JayBird

Being open for tourists to come, does not mean the lockdown restrictions are lifted.

Bars, clubs, fitness centers, sports arenas, etc.  Could all stay closed.

The Pfizer:  Are those donations from other countries, or is Thailand paying?

Moderna:  Is there an updated statement on when this is supposed to arrive?  I've only heard crickets.

They let you go to the market to eat, and then go to quarantine?

So, everything is open except the gym?

A better way to test your speed is to go to:  testmy.net

It does an actual file transfer to test the speed, and you can choose the target country.

Also, I like fast.com, as it should measure my Netflix speed.

Golly, India and Thailand, fully open and intermingling. 

What will the next Indo-Thai variant be called?

Yes, but, can the tourist go back home without quarantine?

Not sure China will allow that.

It's a good source of revenue.  It may go on until China will allow travelers here to return without being vaccinated.

12 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Oh look, a waterfall feature

1 hour ago, scubascuba3 said:

The last week or so Thai baht has got stronger against other currencies, I can't see any good reason for it? maybe govt support?

It had a drop followed by a quick rebound.  There was no significant news or economic event to fuel this.

Could be outside influence (a bank, firm, etc.) making large transactions/bets.  But nothing that the fundamentals should support.

This week there was some positive economic data/news:

-- Improved exports YoY: However, anyone who looks into this would realize that last year was very low.

-- News about the economy potentially opening up: Again, anyone who is following this would not place too high of a value on this news.

The only interesting things I see on the wire:

14 hours ago, bojo said:

If you believe your land needs to be filled/raised to build on; I would advise doing so as soon as you buy the land giving it as much time as possible to settle properly. The longer the better.......................

Yes, thank you!  She mentioned something about raising it if I want.  She said some people even raise it 2-3 meters so it looks nice.  Not sure how realistic that is.  Would be like having a hill-mounted castle overlooking the lands ????  But could be a fun thing to do if not overly expensive.

And yes, good idea on letting it settle for a while.  Need to remember that in case whoever we hire wants to move onto the next phase quickly.

7 hours ago, inThailand said:

Due deligience is critical. This includes who owns the land now. Ie, Are you buying from your gf's family, etc, etc. 

 

One way to buy the land is get a mortgage in your gfs name. You make the monthly mortgage payments. If she f.. s you off, your only in for the down payment and monthly payments during your time together. She now has to make the rest of the monthly payments. You can still get a lease but it will be second to the bank. Good Luck! 

I'm not worried about her taking the land.  She owns so much property she can't keep track of it, and this would not even be a blip on her radar.

I'm mainly interested in the Lease/etc. to avoid anything if she dies..

6 hours ago, brianthainess said:

 

The local Amphur in my experience will be the ones deciding on the plans of the house, and will include the specific depth of the foundations. this was built on sandy clay type land to their specs. The first sow going up ceremony offering, not the builders lunch LOL.

 

 

Are you saying that the Amphur will decide what kind of house I can have? The design, style, etc?

Just noticed it did a nearly 1% climb back up, with USD/THB @ 33.34 right now, and I saw it blink a little higher.

Whilst the USD/THB is showing +0.91%, the .DXY is showing -0.13%. 

I did not see a direct correlation to any news event, and there continues to be a flury of positive earnings reports for Thailand.

There was some items on Reuters newsline about the COVID situation, but nothing that wasn't already understood or expected.

Whatever was causing that momentarily blip may have just reversed itself.  Could also be some simple hedging into the weekend.

I will say this:

1) Doing a TransferWise USD->THB right now saved me a lot versus trying to get a rate from the bank.  It's nice seeing SPOT rate in TW, whereas BKK would easily take off 1% (or more).

2) No, I did not move enough cash to cause the dip in THB ????  

Hello all, and thank you for the feedback.

To summarize a bit of the input so far:

1) No, it's not rice land.  It may have been used for normal 'farming' at some point.  I suppose that means it's perfectly fine to build a house on?

2) There are no neighbours that one can see.  Maybe a good 5+ minute drive to the nearest.  So not sure asking them would be meaningful, as the terrain will be different.

3) Sounds like electricity could be an issue.  How can I tell what kind of electricity I have nearby and if I need to upgrade it? (Is there something written on the pole?)

4) I'm planning to get a lawyer to handle the usufruct & lease, should not have an issues.

(I understand as a foreigner it is difficult to own land, so this is going under my GF's name.  I'm not worried, and plan to do the usufruct & 30-year lease).

I'm planning to purchase a bit of land.  I've confirmed the chanote has the red garuda on it, and I believe it is type 4.  This should mean that it would be a full chanote and fully owned (as opposed to only 'permission' to own the land).  It's about 10 RAI, north of Hua Hin.

My main questions are:

1) Is there a way to know if the land is good for *building* on.  I do not know much about laying a foundation and building a house, but is there something I should be worried about here?  (Too soft, so will be difficult or expensive to build a house.  Too hard, so can't build a foundation.  Etc?)  Something I can check while looking at the land to know: Oh, run away not possible.  (Other than, it's flooded :P )

2) Water:  The land is supposed to have city water provided, but I would not mind my own well.  Is there some way to check if this is feasible whilst I'm looking at the land?

3) Are there some sort of records/surveys/etc. that are kept somewhere that give a report on the land? (flood zone, prone to fire, soil type, etc.?)

4) Electricity: It's supposed to have electricity either at the property line or within 100-200m of it.  I suspect brining full electrical power to the homestead is not that difficult or expensive?

5) Restrictions: Could there be some restrictions on use that I should check: Can only build certain styles of houses, not allowed for full time occupancy, something weird?

6) I don't know what I don't know: Is there something I should be check while I'm looking at it?

Thank you all!
 

Every shop I've been to has bread.  Villa, central, bigc had plenty of potatoes.

Are you looking for something specific?

I believe at one time HSBC was making this feasible, but they did have a minimum deposit for this type of account.  

How many people live in chonburi right now?

I suppose wiki can now accurately be updated to state that a person went to jail for updating wiki to say someone was a salesman.

Roughly 35k USD transaction, not profit, in a month.  Easily hit if you are doing a very basic portfolio rebalance.

0.11% is about 40$.  But this can grow a lot depending on size and frequency of rebalancing.

If you rebalance a 1mn dollar portfolio once a quarter, that's about 4k usd in fees.

On top of the payment, will be the extra work of filling.

Overall, not very kind towards small investors and retirees who do basic management of their portfolio