House Maintenance

[jbowman1993]

I moved into a new mooban over two years ago, and it is already starting to look worse for wear. It seems like the majority of my neighbors care little for maintaining their property. Why bother paying 5 mil for a house, and then never do any upkeep on it. I would actually like to make my investment grow, not lose half its value in the next 10 years, because I'm to lazy to slap a coat of paint on it from time to time....

Anybody know why?

[astral]

It may be they cannot afford to maintain after the initial purchase,

or maybe they just do not care.

Crazy, I do agree.

[quiksilva]

Yup like Astral said, look around it applies to all manner of real estate not just their homes. They just dont appreciate the idea that spending money on preventive maintenance can be used to preserve and yes (shock) even enhance asset value!

Mental.

[ProThaiExpat]

It even hurts them a great deal when they try to sell their houses. Ever gone shopping for a used house. Regardless of how expensive, they are dumps and no effort is made to fix them up for re-sale. Has always been a mystery to me.

I do know there is little motivation to re-sell as there are no property taxes that drain reserves while the house sits empty. Many vacant houses and we all know what that does to maintenance.

While I specified the type and quality of paint to be applied to my house when I built, I let the developer pait the perimeter walls. No primer on the plastered walls resulted and the paint just peels off. In preping the walls for re-painting I used a high pressure pump bought for 1500 Baht at Carrefour and boy does it work to remove loose paint, even good paint is disengaged if there is not primer.

Works wonders on the black crud that forms on almost any outside surfance in Thailand and the major cause of the "blight" we see on most buildings. My water blaster takes that stuff off like a dream.

An idea for those looking for a business opportunity. 15k baht would buy ten of these machines and staff work cheap. Offer building cleaning services. Maybe without motivation the business would be a bust, but for those faced with black crud on your walls, pavements or elsewere, buy a water blaster and go to town. It is truly a solution for what is a very unsightly problem.

[DonTron]

This question also puzzles me quite a bit.

I was looking for a shop-house in Jomtien, and when you look at a row of 14 supposedly identical 4 story shop houses, it is very easy to see which ones are owned by falang and which ones are owned by Thais.

The falang owned once are painted in nice colors, have clean balconies with flowers, nice whole windows and all in all looks quite pleasant to live in.

The Thai owned ones have their original white color that they got 10 years ago and has now turned into gray/black/dirt. They have garbage on the balconies and half of the windows are broken and just have those jail-bars in front. And no, they are not vacant - people actually live in those slum-looking shop houses. I asked around and most of them had Thai owners and were rented out to other Thais which leads to another question – do they have any restrictions or laws regarding the condition of rental property?

[elkangorito]

Generally, Thais do not have a 'preventative' bone in their bodies. They are a more a 'fix it when it breaks' group of people.

This could also be a cultural thing too. Notice how they never seem to plan anything? This is connected to the 'common sense' debate, into which I shall not enter.

[sbk]

I've found, esp in the cases of people renting, the mentality prevails of "not mine, why should I take care of it?" Seen this with farang renting motorbikes and houses, seen this with Thais as well.

My husband is a maniac for preventative maintenance, but his dad is not. Wish I could take the credit but he was like that when I met him

Personally, I do see some people who perform maintenance but in general, no. I've always assumed it was the "if I fix it up now it will just get bad again later" thinking but really have no idea why either.

Chalk this one up to the "Why" thread as well, I think

[lannarebirth]

I used to wonder about the poor upkeep, especially on land and houses for sale. Eventually it dawned on me that both you and the seller know it only cost 500 baht to have 2 guys with weed whackers clear the land of it's 2 meter high weeds. Since both of you know it, why bother?

[samran]

Maybe it is just a question of economics.

For most Thai's, property isn't going to be anywhere near the major investment in life like it is in the west. Whether it is a question of affordability or other priorities (consumption) i'm not sure.

Neither is there what I would call a dynamic secondary market in property here. This is reflected to the extent that banks are less willing to give out loans for second hand condo's.

Similarly, because the culture is geared towards 'new is better' re-investing in something someone won't want to buy (if we are talking resale), or maintaining a particular aspect (so it lasts longer) just doesn't make sense. Get a new one always wins out.

Finally, houses don't really provide 'face' value, like a nice house in a nice suburb does for most in the west. Here, cars, handbags, phones and other shiny things are the thing that easily transmit the 'face' aspect of our ego's.

[sinam]

I have the opposite problem in my moobaan. My neighbours move into their 5-12million homes and precede to demolish perfectly good walls, roofs and driveways and rebuild. It's constant, they keep adding rooms, bigger garages and 50,000 baht full grown trees. I had one neighbour who had this semi pull up one day with this huge 40 foot tree. It took a good day to get it up and then a week later she had them there again moving it to different spot on the property (bad karma or something to that effect). I've done squat all outside (it looks great the way it is) and they keep asking me what I'm going to do. They've now got the missus thinkin about another room. For what? I'm just amazed by it all.

Si Nam

[MaiChai]

This is a very interesting topic, and one I have not drawn any conclusion on. I can only think in the old days houses were made of wood, so wait until it falls apart and then rebuild it. I mean its just a matter of time before a wooden house disintegrates here. How many 'ancient' Thai wooden houses do you see (zero?).

I think we may be seeing an about turn in terms of older property in Thailand: its now cheaper and more affordable to buy an old house than build a new one. I mean its becoming very expensive to build new houses now. So I think you will see what has happened in the west happen here. Old houses become more valuable and people will start doing them up to make them more saleable. Buyers in the market who just cannot afford to buy a new house (or build one) will have the choice of a condo/apartment or buying an old house.

[thaigene2]

Yes I know it's crazy.

My sister is an estate agent (realtor) in a big Western city with many Asians. She is always appalled at the state of condos owned by Chinese. She says they really let them get run down..in some cases to the point of squalor. These aren't poor people..they are middle class who own their own condos.

Maybe it's a cultural thing. I don't get it either.

They look after their cars though..boy do they ever! (if expensive ones anyway)

[Dupont]

Because if its meant to fall down, it will fall down whatever happens. Building the spirit house and buying garlands is a more effective way to prevent problems with your house.

Anyway, deterioration is a slow process and prevention requires foresight of more than (latest official estimates) 3 hours.

[pongosnodgrass]

Generally, Thais feel that the value is in the land and not the house. When the house is old, move on, buy another house, leave this one (the land) to your children. Evidenced by the fact of all those houses sitting around empty in fairly nice moobans, unwanted and unloved and un-for-sale.

We recently almost bought a 30-yr old house that had been unused for half that time and in such bad nick that it would cost almost a million baht to repair it - a new one could cost around 1.2 million to get a company to build according to standard plans. However, I live in a 2 yr old rented house built by such a company and bits are falling off already. I'd rather trust the one that's been standing for 30 years and repair it but I think most Thais would go for the brand spanking new one.

Something old and secondhand also may house ghosts! So they know that selling it on to another Thai is hard unless you're in a really great mooban in a good location. It's so difficult to get good repair work done that it's sometimes better to rip it down and start again. Maybe that's the crux of it - it's all well and good maintaining things but the standard of workmanship is generally quite poor. So, repair is worth it maybe, but not maintainence with a view to resell. Function triumphs over form (evidence - blue plumbing pipes and electrical cables not chased into the wall).