newnative

I'll put you and bkk6060 down for: 2. Some posts indicating agents are lazy and don't do much to earn their commission. Not true for most legitimate agents and agencies but believe what you will. Henryford gets a pass because, judging from his quaint post, he might just be the Henry Ford.

Umm. 'Glossy brochures' ? Welcome to the 1980s--I remember my real estate agent sister doing glossy brochures way back then. Ahh, the good old days. Here in the 21st century, agencies will not only post properties on their websites, with descriptions and photos, but some are also producing videos. With our last property sale, at least four of the bigger agencies sent their videography team out to produce a video, hosted and narrated by one of the agents. This in addition to a number of them sending their phtographer for photos. If you think it's a breeze to do one of these videos and there's no work involved, think again. The process with some of the videos took several hours or more, usually with a walk-thru either the day before or earlier in the day before the video team arrived, to learn about the property and prepare the narration. In one case they came back a second time to do early evening lighting. After watching the process several times, my spouse and I both decided we would end up tongue-tied messes trying to smoothly move through the house while on camera while trying to remember everything to talk about and highlight. If a video looks easy and effortless, a lot of work was involved behind the scenes. A well-produced video, made available on the agency website and sometimes also on Youtube, can be a good selling tool for a property. It can also be helpful to give a buyer a better look at a property than just photos, before actually going to see it. If a property doesn't suit after watching the video, the agent and buyer can move on and not waste a trip. Also helpful to pre-screen potential properties to look at before a buyer arrives in town to save time--and appointments can be set up in advance. All work, and nothing lazy me wants to do. By the way, there's absolutely nothing wrong with an agency using a client's photos. Along with a detailed description, I always send good photos that show my property well and I am happy if an agency uses them. Some do, while others prefer to send their own photographer to do the photos--or, as I said, a video, as well.

Central Festival Pattaya has done it up nicely, with a big tree and other decorations. Very festive and there were large crowds yesterday when my spouse and I were there. The mall, itself, has been refreshed with new paint and decorative finishes in the public areas and redone bathrooms.

Exactly as you describe. We visited Koh Lipe some months ago. Fast speedboat ride to and from the island. Packed with passengers both trips. Seas were calm going to the island and it was a pleasant trip but coming back we had rain and rough, choppy waves. Constant, violent bumping up and down the entire trip as we smacked at high speed into wave after wave--with me looking at the floor and hoping the whole time that the old boat held together, which, luckily, it did.

We just had this topic on a recent thread. To recap and save us all some time: 1. Some posts saying 3% is normal and a number saying they would never pay more than 3% commission. 2. Some posts indicating agents are lazy and don't do much to earn their commission. 3. Some contrarian posts saying 5% is standard with established agencies but lower commissions can be negotiated. 4. A few contrarian posts indicating that legitimate agents work hard for their commissions. 5. Some posts saying they sold their properties without using an agent at all. 6. Some posts saying rent, don't buy. My take, speaking with a bit of experience, both here and in the US. With no MLS (Multiple Listing Service), my spouse and I list with as many agencies as we can, with 5% as the starting commission. With most agencies, there is no formal contract involved. The point is to get as much exposure as possible, have your property shown, rather than someone else's, and get it sold as quickly as possible, at a profit. If you're an agent with a client, are you going to take the buyer to see a condo with a 5% commission or a 3% commission? If I were an agent, God forbid, I'm heading for the 5% property. In one case when we wanted a fast sale and there were a number of similar condos on the market, not only did we pay 5% but we also sweetened the deal with an agent bonus, on top of the agency fee. Commissions are negotiable, of course. A seller has more leeway, I feel, with a 10 million baht unique property than with a 2 million baht nothing special condo in a project with a 1000 of them. Our last sale was a house in the 10 million baht range and the agency dropped from 5% to 3% to make the deal work. We have sold a number of properties in Thailand. Although we list on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, we have, so far, never sold a property using either. We'll keep trying because you never know--which is also why we list with as many agencies as we can. You never know who might walk into what agency looking for just what you have to sell. Occasionally, we get lucky and sell a property ourselves. This happened with the last condo we sold. My spouse noticed a couple looking at the listings in the lobby and he chatted them up, telling them we had a condo for sale. They came to look, liked it, and bought it. If they were only all that easy. . . The vast majority of our sales, however, have been through the hard work of real estate agencies and their agents. My spouse and I are not social butterflies. We do not have a vast network of people that we know here in Thailand that can spread the word to the right people that we have a property for sale. In other words, nobody's going to drum up buyers for us. We depend on the agences to find us those buyers--and, they do. This method has worked well for us--others may have a different way that works for them. I think I mentioned in the other thread that I am way too lazy to do all the hard work that a legitimate agent does--usually with no payoff. The 'usually with no payoff' part would drive me absolutely nuts. "I've done all this work for nothing!!!" Not for me. I've said many times I would not last a week as an agent and I suspect that most of the posters saying agents don't do much would not, either. Thank goodness for them, though.

Rearrange those deck chairs . . .

You still have 5 months???!!! It seems like you have been miserable here for at least a year already! You're way overdue to move to the next place to be miserable.

I don't think my suggestions suck--lots of restaurants in the 3 areas I mentioned and I doubt you have eaten at all of them. I think what sucks is your lack of interest in trying new areas and just actually trying to make each day an interesting and enjoyable one for yourself. Get out and do something different--for a change.

The longer you live here, the better it gets. As I said in an earlier post, I actually think it's a better place to live year-round than it is as a tourist destination--although that has been improving a lot with new hotels and attractions. Those posters who say they visited for a couple of days and weren't impressed probably were mostly in the tourist/bar areas and likely missed most of the things that make it a great place to live.

The problem is, as you say, you never venture beyond central Pattaya. So, yes, you are hitting some of the same restaurants--especially if you think 130 baht is expensive and mostly eat at cheaper places. There are loads of restaurants all over that you can try. You can eat at a new restaurant every day if you want. Why not hop a baht bus and try some of the restaurants in Jomtien for a change. Or, try north Pattaya or Naklua. Not far to go.

He got an answer from me.

I can only speak for myself, but I spend my time in Pattaya about the same as I did in the US. When I moved to Thailand I did not become a different person. Many of the things I enjoyed in the US, I also enjoy in Pattaya. That's also true for my spouse. We enjoy movies so we like that Pattaya has a choice of movie theaters that show movies in English. We both also like to travel so it's great that a big airport is nearby. We are just back from a China trip. In America, my spouse and I were involved with fixing up properties and selling them and we have been doing that here, as well. Since 2010, we have done twentysome of them, which keeps us busy. We really like the housing variety Pattaya has, and the different neighborhoods. I love to swim but didn't do it as much as I would have liked in the US, due to the weather. Here, I can swim year-round, in my own pool--which I likely couldn't afford in the US. We love to eat out--both here and in the US--and Pattaya has such a wide variety of restaurants to choose from--actually more than where we lived in the US. We have our favorites but we also like trying new restaurants--and there's always something new. We just found a new seafood restaurant near where we live on the Darkside. We didn't have a huge number of friends in the US, and it's the same here. Instead, we have a nice circle of friends that we socialize with and we value their company. We are fortunate that Pattaya has attracted some very nice expats--and we have met some of them and become friends. One new thing we have done here is snorkeling, which we didn't do in the US. We have done it a number of times--both in boat trips from Sattahip and when we have visited other places around Thailand--most recently on a trip to Koh Lipe. We enjoy shopping and antiquing and discovering interesting shops and Pattaya is big enough to have plenty in the way of shopping choices--everything from large malls to one-of-a-kind stores. Today, we did some shopping at a large OTOP store that had a lot of different Thai crafts and then went to another store we like that specializes in old and antique items from Japan--always an interesting stop for us. Found a really nice wall scroll that we'll use in a future project. So, as you can see, we are living ordinary, normal lives here in Pattaya. Doing ordinary, normal things. If we were living in Chiang Mai or Hua Hin it would not be much different. I think we are not alone in this.

Pattaya is a lot more than the bars and most expats do NOT spend all day and night sitting in a bar. Pattaya is rapidly growing because it checks so many of the boxes that expats, both working and those retired, want in a place to live. These include: good size--not too big or too small, good weather, good services, good health care choices, good recreation, good shopping, movie theaters in English, very good choice of housing both to buy or to rent, a nice selection of distinct neighborhoods to choose from, close proximity to a major city and a major airport, large and diverse expat community, coastal city with beach vibe and water activities, such as snorkeling, scuba, etc. It checks more of the boxes than anywhere else we have visited in Thailand--and obviously does for many others, as well. I actually find it to be a better place to live than a tourist attraction but it does have some nice resorts, such as Centara, Cape Dara, Centre Point Space, and others, as well as Nong Nooch Gardens and some nice water parks, with a new one under construction.

Just get it done already.

Separate bedrooms only when one of us is sick.

How many deaths and horrible injuries do we need before this terrible animal breed is outlawed?

My source is official statistics. As I have said many times, and another has just said on this thread, they report the good and the bad. In 2021, they had to report international tourist arrivals of just 427,869. Can you imagine! Did not even reach a half million! For the whole year! How bad did that make them look? Couldn't they have found a few more here and there--or made them up--to make them look better? Yet, there it is, 427,869, for all to see. In 2014, the international arrivals dropped from the year before. Why? Because the coup happened and it kept international tourists away. Embarrassing for the coup leaders. The figures could have easily been juggled to make the coup leaders look good and gain some favor with them. Did that happen? No. There's the embarrassing drop in numbers, for all to see. You may 'prefer to believe' your eyes and a hotel owner you 'speak with' but it's ludicrous to make your warped pronouncements based on such small and unreliable information. You remind me of the deluded poster who recently posted a thread saying that 95% of the crime in Thailand happens in Pattaya. When I called him on it and asked him to produce statistics, he said he had none, but, instead, it was his feeling that the figure was 95% based on his reading of Asean Now. I'm afraid you're methodology is just as suspect.

https://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourists-nationalities-Thailand.asp A slight correction to my earlier post. UK tourists were up around 5% rather than 6% from 2015 to 2019.

Wow, the ink was hardly dry on my post. For the record: It's the same with western tourist numbers. Some posters are of the belief that western tourist numbers were dropping drastically in the years before covid. Also not true. From 2015 to 2019 the numbers rose for every western country tracked except Australia, which did drop slightly. American visitors were up 34% in that period. UK about 6%. Posters do not want to hear this--they will always maintain the numbers were way down because they talked to so and so and he said his bar was not doing that well. Well, there you go--no need to look any further--they've gotten the scoop from so and so.

Exactly. The counting method hasn't changed so it is quite valid to compare one year to another. It's easy to see, for example, that there was a dip in tourists in 2014, the year of the coup. I've posted this a number of times but it just falls on deaf ears--posters don't want to hear anything that does not fit their narratives and perceptions. It's the same with western tourist numbers. Some posters are of the belief that western tourist numbers were dropping drastically in the years before covid. Also not true. From 2015 to 2019 the numbers rose for every western country tracked except Australia, which did drop slightly. American visitors were up 34% in that period. UK about 6%. Posters do not want to hear this--they will always maintain the numbers were way down because they talked to so and so and he said his bar was not doing that well. Well, there you go--no need to look any further--they've gotten the scoop from so and so.

Yet another example of why I am totally opposed to any organized religion.

Hmm. We're either 'ignorant' or 'rich' according to the OP. Maybe there's a third possibility. We don't sweat the small stuff.

Despite what you read on Asean Now, not everybody is poor--and that includes Russians. The fact that they had the means to get to Thailand likely puts a lot of them in the upper class. Thailand is inexpensive so many can afford to live here for extended periods.

Thai spouse's family lives outside of Bangkok near Impact and we have a getaway condo in center city Bangkok. We visit about once a month and enjoy our visits. When my spouse retires we might end up relocating from Pattaya to be closer to his family. If we did we would probably look for a place in the BKK suburbs.

I disagree. There are probably more women working just at convenience stores--7-11s, Tops, etc.--all over the greater Pattaya area than in the bars. Then add in all the other retail--everything from banks to clothing stores to electronincs/cell phone stores to opticians to pharmacies to shoe shops to--the list is endless. Then add in all the hospital workers and all the workers at health clinics, dentists, etc. Hospitals are big employers of women and we have at least 4. Then add in all the workers at the hotels, restaurants, tourist places, etc. Then add in all the women working in Mom and Pop shops--everything from street food vendors to laundries to barbers and beauty salons, etc. etc. No contest.