Looking for guidance on housing and health insurance

There are many houses available within a gated community with a club house comprising of a swimming pool and exercise room. Rental prices can start at 10,000 bht and up. In order to give you advice on housing the forum would need to know what your budget is for rent?

thank you.I would like to fined to person to answer some questions. What area should be looking at ect

Our budget is a top of 20,000 or $600 USD

1 bdrm house or even a 2 bdrm is not so common with a 3 bdrm being the most available. A private pool is unlikely but a communal pool is probable. The closer in to the city core will be more expensive and mostly condos will be available as opposed to a detached house. A gated community with pool will be possible but not many below 20,000 per month.

Check out 'Perfect Homes Chiangmai' and you will get a list of houses for rent but unfortunately the site is usually not updated and so many of the good deals may not be available.

Hello Patty and Bob Warne,

Welcome to Expat.com

I have created a new thread with your post on the Chiang Mai forum for more visibility and for a better interaction with the other members.

Here you will be more free to ask more questions.

For your housing request, please feel free to post an ad in the Housing in Chiang Mai section, it might really help you.
In the business directory > Real estate in Chiang Mai page, you will find the contacts of the real estate agents, you can also get in touch with them.

Have a nice day

Priscilla 

Strb12 has given you some good advice. 1 / 2 bed homes are unusual, and that size is more likely to be a condo, of which there are loads. Similarly, there are fewer houses, at least on a "moo baan" or gated community near the city centre. B20k will get you a reasonable 3 bed house with a shared pool, though there's a huge amount of stuff out there - including a lot of rubbish, and I would manage your expectations at B20k. If you do not need a pool, nor the security / comfort of a moo baan, you can find houses in the city for B10k, though these will be basic.

Google "Chiang Mai Real Estate" and you'll find lots of agents, such as Chiang Mai Properties, Raintree Estates, Chiang Mai House, etc. It just needs some homework from you..As to areas, that is very much a matter of personal choice and you need to explore yourselves. I live on Canal Road South, to the west of Hang Dong, itself a popular area. To the south west of the city, Sansai to the north is popular, and some swear by Mae Rim to the north est; I would not move there myself as it is a long way from the city and has terrible congestion on the road in. Doi Saket to the north east is some way out, but consequently cheaper.

We don't have health insurance, but medical treatment is very cheap. A visit to our family doctor is B300, a hospital doctor say B750. I recently saw a doctor (excellent English) at the best hospital in town - makes a UK hospital look third world - about a back problem. Two consultations, X-Rays and a bag full of tablets cost me about B3,000, the bulk of that the medication - on which the hospital makes a huge profit. If you're in good health, you may want to explore a medical policy with a high excess?

IMHO, there are two classes of ex-pats: those who ride scooters, and those with sense. I must assume that you've not seen Thai driving, which is truly awful, Thailand having among the highest road deaths in the world, most of them scooter riders. I would not consider renting or buying second-hand - maintenance is almost unknown. If you can afford a car, buy / rent one. Otherwise, use taxis or songthaews.

Good luck with your research, but the most important thing is to do some research yourself on the ground, and spend some time here with our eyes open and any rose tinted spectacles discarded. Don't rely solely upon other people's  observations - including mine!!

Thanks you gave me tons of information.  I really appreciate the time you took to reply.  It really helps to find someone out there who lets us know exactly what to expect.

Thanks again.
Patty and Bob Warne

Hello Patty and Bob,

Some few things about renting, in Thailand it is common to sign contract of 1 year and even more, you can negotiate discount too, you can still find 6 months rental contract but shorter will not be with estate agency as they will not get commission.

When you sign your contract which is simple and done in few minutes as blank one is available and you just need your passport, you will have to pay 2 months deposit plus 1st rental month, that mean you need 3 months cash ( for example if monthly rent is 20,000 THB you will need to bring 60,000 THB often in cash in Thailand all transactions ).

Most of appt, condos, houses are fully furnished, however monthly rent except if specified in your contract will not include obviously utilities bills, but also garden maintenance in case of house, and mooban fees or village fees ( you pay for the gated community or common part in case of condo ), this does not give you free access to fitness or pool ( again this depend on the mooban ), the price of mooban fees is usually calculated on the size of the land for a house ( 1 sqw = 4 sqm ), and can be as little as 6 THB per sqw, but can reach 20 THB per sqw per month, consider an average of 12 THB per sqw ( 1200 THB per month for a plot of 100 sqw = 400 sqm ).

Be aware also that many websites post the same houses and often you can find the same photos, this is typical in Thailand as moist of them are lazy and does not go to visit the premise to take their personal photos, often it is the owner who send some photos to the estate agencies and they can be old, check before, that happen also that they can not reach the owner, or they have not been in contact with them since months and maybe the house advertised is obsolete and no more available.

All is negotiable in Thailand but depends on the owner some will keep their houses without tenants during years instead of accepting a lower deal, sometimes thai owner when they have a number in mind to sell their house they will not change their mind, and even they don't find any potential buyer, they will increase the price year after year, with the excuse that land price increase in the area.

A gated area land price can be expensive 15,000 THB to over 30,000 THB per sqw, but a land outside the gated area just opposite their fence can be 3 to 5 times cheaper !!!!

I focus mainly in Hang Dong area where many expats family live as ost of the international schools are located in this area.

Kind Regards
kris
If you need any free advices or informations just let's me know.

Kris: 
Thanks for the great information.  I have noticed that the same house appears over and over again on rental sites and wonder if they are really available.   How often have you heard that the landlord will keep the deposits and not return them because the renters are leaving?  Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to reply to my post.  I am very grateful.

Patty

Hello again

In my case they refund me 1 month after I have left and deduct everything they could, for example I did not expect they will deduct for aircond maintenance, this house had 6 Aircond even we just used only 2, we have to pay for all the service, around 400 THB per air con, they can adjust also latest meter reading for water and electricities, gardening if not done, mooban fees if last one was not paid, etc....

I ensure now that the deposit refund is clearly written : how many weeks after the tenant has left the premise etc...

You can agree or disagree or add conditions in the contract as you want it is an open discussion, like some people want the rent to be pay no later than the 1st calendar day, other will accept until the 10th of each month etc...

same for small pet or not, cash payment or transfer in bank account, etc.... in any cases like in Europe the owner or estate agent will check your financial situation to see if you can afford to pay the rent, usually in europe they will ask you that the monthly rent is not higher than a third or your monthly income to avopide to be in debt, but here they don't care.

I had the cases of tenant enter the premise without paying the deposit because the owner a wealthy family had accepted this condition, obviously I was not happy as I was not paid !!,,, and 1 month after they still find excuse about money transfer not arrived yet in Thailand,....we were talking about 120,000 THB for the 2 months deposit + 1st month.... at the end they start to pay bit by bit,....1st payment of 40,000 THB then another one,,,,,it took over 2 months... but again this is an exceptional cases.

Many people will post advert on local website, even the website is in Thai, you can translate the webpage with google in english to understand the content, many will post in facebook, or youtube, and when i was looking for houses, it took a year, I was just driving inside all the mooban I was interested by to check all the sign with phone number on the gate and call directly ( it can be estate agent or owner phone ).

Not all the houses are cheap, for example lanna Thara is well know upscale mooban where ambassador's family live, and some houses can cost over 30 million THB not all, last one I got to rent was for 120,000 THB per month, than mean a cash of 3 months before to enter the premise, and this house was book 6 months in advance the tenant a rich business book it in November for a contract starting in April this year, all the cases are possible.

Regards
Kris