Advice on purchasing an old condo

[newnative]

5 minutes ago, worgeordie said:

I think that's the point he was making,if maintain well 30 years is nothing .

regards worgeordie

Yes, thank you.

[Ulic]

You have lots of good advice here. For my 2 cents, you are better off looking

at an older well-maintained building. They tend to be larger, have good locations,

and what you see is what you get. No new further construction projects next door etc.

The view you see is the view you get. The issues with the building are well known.

It should have good management with a good maintenance program. You can find out if people

are paying their maintenance fees. New building are often thrown up in the fastest, 

cheapest possible manner with maximum profit in the short term being the goal.

As for hiring a structural engineer. Hire a good/reputable one if you do. There will

be no recourse if they give you bad advice and a few years later the condo you bought

has problems. Litigation is expensive, uncertain, and they would have to have good

insurance if you are to collect. Best of luck.

[banagan]

9 hours ago, Ulic said:

You have lots of good advice here. For my 2 cents, you are better off looking

at an older well-maintained building. They tend to be larger, have good locations,

and what you see is what you get. No new further construction projects next door etc.

The view you see is the view you get. The issues with the building are well known.

It should have good management with a good maintenance program. You can find out if people

are paying their maintenance fees. New building are often thrown up in the fastest, 

cheapest possible manner with maximum profit in the short term being the goal.

As for hiring a structural engineer. Hire a good/reputable one if you do. There will

be no recourse if they give you bad advice and a few years later the condo you bought

has problems. Litigation is expensive, uncertain, and they would have to have good

insurance if you are to collect. Best of luck.

Thanks, completely agree. 

[Cricky]

On 1/24/2018 at 5:16 PM, jippytum said:

check with the manager if there is a credit balance in the sinking fund . A healthy surplus is an indication of a well managed condo

Not necessarily.

I have owned a condo for nearly 10 years, initially the developer gave a low maintenance fee  (20 baht/sq metre) which is unrealistic. Each and very annual meeting there are not enough co-owners to vote for an increase therefore the sinking fund has to be dipped into.

Yes this is not a solution but it works for now.

[scorecard]

On 23/1/2561 at 6:43 PM, worgeordie said:

Just look for cracks in the walls,and the common area is important,

is it well kept,ask more tenants if possible ,about noise,any other

issues with the building, you just have to use common sense and

gut feeling when purchasing property here,and i believe you have

to check if there is anything owing on the property,unpaid fees,they

will come back to you.and you need to buy  one that comes under

the Farang quota .

regards worgeordie

 

And check if the pool maintenance is up to date, any known issues, need for equipment replacement etc.,

 

And is there an active owners committee, can any owner sit-in on committee meetings, are the records open or secret (red flag), is there a sinking fund, are there regular properly conducted owners meeting - are there attempts to get big numbers of owners to give voting proxies in advance.

 

Is there an outside management company involved, are they active, do they try to intimidate owners, etc. Do they try to tell the Thai owners that Thai law prohibits farang from being on the owners committee (which is not true)?

 

 

[cheeryble]

Agree entirely about older buildings.......there is no "scrap" age for a building, any (rare) blown concrete in the main structure is easy to see and fix at an early stage in the compulsory yearly inspection, and all other parts are maintainable/fixable.

Great to have a good working committee which can keep the fees down a lot with prudence and good oversight. Look for this and whether they are controlling the JP and staff rather than the other way round.

 

Look for full occupation, and that the developer is not still controlling the building because he still owns a lot of rooms.

 

One minor point is whether your chosen unit has had the original metal pipes in the bathroom upgraded to plastic as the original metal ones may start to leak at the joints and replacement requires new tiles too.

Anyway if they're not yet changed you have a bargaining point on price.

Upstream of the meters the pipes are shared and may have been changed already but in any case are not a big deal, no huge expense.

 

Some of the older buildings with their better locations are being upgraded considerably yet still relatively cheaper, whilst some of the less well situated newer buildings are starting to look not quite so new but are expensive.

IMO a form of arbitrage will happen and older buildings will rise in price considerably if they are upgraded nicely. I've seen it starting to happen.

Edited March 9, 2018 by cheeryble