In Chiang Mai there are plenty of agents to help you buy a villa. But before you buy a villa in Chiang Mai, it’s advisable to familiarise yourself with the various areas, do some due diligence on the neighbourhood at various times of the day and check for latent defects, as sellers are notorious for keeping quiet on chronic problems. Since there is little structure to good and bad suburbs it is difficult to find a suitable area. The suburbs immediately north and south of the airport suffer noise pollution, while a house in a village might be subjected to noisy early morning announcement, feral dogs and the local karaoke bar.
Furthermore, when you are looking to buy a villa in Chiang Mai you will discover that many of the older villas where designed with Thai preferences which include smaller, darker rooms, no outdoor living areas, outdoor kitchens, too many bathrooms and lack of privacy. The newer villas are more suited to Western tastes. There is an over-supply of villas in the gated communities; these are perhaps the safest option to consider. However beware, some fail with the maintenance and upkeep, while others have an air of abandonment due to inexperience with marketing and management. Those at the top end however can have a lovely suburban feel to them these do tend to be markedly more expensive and you will pay for the prestige.