Finding a Rental House in Chiang Mai

Renting a house in Chiang Mai is definitely easier than renting a house outside of a major city like Chiang Mai, such as in Lampang or Chiang Dao where we have worked previously.  At least in Chiang Mai there are a fair few real estate agents who have houses advertised on websites which you can look through and they can organise for you to look at.  That said, it is still not an easy process as we have experienced in the last couple of weeks. 

Firstly, even though there are hundreds of houses to search through in websites such as http://www.ddproperty.com/ we found that most of the houses we were interested in, when we inquired with the real estate agent, they were no longer available.  So I would have a short-list of 10 houses which were listed on the website, but when I called the real estate agent only 1 or 2 at most would still be available.  A lot of time was wasted considering houses which weren’t available in the first place. I think they leave houses on the website to entice people to make contact with the real estate agent. 

Secondly, although many landlords in Chiang Mai are using the services of real estate agents, a lot of houses still are advertised privately, by a “for rent” sign outside the house.  If you just relied on websites and real estate agents you would miss out on a lot of houses for rent.  Knowing that I spent a few days just driving through neighbourhoods street by street looking out for “for rent” signs. 

Red "For Rent" sign in front of a house (not our one but one of the many we went past)

Thirdly, we have a big family of 4 kids which is amazes most Thai and the majority of houses are built with only 3 bedrooms and small living areas which suits most people.  But we were looking for at least 4 bedrooms and a large living area, close to the kid’s school, close to a shopping centre, without a spirit house if possible, able to have a dog and which didn’t have too much furniture (majority of houses for rent in Chiang Mai are partially or fully furnished).

In the end, we had looked at over 20 houses with real estate agents and on our own for several weeks and had found a few places which we could live in but nothing which we felt was just right.  In the end, we gave ourselves just one more day to find a house and if nothing turned up we were going to take a house which was o.k, but was fully furnished and a smaller living area than we wanted.  On the last day, I was at immigration and met another missionary and he told me about two neighbourhoods they looked at when they were searching for houses.

After I had finished at immigration I went to these two neighbours and drove up and down every street looking for “for rent” signs.  Finally I found a sign and rang the owner and organised a time later that afternoon to see the house.  Once I went into the house, I realised that this could be “the house” and I quickly rang my wife and organise to pick her up and get her to see it while the landlord waited. 

The house fit with almost everything we were looking for and the landlord was more engaged and helpful than any other landlord we’ve dealt with.  They didn’t advertise their house on real estate websites because they wanted to be very selective about who rented their house and they had rejected a lot of previous people who had wanted to rent their house.  They immediately dropped the rent by 2,000 baht per month and when we told them that we liked the house but as Christians we wanted to pray about it overnight and get back to them the next day, they dropped the rent by another 500 baht per month because we were involved in helping religion. 

We are really thankful to God for the provision of this new house.

Trying to get settled

Even though we’ve back over a month already, we are not yet fully settled, even though we were able to move back into our old house.  One of the first major tasks we embarked on was trying to find a new house closer to the two older boys new school and a bit bigger than our current house.  However, after looking at a few houses we decided to put off looking for a new house to rent after we worked out how the traffic was around the school.  Some areas, even though a lot closer to the school, because of traffic can take just as long to get to the school as from our house 15km away.  There is a school van service but it costs 3,000baht per child per month which is a little expensive.  Also, it would mean getting up earlier for the kids (being picked up at 6:30am rather than leaving at 6:50am as we are doing now).  We also like the area we are living in now and the children have friends who they are playing with regularly.  Moving to a new area always has risks that it won’t be as good as the area we left.

The second major task was selling our van (as we no longer need to be transport students) and replacing it with a second hand car.  At first I put a deposit on a pick up truck (Ford Ranger 2010) which had low mileage and a good price.  However, during the week I had to think about it, I realised that it wasn’t the right car for us.  I didn’t like the colour (Black – which would heat up a lot more in Thailand’s hot sun) but also it would require around 60,000baht to put a carryboy on the back with air-conditioning and seats.  

I decided that a much smaller car, the Toyota Avanza would be a better option for us at the moment, especially when trying to find a park near the boy’s school and navigation narrow streets.  There are lots of Toyota Avanza’s on the second hand market.  I think it is the car of choice for missionaries in Chiang Mai as it can seat 7 and is reasonably cheap.  I ended up going with Toyota Sure because they would trade-in the van.  Although, I’m sure I would have got more for the van if I sold it privately and bought another Avanza cheaper somewhere else, doing it myself would take time and effort which I didn’t want to spend right now.

Normally, my passport and work permit are enough for the transfer of ownership of the car, but because the address in my work permit is Bangkok (and I’m buying the car in Chiang Mai), the transport office require me to get a Certificate of Residency.  Then I found out that Immigration are not supplying the Certificate of Residency for a couple of weeks while they do a software upgrade?

The third major task was getting a dog.  We have not been able to have a dog for the last 10 years in Thailand as we have moved around a lot.  However, since we hope to be in Chiang Mai for the next 5 years and don’t plan on any long periods overseas, we could finally get a dog.  In the end, my wife and kids picked out a 4 month old beagle.  We’ve begun the toilet training process and dog proofing the front gates and watching youtube videos on how to look after dogs. 

All of this takes times and a lot longer than it does back home.  So today, I lodged my application for a Certificate of Residency.  It is free to get it but it can take up to 3-4 weeks for the free option.  I paid a man in a store at immigration 500 baht for each certificate (I need 2) to get it the next day.  I don’t know how this works exactly, but I’m not asking questions.  This afternoon, I’ll try to dog proof the front gate with the plastic fencing I bought from Home Pro yesterday which I will attach with cable ties.

Once, the boys who are going to school start their after school activities and we have a better idea of how many trips back and forth we need to make to school each afternoon, then we can tackle the last major job of moving house.  That is the hardest and most time consuming task of all.  Then we can start feeling settled.

Unexpected Crash

I was on my morning ride and part way into my ride when I realized I forgot my helmet. I thought it would be ok as I had never been in an accident before and it was hassle to ride back home and get it.  What were the chances of being in an accident.   

But 15min later I was riding in on a 2-lane forest road and a motorcycle slammed into me from behind at full speed and I was thrown of my bike onto the road. I landed first on my bottom which took the brunt of the fall and it my head on the road but not too heavily.  I was in a lot of pain initially rolling around and moaning on the road.  The motorcyclist had slammed into me so hard that he fell on the road as well.  The crash must have made quite a sound as the two cyclists who were about 30 metres of so ahead of my had turned around and came back to see if I was ok and help me.  After a few minutes I was able to stand up gingerly.  One of the cyclists handed me by glasses which fortunately were not broken.  Another cyclist who was behind me stopped the traffic from behind and gave advice that I should get the kid’s details who slammed into me. 

So I took a photo of his ID card.  He was only 16 years old and his motorbike didn’t even have a license plate. I have no ID how he could have slammed into me like that.  I was riding on the side of the road.  I don’t think that I was riding around a corner.  He must have speeding or perhaps using his phone?  I didn’t really have a chance to ask him what happened.  I think I must have been in a state of shock.  The other cyclists were really nice and helpful which I was grateful for.  They asked if I could still ride and I said I could.  My bicycle’s hand bar was off centre, the seat wobbled up and down and the gears were not working properly initially but I was able to make it back home.

My bottom and back are pretty sore and there will be quite a bit of bruising tomorrow but otherwise I don't think anything major. I am really thankful to God as it could have been a lot worse especially as I was stupid enough not to wear a helmet.  If he had slammed directly into my leg or landed on an outstretched arm there could have been broken bones for sure or even a serious head injury. 

My son was in tears (not so much for his dad's accident) but that I'd damaged his birthday present (his new bike only a week old).  Later on though he was much more concerned about my injuries.

I hope to try to meet up with the kid who crashed into me.  I want to get to know him better and see if there is an opportunity to share the gospel with him.  Show him that I’m not angry with him.