House / Condo for my first year

[pbangalore]

I'm ready to make the plunge, sign a one year lease, and spend at least six months of that year in Pattaya.  I'm leaning towards renting a house, rather than a condo, but I'm open to opinions.  I'd like a nice central location, hopefully no father out than 3rd road.  3 Bedrooms ideally (one will become my office); I -must- have a good, reliable internet connection (even if it means I need to get it installed), and I have a reasonable budget for the right place.  There must be convenient access to a pool, either a simple gym or enough space to put a machine or two in the unit itself.  Space for a car and a cycle; a patio area would be swell but not required.  The website http://www.gecko-properties.com/ has some interesting looking options around the 25k/month rate.  Any suggestions for brokers/dealers to try to work with?  I have no interest in a purchase, for now, I figure I'm much better off renting for a year and seeing if it "takes"

 

[LUV2LICKIT]

I will be interested to read replies from your thread as im about to start looking at the exact same thing you are pbangalore.

Im not interested in buying any property in Thailand, renting is the smartest way for the 1st few years to see how it all goes.

[baklazan]

This can be tricky with budget/location ratio. Recently I was helping my new colleague to find a house with similar requirements (although the area was Jomtien or Phratumnak) and prices were all 30k up. For 25k we found out something on Darkside, but still convenient, no too far from Tesco Lotus.

For gym + pool you might consider a condo (parking is included, internet should be also not a problem), but 3- bedroom size might be again over budget.

Myself I know about some condos for rent, but biggest are 2 bedrooms only.

 

[Evilfriar]

2 bed townhouses can be had near Big C Extra on Pattaya Klang, know one bloke in a decent one for 15k a month.

 

There's pools and Gyms all over central Pattaya, just depends how close to one you want to be.

 

Cheers

 

[Billy Shears]

One thing you might want to consider is security. If your renting a condo in a nice building, and you leave for months at a time, you just lock the door and go, it should be the same when you get back. But if you rent a house and leave, it's going to be very susceptible to break-ins. Vacant houses are very easy targets.

Just my opinion. 

[JAI DEE MAK]

14 hours ago, WhiteThai said:

One thing you might want to consider is security. If your renting a condo in a nice building, and you leave for months at a time, you just lock the door and go, it should be the same when you get back. But if you rent a house and leave, it's going to be very susceptible to break-ins. Vacant houses are very easy targets.

Just my opinion. 

A very good point A friend of mine owned a nice house in a gated 24/7 gate/ roving guard force and only used it about 6 moths of the year.

It has been broken into 4 times.

JDM