Bicko

All of the above is good advice. It is not possible to give an opinion without knowing the location, availability of services etc but here is our experience. My wife has been buying quite a lot of rice farming land over the past 12 months. She is paying Bt15,000 to Bt20,000 per rai. There are no services (Power, water etc) and just a dirt track access so that is the bottom end of the scale i guess. As Ron said if it's close to town, the way things are moving in Buri Ram expect to pay a lot more. Give us more info and we can be more precise.

Just a quick post Mac is staying with me at the moment and the gradual change in him is nice to see he has now gone from being very depressed to looking to the future and sorting things out, having known Mac through a fair bit of his life like 23 years i will confirm that you could not have a better guy at looking after his wife it is just that he falls in love too quick and next time round i think an arranged marriage will suit him better rather than choosing for himself some how. Joking apart some of the opportunities open to him now I think will suit him down to the ground and improve his lot, I would like to say thanks for all the support and comments given by members here as it has shown him that he is not alone in his plight he is not the first and will not be the last to go through all this heart ache, plus it has been a very good outlet for his feelings and opinions that he finds difficult to express in speech.

Cheers to all you guys for helping Mac

Yes Mac is a good bloke and he deserves every bit of support that he gets

From a Buri Ram bloke who has enjoyed a few cold beers with the man.

We will miss you in our part of the world Mac.

A neighbour in my village erected an electric fence to prevent wandering cows eating his vegetables. But instead of a 12 volt fence it was connected directly to the mains electric, -220V,

A cow wandered by this morning, reached over for some vegetables and was electrocuted. It could so easily have been a child playing football or something similar.

There was no contrition -"the cow got what it deserved" was the claim.

The cows owner ignored my suggestion to go to the Police and has gone instead to discuss it with the village headman. Result currently unknown

If I had been directly involved I would have demanded massive compensation (the cow had a 4 day old calf) and a custodial sentence for the neighbour. But sadly the locals are frightened to death of officialdom, and "mai pen rai" generally rules here!

Find out where your local government off ises are located

..we tooked at buying bank repo propeties here-all we saw were overvalued.

The we doscovred the local government office that sells properties when the lender has forced the sale vian the courts.

for once realistic prices!

we got a home worth a conservative 3m baht for 1500 baht!

There has been either silliness or corruption in thai banking system-thsy heve been lending moer then the properties have been worth.

forced sales by the courts are the way to go

Well I will miss this Buriram Topic I see its hit 40.000 views now:

I will have to keep my beady eye on it from time to time make sure your not slacking on here :

All you guys that I know and have met don't lose touch okay you a great bunch

Will let you know next time we are coming through and we can have a coldie or two

khun bob, i think start with a reasonable low offer and work up from there. I think the banks are very keen to offload them. Krungthai has an ongoing promotion offering "special" rates etc, although I have no idea how amenable they are to low offers. kasikorn was definitely prepared to accept substantially less than "list price".

Hi Bicko, I'm from Brisbane.

At the moment I'm in Ubon for a few days looking for a house/business/opportunity. But who do you get in touch with? I find myself driving around aimlessly wondering <deleted>. As you say, there is an opportunity here for a farang oriented real estate "agent" to sort things out and provide a much needed service.

I am from the west originally but lived in Runaway bay for some years until my wife passed away. Sold my house there 3 or 4 years ago.

BTW can someone please post the bank websites. I would like to look at some repossessions. The Kasikorn site has changed and i can not find the English site any more.

Bicko, what's the cost of the natural stone from Pak Chong? Also, how about the cost of the grey slate? Sounds like some beautiful material. I've got my land (5.75 rai) and house plans drawn (304 s.meter) but am still deciding on flooring, etc.

I'm not into classical music but will have a Home Theater room; gotta have something to do in the rainy season!

There are also a lot of places that cut natural stone floor tiles and bench tops.

Man 5.75 rai is a lot of land. (9,200 m2 or just short of 1 hectare) Where abouts are you?

Hi BP.

Welcome to the steel frame club,

There's a lot of info on steel roofs and eaves over on the "coolthaihouse" board.

Has your guy ever built a polehouse?

eg: on 3m steel or concrete poles.

Good luck & looking fwd to seeing the end result.

Hi Bicko.... do you have a rough image of your dream house?

I'll bet it looks good.

Please share.

GD.

Steel roof? Bit noisy when its raining!

Not if insulated correctly!

Crikey another Aussie!!! Maybe we could make a takeover bid here sometime.

I expect to have my house plans finished in about a week -doing them on Autocad and will post a floor plan and elevations.

It is H shaped and BIG - 260m2 single storey as i am thinking about climbing stairs later on.

One side of the H is kichen and living area with a bedroom and separate bathroom. On the side of the wing is the carport, laundry and clothes drying area with open sides but under the roof. The other side of the H is a huge bedroom with ensuite bathroon with spa etc and a walk in robe. I will have my sound equipment and office in there and be well away from the living area if Madam has visitors etc. I am definitely not anti social but like my privacy and my classical music. On the front is gymnasium and at the side another small bathroom and tool and lawn mower storage for use by gardener - accessible only from outside. The area between the two wings is a breezeway under the main roof but front and back can be opened up completely using sliding glass doors. it will include a Barbeque area, comfortable outdoor furniture and a pool table.

Most floors will be natural stone from Pak Chong and polished marble bench tops in the kitchen. The driveway and carport will be grey slate from Pak Chong. We already have a very nice house in my wifes villlage but we want to get close to town as we intend to start a business venture. The house in the village is only 15kms away and can be the dog house if needed!!! Actually i love the village life and will still spend a fair bit of time there.

Cheers from another Aussie,

Bicko

(I have had the mosquito borne virus Ross River Virus that i picked up here in Sumatra for the past 18 months. Would not wish it on anyone, Thank goodness it is almost finished.)

Hi BP.

Welcome to the steel frame club,

There's a lot of info on steel roofs and eaves over on the "coolthaihouse" board.

Has your guy ever built a polehouse?

eg: on 3m steel or concrete poles.

Good luck & looking fwd to seeing the end result.

Hi Bicko.... do you have a rough image of your dream house?

I'll bet it looks good.

Please share.

GD.

Steel roof? Bit noisy when its raining!

Not if insulated correctly!

I expect to have my house plans finished in about a week -doing them on Autocad and will post a floor plan and elevations.

It is H shaped and BIG - 260m2 single storey as i am thinking about climbing stairs later on.

One side of the H is kichen and living area with a bedroom and separate bathroom. On the side of the wing is the carport, laundry and clothes drying area with open sides but under the roof. The other side of the H is a huge bedroom with ensuite bathroon with spa etc and a walk in robe. I will have my sound equipment and office in there and be well away from the living area if Madam has visitors etc. I am definitely not anti social but like my privacy and my classical music. On the front is gymnasium and at the side another small bathroom and tool and lawn mower storage for use by gardener - accessible only from outside. The area between the two wings is a breezeway under the main roof but front and back can be opened up completely using sliding glass doors. it will include a Barbeque area, comfortable outdoor furniture and a pool table.

Most floors will be natural stone from Pak Chong and polished marble bench tops in the kitchen. The driveway and carport will be grey slate from Pak Chong. We already have a very nice house in my wifes villlage but we want to get close to town as we intend to start a business venture. The house in the village is only 15kms away and can be the dog house if needed!!! Actually i love the village life and will still spend a fair bit of time there.

Cheers from another Aussie,

Bicko

Thanks for the nice post Bicko. Good to see someone else knows something about alternative building tech. I also had some questions about the mesh, only time will tell.

Joe Steel is imported from Australia From Blue Scope.

Thanks BP. For those that are not aware this concept of building is very common in Australia and has been perfected by companies like Bluescope. Bluescope is BHP Billiton and since their amalgamation they have provided the best of Australian and British technolgy in developing this product.

I also use Bluescope steel in Indonesia.

A few tips if you consider using this technolgy:

You will notice that BP has verandahs front and back and about 1 metre of eaves overhang. This is critical in a hot climate. It shades the walls and also windows do not have to be closed when it rains.

Internal and external wall cladding is tek screwed (self tapping screws) onto the frames and often, as is the the case here, filled with foam. This provides extreme rigidity and it is almost impossible for the walls to rack (or tilt or fall over in laymans language).

The foam in the walls serves both as a structural and an insulating component and serves well in rooms that are air conditioned

Design large window and door openings in non A/C rooms to ensure good cross ventilation.

Cut ends of steel must be painted with a rust inhibitor. I see that BP has done that. See the paint packs on the ground and the red colour on the bottom of the wall studs.

BP is using ready mixed concrete delivered from a batching plant by truck. The concrete looks good and is not too wet. "Homemade" concrete mixed on the ground in varying proportions is NOT recommended for house construction - maybe OK for a chicken shed!!!

I am very pleased to see this technology appearing in SE Asian countries. In Indonesia the trade in illlegal logging is incredible and mainly controlled by the Army. This is one reason why we went to steel for our frames. Timber that was delivered with full certification turned out to be illegal with faked certificates. As a Major International NGO we could not condone or continue that practice.This will go a long way towards stopping that trade.

Good quality timber is a scarce commodity in Thailand and this method will help to resolve that issue.

take a look at

www.krungsriproperty.com

My wife almost bought a house (in Mukdahan) from Kasikorn bank . She put in an offer substantially below the asking price and paid a 1% deposit. Unfortunately it took the bank a week to accept the offer (had to be authorised in Bangkok), by which time thieves had stripped out most of the doors and windows, bathroom fittings and electrical wiring (ruining the ornate plaster ceilings in the process) So she didn't go ahead. The bank was good enough to return the deposit.

I have looked at dozens and dozens of repo properties around Isaan (and still looking!) Most common factor is that the properties are totally neglected by the banks and let go to ruin. There are thousands of them around the country. The banks have no chance of getting their money back. Their balance sheets will look pretty horrific if these properties are ever written down appropriately. A result of lax lending policies- loans on minimal deposits to people unable or unprepared to make the repayments. Maybe this is why the banks won't pay decent rates of interest on deposits - because they have to cover huge losses on non performing housing loans!

Yes i have had a similar experience. I looked at a number of kasikorn bank repossessions and they are very sadly neglected and most would take quite a bit to get back to a stage where they could be lived in. Unfortunately, as stated above I can not find their site any longer. There is a good opportunity here for an enthusiastic real estate agent to make a deal with the banks and get those places sold.

Regards the Upstart that I have just had installed. Can anyone confirm that this has unlimited download size. Another brand that I looked at had a limit on how much you could download. I dint recall seeing anything on the paperwork we filled out and nobody said anything about it.

Give them a call and ask. I have never had any restriction on the top package but don't know about the lower scale packages. My IPStar setup is through Lox info not TOT

I have had the low end IPstar for about 2 months now and it is very slow, i plan to up grade to mid level next week. If I must have unlimited download because i receive many large files. I am happy even with the system even with the slow speed

My god. I want quality not speed. Pick the competent Thai contrators and you will not have a pproblem. Me I am a Building service Engineer from england and both my houses here are built to a higher standard than the English building regs. How do you do it you might ask just tell them what you want and the standard and do all the guarnteas through the bank.

The one thing that i would question is the size and placement of the mesh in the floor slab. It should be a much heavier mesh and placed at least 50mm up off the bottom membrane

I'd rather be in this house than a block or brick house in a 7.5 RS earthquake or a 200km per hour storm.

Go for it BP. You are on a winner if this concept is what you want. By absolute coincidence I am today working on the design of our second house (our dream house) in Buri Ram and you've given me a good idea to follow up on.

Cheers,

Bicko

Regards the IPstar that I have just had installed. Can anyone confirm that this has unlimited download size. Another brand that I looked at had a limit on how much you could download. I dont recall seeing anything on the paperwork we filled out and nobody said anything about it.

Hi

Does anyone know which banks have properties in or near Khon Kaen, Udon Thani or Nong Khai ?

I look at the Kasikorn Bank listings and they seem to have propeties in Nong Khai and a few in Udon Thai, but have none in Khon Kaen, and it is in or near Khon Kaen that I am particularly interested in.

Thanks

PS If anyone has experience of dealing with a bank to buy a repo property in or near KK, please share your experience...

Unfortunately they redesigned their website and i have not been able to find their reposessed properties section (In English) for several months.

Can anyone please advise how to get onto this site.

Thanks

After a long battle with TOT which was resolved by going to the engineering office by the railway station instead of the unhelpful lot out on the old ring road, I have had IPstar fitted. Its a big dish, at least 2 times bigger than the UBC one. That leads in to a reciever box in the house and either plug the Lan cable straight in or as of tomorrow, I am going to make the house wireless. I went for the middle package at 512mbs download speed and 256 upload. They told me not to get the slower one and were pushing hard on the faster one (1048 down, 512 up). Cost were 2400 installation fee and a monthly fee of 2200. The next one up is 2600 and the lower one i think was 1700. Now for the really strange part, IT WORKS and its fast. I have been told by a guy who uses the places in town that its quicker than theirs. I can download music, play poker online, use a webcam, skype etc. I am 25 kms out of town and have been using a TOT dial up for 3 years, thats why the excitement. A big recommend to anyone in the same situation. Well worth the money.

I have the lower IPSTAR package - 256 download. It is fine most of the time. However most days it is erratic early afternoon, and is on and off several times. I;m sure this will affect every package.

Please tell us how you are going to make it "wireless"

Making your house wireless is very simple. Buy the wireless transmitter - usually a small box about 100mm square by 30mm thick with two short aerials sticking up like rabbits ears. Use the cable that you normally connect to your computer from the server box to connect into the wireless transmitter and put it in a central place in your house - preferably above top of door height. You may need to also buy 10 or 15 metres of cable. Turn on the WIFI switch on your computer. Late model computers will automatically search and connect. Hope this helps.

CF my wife and i have done Lam Plai Mat (not far from you) to Chiang Rai quite a few times and it's not a bad trip. Take a local bus into Korat main bus station and then you can get a VIP bus direct to Chiang rai - it goes on to Mae Sai on the Burmese border.

It's not a bad trip and if I remember correctly it costs about Bt700

My Thai wife and I live in Australia.

As part of her Australian Visa process we had to get married within 9 months of entering Australia.

We complied with all the visa conditions, and I noticed that Dept of Immigration won't recognise her married name.

When I asked they said the Visa was applied for in her maiden name, therefore all correspondence will continue in her maiden name.

I figured there were benefits this way; not married in Thailand, but fully compliant in Australia.

Recently she was granted an Australian Permanent Residency Visa, which states her "married" name.

The Dept of Immigration officer (in Australia) indicated she MUST update her name in her Thai passport before she attempt to re-enter Australia to avoid lengthy delays and hassles at the airport, or possible refusal of entry.

My questions are relating to land ownership in Thailand.

She has a block of land in her village which I believe is in her mothers name.

We have also bought her recently departed Grandmothers house also in the village, which I believe to be in her fathers name.

What options do we have to transfer the land into her name?

I would like to do that before we update her passport, hopefully to avoid complications.

We have a 4yo son; can we transfer the house/land into his name?

I am after some good advice please.

Firstly congrats on your wife getting her permanency. I have been married to my Thai wife for some years and we have decided to start the process early next year as I am retiring from my work next month. We work overseas and live in Isaan so haven't bothered before but it's time to make the move.

My wife inherited land in our village from her father when he passed away and she now has the title deed registered in her name. Periodically the local lands department staff go to each village and meet in the community hall or the Wat. Those department staff endorse changes on title deeds at that meeting but it is important for all other family members and siblings to be present so that there is consensus on the change of ownership. Initally my wife also discussed the matter with our village Poo-y-baan and he advised her to visit the lands office and advise them in advance so they had the papers prepared at the village meeting. Pretty simple really but probably means a lengthy trip to Thailand for the 3 of you.

One thing that I have noticed is that apparently family land was allocated to that family in perpetuity and can not be sold outside of the family but it can be transferred within the family in the case of a death, which is your circumstance, or by consensus of family members.

I don't know about your son. Does he have dual citizenship? He probably would have problems owning land if he is not Thai.

Hope this helps.

My wife and I built our house in our small village in Buri Ram some years ago. We love the place and the family ties are strong and very important.

However there is no opportunity for my wife to develop her business plans in our small village.

In our investigations about somewhere else to live where we can get land or a house at reasonable prices and be close enough to town for her to have access to more people we keep getting info about Udon.

So we will go for a drive up there next month and spend some time and check it out.

In the meantime could anyone who feels so inclined and lives in or close to Udon please give me some info on the area -shopping and recreation facilities, national parks, places of interest, fishing, restaurants, any good websites about Udon etc etc.

Thank you.

Cheers,

Bicko

My wife and I built our house in our small village in Buri Ram some years ago. We love the place and the family ties are strong and very important.

However there is no opportunity for my wife to develop her business plans in our small village.

In our investigations about somewhere else to live where we can get land or a house at reasonable prices and be close enough to town for her to have access to more people we keep getting info about Udon.

So we will go for a drive up there next month and spend some time and check it out.

In the meantime could anyone who feels so inclined and lives in or close to Udon please give me some info on the area -shopping and recreation facilities, national parks, places of interest, fishing, restaurants, any good websites about Udon etc etc.

Thank you.

Cheers,

Bicko

Thanks for the replies guys, this is my first post on Thai Visa and I really appreciate the help.

TBWG - Yes recommendations of places to stay would be excellent. I am an Aussie currently living in Darwin.

Gondarman - That would be really great if you could do that for me. It will be my first time in Isaan and I can't wait to experience it. I have only previously been to BKK, Phuket and Pattaya so I am looking forward to seeing something different.

i used to live in Giles street in Fannie bay and worked all over the Territory including 3 years at Tindal and a couple of years at Ayers rock.

We used to always go to the Saturday morning market to get our weekly top up of Thai food.

Anyway welcome again mate.

I really don't think that will filter down to the average farmer, Some one in the food chain will make a lot of money. I have noticed that ever so often some one in the area will start paying a very high price for rice and the farmer will rush to the location and a few will get a very good price.

I also read an article not so long ago where exporters were mixing our good Jasmine rice with cheaper northern rice??

I do hope the price goes up we start our harvest this weekend.

Yes unfortunately you are right Ron. The poor old Thai farmer is the one who does the hard work, takes all the risk, lives in poverty and benefits the least. In many cases the merchants take advantage of them unmercifully.

This is the reason that we built our baan khao. At harvest we buy all the rice from the family and store it. We pay them the going rate at harvest which is obviously the lowest basic price. We wait until the price comes up as we did recently and then sell it and pay a dividend to the farmers in the family - a luxury that they could not afford previously as the merchants wanted their cut at harvest for repayment of fertiliser and other debts. This gives the family a second cash payment later in the year for which they are most grateful.

I plan to take this a step futher next year and build a decent storage shed and buy the fertiliser bulk at a substantial discount so they can get their fertiliser cheaper from us. Not much, if anything in it for us but it is a small sacrifice that my wife and i are prepared to make just to give our family and their kids a little bit more in life. As my wife often says "My brothers and sisters are little bit idiot with money because they have no education and everyone takes advantage of them"

Next time we are together I would like to talk more about your plans. I think you have the right idea,Do believe your wife is right as well, our family is the sane and they don't know it. How did u get such a smart wife?? must be your looks

As an example not far from my place there is a farang who drinks himself stupid every day of his life. He opens his first bottle around 7 every morning and then sits on the sidewalk under the verandah of his wifes shop and gets drunk all day every day. Any way the point is his wife got enough money out of him to start her small business and she takes payment in rice. 6 weeks ago she sold 800 bags of rice for a little over 9 baht a kilo. She is a simple upcountry girl but she's got the smarts also. All she needed was a small capital to get started and she is now making good money. This is the sort of thing i am encouraging my family to do. The women really want to succeed but many of the blokes just want to sit under a tree and drink white whisky.

As you know Ron I have been in the Humanitarian aid business for many years and have been involved in a lot of micro finance projects in places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Timor and so on and this is always the case - give the women a chance and they will succeed. i have documented many many instances of this.

I really don't think that will filter down to the average farmer, Some one in the food chain will make a lot of money. I have noticed that ever so often some one in the area will start paying a very high price for rice and the farmer will rush to the location and a few will get a very good price.

I also read an article not so long ago where exporters were mixing our good Jasmine rice with cheaper northern rice??

I do hope the price goes up we start our harvest this weekend.

This is the reason that we built our baan khao. At harvest we buy all the rice from the family and store it. We pay them the going rate at harvest which is obviously the lowest basic price. We wait until the price comes up as we did recently and then sell it and pay a dividend to the farmers in the family - a luxury that they could not afford previously as the merchants wanted their cut at harvest for repayment of fertiliser and other debts. This gives the family a second cash payment later in the year for which they are most grateful.

I plan to take this a step futher next year and build a decent storage shed and buy the fertiliser bulk at a substantial discount so they can get their fertiliser cheaper from us. Not much, if anything in it for us but it is a small sacrifice that my wife and i are prepared to make just to give our family and their kids a little bit more in life. As my wife often says "My brothers and sisters are little bit idiot with money because they have no education and everyone takes advantage of them"

My Thai Friend has been offered two buy 2 Rai of land which is with in the village and about 40 mins drive from Nakhon Phanom and about 10 mins from a high way. there is a tar-sealed road at the front but no water supply, However there is plenty of water about 6 meters underground. The land has nothing on it at this stage.

Would like to know how much should one pay for this land Approx.

If any one can help please.

Regards

Brief

For example I can still buy rice padi in Buri Ram for Bt20 to 40,000 per rai. Land in an existing housing development very close to our town is Bt5 to 7,000 per talang wah (4m2) and land on a main road between two regional towns and about 1 kilometre out of town is Bt600,000 per rai but needs 1.5 meters of good quality fill on it which will cost about another Bt100,000. Talk to the locals about whether the place is flood prone and look out for the farang factor.

Land in a small village in my area with sealed road, telephone, power and part time town water is about Bt60 to 80,000 for half a rai.

NEWS WEATHER INTEREST RATES AND ANYTHING ELSE THAT COMES TO MIND 17/11/07 09260HRS

Well we had a few cool mornings and a few nights where the air-con was not needed, but we are into hot again already it is very warm/hot outside the temp reading in the shade at the moment 24c, yesterday we went up to 36 c in the sun

http://www.tmd.go.th/en/province.php?id=33

Interest rates

GBP_THB = 69.573

USD_THB = 33.88

http://www.moneycorp.com/

Harvest is well under way the wife is just sending 5 sacks thats 20 tang or 400 kilo as a rough estimate lets see what they fetch : Still have about 30 Rai to cut as yet

Cheers mate.