Best Way To Go Apartment Hunting?

[JoeLloyd]

I'm going to be showing up in Bangkok and begin immediately looking for an apartment to rent.

My question is -- what's the best way to go about doing this? Any publications I should look out for, or what? How do I learn about the different neighborhood? In terms of price, I am pretty flexible, but I'd like to keep it under 12,000 baht. High speed Internet access is a HUGE plus (I do a lot of work online) and I've heard some apartments have this built in -- how would I go about finding them?

I speak only English, but I have a friend who can speak a little Thai, and can probably get help from someone fluent in Thai too.

Any advice is greatly welcomed.

Joe

[singa-traz]

http://www.thaiapartment.com/

But the best, is to find the part of Bangkok you want to stay ... and walk the soi(s) with a mobile phone ... and your friend who can speak Thai !

[randyksf]

Near Soi ARI there are a lot of places. Also go to Soi 8 There are several huge buildings there. I just found one for 12k above Villa market in that area.

If you don't need to be near BTS then you can find some great places. go to is to e-mail Sarah or Cookie at Sunbelt Asia Properties [[email protected]] can help showed some great places.

Took me about a week to find something.

Also look at towards the end of the month. Or you will get everything is full. Never speak to the guard the will give you bad info. Also when you talk to the person ask two ways one if they have any owners who want to rent a condo, and if they have any rooms for rent.

You also want to ask them what the phone charge and electric is. You should not pay more than a baht over cost for any of them. 3.5 baht is electric per unit and phone is 3 baht per call house to house. Cell phones are 3 baht per min.

Also ask them about he phone you make sure it's not a party line. The will disco every 1 hr.

Deposit should be X 2 Rent, move in will be on a 12k should be 36k. After you move out ask them the time frames to get the money back. Also take pictures of everything and give them a copy. That way they can’t charge you for a five year old stain.

If you have not lived here try to get a 3 or six month lease to test out the area.

Just the tiles and tribulations I went through..

Oh one last thing the lease will be in Thai. Have someone to read it for you.