Looking to buy house

The T/W and I are looking to buy a house. Please no caveat about making sure it is for keeps, we have been married for 30+ years

We are only in town for 5 weeks and would like to find a 3 BR, 2 bath, single story. We will then go home and take care of things and move to Udon. We would like to have a house to come to since wee will be coming with pets.

Any ideas, suggestions, etc. are greatly appreciated. I have talked with a couple of realtors but was not impressed

You don't say what part of town you're looking or does it matter. Anyway, you can try Sittarom, it's a fairly new development with ongoing construction and are offering buy in deals/discounts. I posted the following post last March after my wife and I had a look around.

papaguido wrote:There's a new housing development going up around the corner from Big C and about 500 m south on the ring road. I can't say if this the best area in Udon but we live (PK 5) not from the new estate and I'm happy with the area.

Anyway, the new estate is Sittarom it's located on the Ring road between Phosi Rd (Bic C) and Tahan Rd (between Big C & the Chevrolet dealer). My wife and I dropped by last weekend during their "open house" and were quite impressed with the two floor plans we toured. I believe the one floor plan starts at 2,290,000bt and the promotion price is 2,090,000bt. This is a 3brm/3bath unit with a total area of 134 sq m.

Really would think about renting first Charlie. Especially as you need quickly - 5 weeks is not long to find the house of your dreams, agree a price & do the legal stuff.
There are usually plenty of houses to rent, so pick an area, go & look & then rent. That will give you somewhere to settle into & have a more leisurely look later.
You may well find that once you are living in Udon that a 'routine' will develop that means you will find somewhere that initially you would have never thought of living becomes attractive. They are currently starting to build out by the new Tesco/Carrefour for example.
You have already discovered the first problem of buying a house in Udon - most are not advertised anywhere but on its gate or word of mouth at the local shop...

"think about renting "

I second that. If you're only coming for 5 weeks, I'd suggest renting a car and stay in one of the serviced apartments that are all over town (many brand new!!). Use that time to find a good place to rent......visit the areas that interest you during the day and during the night (in case of karaoke / traffic nightmares). If you find an area that you think might be worthy of buying into, why not rent for 6 months?
That'll give you a good idea of what's what in the neighborhood.

A big third. Rent and live here for awhile to decide where you want to live in the area.

Get acquainted with the areas, and I suggest buying land and having a house built. The premium on developments is substantial and the benefits minimal.

Hi Charlieb,

Check out the web site UdonThaniHouse.com for a lot of information about buying a house here and moving to Udon Thani.

Thanks for all of the advice about renting. That has been my idea all along. Now if one of you can come along and convince the wife All of you have one of them and are well aware of how stubborn they can be once they have their mind set

Good luck with the convincing. I think Thai women have a phrase for making their husbands comply. "bung kop" or something like that.

Maybe a discussion related to the reason for buying immediately versus waiting until you have made the final move,is in order.
Is your wife from Udon?Does she have family or real friends here?Does your neighbors living habits make a difference in your decision?Does she understand that selling the house is extremely difficult is she decides to move?Have you both challenged the ''motives'' behind making such a ''instant'' purchase??

Renting is relatively inexpensive and gives you plenty of time to evaluate the positive and negative aspects of a particular area as they fit your needs!

The advantage to your wife of renting is simple.
You can look around & buy a plot of land that you both like the location of. You can then both design & build EXACTLY the house you both want. This can be achieved for probably less (or at least the same) cost as buying a house 'off the shelf'. Buying a house that someone else has designed & built always results in compromise. Kitchen too small, not enough/too much garden, not secure enough- you name it.
Secondly a great number of the houses for sale are for rent as well. So you can "try" a house that you would like to buy for no risk. If, after a couple of months, you decide it is the house for you, then you can approach the owner to sell to you.
House sales are pretty slow in Udon & new places are going up every day (yeah, I know, but TIT ) so I don't think you need to worry about there not being anywhere available..

Hi.
I disagree with people who say rent and not buy. If I had taken that advice, and I was given it, four years ago I would feel pretty sick now.
I'm in a three bedroom two bathroom single story house, inside the ring road and bought it new for 1 million Bhat. The rent for this type of new property is now 10,000B a month so in ten years, if rents don't go up, ha,ha, you would have spent 1,200,000B and have nothing to show for it. The value of my house now is 1,900,000B making a profit of 900,000B in four years. Far better than any bank rates. And prices are still going up. Also when I bought it the exchange rate was 71B to the GBP. Now that 54B buys 1GBP I have hit lucky twice.
I bought a second simalar one and rent it out, 10,000B a month now, and only rent it out long term. I think to risky short term. In ten years or less the rent will have paid for the house plus the fact that if I wanted to sell I will have made a good profit.
Hey why am I saying buy, Please rent and keep the landlords very happy.
I think this is a British trait to rent and not buy.
Good luck to what ever you do and welcome to Udon.

doo wrote:I think this is a British trait to rent and not buy.

I hope that the rest of the "information" contained in your post is more accurate than the above statement.

Showing latest available data.
Rank Countries Amount
# 1 Ireland: 83%
# 2 Italy: 78%
= 3 Australia: 69%
= 3 United Kingdom: 69%
= 5 Canada: 67%
= 5 Finland: 67%
= 7 United States: 65%
= 7 Belgium: 65%
= 9 Japan: 60%
= 9 Sweden: 60%
# 11 France: 54%
# 12 Denmark: 53%
# 13 Netherlands: 49%
# 14 Germany: 43%
Weighted average: 63.0%

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/peo_h ... -ownership

I did not read one poster who said "Do not Buy", only '"rent & look" - which is still the best advice he will receive.