March 4, 2024
Day Pat 11: The Condo is Offloaded
It's a done deal.
The agent had let me know in advance that today we'd meet at the land office at 1pm with the buyer in town. This was great so I could recover from all the clubbing last night. But first, a late breakfast at the spot I go to daily.
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Next I did more self-cleaning of the condo and packing up my stuff. At this point I couldn't hold back the tears anymore. My baby was going to part from me for good now. I tried to remember every last detail of the place and recalled one story and memory after another.
Who could possibly forget the crazy Russian guy who stayed there illegally and almost pulled the knife on the sub-agent using the master keycard to check the condo on my behalf in 2019? Or the cheating son of a bitch who ran juristic in 2018 and pocketed all my rent money? And let's not forget coming back after covid then seeing the place infested with cockroaches for over 3 years of no maintenance. There were good times too such as the inauguration in 2015 and the successful closing out just now.
The best part entirely was that all the trips to and from the condo were made on a bicycle. Most if it involved 110km rides from outer Bangkok. When you've just done that it gives you a lot better mental and physical strength to handle whatever situation might arise at juristic. Similarly, the bike ride out of town allows for a slow and controlled transition back to reality. There is ample time on the bike to reflect and process whatever may have happened in this particular universe. As we all know, whatever happens in Pattaya stays in Pattaya.
With all these memories and more it was a lot of tears but I felt confident the place was in good hands and the new owner would look after it very well. As is the theme for this entire journal, minimalism is about letting things go. It's impossible not to get sad about parting with treasures but the mature thing to do is accept that everything in life is temporary, and change is permanent. Then we move on with that.
Another takeaway I got is that eventually we need to stop blaming other people for what went wrong. This doesn't mean I forget all the stories in the condo or say it was somehow OK for those agents and others to screw me. It's just that if my identity is who I figure it is, one of the hallmarks of a sigma male is we learn to take responsibility for our part and move on. Blaming others is just not something we do.
On that note, the Thai people sure taught me what karma is about. One thing is for sure it would be anyone's worst nightmare to live like those guys do who lie and cheat their customers every day. Retribution is a like a knife that will strike out of nowhere.
There was nothing else left to do but cycle to the land office, only 1.5km away.
Once there I met both the agent and the buyer and the transaction went completely smoothly. The buyer who is from Belgium and I got along immediately. His opening gambit was "I rode a scooter from Bangkok to get here" Well then, the place couldn't be in better hands. We had a nice chat about health and fitness and he is into a similar mindset. For someone in his late 50s it was impossible to tell. His approach was a little different and he said "It's alright if you get shitfaced once a week since one day isn't enough for the body to hold onto the toxins". I've heard that theory before actually. Once this strict fitness challenge is over and I win it, then we're back to getting pissed drunk on Friday nights. For now we'll have to survive off vodka sodas and going to nightclubs more or less sober.
He had a lot of other interesting things to say such as his plans with his wife(s), maybe there was more than one since both of us couldn't track the conversation. What we do know is he lives in Phuket with one of them perhaps. He also got along great with the agent and they could speak French. As far as I'm concerned the agent is the most professional one in Pattaya. He even said he never married and when he does have women around he actually tells them what to do. Imagine that in the 21st century.
This meeting was evidently off to a great start. We chitchatted for about an hour until his secretary called us over for our turn with the land office. The clerk just wanted to confirm our names and who was buyer and seller. Then we signed a shitload of paperwork and the official document of ownership was transferred.
We were each given envelopes with a pile of cash, basically 50k baht per party then we negotiated the transfer fee which came out to about 28k apiece. While counting all the cash and divvying it up, I couldn't help but joke that we were playing poker in the casino.
We also negotiated that I would get back 9k for the year common fee expenses as well as I already pitched in for cleaning and electricity bills until April. In turn he bought the condo at a discount so he would pay for the repairs to the shower and other things that were ruined by covid. The agent got a very generous commission from both of us so all the parties walked away from the table with a pretty good deal.
The crown jewel was to come at the end, a cashiers check for 1.1 million baht. Combine that with the cash deposits, I made 20% on this condo with a slight deduction for all the fees and transfer paperwork. When you account for all the bullshit in the middle such as unpaid rent, lawyer fees, and a second condo where the developer ran away with the money then I more or less broke even or made a slight profit over 10 years.
It's not so much the money as it is the learning experience. What I got from this is that you can't rely on an apartment as a cash cow. Many people mistakenly believe it works like this where you buy a place and "just rent it out" to cover the mortgage or generate passive income. If only they were so lucky. There are a zillion complications or hidden extra tasks that make this strategy a pain in the ass, especially if you're not around to coordinate the whole thing. If people plan on flipping properties, good luck with that also. Sounds like a nightmare to me. I don't want to say never do that, after all I just sold the condo to a new owner who plans on renting out but his idea is to mainly live here in Pattaya. That's why he bought it.
He was immediately impressed with the place and wanted to buy on the spot. He had first walked into the agent office only a couple days after I did. The timing couldn't have been anymore perfect. He would have even come on Sunday the month prior when I was biking to Chonburi. Had I known this, we could have done the deal then. But it's perfectly fine to do it now too.
The two of them left and it was just me at the land office with over a million baht in my bag. Realizing this I was scared shitless. The best thing to do for now would be eat something at the land office restaurant then fold the bike and order a car to Si Racha. Basically hightail it out of Pattaya as fast as I could.
The car arrived and the bike fit in the trunk perfectly. I then found my bank home branch where they treat me like a rock star and the check was deposited without a hitch. That was a huge sense of relief.
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