newnative

Festive fun. Some years we've skipped having a tree up when we've had a property on the market for sale. This year, we're in our new house so we've put the tree up and decorated it, along with some other holiday decorations, plus put some lights on one of our small patio trees. With a bigger living room and higher ceilings, we got a new, taller tree at Index, which had a nice selection.

Not a moment too soon, of course, but likely just this week's lip service.

I've made this comment with low-income types but I suppose it could apply to high-income types, as well. So, once again, if your income is only _________baht a month (fill in the blank, in your case, 186,000), you can live better here on that income than many places in the West. Welcome, and have fun.

It really just comes down to whatever floats your boat. Renting works for you, owning works for me.

No reason you can't do both--have offshore investments and also save rent on a place you own in Thailand if you plan to be here long term. Also, no reason you can't sell and move when you feel like it--my partner and I have done it about a dozen times.

I agree that different states have different requirements. When I did mine, I was able to use notarized documents by a Thai lawyer/notary, so I didn't have to go to the Embassy and it was cheaper.

I used it some years ago in the US--don't know what the situation is there now. The real estate section still works here in Thailand.

I sold a condo I owned in America while living in Thailand and the American Embassy was not involved at all. My Thai partner's brother, living in the US, handled the sale. Found the buyer using Craigslist; there were no realtors involved. Settlement attorney handled the paperwork.

Our pool guy is 2000 baht a month. Electric bill--pool is not separate--runs around 5000 baht a month. We have a salt water system, pool 3 x 9 meters.

Serial liar. Claimed many times during his presidency that he would replace Obamacare with something better. Of course, just all lies. Never came up with anything. Now, back with just more lies. Go back to what you do best, grifting.

Every year, forever at the bottom. I'm always reminded of the football team boys trapped in the cave. When they were rescued, only one of the boys, a non-Thai, could speak English and communicate with the rescuers. If a country cared, that should have been a huge, huge, embarrassment, prompting a start, in 2018, on massive changes to the poor education system. Instead, no embarrassment whatsoever, no changes, still dead last.

'...I can't think of somewhere else in Thailand that has all the stuff you want nearby.' Read that and thought, that's about as good a summation of why so many of us have chosen Pattaya as you're going to find. For my spouse and myself, Pattaya checks more of the boxes of 'stuff you want' than any other place in Thailand. With Bangkok nearby for short visits as an added plus. We've been here since 2010; it's very easy to avoid the areas we have no interest in, including go-go bars.

Where I lived in the US, a huge house sitting on 20 acres of land actually would be considered a 'mansion', regardless of the interior decoration. In my area, outside of DC, it was popular at the time, perhaps still is, to buy a little cracker box of a house on a small plot of land, but in a good location, tear it down, and then construct a huge monstrosity of a house way too big for both the land or the neighborhood of other small bungalows. There were also new developments of way too big houses on way too small land plots. These were what we referred to as 'McMansions'.

First rented then owned condos all my adult life in the US. Could never even consider a single-family home--way out of my price range. Even townhouses were too expensive. Just buying a 1 bedroom condo was a stretch on my small salary--but buying paid off and was the only way I made any money to save. Went the condo route via a number of different condos with my spouse in Thailand, as well, from 2010 to 2020--we did like our ocean views. Then, we decided to change things up and take advantage of real estate being topsy-turvy here. By topsy-turvy, I mean that small condos are often more expensive than large,single-family homes here. That would rarely be the case where I was living in the US. For example, the last condo we sold was a 1-bedroom condo at a good Pattaya project for 9MB. Nice condo, nice seaview, but only 79 sqm. And, just that 1 bedroom and 1 rather small bath. For considerably less, just 6.6 MB total for everything, we have a new, spacious home, 2-car garage, and a private 3 x 9 meter pool, which we love. As another example, I recently saw an even smaller 45 sqm condo advertised for sale at Copacabana for 6 million something--about what we paid for our new house. For us, the house was just far more value. One last example. Arom, a new condo project in Wong Amat, has 2 bedroom condos for 16 MB. About 82 sqm--not much bigger than the 1 bedroom we sold. I can tell you that 16 MB will get you into some very nice single-family homes. The two extra bedrooms we have set up as guest bedrooms, for when family visit. Having 3 bedrooms, all with en suite baths, adds value should we ever sell, which we have been wont to do. Should we end up staying, one of the extra bedrooms could be used, down the road, for a live-in care giver. We gave up our oceanview but gained a lot more living space. This is actually our third house here, having done two other ones and sold them.

Totally agree. Great place to retire to. One of the big plusses is the huge variety of housing available, both to either rent or buy, in all price points--important with housing usualy beng one of the biggest monthly expenses. Nice selection of neighborhoods to choose from, good services, shopping, entertainment, recreation, and health care. Bangkok and Swampy less than 2 hours away on a good motorway.

Spouse and I might visit Bali sometime but I can't imagine living there. We still like Pattaya, and hve since 2010. We just moved into a new pool villa near Lake Mabprachan. 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, on 105 sq. wah of land for 6.6 MB, including everything. Nice project of about 25 homes. Great location--we can be at Terminal 21 or Index/Home Pro in 15 minutes or less. Ditto for Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. About 5 minutes to the Motorway and we are on our way to Bangkok. We like the size of the Pattaya area and the services, entertainment, restaurants, and shopping on offer. Nice expat community.

49%

I, personally can't stand tattoos, on men or women--but especially women. So often, I will see someone walking towards me, horribly disfigured on their arms and/or legs, and I'm thinking they must have been in a terrible motorcycle accident that left those awful scars. Only to discover as they get closer that, no, those are just very ugly tattoos I am looking at. If one must get tattoos, waiting until one is very old seems like the best course--by then nobody gives a toss what you look like.

I know it's an unpopular position but I strongly believe that tourists should not be allowed to rent and drive motorcycles. Period. Too many accidents, too many tragic deaths like these two. Yes, it was the Russian's fault, in this case. Doesn't change the fact that these two young people would likey still be alive had they been prohibited from using motorcycles.

The government should be subsidizing the mass transportation systems and keeping the fares low to encourage the public to get out of their polluting cars and use them. Send the losses to the government, and the profits, if any, from the other lines.

Nice use of alliteration in the thread title.

Hmm. Not 'bored at all' living in the west but, apparently, nothing to do there but post on a Thailand forum. Another potential member for the Can't Quit Thailand Club.

All my weeks are enjoyable. They just come and go too fast these days.

Yes, and while you're at it, cut down on the number of clicks needed to delete. One click, 'delete notifications', should be all that's needed.

What would happen, you ask. Entirely up to you, which should be specified in your Will.