What the Best phuket property Pros Do (and You Should Too)

Posted by Mantooth on June 9th, 2021

The car and/or bridge may seem a little drastic, but it happens. You could lose your job without having prepared for a future disaster or your house due to the current floods situation. Unfortunately, our future destinies are not known to us. We can only prepare to the best of our ability for the unknown.

Let's compare the risks of renting an apartment versus buying your own place. Building fire or flood could consume your personal property but a claim of this nature would probably be covered by your renter's insurance. On the other hand, homeowners insurance would cover a fire but not a flood unless you have specific flood insurance.

In renting an apartment or house, when you walk away you will be lucky to get back your security deposit. Plumbing, electrical and other maintenance issues must first be reported to the landlord. The landlord must then act on your behalf. Some landlords are totally unresponsive and you may have to live with the problem for a time. You do not have the choice to do the landscaping but, then, you also are not responsible for the landscape maintenance. Carpeting is worn out and probably dirty but the landlord is not acting on this problem. It may even be an undesirable color. Stove is dirty. When you pull it out from the wall, you find an inch of grease under it and the carpeting is singed. Looks like the former tenant very nearly had a fire broiling something and forgetting to check the broiler.

Neighbors across the hall may be noisy or people who are conducting illegal activities. Neighbors could also possess guns which could threaten your children or yourselves. On the other hand, you could create some lasting social friendships with some of the neighbors. Reminds me of Oprah, who had all the balconies of her apartment complex decorated for function and beauty. The biggest disadvantage of renting is you walk away with only a security deposit at best.

Now, buying a place to call your own has its pitfalls as well. First and foremost, you will need equipment you never dreamed you would need. Some of these items are a lawn mower, digging equipment (shovel, rake, etc.), perhaps snow removal items, hoses, sprinklers, decorative pieces for the yard, outside electrical cords, lots of light bulbs, trimmers, blowers, water removal items and tools (drills, hammers, sanders, etc). When I moved from an apartment into my house, I had one dustpan, one broom, one vacuum, and a few digging tools. I now have 3 dustpans, 4 brooms, 2 vacuums and a surplus of digging tools. The one mitigating factor about owning your own is, when you walk away, you should have a little money and you have lived rent-free for the years you owned, barring no disasters in the housing market or weather related. Of course, you have the option of deciding when to sell or not to sell as an owner.

One note I should make here is I never consider my house an investment. Why? Because housing is a basic need not an investment where your only goal is to grow your money. A vehicle is not considered an investment because it is transportation, another basic need. It is possible to combine both need and investment but that is another totally different subject. Once you get your feet on the ground, only then, should you consider real estate investment.

You can design your own landscape but you will also have to maintain that landscape. When plumbing, electrical or roof have a problem, it is your problem. You can phone a contractor or perhaps take the challenge and fix the problem yourself to reduce cost. Occasionally, ownership can be overwhelming. When the basement is flooding, the grass needs cutting, the gutters desperately need cleaning out, the lawn mower ignition is shot and the blower quits for no reason. Did I mention, the roof leaks? You do need to keep your home up to par since someday it will pass to another owner and you want the value to have increased to give yourself a pad for your next basic housing need.

At times, rather then provide housing for ourselves, it would be so much easier and cost effective, if we could just find a hole in a huge tree to sleep in but then scavaging for food would be almost a fulltime job! So in conclusion, I guess our basic need for housing as humans isn't so bad after all.

Whether it's a new condo building or housing estate going up in your area, you may have heard buzz about pre-construction sales or pre-construction purchasing opportunities. But, what does that mean? How does it work and why do buyers line up for viewings? For answers to these questions and more, keep reading.

What is pre-construction purchasing?

To pre-sell units, raise capital and finance the remainder of their projects, builders and developers often pre-sell a number of units at a discounted price - usually 10 to 15 percent lower than for what they intend to sell the units or houses once completed.

What's the advantage of pre-construction investing?

Whether you plan to purchase the home as a primary residence or as an investment property, this allows you to obtain the property for less than the prospective resale value.

What's stopping me from selling it right away for a small profit?

Most developers have restrictions in place that prevent buyers from selling their pre-purchased phuket property properties until either all or almost all the units have been sold. In addition, some developers put a time restriction on sales to prevent buyers from selling their units at less than the developer price and undercutting them.

Are their risks involved?

Yes - for example, if the real estate market is slow and the developer decides to lower the price of the units once they're completed, your unit's market value has effectively been decreased.

Also, buildings and developments aren't always completed on time, so prospective homeowners shouldn't bank on a unit or house being finished in 16 months just because a builder says so.

Do I have to start paying right away?

Most pre-sales require a down payment or deposit on the home and then no more payments until the house is actually completed. In the meantime, your down payment cash will be locked into that property. However, you'll have time to save money and later increase your down payment while simultaneously gaining equity in the property as it's built.

What about group or wholesale pre-construction investing?

Wholesale pre-construction investing works by taking a small amount of money from each member of a larger group of investors. Those funds are then used to buy a block of units or even just one pre-construction unit, with the expectation that it will later be sold at a profit.

In most cases, wholesale pre-construction investment firms are legitimate business, but you should always investigate a company and its representatives thoroughly before handing over your money.