Brown out Samui

[ChiangMaiThai]

I've been out to Sansaran just off canal road a few times and quite like it. I am thinking of buying, but this being Thailand, I wanted to see if anyone else has experience with them.

http://www.sansaranhome.com

From what I gather the payments that are made by the buyer are on a fixed timeline. This strikes me as odd. Shouldn't the payments be made according to milestones in construction?

And with all of these projects where the house isn't yet built at the time the payments begin, what guarantee do I have that they don't just use second rate everything and build a pretty house that falls apart in a couple years?

Thanks for any info!

[whiterussian]

looks great, if the highway noise doesn't get to you...

or the flight path

[doppa]

you've probably have already viewed the showhouse, so get from them in writing that everything in the new house will be the same standard, or exactly as is, visit the site weekly, check everything you can.

pay them on a basis where construction/progress = payment, what they say how long it will take, and it's actual time to build, could very well be vastly different, try and introduce penalty clauses for lateness.

of course as always is it you or your wife thats buying, if your a non thai you cannot own the land, and it will be on a initial 30yr lease, after which, so they say another 30yrs, and then another, no one so far as far as i'm concerned has been here long enough [ ie 30yrs] to test that the system works.

if your wife is buying, under current thai law, your not allowed to give her funds to buy the house...crazy , but nevertheless true, many will say that they have done it, which if your prepared to take the gamble fine, some folk reckon goverment turns a blind eye toward it all, but if the shit hits the fan here thats when you'll hit problems.

and lastly, just think, can you afford to lose that cash, if yes go ahead, if no, well seriously think about it, selling secondhand property takes an awful long time to shift, nearly 3 yrs in my case in phuket, longer for others.

good luck

[ChiangMaiThai]

Thanks for the comments. I'm just tired of renting. Year after year giving my money to someone else and in the end, I don't come away with any asset. I think payment based on construction progress is a must and also good idea as far as getting it in writing that the materials and quality of the show house will equal that of my house.

I've sold a business of mine to my wife. The income from that business now belongs to her. If she wants to buy a house and let me live there, then that's okay with me....Maybe one day Thailand will treat those who marry it's citizens with a little more respect. Maybe maximum 1 rai land allowed per farang who has married a Thai?

As for the comment about the highway noise, I think you're looking at the wrong project. This place is not near any highway. And spent plenty of time there without hearing any planes. Unlike Land and House towards Hang Dong which had flights going over every 10 minutes...

[noise]

We spent many years looking for a home and one thing we saw consistently was a development looking great during the build phase and then falling into disrepair as sales faltered/slowed. My assessment was that the development was under funded and it required continuous sales for funds to continue construction. When they didn't materialize, the development company took their profits and faded away, leaving broken promises behind.

Other developments sold out and then management didn't enforce CC&Rs (if there were any) and did not collect homeowners' fee. Or there was no management, per se, just a token office, at best. With no funds to maintain the common areas, the pools and club houses soon became unusable and common areas went to weed; the whole development took on a "failed" look.

The Sansaran web site did not address this at all; did not say how long the company had been around or what other projects they had built or how it would be managed/maintained in the after sales phase.

I would suggest a thorough investigation of the company and a trip to any others they may have built. Go poke at the people in the sales office, see what they say.

Edited July 18, 2010 by noise

[ChiangMaiThai]

More good points. Thanks. They are also behind Home in Park, which has a pretty good reputation. And they are doing Pran, which is set to be one of the most expensive projects in CM. Still, it is a concern. I will ask the sales people about this...

[Greenside]

More good points. Thanks. They are also behind Home in Park, which has a pretty good reputation. And they are doing Pran, which is set to be one of the most expensive projects in CM. Still, it is a concern. I will ask the sales people about this...

Don't ask the sales people anything - go find someone who has lived in one of their previous projects. I have found (much to my wife's amazement (although I don't understand why) that people are almost always delighted to talk about their houses and the issues in their moo ban and often as not they'll end up inviting you in to see how the place looks. It's a good alternative to going to the movies on a hot afternoon.

[ChiangMaiThai]

Good point Greenside. And with that in mind, happy to hear from anyone who is living in Sansaran or Home in Park...