About US

During September we caught up with a ’Delightful’ Dutch lady called Anne-Marie who has just opened another (yes it’s true!) real estate agency in town. I went along to meet her to find out a little about her in her office along Thappraya Road just up from the new Seven Oaks Inn and opposite Jomtien Nivate Village.

Q. Anne-Marie, how long have you been in Thailand?
A. I have been here 6.5 years. I originally went to Phuket where I stayed for 6 months and them moved over to Pattaya.

Q. Did you come here on your own?
A. No I came with my partner Joep, who is also Dutch. He works here in Pattaya for a company and has been working there for 5 years now. He is supporting me in the business morally but is not going to be involved.

Q. What were you doing in Holland prior to coming here?
A. I had my own interior design company which I owned for 25 years.

Q. What have you been doing in Thailand since arrving?
A. Not a lot up to now. For the past year I’ve been researching the real estate situation here and watching things closely. I decided I wanted to get involved in some way but wasn’t sure what to do. It seemed like a good idea to open a real estate agency and after extensive research when I felt ready to do it, what’s what I did.

Q. Why do you want to get involved in a market with so much competition?
A. I understand competition is fierce here, but I’m not looking to make fortunes. I seriously believe in offering quality service to people and I think that will set up apart from the majority of the 100 or so other agents in town.

Q. How do you make yourself different to the rest?
A. Well, firstly I’m a foreign lady here working in real estate as the business owner and I believe I’m the only one. That makes me different straight away. I’ve run my own business in Holland successfully for many years and I understand how to handle people I believe. When somebody walks through our doors the first thing they notice is my office set-up. It is designed to put people at ease. I’ve deliberately made it to look like its my living room, where people feel relaxed, and happy to sit over a coffee and chat about their aspirations for real estate ownership, without feeling under pressure. I think that is the key. I’m not a high-pressurised salesperson, if they like me and I can offer them what they want they’ll buy from me. If I can’t offer them what they are looking for, but they like me, they’ll come back, or will recommend me to friends won’t they?

Q. How do you see the market in Pattaya?
A. Booming! The new airport will add to that bringing even more people and developments to the area. In Pattaya over the last 6 years I have seen huge changes and that will carry on for a while to come I believe. I have also seen a change in the type of person coming here. There is certainly more newly retired and early retiree’s coming to set up home from Europe as opposed to going off to Spain to retire, due to the excellent value for money they get here compared to Spain say.

Q. I have noticed you have a huge TV sitting over there. What’s it for?
A. Well I’m not going to say at the moment. We watch music DVD’s on it (she say’s laughingly), but we have idea’s that will set us apart & I think revolutionise the way real estate is sold in Pattaya. But that’s for the future. You can’t run until you’ve learnt to walk & we have to get the basics right first don’t we?

Q. Why have you chosen Thappraya Road as your location?
A. We want to be positioned between Pattaya & Jomtien. This location has plenty of traffic going past and we know people see us. Anyone who takes the time to stop and look in our window, or come in, we know are serious and I prefer serious people to daydreamers.

Q. How would you like Delight Real Estate to develop over the next 2 years?
A. I would like to get a second office open in central Pattaya somewhere. I would also like to get involved with our own developments. I like this idea particularly as I am able to control the quality of the build and have complete confidence in what we are recommending and selling. We have already had a couple of interesting approaches we are looking at presently. But again, I will only do it when the time is right.

Q. Finally, can you sum up you ambition for Delight Real Estate.
A. Easy. I want to simply offer the best service. That’s it in a nutshell. I would like to also forge some relationships with a select few other real estate agents and developers in town. We have lovely smiling Thai staff and that’s so important to me. My goal it to keep it that way.

Anne-Marie is the Managing Director of Delight Real Estate. For my part it’s a real pleasure, or should I say a DELIGHT, to see a foreign lady finally get involved in this rather male dominated sector (certainly as far as the company owners are concerned). Her office is very nicely furnished, (in fact I’d love my living room to have some of her stuff in it!) and can see what she means by having a relaxed environment. She has a nice style about her and think she will become a force to recon with in the future. So watch out guys!