Thailand

Estate Agents, Real Estate Agents, Realtors, Property Vendors call them what you will, it means the same, it just depends where you come from. As I’m British, I’ll use the term ‘Estate Agents’ as it’s most familiar to me.

Most Estate Agents are best known for helping to buy and sell your homes, but nowadays most offer a range of ‘related’ services including purchase, sales, lease, mortgages etc on all types of properties. There are those too that often double as letting agencies, more of which will be explained later.

If you’re in business they can find you an office, if you’re a landlord they can find you a tenant, if you’re a tenant they can find you a landlord, and if you’re a builder they can find you a plot of land or an unfinished project. It’s my understanding that the Estate Agents of Thailand are similar in practice to those elsewhere in the world.

With such a useful one-stop-shop for all your property related business, why is it then that Estate Agents generally have a bad reputation? Well, it’s probably related to the nature of the job.

To be fair, they’re quite often stuck in the middle dealing with the thankless tasks of buying, selling, and negotiating etc. It must be a nightmare at times trying to keep all parties happy.

When things don’t go according to plan, the buyers, sellers, tenants, and contractors etc have to vent their frustrations out somewhere and the obvious choice is on the guys that are being paid to make the job as quick and as hassle free as possible. It’s quite a juggling act!

Another one of the problems with this business and its reputation is this: When times are good, the market is “confident”, and there are more buyers than sellers, and more tenants than landlords, some Estate Agents may treat you badly. By that I mean things like not returning your calls or sending you the promised information and other such upsetting and thoughtless inactions. However, when the market slows down, the good ones’ will stand out in a crowd and be a model of cooperation at your disposal.Sir!

Sometimes it’s extremely difficult to keep serene in Thailand as the pace of business here is generally a lot less hurried than that in western countries. Intolerance, impatience and quick tempered threats will only hinder, never help, your situation whatever it happens to be. It’s always a good idea to not take deadlines and over optimistic assurances too literally and to go with the flow as much as possible. This doesn’t mean sit back and allow for any Agent to disrespect your particular job, it simply means adjust to the ways of operating, allow for hurdles and hiccups along the way, and the whole process will seem a lot smoother.

As with any humans, treat them positively, with respect, and they’re likely to respond more favorably to your case.
Research has shown that buying and selling property, or moving home are perhaps among the most stressful things people are likely to encounter in their life time. It’s not surprising then that a major concern with many folk is how to select an agent that’s considered reputable? The bottom line is that most are but just as in any other business a very small minority is not. This isn’t a problem pertaining only to Thailand either.

The best way to find a good one (if you’re locally based) is listen to personal recommendations from friends, work colleagues and neighbours. Word of mouth recommendations are by far the most trustworthy in the long run, but be slightly wary of people recommending family members or close friends who happen to be in the business.

A lot of high-end rentals are arranged through Estate Agents too, some mid priced but very little if none at all, in the low end vacancies. One assumes this is purely down to little or no profit on the latter. This then beggars the question: Do real-estate agents have their clients’ best interests at
heart? The answer to this has to be yes, if you fit comfortably into their definition of a ‘client’.

I personally used the services of an Estate Agent when I first moved here. I was looking to rent an apartment in the 50,000 THB/Mo. price range. I was ushered into the back of a nice motor, accompanied by an attractive young escort, and driven around Bangkok’s central area for a few hours as she presented me with one potential home after another. Nothing was too much trouble and I found the service invaluable and very time saving. This also gave me a good insight on what was available for that kind of money on which a whole new chapter could be written.

However, stick your head in the door and tell them you’re looking for a pad around the 5,000 Baht a month range and see how you get on! Although they won’t tell you to sod off, I don’t think the service above will apply either.

This is one of the reasons the Mr. Roomfinder project was started as we felt there needed to be a free central place available for seeking out ‘all’ property types at ‘all’ budget levels.

“Andy Maingam” is a proficient publisher and webmaster of mrroomfinder.com where he owns an operates a 100% free property portal for the tenants, landlords, and agencies of Thailand. The site proves a very useful resource in helping new tenants make informed renting decisions, and is a great tool for home seekers and landlords either looking for or renting out Bangkok Apartments.

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Kanchanaburi is the one province that has varieties of natural resources in Thailand. Kanchanaburi is Thailand’s third largest province, covers an area approximately 19,473 square kilometers and it far from Bangkok - about 129 kilometers. Kanchanaburi has many tourist attractions including the word-famous bridge over The river kwae and several well known waterfalls, caves, forests, rivers and dam. Therefore, tourist can have many kind of activity at Kanchanaburi such as mountain biking, rafting, fishing, play golf, junkle trekking and living in bamboo raft. Moreover, you will visit the notorious Dead Railway and the Bridge on the River Khwae, one of the famous World War II.

Kanchanaburi consist of 13 districts(Amphoe) which Amphoe Muang, Amphoe Bophloi, Amphoe Lao Khwan, Amphoe Phanom Thuan, Amphoe Sai Yok, Amphoe Sangkhla Buri,, Amphoe Si Sawat, Amphoe Tha Maka, Amphoe Tha Muang, Amphoe Thong Pha Phum, Amphoe Dan Makham Tia, Amphoe Nong Pru, Amphoe Huai Kra Chao.

Many kind of transports that you can use to go there one of the most convenience is by car in case of you have a car or hire cars. So start with buy a map from book shop or traveler information at the airport. However, I think most of tourist like to travel by bus. If you prefer t o use bus you can go to Kanchanaburi by take a bus at Southern Bus Terminal, it take you around one and a half hour to arrive there. Air-conditioned buses to Kanchanaburi leave the Southern Bus Terminal twice per hour all day until 9 p.m. return buses run on the same schedule. Sometimes if you would like to learn way of Thais‘ life and you have a lot of times you can go to Kanchanaburi by trains. Trains to Kanchanaburi leave Thon Buri Station at 7:50 a.m.and 1:40 p.m. daily. Return trains leave Kanchanaburi Station at 7:30 a.m. and 3:20 p.m. It take about four and a half hour to be there. You can get more information about Trains schedule at www.railway.co.th. There are also tourist minibuses directly to/from Khao San Road, departing Kanchanaburi at 13:30 and 18:30.
At Kanchanaburi you can use songthaews (converted pickups) for transportation also taxi, motorbike and tuk-tuks are available.

Kan likes to write about travel in Thailand more information about travel Thailand visit http://www.thaitripguide.com

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Thai premier Surayud Chulanont has reacted to escalating violence in Thailand’s southernmost regions by traveling to the area and making his latest move towards ending decades of violence.

The insurgency in southern Thailand has received major media attention in the wake of a series of violent incidents centered in the three southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

The history of this separatist movement can be traced back to the early twentieth century when in 1902 Patani was annexed by Thailand (then known as Siam). Seven years later Thailand was given sovereignty over the region from a treaty with Great Britain. Patani was divided into the three aforementioned provinces, along with two districts of Songkhla, in 1933.

Patani was originally a Malay Sultanate and as a result more than three quarters of the population in the three southern provinces today are Muslim. Whilst having some linguistic and cultural similarities with the Malays of Malaysia, Thailand’s southern Malay community retains a distinct individuality and sense of independence.

As far back as the 1930s there has been a drive to establish an independent southern state. The movement has taken many forms and the ideology has shifted between a desire to establish this independent state and a desire to establish cultural autonomy. Separatist groups have continued to be active until the present day.

The resurgence of violence at the turn of the new millennium has cast a deathly shadow over Thailand’s southernmost area. The problems have not been helped by the words and actions of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his government who until 2004 insisted that criminal gangs, as opposed to insurgents, were responsible for the violence.

When martial law was declared in the southern provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat in January of 2004, the situation worsened as Thai troops and police were responsible for the deaths of more than a hundred Muslims in a series of attacks.

Attempts to set up a dialogue with the insurgents have been riddled with problems surrounding the anonymity of the movements’ leaders.

On August 31, 22 banks were simultaneously bombed in Yala, whilst on September 16 six motorcycle bombs killed four people in Hat Yai as attacks overran into the neighboring province. Bloodshed continued to spill onto the streets of the southern provinces as the military coup of September 19 approached.

The military coup and current political volatility in Thailand has done little to quell the friction in the South and attacks have persisted. On Thursday November 2, military-appointed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont made a speech to 1200 Muslims in Pattani province apologizing for the problems created by the previous government, primarily resulting from the Kru Se Mosque and Tak Bai incidents which occurred in April and October of 2004 respectively.

The Kru Se Mosque incident occurred when 32 insurgents sought refuge in Pattani’s most sacred place of worship after a coordinated attack on 100 police outposts. Army commander Pallop Pinmanee ordered troops to storm the mosque and all 32 rebels were killed.

The Tak Bai massacre was spurred by a demonstration demanding the release of six men arrested for allegedly supplying weapons to insurgents. The demonstration became a massacre when the army used tear gas to control the crowd. Shooting began shortly after and scores of locals were rounded up, piled as many as five people high in trucks and driven for five hours. 85 men died in all, 78 of whom suffocated in the trucks.

The newly-installed premier’s pledge to rid the southern provinces of violence has thus far been unsuccessful as attacks continue to break out on an almost daily basis. Surayud stated that his government will only use peaceful means to end the century long tensions, although there has been no mention of the possibility of an independent state. Surayud has rather made clear that his intentions are to unify Thailand.

The Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre was recently revived, after a five year absence, and is now headed by Phranai Suwannarat who has been charged with instilling peace into the region.

The current government has been very vocal about the negative implications of the previous government’s actions, but as of yet it is unclear how the newly-revived body will tackle the situation.

Surayud has already done what Thaksin refused to: he has apologized. However, this is only a single step on an already long journey that will most likely take years to complete. If Thailand is to unify itself then measures must be taken to remove the feelings of alienation felt by the country’s Muslim population.

The author of this article can be found at WhatisMatt.com.

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