THE VILLAS OF BALI

be submitted While condominiums around the country can be found in many scenic locations, New York City condos are usually situated in high-rise buildings stacked one atop the other. However, Manhattan condominiums are still considered real estate, and usually the same laws on sales, financing and taxes that apply to other properties also regulate them. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you go hunting for Manhattan condominiums:

>>> Approach buying your first condo as if you are purchasing your first home. Try not to overreach financially. Its’ acceptable to put only 20 percent down.

>>> It’s also advisable to obtain a mortgage that has a fixed rate, so that you have monthly housing expenses that remain stable.

>>> Be conservative. Do not spend more than 35 percent of your pretax earnings on mortgage, property tax and home insurance combined.

>>> Plan for the future, particularly if there are children on the horizon. Make up budgets including a proposed mortgage and factor in different variables like both spouses working full time, one employed part time and one remaining at home for a couple of years.

>>> Even if you do not have or plan on having children your proposed budget should reflect life’s uncertain variables like industry downsizing and mid-life career changes.

>>> Factor the common charges into your budget. This is the monthly fee you are required to pay which goes to the maintenance of the condo building.

>>> Fully understand what will constitute the physical parameters of the unit your own, as well as the building’s common elements like the land it is built on and the lobby and hallways. This will be spelled out in the condominium’s declaration and by-laws, which are required from the building’s owner or developer.

If you are considering purchasing or selling a home, condo or any other type of real estate, you will most likely need the services of a real estate appraiser. An appraiser performs an assessment of properties and other types of real estate to help establish its value. While there are several methods appraisers use to establish the value of real estate (e.g. cost method, income method, and comparison method), for residential properties, the comparison method (also known as market value) is the most common approach. The appraiser’s job is to provide an opinion about the value of a property based on its “highest and best use.” If you are financing the purchase of a property, your lender will normally require an appraisal to make sure that the property is really worth the amount loaned.

The real estate appraiser is tasked with carrying out a completely objective assessment of a property and will normally provide a written evaluation report. This is accomplished by a physical inspection of the property, as well as a comparison to other similar properties for which the value is already established. To make a determination about value, the appraiser gathers details such as the size of a property, size of the lot, location, condition, best use of the property, amenities, etc.

After this initial inspection, the appraiser may scout the neighborhood to compare the property with other similar properties in the neighborhood by age, size, price range, etc. The appraiser then gathers additional data from several sources such as the local Multiple Listing Services (MLS), which provides information on current and recent comparable sales. The appraiser also gathers information from his/her own past experience in the local market. All of these sources of information are taken into consideration while writing the appraisal report, which will provide an estimate about the value of a property.

Thai condominium market – developers need to consider the law

There is some confusion over the law for foreign purchase in Thailand. Most developers and government officials agree that foreigners can buy up to 49% of the units in any one particular condominium building. However, the law used to limit foreign ownership at 40%, and this was increased to 49% on a 5 year basis. This 5 year period has now expired and so legally the limit should revert back to 40%. However, most people are still working on the 49% rule, meaning that many new condominium units perhaps are being sold to foreigners illegally.

For the rest of this article, let’s assume that the law is actually  49% (as is the common belief). I recently visited a very nice, luxury condominium in the Sukhumvit area. It is a low rise 8 story building, which is the maximum height that the law allows for given the width of the access road into the premises. Each unit in this deluxe new condominium project has 4 bedrooms and measures 300 sq.m. All I can say is that it is a stunning building, very classy. However, it also commands a very high price tag, with each unit being sold at over 40,000,000 Baht.

The developer had this concept of a deluxe condominium, where all owners are affluent and wealthy individuals. However, the developer has now hit a problem. They have sold 49%, the full foreign quota, to foreign buyers, but they have sold only about 10% of the remaining 51% to Thai Nationals, some of which were associates of the developer. The problem the developer faces now is that they cannot find enough wealthy Thai nationals to buy the remaining units, meaning that they are stuck with them. As a developer, this represents a very large percentage of the profits of this development.

Real Estate business has seen tremendous growth and so has been the need of Real Estate agent. Today more and more people are getting interested to become home owner and as the demand for real estate need increases the role of Real Estate Agent becomes more important. In the past one agent use to provide services to both seller and buyer but as the real estate market changed people started to realize that specialized service is more logical and beneficial. In Real Estate industry now buyer/seller are looking for specialized agents who can provide specialized related expertise, information and services required to complete the process. When a real estate agent represents both buyer and seller it really restricts agents to provide impartial service to either party.

Let’s look at the both (Seller/Buyer) scenario separately. A real estate agents who is a listing agent of seller has a fiduciary, ethically and moral duty to represent seller only.

By getting Exclusive Right to Sell Listing, the real estate agent is promising seller that he will live no stone unturned to market the home and find the best buyer at maximum possible market value for the home.

As a Buyer’s real estate agent he need to find the right home for buyer along with should all information of the community. When a buyer is exploring to buy a real estate property in new community, he is very much interested to find out several information related to that particular community such as population, crime, climate, schools, traffic, living standards etc. Buyer’s real estate agent should be well informed with all these information so that he can provide that information to buyer. It will be easier for buyer to make the decision based on these information. Once the buyer is ready to buy real estate property in the community then other part of the real estate agent’s duty starts. As buyer’s agent it is his responsibility to find a real estate property, as per buyers requirement. It is also buyer’s real estate agents duty to negotiate the best market price with seller.