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Originally Posted by jamus
Right now, it's no more than a crazy what-if pipe dream because I see my job disappearing in 5 or so years.
Mid 100ks? I'm guessing thats us dollars?
So my question is what sort of money do have before I even start thinking about it?
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No I talk Thai baht.
Some bars can be brought quiet cheaply at the moment as owners are looking at a quick out based on the current situation here. Like in Soi Lion, it looks like most bars are up for sale. In Soi SeaDragon there are numerous bars available, as are all along Bangla and the sois.
Bars off Bangla in Patong which is where anyone buying would ideally want as thats where most of the pedestrian traffic is, start from a basic bar beer from around B1m up to B3m. This is the buyout amount to the current owner and includes the remaining period on the lease, or as some people call it, key money.
Agogo's are available on the market from B1.5m and up to B5m. The gazette is always a good source of whats available
www.phuketgazette.net
The main thing you need to take into account is th amount of time remaining on the current lease. Recently alot of landlords are giving owners 12 months leases, the norm is 3 to 5 years.
To show exactly whats involved, I'll use my old bar beer in Soi SeaDragon as an example. The 3 year lease was B800k, monthly rental was B15k which includes water,power and DJ. So before you even start on anything else, you are already paying out B37,222 per month just to the landlord. And this is amongst the cheapest lease/contract combinations going.
There are now several places offerring no keymoney from what I heard, but you have to understand, you dont get anything for nothing, there is probably always a catch somewhere.
If you are going to buy something here and you have some other source of regular income, like a service pension, then you could quite easily get by on just B2m as a startup capital. Otherwise you should really be looking at considerably larger amounts to ensure you get by during the slow months, which do out number the busy months.
Now the main stumbling block, is the issue of licenses. These must in a Thai name or a company name. Registering a company and trading through it, increases your monthly outgoing considerably, like in taxes.
Hope this helps.