Getting Evaluation of House in Jomtiem (Pattaya)

[HarrySeaman]

My landlord is thinking of selling the house I rent in Jomtiem.

I would like to get an independent evaluation of the house before discussing buying the house.

Does anyone have any suggestions of someone who can give me a fair evaluation of the property - preferably someone who speaks English.

Thanks for any advice.

Edited March 24, 2016 by HarrySeaman

[Gsxrnz]

There is virtually no yardstick for anybody to give you a valuation. I live in a village in Jomtien and two houses recently changed hand. Virtually identical and not far from each other. The prices paid varied by nearly 30%.

Reasons - the cheapest was bought by a European with a clever Thai wife that knew how to negotiate and bought from a European owner that just wanted out. He'd been trying to sell for 2 years.

The expensive one was bought by a European from a Thai. No need for further explanation. Oh, this will be the boat you're in.

Anyway OP, the only person you can really go to is a dodgy Estate Agent. Even the banks haven't got a clue of valuations.

[peterrabbit]

What ever your landlord wants for it offer him half and start from there.

[i claudius]

There is virtually no yardstick for anybody to give you a valuation. I live in a village in Jomtien and two houses recently changed hand. Virtually identical and not far from each other. The prices paid varied by nearly 30%.

Reasons - the cheapest was bought by a European with a clever Thai wife that knew how to negotiate and bought from a European owner that just wanted out. He'd been trying to sell for 2 years.

The expensive one was bought by a European from a Thai. No need for further explanation. Oh, this will be the boat you're in.

Anyway OP, the only person you can really go to is a dodgy Estate Agent. Even the banks haven't got a clue of valuations.

So the banks don't know ,the ,"dodgy"estate agents don't know ,do you ,you seem to know everything else

[tolsti]

Contact one of the big international property management companies like CBRE, JLL etc. They will give you a valuation but it will cost you.

[mcfish]

There is virtually no yardstick for anybody to give you a valuation. I live in a village in Jomtien and two houses recently changed hand. Virtually identical and not far from each other. The prices paid varied by nearly 30%.

Reasons - the cheapest was bought by a European with a clever Thai wife that knew how to negotiate and bought from a European owner that just wanted out. He'd been trying to sell for 2 years.

The expensive one was bought by a European from a Thai. No need for further explanation. Oh, this will be the boat you're in.

Anyway OP, the only person you can really go to is a dodgy Estate Agent. Even the banks haven't got a clue of valuations.

So the banks don't know ,the ,"dodgy"estate agents don't know ,do you ,you seem to know everything else

Surley he must know both parties showed him their contracts, we'll because thats what people do lol .. It's got BS Witten all over it Edited March 25, 2016 by mcfish

[stephenterry]

Assuming it's a Thai owner, they'll put whatever price they want, and stick with it until hell freezes over. Negotiate is an alien concept. Best of luck.

[HarrySeaman]

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far.

I have doubts that I could get an honest evaluation from a real estate company since they would make a lot more money selling the property for the owner than they would get for giving me an evaluation. I suspect that they would over evaluate the property in order to get the listing, which is why I haven't gone that route so far.

Thanks to tolsti for mentioning the property management firms. That reminded me that I have a friend who's wife owns a small property management firm. I will seek his advice as well as my banks.

[KittenKong]

I have doubts that I could get an honest evaluation from a real estate company since they would make a lot more money selling the property for the owner than they would get for giving me an evaluation. I suspect that they would over evaluate the property in order to get the listing, which is why I haven't gone that route so far.

Thanks to tolsti for mentioning the property management firms. That reminded me that I have a friend who's wife owns a small property management firm. I will seek his advice as well as my banks.

The honesty of the agent may be a factor but the main problem here is that the market is very illiquid and prices are extremely opaque. So it's more than likely that two identical properties here could sell for two totally different prices, unlike in many western countries were the prices would be recorded by a government agency and would probably be within a few percent of each other.

The best you can do is ask many people and then calculate an average, but even then this will still be an average asking price not an average selling price.

I remember when I sold my house back in Europe (a fairly unusual, large, old rural property needing work but with stunning open mountain views and under 5 minutes from a large town) various agents quoted between 400kEUR and 700kEUR, with one of the biggest and most experienced saying categorically "you will never sell this house for more than 400kEUR". In the end it sold for 620kEUR plus fees.

[Pdaz]

The value of the house will be lodged at the land office for tax purposes. They calculate a figure based on area to decide on the amount of transfer tax required. This figure will be lower than the actual value so would make a good starting point for negotiations. Either get a lawyer/agent to check at the land office or if you can speak Thai/have a Thai friend you should be able to get it yourself.

[WorkingTourist]

How much do you pay in rent? Try multiply that by 12-15 years, does that sound like something you would pay to own the house?

Also look at the sq.m. price of houses in your area. That should probably be used as an upper limit, if the condition of your house is average.

[Gsxrnz]

There is virtually no yardstick for anybody to give you a valuation. I live in a village in Jomtien and two houses recently changed hand. Virtually identical and not far from each other. The prices paid varied by nearly 30%.

Reasons - the cheapest was bought by a European with a clever Thai wife that knew how to negotiate and bought from a European owner that just wanted out. He'd been trying to sell for 2 years.

The expensive one was bought by a European from a Thai. No need for further explanation. Oh, this will be the boat you're in.

Anyway OP, the only person you can really go to is a dodgy Estate Agent. Even the banks haven't got a clue of valuations.

So the banks don't know ,the ,"dodgy"estate agents don't know ,do you ,you seem to know everything else

Surley he must know both parties showed him their contracts, we'll because thats what people do lol .. It's got BS Witten all over it

You two must be fresh off the boat.

There is nothing that happens regarding the sale and purchase of a house in a moo baan that is not common knowledge within minutes of the deal being done. Thais love to gossip and they particularly like to tell how much they paid for something or sold something for.

I can even tell you what most of my neighbours are paying in rentals too if you wanted to know.