Another Good Reason To Buy Only Existing Real Estate In Pattaya

[Jingthing]

This kind of report isn't shocking at all to long term residents. But everyday a new crop of potential victims arrive. I don't know about you but if I had paid 3 million baht cash for a condo and never got a condo in return (or a refund), it would have been devastating.

http://www.andrew-dr...ory.php?sid=535

What the owners did not know is that these developers would build these places and rent them out themselves and keep the cash. And as they 'owned' the land the houses were built on they could do what they want. Owners arrived to find their holiday homes occupied.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Jingthing

[FarangBuddha]

This story has already been posted under the thread of the Royal Marine getting scammed but the points you make are scary and valid. I constantly wonder to myself why/how foreigners allow themselves to be scammed, often by their fellow nationals. Many of these cases do not even involve a venal companion but just guys doing really dumb things...like putting down 50% deposits on condos/houses that are only plans on paper! Is this normal in the UK where the people mentioned in Drummond's story come from? If not, why are they so quick to do it in a strange foreign country? Wouldn't you expect anyone to be EXTRA careful before investing/buying anything, e.g., real estate, a business, a car, in any foreign country?

I like the point the scammer in the video makes about buyers having "security" for their investment because they are dealing with a UK company and a UK company owns the land/development in Thailand. <deleted>...it's just as illegal for a UK company, as it is for an individual, to own land in Thailand!!! So right off the bat, a sophisticated person would smell the scam. I think it just comes down to many UK residents are just too trusting and are used to having a financial regulatory system that at least makes an effort to police investment markets and they assume, wrongly for the most part, that it must be similar in other countries, including Thailand.

I do feel sorry for these folks and hope that others to follow will do their due diligence and research before investing in Thailand.

Any legitimate development/developer, for a new off-plan project, would only require a purchase option deposit of 5-10k baht, even for property costing millions of baht; then, a couple weeks later, a formal purchase contract would be signed and 5-10% of the purchase price would be paid. At this point, monthly/quartely payments would be made based on verified construction progress...up to a maximum of 75-80% of the price. The final balance payment would be made upon title-deed transfer to the buyer. Any real-estate transaction for new construction that is basically not as above is a bad deal for the buyer or an outright con; if the builder won't agree to such terms then walk, no run, away as fast as your legs can carry you!

[vtjforyou]

Good idea to make money :-)

[toenail]

-and what I have seen, making a down payment on a development that is going to be built 1..2 years down the road doesn't give you that big (if any) of a discount. Just as well keep the money in the bank and make some interest on it...

[Markland]

this video was already posted

[Jimmyd]

I love the spot where Colov says something like "so you're guaruanteed to have an x% return on your investment, how wonderful." It's clear to me from that point on that he's a co-conspirator, fully aware of benefiting from the scam.

[hotandhumid]

This story has already been posted under the thread of the Royal Marine getting scammed but the points you make are scary and valid. I constantly wonder to myself why/how foreigners allow themselves to be scammed, often by their fellow nationals. Many of these cases do not even involve a venal companion but just guys doing really dumb things...like putting down 50% deposits on condos/houses that are only plans on paper! Is this normal in the UK where the people mentioned in Drummond's story come from? If not, why are they so quick to do it in a strange foreign country? Wouldn't you expect anyone to be EXTRA careful before investing/buying anything, e.g., real estate, a business, a car, in any foreign country?

I like the point the scammer in the video makes about buyers having "security" for their investment because they are dealing with a UK company and a UK company owns the land/development in Thailand. <deleted>...it's just as illegal for a UK company, as it is for an individual, to own land in Thailand!!! So right off the bat, a sophisticated person would smell the scam. I think it just comes down to many UK residents are just too trusting and are used to having a financial regulatory system that at least makes an effort to police investment markets and they assume, wrongly for the most part, that it must be similar in other countries, including Thailand.

I do feel sorry for these folks and hope that others to follow will do their due diligence and research before investing in Thailand.

Any legitimate development/developer, for a new off-plan project, would only require a purchase option deposit of 5-10k baht, even for property costing millions of baht; then, a couple weeks later, a formal purchase contract would be signed and 5-10% of the purchase price would be paid. At this point, monthly/quartely payments would be made based on verified construction progress...up to a maximum of 75-80% of the price. The final balance payment would be made upon title-deed transfer to the buyer. Any real-estate transaction for new construction that is basically not as above is a bad deal for the buyer or an outright con; if the builder won't agree to such terms then walk, no run, away as fast as your legs can carry you!

Yea we know the drill, no need to spell it out to us.

[hotandhumid]

-and what I have seen, making a down payment on a development that is going to be built 1..2 years down the road doesn't give you that big (if any) of a discount. Just as well keep the money in the bank and make some interest on it...

Totally agree, the days of buying cheap 'off plan' seem to be gone now. I think people do it more so because they think the development will sell out and to be fair some of them do.

Did you say 'interest' in the bank? Those days are gone too.

[LennyW]

This is old news, Harlequin and TPME have been a pain in the butt to many legitimate property developers for the last few years, <deleted> like them give a bad name to all property dealings in Thailand, legitimate developers, un-deservingly get tarred with the same brush, glad to see it is all coming out now.

Kudos to AD for highlighting it!

[FarangBuddha]

This story has already been posted under the thread of the Royal Marine getting scammed but the points you make are scary and valid. I constantly wonder to myself why/how foreigners allow themselves to be scammed, often by their fellow nationals. Many of these cases do not even involve a venal companion but just guys doing really dumb things...like putting down 50% deposits on condos/houses that are only plans on paper! Is this normal in the UK where the people mentioned in Drummond's story come from? If not, why are they so quick to do it in a strange foreign country? Wouldn't you expect anyone to be EXTRA careful before investing/buying anything, e.g., real estate, a business, a car, in any foreign country?

I like the point the scammer in the video makes about buyers having "security" for their investment because they are dealing with a UK company and a UK company owns the land/development in Thailand. <deleted>...it's just as illegal for a UK company, as it is for an individual, to own land in Thailand!!! So right off the bat, a sophisticated person would smell the scam. I think it just comes down to many UK residents are just too trusting and are used to having a financial regulatory system that at least makes an effort to police investment markets and they assume, wrongly for the most part, that it must be similar in other countries, including Thailand.

I do feel sorry for these folks and hope that others to follow will do their due diligence and research before investing in Thailand.

Any legitimate development/developer, for a new off-plan project, would only require a purchase option deposit of 5-10k baht, even for property costing millions of baht; then, a couple weeks later, a formal purchase contract would be signed and 5-10% of the purchase price would be paid. At this point, monthly/quartely payments would be made based on verified construction progress...up to a maximum of 75-80% of the price. The final balance payment would be made upon title-deed transfer to the buyer. Any real-estate transaction for new construction that is basically not as above is a bad deal for the buyer or an outright con; if the builder won't agree to such terms then walk, no run, away as fast as your legs can carry you!

...

Yea we know the drill, no need to spell it out to us.

Maybe "know-it-alls" like you do but apparently many do not...like all those mentioned in the media reports. Should we also stop mentioning the jet-ski scams too as "[everyone] knows the drill"?

[OneZero]

To quote FarangBuddha: "Maybe "know-it-alls" like you do but apparently many do not...like all those mentioned in the media reports. Should we also stop mentioning the jet-ski scams too as "[everyone] knows the drill"? Unquote.

Andrew Drummond has done a fine, well researched, job on alerting the Pattaya community to beware of the scammers. Certainly this deserves at least as much continuous publicity as the jet ski scams, because these specific scammers are also still in public view freely walking the streets, & probably looking for more victims. Hopefully Andrew Drummonds piece will at least dry up the pool of future victims, even if it does not hamper the scammers current lifestyles..

But what I have been waiting / hoping to see is comment that legal actions are being taken by the victims &/or by the authorities for recompense, or at least to put a stop to future scamming. Perhaps, like the jet ski scams, that is too much to hope for. But I'm wondering if the victims have united & initiated legal action against the scammers. Perhaps if they have, they do not yet want to talk about it publicly.

Edited April 20, 2012 by OneZero

[OneZero]

No reply's, OK. Without further comment, we will lose sight of the Andrew Drummond information. Here is a suggestion that I'm sure will not really go anywhere with the moderators (& some of the readers), but what the hell I'll propose it anyway. I think it would be informative to have a "Pinned" topic titled "Lessons Learned - Be Careful". It would always remain in view to alert the public to confirmed & well described past & current potential scam situations. The moderators would have to review it of course to ensure the descriptions did not include information that might create thaivisa fear of a defamation lawsuit. Too much to ask for? OK, everybody, beat me over the head.