Thai's have no idea how to sell a property

[CNXexpat]

1 hour ago, newnative said:

But the owner is richer than God

But if he is neither interested to rent out nor to sell, why he built the house? It doesn´t become better with the time, the land is worth less with an old building on it. He spent a lot of money - and also time for sure - for nothing. He loses money. I don´t get it. He could buy (another) Yacht or sports car for the money. 

[GreasyFingers]

On 12/13/2019 at 5:24 PM, 4MyEgo said:

Loss of face or didn't she want to sell ?

 

My mother-in-law owns some land with my wife and my wife's sister, it is landlocked, i.e. without access from the owner who has the corner lot, they cannot access their land, but the owner is a family friend and they have always been able to access their land, now if a new owner came along, they would need their permission otherwise they would be up $hit creek so to speak, anyway this gets better, as the owner needed some money one day and suggested they buy a right of carriage way over his land.

 

As I mentioned, his land is on the street front so they couldn't get to their land, anyways, I said to the wife, get everything done through a lawyer, with her reply being darling, things in Thailand get done differently, and of course I said to her, not all things get done differently, especially when it has to do with land, I said the right of carriage way needs to be surveyed by a surveyor and it needs to be registered on the deed of title, get a lawyer, mai pen rai I will tell my parents and sister, long of the short they knew better than this retired valuer, and money changes hands, piece of paper with a plan signed by the owner, dated and witnessed by the mayor and Bob's your uncle as they thought right.

 

Anyways they later found out that this guy needed the money because he was in debt, hence the reason he sold that piece of "roadway" to them right, well, get this, he also sold his land to someone else, but didn't register the right of carriage way on the deed and left town in a hurry, so the new owner knew nothing of it.

 

The wife's parents found out he sold the land one day when they couldn't access their land because someone (the new owner) built a fence with a gate and it was locked, a few enquiries revealed that they did their money, someone heard of this and made them a fair offer, they wanted 50k more, I said sell the farker because it's worth nothing, anyways the people who made the offer walked away from it, the new owner got a whiff of this from Bangkok when he returned to the village and made a slightly higher offer i.e. he offered them 10k more, nope, adamant that they want 40k more than his offer.

 

I said to the wife, looks like your parents are going to hold onto that land for a long time and not get access to it anymore if they knock this guys offer back, besides, you each have 3,000 baht more and are your parents really trying to break the deal for their share of 10,000, get them to accept the offer and you and sister take 15,000 each less because your still getting a good offer, they both agreed, but the parents won't, talk about stubborn, suffice to say, the owner hasn't come back with a further offer, that was a month ago, and the lock is on the gate, and I really can't see them getting access in the future.

 

Was sitting in front on the tele the other night sipping on a Vodka soda lime and said cheers honey, I won't tell you I said so, with the Mrs saying, Thai parents darling, they won't listen to their children, funny that I said, I remember when I told my wife not to buy in with them 10 years ago, oh well s... happens.

Mate, you are so right about their attitude. We looked at land for 3 years before buying and probably ended up paying 10% more than what I thought (also a valuer) it was probably worth. As it turned out it was a good place to live.

But one poor old lady, that needed money for her sick daughter, that we wanted to buy from kept changing what land she would sell and the price. 3 years later and she still has her land and no money.

The other stories and scams that I could tell about are just typical of Thai sellers.

[Farma]

13 minutes ago, CNXexpat said:

But if he is neither interested to rent out nor to sell, why he built the house? It doesn´t become better with the time, the land is worth less with an old building on it. He spent a lot of money - and also time for sure - for nothing. He loses money. I don´t get it. He could buy (another) Yacht or sports car for the money. 

Not saying its the same as newnative mentioned. Over the years I've asked around my area after seeing many unused/unsold new builds. Local rumour suggests many are built to launder money.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Farma

[newnative]

13 minutes ago, CNXexpat said:

But if he is neither interested to rent out nor to sell, why he built the house? It doesn´t become better with the time, the land is worth less with an old building on it. He spent a lot of money - and also time for sure - for nothing. He loses money. I don´t get it. He could buy (another) Yacht or sports car for the money. 

  It wasn't one house, it's a row of about 8 two-story rather cheap, awkward shop houses.  Looks like they had some extra land left over from the project and decided to slap these shop houses on it.  They might have actually made some money if they had spent more and made them residential townhouses instead.  But, as I said, the owner doesn't seem to care if they are rented or not.  

[GreasyFingers]

1 hour ago, Farma said:

Not saying its the same as newnative mentioned. Over the years I've asked around my area after seeing many unused/unsold new builds. Local rumour suggests many are built to launder money.

That has been my interpretation of many buildings built, but unoccupied up here.

[Kwasaki]

23 hours ago, Number 6 said:

Pure folly

Another one here commenting on something which demonstrates you no nothing about property management dealings with Thai people.

[advancebooking]

4 hours ago, Farma said:

Not saying its the same as newnative mentioned. Over the years I've asked around my area after seeing many unused/unsold new builds. Local rumour suggests many are built to launder money.

so do they put cash into a project and build a house or building and then sit on it and eventually sell it and then its legal money? Is that how it works?

 

when they go to the land office to buy land off someone do they take cash or cashier cheque. I know its possible to pay cash at the bank for a cashier cheque

[Number 6]

15 hours ago, Farma said:

Not saying its the same as newnative mentioned. Over the years I've asked around my area after seeing many unused/unsold new builds. Local rumour suggests many are built to launder money.

The entire nation. Top to bottom. Corruption so endemic they could never unwind it.

[Number 6]

11 hours ago, advancebooking said:

when they go to the land office to buy land off someone do they take cash or cashier cheque. I know its possible to pay cash at the bank for a cashier cheque

I was just up at Chaeng Wattana in a bank getting a statement for my extension. Guy was sitting there depositing three huge bricks of 1000b notes and three smaller bricks of 100s. I bet the 1000s were 10m THB each. 

[Matzzon]

Seems to me like you are only frustrated because things do not go like you want it to go. A good advice, learn and understand the culture before buying property.

 

[Bassosa]

You could spend years trying to understand the Thai way of selling/buying property. In the end it's all smoke and mirrors and you'll never get to the bottom of things. Most Thais truly have no clue what they're doing, even the wealthy ones, and the market is rife with scams. 

A few years back I was in the market for a property, spent a good year looking around, talking, negotiation and inevitably...scratching my head. Impossible to get straight answers. It was just all too weird no matter who you were dealing with so I walked away and bought in my home country. Best decision ever, but also indicative of what Thailand's real estate misses out on by being so damn sketchy. Their loss...I would have paid farang prices too!

 

Here's anecdotal evidence of Thai rich people being clueless as well:

 

My girlfriend's friend built of block of shophouses on grannies' land. This is in Chiang Mai in possibly the most expensive area as far as land values go. 

 

They build something completely random, no thought put into a concept and in true Thai fashion: never spent anytime thinking what the potential buyer may want. So they end up with this strange commercial/residential hybrid that's completely unusable. For sale/rent for 5 years plus now and no takers. Buildings are starting to degrade now.

OK, so that might not be so bad for them, they are incredibly rich and apparently don't have a loan on it, but now she has found out that her uncle has become the owner of the land. He had asked granny to put him on the chanote, so he could offer the bank some collatoral on big bank loan, only to revert it back to granny later once the dust had settled.

Problem is, that he defaulted on the loan and the bank is looking to take ownership of the land. So they might lose the land!

 

This was shortly after said friend invested a further 3 million to convert one of the shophouses in a Airbnb, so that business is now up in the air too, or at least it's situated on the bank's land.

 

I have hear stories like this all the time, it's nuts.

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by Bassosa

[URMySunshine]

On 12/14/2019 at 11:05 AM, kenk24 said:

someone who cares about her future well-being and can easily afford it and not have to worry if she will be a GF tomorrow... 

 

if someone is doing it w/o substantial reserve funding, or w/the idea of courting favor or wanting anything in return, it is foolish. 

Maybe call it love for instance. Just a thought......

[mogandave]

On 12/14/2019 at 10:10 PM, advancebooking said:

so do they put cash into a project and build a house or building and then sit on it and eventually sell it and then its legal money? Is that how it works?

 

They could own several construction and other companies. They pay the construction company to build the units way over cost, and that money is clean. The could then “rent” the units and the “rent” the “collect” is clean. The can pay the construction companies to occasionally “renovate” the units, now the money is clean and deductible. 

[alacrity]

On 12/14/2019 at 5:42 PM, CNXexpat said:

But if he is neither interested to rent out nor to sell, why he built the house? It doesn´t become better with the time, the land is worth less with an old building on it. He spent a lot of money - and also time for sure - for nothing. He loses money. I don´t get it. He could buy (another) Yacht or sports car for the money. 

Perhaps he just changed his plan for usage of the land. The real money is in the land, not what's on it.

[1FinickyOne]

8 hours ago, URMySunshine said:

Maybe call it love for instance. Just a thought......

I see, so love is never foolish? 

 

I would say if you are in love w/someone and give them all of your assets, and expect that it will make them fall in love w/you - foolish...

 

That said, giving what you can afford as an act of generosity, that's great. 

[FruitPudding]

I, for one, am looking forward to an almighty crash.

 

Not because I have money to buy with; I just want to see it crash.

[CNXexpat]

1 hour ago, alacrity said:

Perhaps he just changed his plan for usage of the land. The real money is in the land, not what's on it.

No, the house is till for sale.

[alacrity]

On 12/18/2019 at 7:29 PM, FruitPudding said:

I, for one, am looking forward to an almighty crash.

 

Not because I have money to buy with; I just want to see it crash.

Pure jealousy!

[alacrity]

On 12/18/2019 at 9:06 PM, CNXexpat said:

No, the house is till for sale.

The property is house and land. What the owner decides to do with their land is up to them. If they want to sell and offers fall short of their expectations, a deal won't be done.

That's just the way it is.

Whining on a forum which the owner doesn't read won't change the their opinion. 

Maybe the title of the thread should be: I Don't Know How To Conduct business.

[CNXexpat]

2 hours ago, alacrity said:

The property is house and land. What the owner decides to do with their land is up to them. If they want to sell and offers fall short of their expectations, a deal won't be done.

That's just the way it is.

Whining on a forum which the owner doesn't read won't change the their opinion. 

Maybe the title of the thread should be: I Don't Know How To Conduct business.

Whining? Haven´t you read the comments before? I didn´t want to buy. So why should I whine? The owner increased the price from 3.5 million to 5 million after he found out that the boyfriend of the lady who wanted to buy from her own money is a foreigner. So the owner didn´t sell.
No idea what you want to say with your comment. 

[smutcakes]

Just sad that many Thai's cannot read English so they could come on the forum and take advice on how to conduct their business.

 

Who would of thought an expat forum full of retirees would have so many real estate tycoons with membership.

[lkn]

On 12/13/2019 at 1:37 PM, lopburi3 said:

There is no motivation to sell as tax is minimal or nothing […]

So true, which may also make them list condos “just in case someone is willing to pay XYZ” but are not doing anything to prepare the condo for presentations.

 

I was looking at such unit myself, there were pigeons nesting in the bathrooms, but the price was only 400,000 baht (condo) so I was prepared to buy it as a project.

 

The real estate agent then tells me, she has to check with the owner, because maybe the owner doesn’t want to sell, as they are considering instead giving the unit to their granddaughter or somesuch.

 

I think Malta has or had a similar problem because there was no yearly real estate tax, and being a small island with a growing population, demand for land only increase, so many buildings looking abandoned, but basically just serving as storage of wealth with a good return.

Edited December 22, 2019 by lkn

[Sunmaster]

I also get frustrated with property listings online. There is no standard and no care at all. Sellers advertise their 5-10 mil Baht properties with blurred photos of stairs, toilet seats, fences....without giving a clear idea of the size of the property. When rooms are shown, they are mostly dirty and messy. Minimal information (if any) is provided, maps to the property are super rare. 
When they sell only the land it's even worse....you only get to see a couple of bushes and if you're lucky a dirt road with a soi dog.

[Bassosa]

On 1/4/2020 at 8:08 PM, Sunmaster said:

I also get frustrated with property listings online. There is no standard and no care at all. Sellers advertise their 5-10 mil Baht properties with blurred photos of stairs, toilet seats, fences....without giving a clear idea of the size of the property. When rooms are shown, they are mostly dirty and messy. Minimal information (if any) is provided, maps to the property are super rare. 
When they sell only the land it's even worse....you only get to see a couple of bushes and if you're lucky a dirt road with a soi dog.

 

To be good at sales you have to put yourself in the shoes of the prospective buyer, ie. someone else.

Not bashing here, but that is one thing Thais are terrible at. They tend to approach matters from their own perspective only.

Example: the question "does a potential buyer wants to see my dirty dishes" doesn't get asked. Only the question "do I want to do the dishes?".

Answer: "no".

 

Edited January 6, 2020 by Bassosa

[mstevens]

On 12/19/2019 at 1:29 AM, FruitPudding said:

I, for one, am looking forward to an almighty crash.

 

Not because I have money to buy with; I just want to see it crash.

 

If the property market crashes a lot of people could suffer badly. Property crashes are not pleasant. A crash can cause very serious money pressures for people which in turn can cause family problems, marriage breakups, children being separated from a parent etc. Do you get pleasure from seeing that? Kind of disturbing if you do....