Gary

Some of the western imported cars you see in Thailand have been imported by Thai people who worked overseas and providing that they meet certain requirements such as owning the car a certain period of time, they are able to bring their personal vehicle home with little or no duty.

Being a construction guy, maybe he was talking about building cost. No land and no landscaping included.

Thai customs has car auctions. They get those cars from people who had no idea what the custom duties were and simply abandoned the car because the duties were a lot more than the car was worth.

A friend of mine wanted to open an account with Siam Commercial Bank. He wanted Siam bank because it was in a convenient location. They would not allow him to open the account with a tourist visa. I took him to immigration and we explained to immigration that the bank wouldn't allow my friend to open an account and that he had to have a bank account to get his retitrement visa. Immigration gave him a paper to give to the bank. I have no idea what the paper said (Thai) but Siam Commercial opened an account for him and gave him an ATM card the same day. My friend was over 50 years old so I don't know if immigration would help a younger guy.

Bank of America charges a flat $40 for a wire transfer. Citibank rips you off for a three percent currency transaction fee when you use the ATM card. Wammu won't allow me to open an account without being a resident of the US. US banks don't much like expats.

Citibank Bangkok may as well be Citibank bumfuck no where. I damaged my Citibank ATM card and they refused to help me in any way. The wouldn't even request a new card for me. That said, I use Citibank US for wire transfers. I am able to do the transactions online with no problems. If I request the transfer on a business day the money is always in my Siam Commercial account the next day. The fee is a flat $30 US regardless of the amount of the transfer.

By no means would anyone consider me as being wealthy. In fact living in the US would be difficult if I had any luxuries at all. I have posted before that since my Social Security started I have increased my wife's housekeeping budget from 20,000 to 25,000 baht per month. She pays for everything including our clothes and my cigarettes. I pay the insurance premiums and for big ticket items. She has at least 5,000 baht left at the end of the month to put in her savings account. I live exactly as I choose and if I want to buy something, I buy it. I do like my toys.

Simple directions for us whore mongers; Right beside Lolita's.

I would advise you to do your homework carefully. Before you decide on a house make a pest of yourself and knock on doors to ask neighbors about the security. I lived in a gated community and was broken into twice. I really think the thieves were in cahoots with the security guards. Both time I had gone away for a long weekend.

Like most everyone else, I wanted to retire at 50 years old. I didn't quite make it but did manage at age 52. Unfortunately that didn't work out either. Two years of living in Bangkok and a really bad investment made me realize that I couldn't make it. Close but too close for comfort. I have always been pretty conservative. I went back and worked for three more years and saved every bit I possibly could. Finally at about 58 I figured I had enough. My savings would carry me until my small company pension started at age 60. I had overestimated my living expenses here and bought a condo with the surplus. That lowered my cost of living even further. I am now collecting Social Security besides my company pension. I had a 401K plan if all else failed but fortunately never had to use it. Last year is the first I took anything out of it and that was the 800,000 baht for my retirement visa. The Thai government has made the income statement route more difficult and I just didn't want the hassle. I am comfortable at this point with Social Security, a pension, dividends from my 401K and rent from my condo. Speaking from experience, I would NEVER count on the stock market for income. I took a couple of SERIOUS hits that devastated my 401K. A good friend of mine keeps all his money in CD's. I used to laugh at him while I counted my profits. I'm no longer laughing because he is further ahead than I am. Thailand is a great place to retire but I sure wouldn't enjoy worrying about a tight budget living here.

I just returned to up country from Jomtien. The guy who rents my condo in Jomtien still has a year left on his lease. He wanted an additional two year lease. He asked me if I would raise the rent. I told him that I was satisfied with 9,000 baht per month. He is a good friend and offered more money. He asked me why I would rent for 9,000 when similar condos were renting for 12,000 and up. I told him that I wanted to make sure that he couldn't afford to move so I wanted to keep the rent low. He now has a new three year lease. Having a good renter is a pleasure. He takes care of things. The bedroom air con was leaking water. He called a guy who totally dismantled and cleaned the whole unit. The charge was 900 baht. I wanted to pay for that but my renter refused to accept the money. That's what you call a good renter.

Five years ago condos were reasonably priced and were actually cheap. Since then they have doubled in price. Even with the price doubling you can still get a nice unit for less than 35,000 baht per square meter. New construction prices make that a bargain. In my opinion, anyone who would pay 100,000 baht per square meter pre construction is a LOT braver than I am, perhaps foolish is a better term. I'm not really a gambler, BUT, I would be willing to bet that many of the new projects will NEVER be completed. I doubt that you will ever see older established projects drop in price. In my case, I really don't care if the price goes up or down. I bought with the idea of always having a place to stay and knowing that there will never be a bossy landlord raising my rent or telling me what I can do or can't do.

And what does that make you? Are you the new forum shit stirrer? Anyone who takes an Internet forum too seriously is not real smart to begin with.

My reply wasn't aimed at anyone because no one has tried to tell us what a great bargain they are. By reading your post, you feel that you got your investment back. I will dispute that for all but a VERY few. My brother in law has a five star timeshare but he is quite well off. He will tell you that he saves nothing because of high fees but that they still enjoy it because of all the swaps that are offered. A couple of years ago they stayed in Phuket and said they could have stayed in better places for the same or less money with no investment.

You no longer need a Non O visa from out of the country. You can change a tourist visa into a Non O at Bangkok immigration. It is an extra step but no big deal. It is true that in the past, you could NOT have that done. It's one of the few things that have changed for the better.

I think you're missing the point. A legitimate company and operates for the purpose of earning a profit. The Thailand BOI also helps legitimate companies in many different ways. A farang owning a house certainly isn't the intent of the law. I can see why Thailand has allowed this to happen. You have a company for the purpose of owning a house. Now you have to have an accountant and file tax returns for a company that does no business. The tax returns alone were enough to prevent me from going that way.

You are setting up a company. Your lawyer finds Thai stockholders. He issues stock to them and they sign the stock back to the farang. They have NOT invested anything and in fact sometimes get paid for signing back the shares. The government has already threatened to investigate these stockholders to see if they do indeed have an investment in the company. They do NOT. Why would they? Anyways you slice or dice it, this company was set up for the purpose of a farang to own property. The shareholders never had an investment, never had a vote, never received profits and have already signed their shares off. Plain and simple manipulation of the law. The Thai government was OBVIOUSLY aware of this practice and did nothing. WHY? A new government may permit farang company owners to sell the property because although it was manipulation, it was accepted. If the new government is VERY nationalistic the property could be confiscated. The statement that Thailand is for Thai people means what it says. It has also been said that not one square centimeter of Thailand will EVER be sold to anyone other than a Thai citizen. Of course you are free to draw your own conclusions. I think lawyers are the scum of the earth both here and elsewhere. The million baht card deal had provisions that would have allowed a farang to buy one rai to build a home. That was quickly withdrawn because it was illegal and because of the BIG commotion it caused. The whole company thing stinks and could be a major disaster for those unfortunate farangs who bought homes thinking everything was on the up and up and legal. The crooked lawyers who set these companies up should be punished, NOT the people who invested their money.

The above undoubtedly came from a slippery lawyer or real estate company. The Thai stock holders MUST have a financial investment in the property. Would you want stockholders holding 51 percent of your property. Secure free hold? More bullshit. Nominee shareholders who have already signed off their shares to you are specifically illegal. A 30 year lease renewable for another 30 plus another 30 is certainly possible. The contract will state that. Unfortunately the land office will ONLY recognize 30 years, period. The lease is the safest way to have your own home. Just be aware that if you happen to live more than 30 years it's good bye property. The best policy is to spend only what you can afford to walk away from. They did get putting the property in your wife's name correct. You MUST sign a document saying that you have no claim on the property and that it is hers to do with as she pleases. Remember that lawyers are here to please you and to get paid. They will write any contract you want. Having a contract doesn't mean it is legal. TIT

I think that's a reasonable assumption. Like most everyone else I would have rather had a house than a condo. I did my homework years ago and even then it was clearly against the law to have a bogus company for the purpose of owning or controlling land. YES, I know there are thousands of these bogus companies owned by farangs and what will happen is anyone's guess. Better them than me. I like sleeping peacefully at night.

You bought a house? I hope you did your homework because a farang can't own property in Thailand. You either had to put it in your wife's name or you are using a bogus company. You CAN own a condo.

Where's the parking places? Did they forget them?

Here are some Bangkok prices per square meter. Makes Pattaya/Jomtien look like a bargain; from Raimon Land report (Nov 30th 07) on Bangkok premium condo (current prices psm----B200K per sq meter seems to be the top-of-the-top end): SATHORN Sukhothai (197 units) B200K + The Met (370 units) B130K-B164K The Infinity (108 units) B122K-B142K CENTRAL LUMPINI 185 Rajadamri (250 units) B200K+ Baan Rajadamri B170K Park Chidlom (219 units) B131K-B135K Athenee (219 units) B125K-140K SUKHUMVIT Millennium (302 units) B105K-B145K The Lakes (165 units) B110K Madison (151 units) B95K-B110K RIVERSIDE The River (phase 1)(512 units) B90K-B210K

Older second hand condos that can be owned freehold by a farang have nearly doubled in price the past four years. This was probably driven by new projects and whether they would ever be completed as well as the astronomical prices per square meter. I guess you can listen to the doom and gloom crowd and watch the prices continue to go up or buy what you can afford now. What prices do in the future made me no difference because I didn't buy mine to sell. I bought it for the security of having a place to live. You can still buy a decent condo for around 35.000 baht per square meter. I doubt you can buy pre-construction for less than 90,000 baht per square meter. I would NEVER recommend that anyone buy pre-construction. As far as being able to own a house, whoever is spreading that rumor is plain full of shit or has ulterior motives.

You'll find that they are a good bunch of guys and I'm sure they will help smooth out any bumps you may have.

The Thai postal service is good and by far the cheapest, BUT, there is normally a waiting list.