Advice Appreciated On The Selling Of A House

[goldfish]

I have a Thai buyer interested in buying my house (bought through the company route). Naturally I am eager to sell, all things considered. A price was agreed upon, I accepted his last offer. I then received a call from the lawyer asking to reduce the price by another 30,000 baht. Red rag to a bull. Told her 'No way, I don't deal with idiots' and he'll have to go elsewhere. Have had a couple of calls back to re-confirm the original price. What disturbed me most about the call was the comment, directly after the desire for another price reduction, 'I really want you to sell your house'. A blatant attempt to screw the farang. My lawyer certainly doesn't have my interests at heart.

Will contact the lawyer tomorrow agreeing again to sell, but have no faith in the lawyer now and need to keep an eye on the preceedings, whereas before I would have been happy for the lawyer to handle everything. What exactly is the order here? Deposit, full amount in a certain timeframe followed by change of ownership and handing over of keys? Have stipulated I wish the main bulk of the money transfered direct to a uk account

[Farma]

My wife recently bought some property, a Thai Thai deal. I sat back and watched the Thai way of doing things. The price negotiations went on basically until the day of title transfer.

The initial price was agreed months earlier but still negotiated down 3 times that I can remember. A week or so before closure the bank suggested she try to get the seller to pay the transfer tax which to my amazement the seller agreed to.

[redman]

Take care here. Few months back, a "legal" firm in Pattaya was featured on TV as doing the business for a guy who was selling his business. 6 milliion was the figure, as I recall. Anyway, after the sale, he went to collect his money and guess what? They didn't have it. He was going to the police and his whole thread disappeared off TV (for the usual reasons). Think the guy's name was andy...mp or such like, sure hope he got his money

[paperplates]

I just bought a second hand house and I followed the advice I got on here which was not to give the seller any money (no deposit) until the day of transfer. We signed a contract agreeing to buy the property as soon as we got a mortgage approval, but no money changed hands until the final day.

[dotcom]

A week or so before closure the bank suggested she try to get the seller to pay the transfer tax which to my amazement the seller agreed to.

The seller is responsible to pay the transfer tax. Sometimes other arrangements are agreed beforehand. 3% I believe it is.

[Farma]

dotcom I think you’ll find it’s not always as clear-cut as you say.

An example from http://www.sunbeltlegaladvisors.com/Thaila...egistration.php

“In most cases, we are able to convince the seller to split the transfer tax and stamp duty( if the seller was exempted from paying Specific Business Tax.

Most sellers will want the buyer to pay for everything as this they claim this is "standard" Nice try! This may be more than 6% of the selling price while with our negotiations, in a number of cases, it was only 1% tax for the buyer.”

[Rimmer]

If you are selling your house to a Thai person are they taking the company? If not you are selling an asset of the company and are liable for for capital gains tax at 15% of the profit.

To take an asset out of a company is an accountant thing it is not a lawyer thing. To sell a company is also an accountant thing as it is simply a change of directors. Where do the lawyers come into the picture?

Do not sign the transfer documents until the funds have been recieved and cleared by your bank, better still get a local cashiers cheque confirmed on a local bank and pay it into your bank here before miday when it can be cleared the same day. There are too many problems confirming receipt of funds on an overseas bank also there has to be a window of mutual trust.

Transfer the property yourself at the land office when you have the money or a confirmed cashiers cheque in your hand at the land office, not before.

[kaxper]

make a sales contact, take a meaningful non refundable deposit 10-20pct, specify in sales contact timeline for final payment. on date of payment, make sure its cashiers check from local bank - can bank call to verify funds - meet at land department - make appointment with land department - sign paper work transfer and take check.

the transfer and related fees are now essentially waived - near zero - so dont sweat about it.

when you are at land dept, make sure you have all the paper work from buyer and seller that is needed - i never done company so i assume whatever you did when you bought is probably what you have to prepare when you sell. make sure buyer has all documentation, his national id, house registration, etc. go to land dept and check first if you not sure.

screw the lawyer.

[torrenova]

Not unknown in Pattaya for certain "professional" parties to place themselves in the middle of the transaction to cream off a handy commission for themselves.

You agree 5,000,000

You get asked to go to 4,950,000

You agree

Buyer pays 5,000,000

You get 4,950,000

Bastards in the middle screws you out of 50,000

I've even seen this on paperwork on new and resale condos and houses !

[LennyW]

A week or so before closure the bank suggested she try to get the seller to pay the transfer tax which to my amazement the seller agreed to.

The seller is responsible to pay the transfer tax. Sometimes other arrangements are agreed beforehand. 3% I believe it is.

Not true, the seller is only "legally responsible" to pay the Specific Business Tax, and in most cases it will be shared, but all "transfer" costs are open to negotiaion, nothing like 3% now. (all up less than 0.5% but i am too lazy today to go and look it up again).

And dont forget it is the Land office appraisal price of the land that is taxable, not anybody else's "value / price" of the land.

As for "middlemen" post by torrenova today, dont need them and why would you, are you talking agent / broker / Thai friend ????:"? what?

[JohnC]

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