Tips for Renting or Buying a Home in Thailand: What I Learned Firsthand
Looking for a place to live in Thailand can take several routes. Whether you plan to rent or buy, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Before relocating to Thailand, I did a lot of research. Our original plan was to settle in Bangkok. I was looking at everything from houses to condos to penthouses. My son and I were going to live together, and my daughter was going to get her own condo nearby. But after spending just a week in Bangkok, we changed course and moved to Chiang Mai.
A month before our move, I joined several Facebook groups focused on expat housing in Bangkok. These groups were filled with property listings posted by both realtors and owners. Some posts were from expats needing someone to take over their lease. This was one of the most active ways to find available homes in Thailand.
Facebook Marketplace also had a large number of property listings, some pulled directly from those same groups. It gave us access to a wider variety of homes, many of which were not listed on the big-name websites. Most realtors and owners would respond through Messenger and often asked to continue the conversation on WhatsApp.
I sometimes looked on TikTok. Realtors post property walkthroughs or quick videos there, too. However, after arriving in Thailand, we quickly learned that what many influencers were posting didn’t meet our standards. My daughter was quick to notice this and began zooming in on videos and photos.
I also used sites like FazWaz, Thailand Property, Realtor.com, Hipflat, and Perfect Homes. After arriving in Chiang Mai, we stayed in a hotel for one month. Over the course of that month, we used Facebook and websites. My daughter and I inquired about many places. None of them were a fit. At this point, we had decided we would all live together, so we were looking at houses. We did not want anything furnished, and we wanted something new and clean. Everyone defines clean differently.
When speaking with realtors, the initial interaction was great. They would send over what they said they had to view. If we did not like the ones they sent over, or if they sent a link and told us to search on our own, we would not hear from them again. My daughter began to search the websites. As she found homes, she contacted the realtors, the same realtors we had been speaking with. They had not been showing us all of the homes. My daughter was able to find us a home that was being built. Living in a Thai traditional home was not on my radar. When we drove up to see the house, I was pleasantly surprised.
In the end, the realtors took credit for finding the home, although they did not do anything at all. It seemed like they were good to have when it came to signing documents.
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