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AJBangkok

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    Interior design pricing expectations

    in Real Estate, Housing, House and Land Ownership

    Posted

    I purchased the condo from a distressed foreign seller at the height of the GFC so it wasn't as much as you would think. Even with the cost of the renovations on a per square meter basis the price is still below where condos in the building are selling now. i consider myself lucky to have been in the market at the right place and the right time, I have no intention of selling as its my home.

    • Like 3

    Interior design pricing expectations

    in Real Estate, Housing, House and Land Ownership

    Posted

    For my condo renovation which involved knocking out all of the existing walls and stripping it back to bare concrete, redoing electrical plumbing etc, I paid 2,000 psm for one of Thailands top architects. It worked out to roughly 5% of the total project costs.

    The blue prints and design speciation drawings alone are 62 pages not including tender doc's.

    Thanks for that, if you don't mind me asking but how big your condo?

    My condo is quite large at 630sqm.

    Ilikehd and a windows htpc

    in Audio Visual AV

    Posted

    Right now I've just set up the PC side and hooked it to my 65in LG uhdtv. I'm renovating my condo at the moment and when I move back in I will complete the full home theatre setup. I'm looking at buying an 84in lg uhdtv when I move back in.

    The HTPC is an Intel NUC with an i5 professor, 16 mb of ram, a 250 gb ssid, with wireless, Bluetooth and ir running on windiws 8.1 pro. The footprint iof the Intel NUC is about half the size of an iPad laid flat and its about 7-8cm high.

    For movies and tv I am just running xbmc as well as several portable hd's with some favorite content.

    I'll add an amp and speakers when I move.

    I also have 2 android boxes that I also use occasionally but most of my viewing is now through the Intel nuc.

    The cost of the Intel nuc fully loaded was around 30k but to be honest right now for what I'm using it for there is not much difference between it and my android box the minix x8-h which cost 5k. The minix x8 is an great box and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a high spec android box. The Intel nuc is a lot more fun to mess around with and eventually will be a powerful htpc so long as I dont turn it into a very expensive brick when I'm fooling around with it .

    Android TV boxs

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    Hey All,

    Anyone have a tutorial on how to setup my box with XMBC,

    I am a little confused to how it works plus I wonder is there a way of just showing tv channels with a tv guide? I am not intrested in movies purely live tv channels but would be great to have playback and a tv guide as thats one thing ilovehd.com is missing,

    Cheers

    Go to www.tvaddons.com download xbmc for whatever system your using like android or windows. Then from the same site download fusion ( they have instructions) then to set up your system with movies and tv shows use the hub wizard also on the same site. Also after you have done that you can use the addon manager to add the MX repisitory for live thai tv.

    To set up live tv from around the world on xbmc follow the instructions in this vid https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dddkIicYOLk . It only about 350 stations but it should be enough. There are other lists out there that have 1000's but I think this is the easiest set up.

    • Like 2

    Fox Sports F1 live streaming

    in Phuket

    Posted · Edited by AJBangkok

    Bianchi had a bad accident as his car went underneath the truck which was removing Sutil's car. He is now sent to the hospital.

    BBC reporting this was a very serious accident. He has serious head injuries and has undergone surgery.

    Any thoughts on why he was going so fast under a yellow flag, especially on the part of the track that caused the yellow flags to come out?

    @nkm That's an excellent question and there has been quite a bit of debate in the f1 forums as to why.

    The answer may , from what I have been reading,be that an f1 car relies on both mechanical grip (weight, tyres and suspension) and aerodynamic grip ( downforce) to essentialy stick to the track. In wet weather the mechanical grip is compromised so the cars generally set up for maximum downforce. The issue with downforce the car must be traveling at a certain speed in order to create the downforce. Potentially Bianchi was driving at a speed which he thought generated enough downforce offset the lower mechanical grip and keep the car on the track at the same time.

    If you remember when the race started behind the safety car several drivers Hamilton, vettel and I think Perez were heard over team radio complainig that the safety car was not going fast enough. That's because the cars were sliding all over the track as they were not going fast enough to generate downforce. Kobyashi actually spun under the safety car. The safety car itself has far more mechanical grip at slower speeds in the wet than an f1 car and Martin Brundle said at the time that driving the saftey car in conditions like this were "terrifying"

    The final thing is that all f1 cars arent created equal, Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari ant the cars at the sharp end of the grid have far more downforce designed into them that the cars at the back like Marussia, lotus and Caterham, so the speed needed to offset the lower mechanical grip is lower.

    • Like 1

    Internet TV?

    in Audio Visual AV

    Posted

    I see some posters continually suggesting XBMC as a free alternative over Maige, ILikeHD, etc - my question to them is, what plugins are actually needed to get a quality service that might rival MaigeTV, ILikeHD, etc?

    I've now spent over 2 hours trying various different plugins, and so far the only one that seems to work nicely is joncl's Thai TV... I'm yet to see anything that can give me a live streaming of the most popular channels (HBO*, FOX*, Universal*, AXN, Discovery*, Nat Geo* etc), and I haven't yet discovered any of those killer apps for movies and TV series either...

    Can someone give some suggestions on the better quality plugins that might actually work here in TH?

    Note that I have a 20mbps connection, which is able to support 2 simultaneous MaigeTV HD streams.

    For movies and TV shows on xbmc add on the 1 channel and genisis from your fusion repisitory. And you will have 2 options. There are numerous u tube videos available showing u how to add them if you don't want to follow the simple instructions on TV addons.com.

    TV shows are automatically updated a couple of hours after they air in the states or uk and you can save a TV series as a favorite so you just click on the series/latest season/latest episode. You control what you whatch when you want to watch it and you never miss an episode. Also good for those weekends where you want to lock yourself in a room and watch every single season of say The wire, breaking bad, 24', or whatever floats your boat.

    The movie options are phenomenal, search any movie you want and it's there pretty much. Also you get new movies faster than the theaters in Thailand.. The only issue is sometimes they upload cam movies if the movies are just released in the states. They replace them when a master becomes available.

    Xbmc can be a little fiddley to set up but after set up it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be like if you want to fool around with libraries, skins, developing your own live TV channel and guide etc etc

    .

    I'm not a very tech savvy person but I have been able to set up xbmc to a level where I have no use for cable tv. I can watch anything I want, when I want and I am no longer a slave to cable tv programming schedules.

    • Like 2

    True Internet Billion Router

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    True supplied me with that billion router and there was some kind of firewall in it that stopped me from downloading streaming videos on xbmc and another streaming service I was using. I swapped out the router with an old d-link 2750 router I had and everything worked perfectly.

    Internet TV?

    in Audio Visual AV

    Posted

    Get an android box, either a minix x8 or an M8 box from pantip. Download XBMC ( Kodi) from tv addons.com if it's not on the box already, set it up using the addon installer on tvaddons.com and start playing TV, movies and tv series. It's all free.

    You could also download XbMC on to windows if you like.

    Opinions on Phuket housing, prices, and the new "shoehorned in - future slum" housing estates.

    in Phuket

    Posted

    Some good points made by posters here, and hopefully I will add a few more from my own personal experience in buying and selling two houses here in Phuket.

    As NamKangMan has said, whatever prices are on the other houses if they are not selling, is totally meaningless. As for the valuation by the SCB, then I would very much doubt this is the case as the two properties which I sold for over 5 million baht, originally sold at 3 million when built seven years previously, had hardly increased in value according to the land office and the solicitors handling the sale!!! As someone mentioned, brown envelopes here work wonders.

    The first house I bought was about four years old and the asking price for this one and a couple of others in the street was over 5 million baht, however I negotiated a quick deal with the owner and bought it for 4 million baht. You see there is a big difference between the asking price and what someone will settle for after negotiations take place.

    Now here's the rub........... I put some good hard work into it and spent money on it, and sold it for 5.25 million baht some 4 years later (making a good profit I may add, although that was not the original intention). This although there were several other houses in the same soi which were for sale at around the same price and some a little dearer.

    Now three years later, my old house has been resold for, yes you have guessed it, 4 million baht!!! And yes, the other houses are still for sale at well over 5 million baht and some have been like that for seven years now.

    The moral of this story is that the asking price is purely that and everyone will be open to negotiation provided they are carried out in a manner which allows both parties to benefit. Also, there will be different "values/valuations" put on the property by different folk, the seller, the real estate agent, the lawyer and of course the land office and bank, so don't be put off by "expensive valuations" because they are very much "finger in the air" stuff.

    Finally, and someone else has mentioned this, it seems as if you are not keen on buying, so why do so? As several friends of mine have found out to their disgust, there is not a lot you can do in Thailand when someone decides to build a block of condominiums next to the house you thought was going your hideaway for life, nor can you legislate for noisy neighbours should someone decide to let the house next to you.

    Good luck in whatever you decide, and hopefully you will have picked up some useful information from some good posts on this thread.

    Good post XP, but I woud pick you up on one thing, this: "making a good profit I may add."

    Using today's figures, not historical figures, which would have illustrated my point even more, 4 million baht is approximately $124,000USD.

    You said, "I put some good hard work into it and spent money on it" - to be accurate, I would have to know how much money you spent on it, but, being conservative, let's say you spent nothing at all on it.

    $124,000USD in a long term bank fixed interest bank account, you could get around 4.2% p.a in today's market.

    So, $124,000UD x 4.2% = approximately $5200USD per year.

    Let's just say you take that interest as a monthy income, and do not compound it.

    $5200 x 4 years that you held the property before selling is $20,800USB

    $20,800USD is approximately 672,000 baht.

    You sold the property for 5.25 million baht, which is 1.25 million baht more than what you purchased it for.

    I would contend that is not what I would call "a good profit" for the risk and expense involved.

    My reasons are this, you admit to spending money on it and providing your own "good hard work." The amount of money you spent would further decrease your profit, when compared to a totally no risk, no work, western bank fixed interest term account.

    Your property may have required further maintanence within the 4 years you had the property, as we all know how poor the materials and construction techniques used here are.

    You may have had to pay real estate agents fees for finding a buyer.

    You were selling a property with 4 years less on it's 30 year farang land lease.

    During the 4 years you owned it, anything could have been built near your property, possibly devaluing it, as there is no town planning here.

    So, if we take into account the points I have mentioned, I don't think the profit to risk ratio is very good at all.

    Don't get me wrong, you are one of the lucky ones to turn a profit here, good luck to you. Many did in the 90's, but those days are gone, and many are now left with a property they can not sell, or will have to see for lower than what the property has cost them.

    Many properties have been on the market for years now, with the owner believing their property will eventually appeal to a particular foreigner, despite many new properties being built to compete with their property, not to mention more secondhand properties being put up for sale.

    Compare that to putting the same captial in a decent fixed term, low risk, western bank account, and you can see trying to sell a property here now, for even a meagre profit, just isn't worth it, and remember, my figures didn't use compound interest, which would have seen your profit margin diminish even further.

    If you looked at this from a cash flow basis of the owner then it's a different story. You should not forget that the owner lived 4 years rent free which depending on the rent - say B20,000 per month woukd have been worth an additional 960,000 over the period. If you want to be generous then you could say any interest return on the capital $5,200 would be paid out in equivalent rental expense then at the end of 4 years you only end up with your same capital ( not adjusting for inflation) but chances are that rental expense over the same period wouldhave exceeded $5,200 PA resulting in a loss of principal.

    Police reveal how Phuket's public beaches were rented out - for billions

    in Phuket News

    Posted

    Who's to say the hotels or their locally employed managers aren't neck deep in this. For example.

    The locally employed manager/ senior staff member of the hotel says to the mayor we want to reserve the 80 meter beach front of our hotel for our guest sunbeds. If you give this guy ( who just happens to be my brother in law ) a concession to manage beachfront the hotel will pay him and he will pay you. The hotel will expense it and the leasee ( my BIL) will pay the tax. Your name won't appear anywhere. You'll be clean and the stupid farang owners/ international management company of the hotel will not question it deeply as their whole existence relies on their direct beach access.

    It's still wrong and it could be way off base but I dont think anything in phuket us as cut and dried as we'd like to believe

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    Police reveal how Phuket's public beaches were rented out - for billions

    in Phuket News

    Posted

    It really is sickening. Based on the numbers for kata the mayor was taking 15 million per year and the leasees were probably charging the hotels double or triple that. I can't believe the hotels never complained unless they or the management were in on the scam. I would be interested to see if any of the leasees were connected to the hotels ( or the management of the hotels). It would be a nice way to siphon off funds from the hotel owners saying that we pay to keep our beach private etc.

    • Like 4

    Best skin for Penny

    in Audio Visual AV

    Posted · Edited by AJBangkok

    Right now I'm usung hybrid which Is a jazzed up confluence skin. I had an issue with confluence where for some reason I would get the fan art for the movie and TV show but I woukd not get the episode synopsis.but using hybrid fixed that .

    Internet almost at a standstill.

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    There is a backup international cable with less bandwidth. All traffic has been switched to that pending repair of the main undersea cable. There is far less international bandwidth available so I would say that isp's are throttling back international bandwidth to individual subscribers and allocating all the international bandwidth to corporate subscribers as that's where they make the most of their money.

    If true is worse than other thai isp's then it's because they are throttling the public non corporate international bandwidth back more than others. I woukd guess the reason why using a Singapore VPN works better with true at the moment is because there is nothing wrong with the cable from Thailand to Singapore and a Singapore VPN would probably be a corporate subscriber in Singapore and have priority access to bandwidth.

    True really does suck. I am a true subscriber and the only way I could post this message was to setup a personal hotspot from my phone which is AIS to my iPad to get any internet access at all.

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