Pitfalls of looking for a Long Term Rental
Re: Pitfalls of looking for a Long Term Rental
It's amazing; when we were building our house, we rented a fairly nice home with three bedrooms and three bathrooms and a good sized garden for our dogs for a couple of years (no pool though) for 12k per month, just a block off soi 94.
My brain is like an Internet browser; 12 tabs are open and 5 of them are not responding, there's a GIF playing in an endless loop,... and where is that annoying music coming from?
Re: Pitfalls of looking for a Long Term Rental
MrP wrote
"Then you get the middle man/woman's cut. The owner has left them with the keys and I know would accept, say, 17k for a 3-bed home. I would pay this if it's nice. BUT. The person with the keys wants to skim an easy 3k per month and won't drop below 20k. So, I walk away. If the owner knew, I'm sure they would be pretty annoyed. "
How do you know they would accept 17k? 15% is OTT for a long term which is standard 10% or one month in a year. There are however many greedy people out there that mark up, some by agreement with owner and some just plain greedy and owner unaware. If I wanted 50k for my place in my back pocket then an agent would have to sell at 55.5k. If they get 70k then they would be welcome to the overspill although I would not want them pricing it out of the market or conflicting with the price listed with other agents so would stick to an agreed price and percentage. If I choose to drop my price without notice to say 45k then my original promise of 5k still stands. If the agent drops and I accept then they get 4.5k. All written into a contract with the agent.
Skimming off the top for doing nothing and making "easy" money?
What exactly does the agent do for the fees that I, not the tenant, pay them?
Rent office space
Employ staff
Pay for print and internet marketing
Bring potential renters round that they have been driving around and buying lunch and drinks for, often for several days and many times to no avail.
Prep the house for viewings and takeover. Clean, fill fridge with water, provide tea and coffee, milk etc.
Organise the contracts including photographs on handover
Help the tenant move in
Provide tenant with information on the area.
Organise and monitor maids, pool cleaning, gardening, general maintenance etc. Obviously extra charges apply on these unless you have factored it into the rent and organised them yourself.
Generally keep an eye on your property and give feedback on a regular basis
Listen to and deal with all the small headaches that I do not want. Mosquitos bit my wife, I have locked myself out, the gas bottle is empty, where is there a cheaper laundry shop, where is the post office, how do I get to Bangkok, there is a lizard behind the aircon unit, I have knocked a Thai person off a motorbike when I was drunk and they want 10k. I could go on and on and they are all real and common. Sometimes agents get lucky and it is a simple case of bring the tenant, close the deal and take your commission but usually not, never mind the half dozen people a week that are simply wasting your time, fuel and energy.
So lets say you are a small outfit with a couple of staff and have an average of 50 properties rented out at any one time at 30k average. That brings gross income of 150k per month. Take off the rent, the wages, the expenses and what are you left with? Hardly a kings ransom and you are dealing with 50 owners and 50 sets of tenants plus all of the new stock and incoming owners and tenants.
Crazy 88
"Then you get the middle man/woman's cut. The owner has left them with the keys and I know would accept, say, 17k for a 3-bed home. I would pay this if it's nice. BUT. The person with the keys wants to skim an easy 3k per month and won't drop below 20k. So, I walk away. If the owner knew, I'm sure they would be pretty annoyed. "
How do you know they would accept 17k? 15% is OTT for a long term which is standard 10% or one month in a year. There are however many greedy people out there that mark up, some by agreement with owner and some just plain greedy and owner unaware. If I wanted 50k for my place in my back pocket then an agent would have to sell at 55.5k. If they get 70k then they would be welcome to the overspill although I would not want them pricing it out of the market or conflicting with the price listed with other agents so would stick to an agreed price and percentage. If I choose to drop my price without notice to say 45k then my original promise of 5k still stands. If the agent drops and I accept then they get 4.5k. All written into a contract with the agent.
Skimming off the top for doing nothing and making "easy" money?
What exactly does the agent do for the fees that I, not the tenant, pay them?
Rent office space
Employ staff
Pay for print and internet marketing
Bring potential renters round that they have been driving around and buying lunch and drinks for, often for several days and many times to no avail.
Prep the house for viewings and takeover. Clean, fill fridge with water, provide tea and coffee, milk etc.
Organise the contracts including photographs on handover
Help the tenant move in
Provide tenant with information on the area.
Organise and monitor maids, pool cleaning, gardening, general maintenance etc. Obviously extra charges apply on these unless you have factored it into the rent and organised them yourself.
Generally keep an eye on your property and give feedback on a regular basis
Listen to and deal with all the small headaches that I do not want. Mosquitos bit my wife, I have locked myself out, the gas bottle is empty, where is there a cheaper laundry shop, where is the post office, how do I get to Bangkok, there is a lizard behind the aircon unit, I have knocked a Thai person off a motorbike when I was drunk and they want 10k. I could go on and on and they are all real and common. Sometimes agents get lucky and it is a simple case of bring the tenant, close the deal and take your commission but usually not, never mind the half dozen people a week that are simply wasting your time, fuel and energy.
So lets say you are a small outfit with a couple of staff and have an average of 50 properties rented out at any one time at 30k average. That brings gross income of 150k per month. Take off the rent, the wages, the expenses and what are you left with? Hardly a kings ransom and you are dealing with 50 owners and 50 sets of tenants plus all of the new stock and incoming owners and tenants.
Crazy 88
Re: Pitfalls of looking for a Long Term Rental
I never had any luck driving up and down the road, trying to find an empty house for rent. The prices were always too high or the house lacked the stuff I needed (and that's when I was able to find somebody to translate). I actually had MUCH better luck with real estates. I rented three houses through RE offices and actually paid less than the owners were asking. Yes, RE will try to get you into really expensive homes, but if you come in with a fixed price, they'll work with you. Just stay firm and refuse to look at any houses over the price you set. It's also easier when you go through an agency. For example, I have dogs and many Thai landlords don't want them unless you keep them outside all the time. Since my dogs sleep inside, that was a deal breaker in many cases. By going through an agency, I had the realtor weed out the houses that didn't accept pets, so I didn't have to waste time on them.
Oh, and the realtor was always able to work out a deal where I didn't have to pay rent in advance. Only first month and deposit and I could move in. When I was talking to owners on my own, they were all asking for 3-6 months in advance. Crazy!
Oh, and the realtor was always able to work out a deal where I didn't have to pay rent in advance. Only first month and deposit and I could move in. When I was talking to owners on my own, they were all asking for 3-6 months in advance. Crazy!
Re: Pitfalls of looking for a Long Term Rental
crazy88 wrote:MrP wrote
"Then you get the middle man/woman's cut. The owner has left them with the keys and I know would accept, say, 17k for a 3-bed home. I would pay this if it's nice. BUT. The person with the keys wants to skim an easy 3k per month and won't drop below 20k. So, I walk away. If the owner knew, I'm sure they would be pretty annoyed. "
How do you know they would accept 17k? 15% is OTT for a long term which is standard 10% or one month in a year. There are however many greedy people out there that mark up, some by agreement with owner and some just plain greedy and owner unaware. If I wanted 50k for my place in my back pocket then an agent would have to sell at 55.5k. If they get 70k then they would be welcome to the overspill although I would not want them pricing it out of the market or conflicting with the price listed with other agents so would stick to an agreed price and percentage. If I choose to drop my price without notice to say 45k then my original promise of 5k still stands. If the agent drops and I accept then they get 4.5k. All written into a contract with the agent.
Skimming off the top for doing nothing and making "easy" money?
What exactly does the agent do for the fees that I, not the tenant, pay them?
Rent office space
Employ staff
Pay for print and internet marketing
Bring potential renters round that they have been driving around and buying lunch and drinks for, often for several days and many times to no avail.
Prep the house for viewings and takeover. Clean, fill fridge with water, provide tea and coffee, milk etc.
Organise the contracts including photographs on handover
Help the tenant move in
Provide tenant with information on the area.
Organise and monitor maids, pool cleaning, gardening, general maintenance etc. Obviously extra charges apply on these unless you have factored it into the rent and organised them yourself.
Generally keep an eye on your property and give feedback on a regular basis
Listen to and deal with all the small headaches that I do not want. Mosquitos bit my wife, I have locked myself out, the gas bottle is empty, where is there a cheaper laundry shop, where is the post office, how do I get to Bangkok, there is a lizard behind the aircon unit, I have knocked a Thai person off a motorbike when I was drunk and they want 10k. I could go on and on and they are all real and common. Sometimes agents get lucky and it is a simple case of bring the tenant, close the deal and take your commission but usually not, never mind the half dozen people a week that are simply wasting your time, fuel and energy.
So lets say you are a small outfit with a couple of staff and have an average of 50 properties rented out at any one time at 30k average. That brings gross income of 150k per month. Take off the rent, the wages, the expenses and what are you left with? Hardly a kings ransom and you are dealing with 50 owners and 50 sets of tenants plus all of the new stock and incoming owners and tenants.
Crazy 88
You certainly know the role of a letting agent!
Do you know of any rental properties around $15K for a 12 month stay?
Re: Pitfalls of looking for a Long Term Rental
All very good posts and very usefull.
My situation is that I am coming to Thailand in May to open our new office, we do not need to be in Bangkok and HH seems an ideal place to locate.
I will spend most of my time ( 80% ) here and the rest between Dubai and Shanghai.
So I will be looking for a decent 3 or 4 bed house fairly close to town, ideally near a beach.
I have some great properties in mind from this website, but can anyone offer advice, pitfalls, scams etc etc.
Also what is the going rate for domestic help, laundry, cleaning cooking.
And finally.....best mobile phone contract to go for,
The last one I had in MArch I seemed to be forever topping it up.
Cheers
My situation is that I am coming to Thailand in May to open our new office, we do not need to be in Bangkok and HH seems an ideal place to locate.
I will spend most of my time ( 80% ) here and the rest between Dubai and Shanghai.
So I will be looking for a decent 3 or 4 bed house fairly close to town, ideally near a beach.
I have some great properties in mind from this website, but can anyone offer advice, pitfalls, scams etc etc.
Also what is the going rate for domestic help, laundry, cleaning cooking.
And finally.....best mobile phone contract to go for,
The last one I had in MArch I seemed to be forever topping it up.
Cheers