Car Rental And Other Info Need

[teacup]

Hi

We will be in HH during Jan17-28, for house and land hunting. Since neither of us has ever been there before, so we will have to rely on you guys for a bit of info on…

Which car rental has the best value?...reliable, good service, and reasonable price

Which internet café is good – we will be staying at the CityBeach?

In you opinion, which areas of housing are the most promising in the long run?

Should I be driving around myself for this house hunting or should I just pay some token money to the area’s agents to drive us around?

I (thai) +hubby (American) are thinking of making HH as our permanent home, but before we make any final decision we just have to scout the area out first. We’re thinking of driving around from Chaam beach to area just south of HH. What do you think? We’re looking to spend no more than 3M-4M bths only, do you think this is a realistic budget?

Thanks kindly in advance

TC

[peely]

hi TC, i have a house being built in Hua Hin which is due for completion end of February. It's at Heights II, on soi 156. The developer is from England and i have met his family and find myself very lucky not to have purchased from anyone else. The specs are very high, 56 plots which all have pools, but there are only a few remaining. i paid bht 6.03m, two storey house for 3 bed, 3 bath, pool, each bedroom has a balcony, carport. Two of the owners of www.siam-property.com have houses on there so i thought if it's good enough for them to live on it must be good. i have enclosed a link to see a house up for sale the same as ours. http://www.siam-property.com/detail.php?re.........Telephone ahmm at siam property and she will sort out your car renatal as well as take you to have a look at the development, her number is:0894925398...regards neil kelly, www.jewellery-company.com, [email protected] if you need any more information.

[Ollie]

Do go and visit on your own! You get to see the reality rather than the hype. And do consider going west from Hua Hin, up into the hills.

Just grab a load of leaflets, or check out the sites on the internet. If you want to know where they are, a local forum has a map of all the developments. A lot of places have show houses, often looked after by Thai's with limited English, you can view these to your hearts content without the need of an agent, and while you are doing it, check out the build quality of others being put together.

And as Peely offers here, try to speak to any expats who are already living there, to gauge their views and experiences. From my research, the build process can be painful, bit worth it in the long haul.

And if you find the City Beach is the dump it was when I stayed there and as generally reported in reviews, shop around, it appears occupancy rates are down.

Remember, its a buyers market!

[teacup]

Hi all, thanks for your input so far

Khun Peely,

Thanks for your info, but to tell you the truth I don’t know if I can trust any farang builders there after have heard so many horror stories about them.

In addition 6M house is just a bit more than what we want to spend at the moment, since my husband can not own both land+house outright, we then just have to keep it in the low side for now.(you’ll never know what is going to happen between him and my family in the future). And also who knows after living there for a few year, we many not like the place after all, I think it will be more difficult to sell it before the move. But if we have a smaller house along with a small price tag, we might have the option of renting it out or keeping it as our vacation home later. May be after him obtaining the thai citizenship first (oh in a decade from now) then we might be willing to go for it, but right now we have to take any necessary precautions first, just to be save.

Just a question, in your development – can I just buy the land only, or do I have to buy with the house also?

Our first choice is to get a piece of land, then later build a house on it, preferably in a subdivision(or some of you calling it as "a housing estate". If it’s not possible, then the second choice would be a small house with a big enough land so that we can build another one or add some extensions to it later on.

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Khun Ollie,

I agree with you, I think it’s a buyer market currently for most places around the world, but whether or not the sellers accept this, it’s a diff story.

Yes, we would love to drive around ourselves, so we can do some sightseeing or stopping for meals along and between at the same time too. But the problem is that we just don’t know where to start first, so I thought if we can hire some realtors in the area to drive for us, we might be able to see more properties in one day than us run around looking for them ourselves in one given day and still not guaranteed we will be able to get into some of those estates by ourselves due to the gate security.

You mentioned earlier that the local forum has a map of all the developments. Which forum, may it ask? And do you have the link to them? Thanks in advance

Since we are no stranger in the building arena, I’m also an architect, my husband is a building structural engineer and we have been running our own firm for the past 15 yrs in the US. So Yes we will definitely be checking out for the quality while there. Thanks so much for the advice

I have to agree that the CityBeach can be a dump too, but the location for us is oh soo unbeatable! We won’t be staying in the room all day anyway, so it should be ok just for this trip, I think. Perhaps we can do lunch sometimes?

TC

[Ollie]

Teacup, I have sent you a pm.

Ollie

[flyer]

Here are a few places worth looking at :

1. Sam Roi Yod development. This is a development park about 5 km north of Asm Roi Yod natural park and about 1 km from beach. Houses there are more in the 7 M range than in the range of 3/4 M however...

2. There is another developmznt area about 5 km north of HH, close to the airport (don't worry about the noise there with few planes a day ))) managed (or promoted by Dream Homes. Dream Homes is located on Naebkhehard Road near the night market. Naebkhehard Rd is the main road crossing hua hin. in this development area i know there are houses in the 4 M range and nice also. Dream Homes also has a development on soi 94 worth looking at.

3. There are many already built and used houses for sale in 'Hua Hin Hill Village'. Prices varialble but also influenced by the 'need' to sell of the owner. Some raly good deals can be made. Many europeans living there.

Hill village is actually along soi 102 in hua hin, rather good location not so far from city centre.

[Ollie]

3. There are many already built and used houses for sale in 'Hua Hin Hill Village'. Prices varialble but also influenced by the 'need' to sell of the owner. Some raly good deals can be made. Many europeans living there.

Hill village is actually along soi 102 in hua hin, rather good location not so far from city centre.

Just be aware that the bottom end of 102 is prone to flooding which is very well documented elsewhere. The road build isn't good as a consequence.

[jumnien]

Think about buying a condo in your husbands name for simplicity and resale value. Think about the difficulty in trying to resell a house to the farang market in a few years when prices have gone up a bit and the fake company thing is known to be even dodgier than it is regarded now. Another thought is to keep your 4 million baht in a good investment in the states and use the 300,000 baht yearly income to rent a place for a year of two until you get to know the area. You'll find far cheaper prices and more availability in June- Oct than you will this time of year when every yahoo with a property to sell has his sights set on becoming the next Bill Gates.

If your hubby wants a free flight in the Zenair over Chaam, send a PM.

[justwilliam]

Regarding car rental, there is a Budget RentaCar office in the plaza in front of the Grand Hotel. I have used them several times, and found them to be reliable, helpful and reasonable.

You can find cheaper by going local, but you should be very careful to read the fine print with respect to the nature and extent of their insurance coverage.

The Grand Hotel is 15 minutes walk from City Beach, or 5 minutes in a tuk-tuk.

[teacup]

Flyer

SamRoiYod area is just a bit too far for us, … and with 7M-well it’s definite waay out of our price range. I still don’t understand why would anyone(esp. a farang) would want to pay that much for a house anyway if you can not own it outright, even though it may be just a pocket change for some. It may be quite a good price if HH has all the infrastructures which are up to the par, plus good proximity to one of the international airports. But without those 2 keys factors I probably wouldn’t be paying anything near that price for now. But still thanks so much for the info

Ollie

About the flood zone:

Yes, it’s very important for us to watch out for those flood zone areas to avoid also. Since google just updated their imagery of the town, I probably can map out those terrains/peaks/valleys for the run off of the current and future flooding area. And don’t forget HH is in an area of earthquake prone also. In fact the National Geographic just published the said map about 2 yrs ago, I still have it in my drawer somewhere.

Sunrise

Thanks for the offer, but that’s ok we don’t want to bother your time too much, so we will opt out for just a cup of latte instead and you can tell us all about HH & why you like it there.

And I’m not into the condo thing, but when we meet up for a cup of latte you might be able to convince my husband to go for it, if you try hard enough – he’s also not in favor of a hole in a sky anytime soon. With almost 22 yrs of marriage, less likely we will be running away from each other anytime soon.

Jwilliam

That’s what we plan to do once we there, we have already singled out Budget as the car rental company. Their price is quite reasonable and I have used them in the past in the US, but never in Thailand. And since you have had good experiences with them, then we will give it a try.

We’re still hoping to meet our first goal of just be able to buy a piece of land in a development so we can build on it later on. May be it’s just a pipe dream? Or may be not, I will have to check around and esp. from the bank listed properties also.

Thanks again for all the inputs, they’re quite helpful

TC

Edited December 25, 2007 by teacup

[justwilliam]

If you have booked in advance, Budget will deliver the vehicle to your door free of charge, just call them when you are ready.

Regarding the bank listed properties, we explored this approach when we were looking a couple of years ago. We found that most of the properties were not suitable for our needs, often being in a poor state of repair, but a few were very nice indeed. The principal benefit however was to give us a firm grounding in the base price levels for land and for houses, area by area.

At that time most of the banks had their portfolios on-line, except for Bangkok Bank, where we had to go to each branch and review a file of paper-based information. The benefit was that they had by far the largest portfolio.

[teacup]

..... The principal benefit however was to give us a firm grounding in the base price levels for land and for houses, area by area.

Good point and thanks for pointing this out! And after the trip I will report back the findings for those future Huahinians

At that time most of the banks had their portfolios on-line, except for Bangkok Bank, where we had to go to each branch and review a file of paper-based information. The benefit was that they had by far the largest portfolio.

Yes I have been lurking around their websites for quite sometimes now, it's still quite difficult to tell anything about the area by just looking at the picture and its tiny weeny attached map. So you're right it's best if I show up in person and I presume they will have more inventory on hand than on the web.

Thks again

TC

Edited December 26, 2007 by teacup

[flyer]

Yes Teacup, but HH is not really so convenient place to live, especially it is far from the new airport...

also it is expensive city, even compared with BKK where you can buy good house a little outside the city for 4 M... and have all the amenities of big city. But it is not me who said you want to go to HH ? but if you are not too much demending there are many houses for sale in the 3 - 4 M range in Hua hin for then moment. Look around.

I agree with your view that if you want to spend 7-8 M then maybe that don't make much sense. although you shoul;d also consider that if you go live there you will live for 1/5th or so of the cost of living in a western country, and better to !

So you must make a total budget for you, that is cost of house (investment) + cost of living nice in Thailand + cost of travel if you want to go 'home' some times, or visit south east asia while you anywya live there. That should compare favourably with the total cost of living in , say your home country. The surplus saving from being cheaper out in Thailand, should compensate largely for the 'loss of investment' as you can't be owner of the house itself. If it doesn't, then don't invest. Every time i meet some influental people in Thailand i tell them that their curfew on foreign ownership is the main reason why the economy in Thailand does not and will never really crank up. Indeed, ther must be always a significant cost gap (by my standards about 30%) between the cost of living in thailand and that of living abroad to recoup the investment risk on the house. But this problem seems very much a genetic problem with Thais when they think of any foreigner owning Thai property...

By the way, you might also look for other palces in Thailand , where life and housing is 50% cheaper then in HH? Why really choose the most expensive place in Thailand ? Have a Look for example in Udon Thani or Chiang Mai.

Good luck and never rush your dcecision when it comes to investement.