How to rent a house in Thailand - 5 ways from personal experience

When I lived on Koh Samui and Krabi, I drove around the neighborhood and made 2 catalogs of houses for self-rental, use it. There is a map, photos, contacts. There are not very many objects, but there will be something to rely on in your search.

Several smaller surveys were also made for the apartments, as well as search tips.

Options for renting a house in Thailand

Booking with the owner of the accommodation via the Internet

First of all, this is an option for those who speak English and can make out in the tube a mixture of Thai and English, which is spoken by Thais and which expats ironically called "Taiglish". Yes, yes, you will have to communicate by phone or, at best, by email, because there is nothing like RoomGuru for renting private houses.

Looking ahead, I want to say that you shouldn’t count on this option too much, because a negligible amount of housing is rented out, because business is going so well. Moreover, many Thais do not know English well and you simply cannot talk properly on the phone (Taiglish requires live communication experience in order to somehow parse the phrases on the phone). And only some advanced homeowners use the Internet in their business, you can communicate with them by email. But know that if you wrote to the owner by mail, but he didn’t answer, then this is a common thing, they can answer for 2 weeks. And most of the time there will be no response at all. It remains a mystery to me why they indicate their email on their business cards, perhaps so solidly.

Suppose you still decide to try to find housing in Thailand remotely, which means that you need the contacts of the owners, emails are best. You understand, usually such information is not freely available on the network, but you can find something. Where can I find contacts:

• From friends/relatives/members of the forum/colleagues. The advice may seem trite, but start with this point, because sometimes useful contacts pop up from a boss or an unfamiliar office colleague who returned from vacation last week.
• In social networks. Both VKontakte and Facebook are equally useful in this regard. You can ask a question in a lively public forum or run a search for “rent house samui” or “rent villa samui” - as a rule, each resort has several villas or resorts that are owned by Russian-speaking owners. When asking a question, get ready for black realtors to spam your personal, but you leave them “for later”. You should be interested in a kind soul who will give you the number of the owner of his resort, just like that or for two packs of buckwheat as a gift. And in English-speaking social networks there is a chance to contact the owner of the house directly.
• From bloggers who live or lived in the resort where you are going. You can always contact a blogger with a question about the contacts of the owners of the place where he lived. At the same time, you will have an up-to-date review on the conditions of rent and accommodation, pictures and the exact location. There are also bloggers who, during their travels and searches for housing, have accumulated a small base of houses, for example, like ours: and.
• Google search for "samui house for rent" or "samui apartment for rent" or "samui villa for rent". Accordingly, instead of samui, you need to substitute the resort you need. Choose the housing format according to your financial capabilities, the main thing is to cut off agency websites when searching. The option is not the best because Thais, for the most part, still work the old fashioned way: with agencies or posting a sign on the gate. The exception is expensive villas, under which the whole site can be made.

When you get contacts, when communicating with the landlord, clarify the details regarding the house. Do not get carried away with questions, write down the data for transferring money as collateral and make the transfer. Only for this you need to have a foreign currency account and be able to transfer from it to a Thai account. There is (well, it always is) the opportunity to run into an unscrupulous Thai who will take the money, and when you arrive, he will disappear. How to deal with this later is the topic of a separate post, but for now we believe that the Thai is honest and your money guarantees you a peaceful settlement in the house that you like.

There is another way to rent a place with a host - through Airbnb. This is a service for renting houses, apartments, apartments, etc. It works the same as any hotel booking system, but only for private accommodation. The advantages are that there are photos of housing, a detailed description, reviews, payment by a regular bank card, and a guarantee that if there are problems upon arrival, the money will be returned. Cons - in addition to the owners of the property, there are also agents, and there is not always a discount for the month.

In any case, you should definitely look for it too, sometimes you come across good options.

Booking with an agency via the Internet

An option for those who do not know English, or do not want to spend their time looking for live contacts and calling/corresponding with the owners. By the way, on the spot upon arrival, you can also find a house without knowledge of English, simply by using sign language. But for those who do not want to spend 3-4 days on independent searches (and in the season it will take a week), you are also welcome to the agencies. Namely, “agencies”, to several at once, because communicating with each one in turn, you risk getting stuck in a long correspondence with people who are often prone to tropicosis.

It is better to contact official firms if there are no verified contacts. Each resort in Thailand has several licensed, working "in the white" agencies. These agencies may charge more than the owner or a black realtor, but in return they assume some obligation to select a house and check the terms of the lease, and accompany you when you move in. Well, and a permit (work permit), as a kind of guarantee that the company really exists and works. But you need to understand that there are negative reviews about almost any agency, so it all comes down to finding the lesser of evils.

If you are traveling to Thailand for the first time, I recommend booking a house or apartment in advance. This is done through a realtor. Yes, they do not deal with the cheapest housing and take a commission, but this allows you to avoid unnecessary hassle in an unfamiliar country. Believe me, independent searches on the spot are difficult and not worth it. You are going to rest.

Send me a request, I will advise a trusted realtor, whom I myself trust. There have been a lot of scammers lately.

• Look for the house yourself on the site. If you want to get a quick result, then don't be lazy - choose several housing options on the agency's website that suit you according to the description. Then, in the letter, indicate the numbers of objects from the site and wait for an answer - which of them is currently available. Employment data on the site does not always correspond to reality.
• Don't write a poem. If it is important for you that the agents themselves find the house, indicate the minimum information in the application. The area, the number of bedrooms, the presence of a pool, kitchen, distance from the beach and your budget. Be sure to study the agency's FAQ on the website, where a sample of filling out an application is posted, this will save you time and speed up the selection of housing. A guaranteed long response from agents will be if you describe to them in detail all the things that are important to you, including the height of the water tower, and wait until they find the one and only thing. Your application will be completely pushed to the end of the queue until they receive clear requests for options already available in the database. Of course, if you put in a budget of $100,000 a month, that makes a difference. But it should be cheaper, right?
• Get ready for the money transfer costs. The fact is that the agency pays the owner of the house in baht. And you have a ruble \ dollar \ euro card, but not baht. This means that when transferring to the agency, rubles / euros are converted into dollars, and only then - into baht. These operations are not free, but you cover the costs of them. The exact figures for double conversion can be obtained from your bank, but it should be understood that these are necessary expenses that will go in addition to the cost of the reservation. It should also be remembered that .
• Book your accommodation in advance! Not a month before the trip, but six months before, especially when it comes to a trip for the New Year or so. Or don't be surprised then that the agent offers you options several times more expensive than you expected. Separately, I wrote about.

Booking with a black realtor via the Internet

The conditions of communication with such realtors are a little easier than with the officials. The clientele does not stand in line for them, so the black realtor has to be more sociable, not brush off questions and make more efforts so as not to lose a client. Officials in this regard are snickering and can afford to be silent and dynamite.

• When you find a helper online and agree on some kind of housing option, before sending him money, think - is it necessary? You are taking a risk. In pursuit of cheaper travel, you get a chance to run into a scammer. More than once or twice such topics surfaced in social networks and on travel forums. Stories of naive victims who not only made a deposit of 3-5 thousand rubles, but also paid for the first and last months of their stay. Then the victims of fraud post screenshots of payments online, scans of some documents received from scammers and links to their profiles in social networks, but to no avail.
• Look for a person with a reputation. There are always black realtors-scammers, and there are normal guys who earn in a not entirely legal way. In order to know who to contact, you need to either study reviews on the network for a long time and draw conclusions, or trust one of your friends and contact only on recommendation. In any case, the risk remains, because yesterday Vasya-Thailand 2012 was still a positive comrade, today he can knock down a Thai to death or get caught on drugs, after which he will get involved in a large sum and turn into a negative character, because no one wants to go to a Thai prison. There are no guarantees. True, in the case of an official company, the guarantee is also not 100%.
• Don't pay large sums. The villa may require 100% advance payment for the first month. But, as a rule, Thais take a deposit for booking a house in the amount of 30-50% (but sometimes it can be 100%) of the cost of a monthly rent, and it doesn’t matter how long you plan to rent a house. The date of your arrival is important to the landlord. In the same place, how everything happens: the helper introduces herself as your friend, pays the deposit for you and receives a receipt with the owner's signature. A deposit is a guarantee that you intend to come and settle. And then you come and pay the rest of the rent money to the landlord. A black realtor tries not to contact the owner in the role of an agent, because he understands the dangers of illegal work. If suddenly you do not come, it is you who will lose money, but not the owner (the deposit is not returned), he will rent the house to another person in the evening. Therefore, if the help requires a large amount, for example, for several months, then this is a reason to think.

Rent from owner upon arrival

Even if you are full of enthusiasm to search from the gangway, take my word for it - a long flight, fast change of time zones and the tropics will dot the "i" already at the airport. Especially if you have a child.

• Book a hotel room for 3-5 days. Day come to your senses, then look for housing. I always recommend booking a hotel when looking for accommodation on your own. I use the RoomGuru search engine for this, it shows the price of hotels in all booking systems at once, which is very important for Asia, where they have their own booking systems. As a result, you will get a search for the maximum number of hotels, and then choose where it costs less. You need a hotel, because everything may not be as cloudless as you have painted for yourself. If the goal is to find a house that will meet all the requirements, then it will take time. The area for the hotel is best to choose the one where you will just look for a house, and where there will be no problems with renting transport, shops.
• Buy a SIM card before you start searching. Telephone communication, as well as mobile Internet for geolocation in the search process, are vital. Sim cards are sold at points of sale in shopping centers (operator's offices) or at any 7-Eleven and Family Mart minimarket at the checkout. You can connect the Internet package using USSD commands, which are posted on the website of the mobile operator or ask a Thai at the operator's office. I wrote about mobile Internet from and.
• Download your map on the hotel Wi-Fi. This will save you money on if you took a package with a small amount of traffic. Load in Google Maps in great detail, in satellite mode, the area where you plan to search. This application has an offline map mode, a useful thing. As an option, install the Osmand application or any other analogue, where there are also offline maps that do not require the Internet.
• Rent a bike. Believe me, this reduces the search time at times. I tried looking for accommodation on foot and by bike, the difference is huge. On a bike, you can comb the area very quickly, while on foot in the heat you will only have enough for a few hours of walking, and during this time you look at only a couple of options. Just do not take your wife or child with you, there is no reason for them to hang around with you, especially if you do not feel confident driving. It’s better to take a camera and photograph all the nuances in detail, then it will be easier not to get confused yourself. Separate post about .
• Rent a car. This option is more suitable for those who definitely need to watch the house with their family, or who do not know how to drive a scooter. I must say right away that it is better than walking, but due to the nature of the movement, it will not be very convenient. Firstly, the car will be right-hand drive, and the movement will be left-hand. Secondly, the roads are narrow, and it may not work just like that to turn around or park in the right place. Still, the bike gives much more room for maneuver. Yes, and the speed is less, you drag yourself along the side of the road and look for options, while by car you will collect a whole string behind you. Separate post about .
• Drive into every lane. The main difficulty for a beginner in a Thai settlement is to get used to the reduced size of everything around. Small houses, narrow roads, inconspicuous lanes. At first, it will seem to you that you are driving along a solid wall of houses and wires. Then you will get used to it, but the main thing at the very beginning of the search is not to rush. This is not Moscow and no one will honk nervously at your back if the speed is 20-30 km / h, they will see that you are a farang and go around. Unless you are on the motorway. And at such a moment, the alley can look very unattractive (for example, a small gravel path), as if it does not lead anywhere at all.
• Look for signs that say "House for rent". We saw, examined the house from the outside, if you like it - call the number on the sign and make an appointment. It should be understood that houses with signs are rented out the fastest, so during the season it may well be that the houses are already occupied, and the signs simply have not been removed.
• Don't look for "House for rent" signs. Very often, houses for rent are not marked with any signs at all, you need to go in and ask. After a while, you will understand how those houses that are for rent look like, you will immediately isolate them from the general array. Usually these are several identical houses with the same color roofs and arranged in a pile. There are also detached houses, but they also often show whether Thais live in them or they are rented out.
• Ask everyone. To speed up the search process, ask. At the hotel, you can ask at the reception if they have friends who rent the house. When you rent a bike, ask at the rental. When you comb the area, you can ask in a shop or cafe. Or ask a taxi driver / tuk-tuker, as a rule, they are aware of what is rented in the area. And, of course, go to one or another complex of houses and look for one of the guests to find out the contacts of the owners.
• Learn a couple of phrases for a telephone conversation. Seriously, you're not going to low into the phone or gesticulate. The phrases “I need house for rent” and “How much” are the minimum set. Either look for a translator from local expats, or learn basic phrases and answers to them in order to understand the interlocutor, otherwise your only hope for renting a house is for the owners caught on the spot.
• Take cash with you. In case of a sudden discovery of the "same" house, you should take care of the cash in baht. According to the law of meanness, if you agree to drive up with money tomorrow or even tonight, the house will go to more prudent and efficient clients.
• As a deposit, they will ask for about 30-50% of the monthly cost, or they may even limit themselves to one thousand, if the owner likes it. Prices are taken from the ceiling and according to mood. Only if the house is really good, and in any case you give money for it, it’s better not to waste time on trifles and carry a larger amount with you.

Rent through an agency or a black realtor upon arrival

Upon arrival, it is better to look for a house on your own, if time permits and outside the window is not the peak season. But, if you decide to contact the agencies, then here they work according to the same algorithm, that the officials that helped. The main feature of communication with agents is already in place - they terribly do not like to show houses to clients, because renting out housing remotely is much less labor-intensive.

The application for a house is filled out in the same way as described above. If you want your request not to be dynamized and to quickly find a house, just say that you have no complaints. That you only need to see two or three houses and you will definitely choose one.

If this is an agency with a large staff, then at a personal meeting (not by phone, God knows who is sitting there), promise the agent an additional 1-2 thousand for the selection of a house, and then he will be more willing to deal with you, because this money goes past the checkout. After all, from the amount that you pay the agency for renting a house, he will receive only a small percentage, which means that it is in his interests to hurry up to settle another person, and not to bother with you for a long time. But there are also small agencies, where the director and agent are in one person, here you will be given more attention.

And yet - the smaller your budget, the less attention to you from agents. It is unprofitable for them to deal with houses cheaper than 10 thousand. So don't count too much on their participation if you are looking for modest housing and do not plan to fork out to pay for the time taken from the agent. The exception is those agents who work for a fixed fee for the selection of a house, regardless of its value.

Consider the season

People start booking houses for the winter already in May-June, and from August the booking rush begins, which does not subside until November. Online booking of houses is convenient in any season, but the sooner you start doing it, the more chances you have to grab a decent house inexpensively.

Most of the good options in convenient locations are booked up over the years and you are left with new buildings or suddenly vacant housing. Closer to September, agencies will already categorically state that there is only one option, maximum two. Either take it, or goodbye. But on the spot, if you have time, you can find more options. I only recommend coming no later than the end of October-November, because it’s very hard to look further.

What to ask about the house

Ask the owner or agent for the following:

• Monthly rental price. Even if you are going to visit for 6 months, first talk about the month, and then start asking about 3 months, half a year, and watch the price go down. Although, if it is the end of autumn or winter, then there will be no reduction - the high season.
• The presence of a separate kitchen and whether it is possible to cook in the house. Yes, yes, there are houses / apartments with a kitchen where you can only use a microwave.
• The cost of one unit of electricity. The state price is 3.5 baht. If they call you exactly 3.5 baht, then you will pay your bills yourself at the electrician's office or at 7/11. But more often, the owners themselves set the price, on average they ask 5-7 baht per unit, and greedy homeowners can charge 10 baht.
• The cost of one unit of water. Very often it is included in the price of renting a house. The normal price is up to 20 baht per unit.
• The presence of the Internet in the house and whether its cost is included in the rental of the house. On average, they ask 600-1000 baht per month, but it happens that the Internet is included in the rent. If they say that the Internet will be connected soon, and you are a freelancer (that is, the Internet is very necessary), then it makes sense to look for another house.
• Does the rental price include pool cleaning and house cleaning (if you rent a villa).

How much money to prepare

As a rule, if you rent a house/apartment/villa on a monthly basis, then you will have to pay the cost of the monthly rent when you move in. Plus - the same size deposit, which is taken in case you break the house. For long-term rentals, you may be asked to pay for the last month as well.

If, at your request, tiles are installed in the house, then buying a stove and a gas cylinder is the concern of the owner of the house (not always, but most often). If there is a stove, but the gas is over, immediately ask the owner to bring a cylinder and prepare another 370-500 baht - this is the cost of gas with delivery. The first number is the normal price, the second is the greedy homeowner's price.

You will also have to pay for any improvements you need in the house, such as Internet access (if suddenly), installation of mosquito nets or dog gates on the veranda. Although, it often happens that the owner himself participates in money in the amount of 50 to 100% of the cost of work and materials. Here's how you get in. Also, at the stage of the first viewing of the house, you can try to ask the owner for additional furniture.

Separately, I want to mention that if you want to rent a house for 2-3 weeks, then it’s better to rent a month and leave earlier, it will be cheaper than renting by the day, especially not all houses are rented by the day (there are houses in general with a minimum rental period of 3 months ). Just tell the landlord in advance that the house is needed for a month, but you may need to leave early. Most likely, he will tell you that he will not return the money for the remaining days, and you will simply agree to this (this may also be spelled out in the contract). Most importantly, do not forget to pick up the deposit, so you need to notify in advance so that the owner does not leave anywhere.

Demand a contract

Even if it is only in Thai, you need a contract for the police or for the immigration service, in case of buying equipment or issuing a local bank card. A copy of the owner's passport with his autograph, a copy of your passport and a copy of the Thai analogue of the house book, where the address and owner are indicated, must be pinned to the contract.

And also you should be given a check, which will indicate the entire amount that you paid. These checkbooks are sold in every mini-market, in fact, they are a beautiful receipt for receiving money from you. And you need it in case of a showdown, if this happens.

Check meters and appliances

Write down the meter readings. Be sure to ask the owner to show you where the electric meter and water meter are. Take a picture of the testimony, this will allow you to avoid disputes that you owe not 3 thousand, but only 500 baht for the light. If you are told the price of one unit of electricity at 3.5 baht, then the meter is not so important, because you will pay on your own, without the participation of the owner - this is the state price. But here, too, it is worth considering the nuance - payment according to the state price occurs at the beginning of the month, and if you move into the house at the end of the month, then very soon you will receive an invoice, which may contain a round sum from previous tenants, we hit it once.

Check furniture and appliances. The TV should show, the refrigerator should cool, the kettle should boil, the light bulbs should burn everywhere, including on the street. Air conditioning - do not leak and work from the remote control, ceiling fans - spin in several modes, and the gas in the tile burns. Check door locks, mosquito nets, shower heater, drains and toilets, internet, furniture doors, mirrors and glass.

In fact, it is not necessary to do all this in the presence of the owner, you can complain about the problem in the evening of the same day. But all expensive and fragile devices and objects must be inspected and turned on with him. Necessarily with a smile, without this Russian severity, when we make it clear with all our appearance that if the TV does not turn on now, then someone will get in the face. In general, get used to smiling, this is a good habit in Thailand.

The only thing worth checking in advance if you work via the Internet is the speed of the Internet. When you watch the house for the first time, ask for the Wifi password and measure the speed with some Speedtest (I always have this application on my phone), get a rough idea. Also, it would not be superfluous to ask how many routers are in this complex of houses, if there is only one, then this is not good. It is better if there is a router, either in each house, or at least one for a couple of houses.

P.S. The situation is almost the same with apartments. Is there anything to add? Be sure to write in the comments.

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