How risky is a 15% deposit for a land purchase?

[TravelerEastWest]

How risky is a 15% deposit for a land purchase? How can the risk be minimized? Note the seller has assets and a contract drawn up by our lawyer would be used.

I am wondering do such things as 3rd party accounts exist for safely transferring money and land titles in Thailand?

The reason for the deposit is a request by a seller so as to hold the land while we are waiting for the official land department survey (around a 6 week wait)

[bangkoklawyer24]

Are you concerned because you fear to lose the money because the due diligence will make you run away from the deal or the seller to run away with your money?

[AnotherOneAmerican]

10k deposit is all that's needed usually.

Land office survey can be done in 5 days if you pay them extra.

Contracts mean nothing in Thailand, very risky to pay this much.

I would walk away, probably something wrong with the land or title, and they are hoping for 15% free money.

Or somebody setting foreigner up for a scam. (gf/wife and seller agree a 50/50 split, etc.)

Nobody else will buy without the survey.

Edited November 12, 2014 by AnotherOneAmerican

[KittenKong]

The only valid reason I can see for paying more than a token deposit of a couple of thousand Baht would be if the property is such a bargain that potential buyers are beating each other to death with big sticks on the doorstep to snap it up.

And how likely is that in Thailand?

[trogers]

Make the deposit payment as a crossed cheque, and get the seller to collect it from your lawyer after signing the sales and purchase agreement, and handling the land title deed to your lawyer for safe keeping.

This would prevent the seller to sell it to a higher offer during the waiting period.

[RKASA]

"How risky is a 15% deposit for a land purchase?" 15%

Tell them to get things in order and call you back when they are ready to sell some land. If someone else buys it you lose nothing.

[Canada]

Who has asked for the land survey and why?

I have paid 50% in the past, but that was because I wanted time to close.

Problem is that the more you pay, the harder it becomes to walk if things go south. You'll have to assess the risk yourself, and/or bargain a better deal, or just pay it to secure it if it is a screaming deal.

[lemonjelly]

Beware...........

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/772566-scammed-out-of-a-house-deposit-but-very-lucky/

[JeremyBowskill]

How much money are we talking about? Big difference between 50k's worth of paddy land in Essan and 20 rai worth of land somewhere to build a resort on. One I may be inclined to do and 1 I definitely wouldn't!

[TommyUK1960]

My girlfriend just went to land office with the person selling, They hand the Chanute in and the land office made sure there wasn't any things tied to the Chanute like loans and stuff. They worked out the Tax. Outside the exchange of the cashiers check for the amount agreed was done then back into the land office and Chanute signed over to my girl friend. Don't need solicitors as the land office tend to be very through. If its being done in company name it is a different game and very risky as if the company has been set up for the purpose of purchasing land, IT IS ILLIGAL and you could end up losing the land and in jail.

[MichaelJohn]

If they run away with your deposit your only remedy is to go to court; if they have no money then you won't get any money back.

I would normally suggest just going together to the land office and exchanging; no contract, no deposit.

If however, you're expecting them to wait whilst you gather funds etc then you have to agree a deposit/compromise based on your view of the people concerned.

[TravelerEastWest]

Are you concerned because you fear to lose the money because the due diligence will make you run away from the deal or the seller to run away with your money?

Not sure what you mean by due diligence making us run away. The land value research has already been done and the location is a very good one.

My concern was for someone I have not done business with before possibly changing the price at the last minute and then when I say no - he might keep all the deposit.

[TravelerEastWest]

10k deposit is all that's needed usually.

Land office survey can be done in 5 days if you pay them extra.

Contracts mean nothing in Thailand, very risky to pay this much.

I would walk away, probably something wrong with the land or title, and they are hoping for 15% free money.

Or somebody setting foreigner up for a scam. (gf/wife and seller agree a 50/50 split, etc.)

Nobody else will buy without the survey.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Some land offices such as the one you are thinking of are probably not so busy but everywhere we have bought it is a month to 6 weeks for a survey with no possibility of anything quicker.

The fast surveys are normally after hours and not official so not worth much.

[TravelerEastWest]

The only valid reason I can see for paying more than a token deposit of a couple of thousand Baht would be if the property is such a bargain that potential buyers are beating each other to death with big sticks on the doorstep to snap it up.

And how likely is that in Thailand?

In this case the value is about correct for the price, but the location is very valuable to us for a variety of reasons and it could take 6 months to a year to find similar land.

There is no website listing or even a sign for this property.

If there was, there may be a number of interested buyers to be concerned about - no big sticks though...

[TravelerEastWest]

Make the deposit payment as a crossed cheque, and get the seller to collect it from your lawyer after signing the sales and purchase agreement, and handling the land title deed to your lawyer for safe keeping.

This would prevent the seller to sell it to a higher offer during the waiting period.

Thank you for your suggestion - yours is the first real idea so far.

The seller is not close by and very wealthy so would not consider but thank you.

[TravelerEastWest]

Who has asked for the land survey and why?

I have paid 50% in the past, but that was because I wanted time to close.

Problem is that the more you pay, the harder it becomes to walk if things go south. You'll have to assess the risk yourself, and/or bargain a better deal, or just pay it to secure it if it is a screaming deal.

We asked for the survey.

Your comments make sense.

We always pay cash - no loans - so we can close at any time.

In the end we spent some time talking and the buyer waived the deposit and we agreed to 50% of the transfer costs.

[TravelerEastWest]

If they run away with your deposit your only remedy is to go to court; if they have no money then you won't get any money back.

I would normally suggest just going together to the land office and exchanging; no contract, no deposit.

If however, you're expecting them to wait whilst you gather funds etc then you have to agree a deposit/compromise based on your view of the people concerned.

They have lots of money.

We are expected to wait for the survey which we always without exception require.

The challenge is that the land could easily be sold for a higher price by the time the survey is done.

[TravelerEastWest]

I am wondering do such things as 3rd party accounts exist for safely transferring money and land titles in Thailand?

​In the end we did find a bank - I think it was K bank that does have an escrow account for houses from some sellers but not for land transactions like ours.

The seller ended up being very friendly and the deposit was not needed and all is going smoothly.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[KittenKong]

The only valid reason I can see for paying more than a token deposit of a couple of thousand Baht would be if the property is such a bargain that potential buyers are beating each other to death with big sticks on the doorstep to snap it up.

And how likely is that in Thailand?

In this case the value is about correct for the price, but the location is very valuable to us for a variety of reasons and it could take 6 months to a year to find similar land.

There is no website listing or even a sign for this property.

If there was, there may be a number of interested buyers to be concerned about - no big sticks though...

This sounds very unlikely in Thailand. Owners here are usually out to get every last possible satang for their property, and you don't do that by keeping the sale secret.

[donx]

The only valid reason I can see for paying more than a token deposit of a couple of thousand Baht would be if the property is such a bargain that potential buyers are beating each other to death with big sticks on the doorstep to snap it up.

And how likely is that in Thailand?

In this case the value is about correct for the price, but the location is very valuable to us for a variety of reasons and it could take 6 months to a year to find similar land.

There is no website listing or even a sign for this property.

If there was, there may be a number of interested buyers to be concerned about - no big sticks though...

This sounds very unlikely in Thailand. Owners here are usually out to get every last possible satang for their property, and you don't do that by keeping the sale secret.

It may be unlikely but the same situation happened to us in that we bought a property that had been up for sale before but was no longer advertised by the owners. Relatives of ours knew this and when my wife and I started looking around for this type of property, they asked the owners if they still wanted to sell the land. They did and we put a down payment through our relatives since we live in the US and wouldn't be in Thailand for 3 months. We had until the end of 3 months to make the final payment at the land office which we did. On the way to the land office, the owners said that since our deposit someone else offered 250,000 baht per rai more. But since we had an agreement we ended up with the property.

[BritManToo]

10k deposit is all that's needed usually.

Land office survey can be done in 5 days if you pay them extra.

Contracts mean nothing in Thailand, very risky to pay this much.

I would walk away, probably something wrong with the land or title, and they are hoping for 15% free money.

Or somebody setting foreigner up for a scam. (gf/wife and seller agree a 50/50 split, etc.)

Nobody else will buy without the survey.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Some land offices such as the one you are thinking of are probably not so busy but everywhere we have bought it is a month to 6 weeks for a survey with no possibility of anything quicker.

The fast surveys are normally after hours and not official so not worth much.

You can always pay to queue jump.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/777857-bribe-checks-on-land-offices-in-thailand/

[TravelerEastWest]

The only valid reason I can see for paying more than a token deposit of a couple of thousand Baht would be if the property is such a bargain that potential buyers are beating each other to death with big sticks on the doorstep to snap it up.

And how likely is that in Thailand?

In this case the value is about correct for the price, but the location is very valuable to us for a variety of reasons and it could take 6 months to a year to find similar land.

There is no website listing or even a sign for this property.

If there was, there may be a number of interested buyers to be concerned about - no big sticks though...

This sounds very unlikely in Thailand. Owners here are usually out to get every last possible satang for their property, and you don't do that by keeping the sale secret.

It may be unlikely but the same situation happened to us in that we bought a property that had been up for sale before but was no longer advertised by the owners. Relatives of ours knew this and when my wife and I started looking around for this type of property, they asked the owners if they still wanted to sell the land. They did and we put a down payment through our relatives since we live in the US and wouldn't be in Thailand for 3 months. We had until the end of 3 months to make the final payment at the land office which we did. On the way to the land office, the owners said that since our deposit someone else offered 250,000 baht per rai more. But since we had an agreement we ended up with the property.

Actually, it is very likely in Thailand the last 3 properties we bought were not advertised - example one in town house was empty for years researching through a bank we found the owner and bought the property.

The next property was a rice farm there was a sign that had fallen down into a ditch and was covered with a bush - we saw and then bought the land.

This land has no sign or listing but a person in the village found the owner for us.

Interestingly a lot of rich Thais buy land and hold it for years but will sell for the right price.

[TravelerEastWest]

10k deposit is all that's needed usually.

Land office survey can be done in 5 days if you pay them extra.

Contracts mean nothing in Thailand, very risky to pay this much.

I would walk away, probably something wrong with the land or title, and they are hoping for 15% free money.

Or somebody setting foreigner up for a scam. (gf/wife and seller agree a 50/50 split, etc.)

Nobody else will buy without the survey.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Some land offices such as the one you are thinking of are probably not so busy but everywhere we have bought it is a month to 6 weeks for a survey with no possibility of anything quicker.

The fast surveys are normally after hours and not official so not worth much.

You can always pay to queue jump.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/777857-bribe-checks-on-land-offices-in-thailand/

Anything is possible anywhere but not in our experience - the unofficial surveys can be done quickly but not the official ones as there is a schedule made day by day.