cheaper hotels but that's exactly what you want, a diverse tourist demographic that fills the rooms at 5 star resorts and also 1 and 2 star places.

Sad to say, this is probably actually true. He borrowed his Big Lie regarding the 2020 election directly from the Nazi Germany play book, with his preposterous Big Lie that the election was 'stolen' from him. (Well, the lie does need to be BIG--that's the whole point.) Even sadder, using the Big Lie can apparently still work with the brain dead. In a recent poll, over 30% of Americans still believe Trump's Big Lie. Also sad, as an American, that there are that many idiot Americans. Lotta sad with anything to do with Trump.

Yes. As he lost the last two times he ran for President--in both elections the majority of the voters rejected him. The majority of the voters wanted the other candidate. Did. Not. Want. Trump. Was given the presidency, against the will of the voters, by the cursed Electoral College in 2016. Will be rejected again by the majority of the voters in 2024, if he is the GOP nominee. He's going down hill with voters. In 2016 he lost by 2 million votes. In 2020 he lost by 7 million votes, as Americans got to know him for the lying, cheating, delusional grifter he is. Loser.

Thank you!

They need to continue north with the overpasses that they have done in the south on Sukhumvit, to start. Then look at removing parking, starting with North Pattaya Road.

'Thailand's tourism opertors' should be corrected to the opinions of just 2.

Have fun and and don't sweat the small stuff--and, in the end, almost everything is small stuff.

The cheapest studio on Hipflat is a floor 8 unit for 18,000 baht. Some others are listed from 22,000 to 26,000 baht a month. An 8th floor unit is listed for sale at 3.7MB. I did not see any VT6 studios on Facebook for 10,000 baht, either. There was one listed for 28,000 baht.

Except, that thread was discussing short-term rentals. I believe the OP is planning to do long-term rentals--something different. I would say a hard no to short-term rentals, from a financial point, especially with just one or two condos. And, also because they are illegal. Long-term rentals I find a much more viable proposition, and have done them myself.

This may be a dumb question and might have already been answered somewhere back in the 200+ pages but I can't remember. The question came up this morning. I have a Thai brother-in-law working abroad who is planning to return to Thailand in April or early May 2024. He might be transferring a large sum of money to Thailand due to a condo sale in 2024, before he returns. The question, if he stays out of Thailand for more than 180 days in 2024 will he be considered a 'non-tax resident' for tax purposes even though he is a Thai citizen? Or, does that designation just apply to foreigners? Thank you!

You will get negative posts telling you to rent, not buy, in Thailand because it will be a terrible investment and you will lose your shirt, and likely your pants, as well. This has not been the experience of my spouse and me through a number of property purchases and sales, mostly condos. Your plan is actually what a number of Thais do, including two of my Thai spouse's relatives, both in banking. When they retire, required at age 60 where they work, they receive a lump sum payment, rather than a pension, that has to last them for the rest of their lives, whether they live to 70 or 100. In order to make that lump sum last longer, they have bought rental condos to provide some income. If they can get, say, 30,000 baht a month in rental income, that's 30,000 baht that they don't need to withdraw from that lump sum each month. They have been buying the condos while they are still employed and they each own one or two. We actually owned three Pattaya rental one-bedroom condos at various times, at Lumpini Park Beach, The Base, and Centric Sea. Had I not had a pension and SS, we might still own them. Ultimately, we opted for a quick profit selling them, after renting each for a year, rather than a slower, monthly return. I can't remember the LPB rental but with the Base, we got 25,000 baht a month and Centric Sea was 22,000--this was when both projects first opened, a number of years ago. The Base cost us 3MB and Centric Sea was 2.5MB. No advice on specific projects to buy but all our Pattaya condos were seaview units, which were not difficult to sell at a profit, when we decided to sell. I would say always buy in foreign quota, don't be in a hurry, and do your homework. Hipflat is an easy to use website that can give you useful information on condo rental and sale prices for Pattaya condo projects, with units listed for sale and rent, so you can get some idea regarding pricing for both sales and rentals. I think the north Pattaya beach area is getting very desirable and there are only a handful of seaview condo projects--Northshore, Centric Sea, and Markland come to mind, so not much competition for seaview rentals in that area. Good luck.

Ok. Simple and brief. Spouse and I had dinner the other evening with three Pattaya bank branch managers. They were aware of the proposed tax change but were just as clueless as all of us. So, at this point, the banks still seem to be in the dark regarding any banking changes they would be required to do. They said they would keep us posted.

VT3 has no on-site bars.

I'm not sure, we get the memberships through our bank.

You must have absolutely hated being corrected in school.

See my comment to Ralf001.

I think you are the one with the eye condition. Of course the article was about savings! Duh! That was the whole point I was commenting on. You can't judge a person's wealth simply by looking at the cash in their savings accounts--which was the impression the article was giving. Oh, the poor Americans, they only have an average of $5,300 in their savings accounts . . . A more useful figure would be the average American's net worth. This is usually calculated by age range and runs, for example, from $183,500 for age less than 35 to $1,566,900 for age 55-64. Median figures for these two groups are $39,000 and $364,500. Whether average or median is used, both are considerably more than $5,300.

Pattaya does have a small campus of Thammasat University. It is currently building a large hospital next to the campus that will be affiiated with the university.

I prefer occasional flights of fantasy to weird; taking something real and then creating something fictional and, perhaps, whimsical out of it. Some time ago I began to notice the many posts on every Forum thread having anything whatsoever to do with Pattaya, by a legion of non-Pattaya posters, some who had never actually even been to Pattaya, some who had been to Pattaya once or a few times, many years ago, and some, like you, who lived here at some point and moved away. Despite in some cases never, ever visiting, or visiting very long ago, it didn't stop these posters from voraciously reading every single thread they could find about Pattaya and then, often with wonderful sour grapes tonality, adding their comments, opinions, barbs, etc.--usually woefully out-of-date and inaccurate. Lots of good examples on display in this very thread, including yours, harking back to Pattaya of the 'nineties'. Having observed this crazy, unnatural phenomenon, I let my imagination run and out popped the mythical Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club, made up of members, such as yourself, that, well, just can't quit Pattaya--for whatever reason. Just. Cannot. Let. It. Go. Talk about weird! Is there a Just Can't Quit Lamphun Fan Club? I think not. In any case, welcome to the club. Membership allows you to comment inaccurately on all things Pattaya to your heart's content, for as many years, or decades, as you feel you must, and with absolutely no condemnation from your fellow club members, who, of course, suffer from the same strange malady. So, post away!