Greenhorn's guide – Thinking about building a house in Thailand

[Naam]

52 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

If an expert, with lots of experience, does something different than a greenhorn that is also fine, because the expert should know what he is doing.

please define expert. have you ever met one who's expertise pertains to Thailand? if yes, was he certified? and if certified by whom? bottom line: there are no experts in this respect. there are people with many years of experience. these experiences differ due to individual circumstances and luck. and they differ a lot!

[Naam]

14 hours ago, watcharacters said:

Loans in SouthEastAsia are totally considered to be gifts.

another utmost silly generalisation!

[oldhippy]

5 minutes ago, worrab said:

I speak as I find oldhippy. Just out of interest.......where do you live............rent, bought, condo..........city, countryside? 

We built on 3 rai wife's land, edge of the jungle, only 1 house nearby, fruit gardens, Chanthaburi province.

Wife's land turned out to be Bank's land, (family  had put themselves up as guarantee for her older brother's bankloan years ago).... cost me an extra 60.000 to get it back. Family lost most of their land.

Nearest commercial wat with huge PA system is at 2 km distance, when the monks start swinging I go to stay at a hotel in the city.

Next to us live some harmless bush monks - of course that could change dramatically when they elect a new boss.

And then somebody started a charcoal making bussiness.... when there is no wind, the valley fills with smoke.

Yet, 8 days out of 10 it is paradise to me.

As I mentioned before, having build 2 small houses in stead of 1 bigger house, makes a lot of difference. Anything that I do not wish to be borrowed & not returned is kept in "my" house.

 

 

 

[worrab]

1 minute ago, oldhippy said:

We built on 3 rai wife's land, edge of the jungle, only 1 house nearby, fruit gardens, Chanthaburi province.

Wife's land turned out to be Bank's land, (family  had put themselves up as guarantee for her older brother's bankloan years ago).... cost me an extra 60.000 to get it back. Family lost most of their land.

Nearest commercial wat with huge PA system is at 2 km distance, when the monks start swinging I go to stay at a hotel in the city.

Next to us live some harmless bush monks - of course that could change dramatically when they elect a new boss.

And then somebody started a charcoal making bussiness.... when there is no wind, the valley fills with smoke.

Yet, 8 days out of 10 it is paradise to me.

As I mentioned before, having build 2 small houses in stead of 1 bigger house, makes a lot of difference. Anything that I do not wish to be borrowed & not returned is kept in "my" house.

 

 

 

It seems that you got the rough end of the stick. 

I built on family land, in laws house and mine next door. We have a Wat no more than 500 metres away and hear nothing and the main highway 50 metres away. All in the Bang Saphan Noi district.

Yes, I have been very fortunate with the family and location and the fact that nobody does any "borrowing" but I cannot believe that others have all had bad experiences. The fact is there are many more out there who have as good an experience as I have but either are not on the Forum or do not post.   

[oldhippy]

5 minutes ago, worrab said:

It seems that you got the rough end of the stick. 

I built on family land, in laws house and mine next door. We have a Wat no more than 500 metres away and hear nothing and the main highway 50 metres away. All in the Bang Saphan Noi district.

Yes, I have been very fortunate with the family and location and the fact that nobody does any "borrowing" but I cannot believe that others have all had bad experiences. The fact is there are many more out there who have as good an experience as I have but either are not on the Forum or do not post.   

QUOTE: The fact is there are many more out there who have as good an experience as I have but either are not on the Forum or do not post.   

 

Of course....

When somebody gets extorted, gets taken advantage of,... he is more likely to post about it then the many more times when he does not get extorted, etc.

But the point is, that these things happen all to often here in Thailand. certainly more than in Farangland.

And that is because of the culture and the lack of law enforcement.

So it is good to read a thread like this one, and be prepared for what might happen.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

31 minutes ago, Naam said:

please define expert. have you ever met one who's expertise pertains to Thailand? if yes, was he certified? and if certified by whom? bottom line: there are no experts in this respect. there are people with many years of experience. these experiences differ due to individual circumstances and luck. and they differ a lot!

ex¦pert, NOUN, a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area

Is there any reason why you make this more complicated than it is? Does every expert need a certificate?

If someone is living for years in Thailand, speaks reasonable Thai, and interacts with Thais then he/she is kind of an expert - especially compared to someone who just arrived in the country as a tourist.

But of course you know all this already.

[Paul Catton]

 

Or yet one alternative to a build if

 

[Paul Catton]

On 1/31/2018 at 8:31 PM, Naam said:

the usual generalising blah-blah from people who possess a wealth of no idea pertaining to investments. applying this advice means expressis verbis "staying away from any investment."

I find this attack rather disingenuous from you Naam.

I don't believe the poster meant do not invest in "any investment".

Surely every investment carries to a degree, a certain measure of risk, else we would be all be in a Utopian society.

There would be too many variables that can occur which would be out of ones control that may jeopardise any investment (very unlikely to happen in a majority of scenarios) yet I would also baseline at the potential that any investment made by me would be walk away if and thwart a noose on the mango tree, (better than being a Condo jumper) no potential for collateral damage.

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by Paul Catton
Grammar

[swissie]

On 31.1.2018 at 3:44 PM, worrab said:

I have just re read this whole post and in all honesty I can now say that it is a load of baloney. I have built a lovely house in a village not too far from the Wat, not too far from a main road, next to the "in laws", with the local school just up the road and plenty of neighbours. So I have done everything, almost, that you said not to. No need for a house-party and I am just considered to be another person in the village with no references to being rich etc.  And do you know something................it is bloody idyllic. If you can get into the Thai culture and way of life then there is no problem. I speak basic Thai, am the only farang in the area and have no problems at all. 

Your post just puts the downers on anyone who wants to give it a go. I did and have no regrets.  

Glad the relatives don't pester you. Could be several reasons:
- You look like count Dracula.
- You have extremly bad breath.
- You have a very smart wife, telling everybody that you have good connections to powerful "Farang-Ghosts", sanctioning any wrong-doings towards you immediately. 555

OR, (more likely):

- I suspect, you don't live in the Isaan. Outside of the Isaan, this internal "Family-Circus" is far less commonplace. I have lived almost 5 years in Thailand near the Myanmar border. Those Thais differ quite a bit from the Isaan dwellers. (They speak a different Thai and they behave differently and are far more effluent and better educated than their fellow Isaan countrymen/countrywoman).
To me, it's like 2 different Thailands. Too bad that most Farangs only get to meet Ladies from the Isaan for obvious reasons. But I gladly admit that Isaan-Ladies look better than all the others.
Cheers. 

[Naam]

On 2/1/2018 at 10:22 AM, OneMoreFarang said:

ex¦pert, NOUN, a person who is very knowledgeable about or skilful in a particular area

Is there any reason why you make this more complicated than it is? Does every expert need a certificate?

If someone is living for years in Thailand, speaks reasonable Thai, and interacts with Thais then he/she is kind of an expert - especially compared to someone who just arrived in the country as a tourist.

But of course you know all this already.

i didn't make things complicated by questioning the posting of a TV-member who considers the Opening Poster to be an expert and referred to the OP's utmost silly and ignorant claim that circulates since years in this forum, i.e. "never invest yada yada more than you yakety-yak can afford to lose blah-blah."

[oldhippy]

28 minutes ago, Naam said:

i didn't make things complicated by questioning the posting of a TV-member who considers the Opening Poster to be an expert and referred to the OP's utmost silly and ignorant claim that circulates since years in this forum, i.e. "never invest yada yada more than you yakety-yak can afford to lose blah-blah."

We are talking about the "investment" of giving a house to the Thai family, right?

An "investment" that we have totally no control over, no matter what semi legal construction we have set up? An "investment" that unlike normal investments can very  easily become 100% worthless? An "investment" that resembles gambling more than sound bussines decision?

Well I am glad that I can afford to walk away from my dream if things go wrong.

 

May I assume, Naam, that you are talking about "real investments"?

 

[Naam]

Just now, oldhippy said:

We are talking about the "investment" of giving a house to the Thai family, right?

An "investment" that we have totally no control over, no matter what semi legal construction we have set up? An "investment" that unlike normal investments can very  easily become 100% worthless? An "investment" that resembles gambling more than sound bussines decision?

Well I am glad that I can afford to walk away from my dream if things go wrong.

 

May I assume, Naam, that you are talking about "real investments"?

 

i am talking about any investment but i never considered the roof over my head to be an investment. however... mileages vary... to each his own... different strokes for different folks... suum cuique... whatever floats your boat...

[marko kok prong]

As i am currently building a large house,opposite the smaller one i purchased, i found the post most informative,i am at the moment between my mates girlfriend who owned the whole block and is getting it divided up into seperate chanote's and my wife who i found out wanted to put the land in her mothers name,in case we divorced,so i now have to choose between putting the land in one of thier names,and getting a lease from one of them.

  This has of course caused mind bending friction,as my wife thinks i don't trust her [i don't with this] the other lady seems very nice and even offered me the blue book for the already purchased house,but who to trust ? 

  To be brutally honest i wish i had not embarked on the project,but i was renting in town and the noise was driving me insane,out here all i here at night are crickets.

 So i guess really it's a cross your fingers and hope situation,and whilst it would be painful,i could walk away, about 7.5 mil lighter.

[marko kok prong]

Which i don't want as it would mean another prospecting trip to New Guinea,which i really don't want.

[OneMoreFarang]

1 hour ago, marko kok prong said:

Which i don't want as it would mean another prospecting trip to New Guinea,which i really don't want.

Good luck to you!

 

Maybe you should have a look at another interesting thread:

 

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:17 AM, Once Bitten said:

6. Never build a home to near your Thai partners family . If you do you may be constantly plagued by random un announced family members just popping in and out,

Never build a house at all. Everything you wrote only confirms my opinion that buying/ building my own home in LOS would have been a mistake.

My wife hinted a lot about building a house on the family land, but that was not something her sister managed to steal after she destroyed my marriage.

We unfortunately moved where her evil nephew was able to visit every weekend and set up camp in the living room, to use my washing machine, watch my tv, eat her food and leave his mess for her to clean up ( I refused to do so ). I even had to put a padlock on my own fridge to stop him stealing my food. Luckily I refused to have internet in the house, or he'd have used that too.

 

If I could do it over again, we'd just never go close enough for them to visit, and we'd probably still be married. We lived in Pattaya to start and they lived near Chiang Mai. That worked. Even if they had visited, we only had one room, so they'd have had to pay to stay in an hotel.

 

 

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:17 AM, Once Bitten said:

8. Never build a house near a Wat/ temple . If you do you could be woken up every morning at 4 am by the sound of a big Gong and incessant annoying chanting ,  if you value your sleep , keep well away from from a Wat.

Doesn't matter how far away one lives when they use loudspeakers throughout the village

 

 

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:17 AM, Once Bitten said:

11 . Don't build near water.  I know it sounds idyllic sitting there sipping your ice cold beer looking at the pond  lake or stream, but come the rains the water could become home for a large number of frog's looking for a partner to mate with, and trying to get to sleep with the ever present highly annoying croaking  chorus for hours on end will drive you up the wall.

Personally I love falling asleep to the frog chorus. Bliss.

 

 

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:17 AM, Once Bitten said:

13.  Build a Wall

We not only had a wall and a locked gate. Didn't stop thieves getting in. I put up so much barbed wire after that I called it Stalag Luft.

Also didn't stop the evil nephew from visiting any time he liked.

Never expect any help from the wife against a family member.

 

 

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:17 AM, Once Bitten said:

16. The house Party.

I must be unusual, but I never paid for any house parties. Never had any either. I had no interest in paying for people I didn't know to have anything free at my expense.

 

On ‎1‎/‎30‎/‎2018 at 11:17 AM, Once Bitten said:

17. Just say NO

Worked for me till the end when I got evicted and the sister from the inner circle of hell stole everything I couldn't take away, like the big tv, 3 fridges and all the kitchen furniture.

[EVENKEEL]

We had a blow out party for our new house. I would never repeat. It started out small and snowballed into an event with a stage and live band, police to monitor parking, 2 days to set up...1 day of party...1 day to clean up...4 days of drunkenness. Totally over the top. 

Edited February 4, 2018 by EVENKEEL

[watcharacters]

7 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Luckily I refused to have internet in the house, or he'd have used that too.

 

 

Too bad you had to deny yourself  internet rather than have a strong password  to block out the culprit.

 

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

45 minutes ago, watcharacters said:

 

 

Too bad you had to deny yourself  internet rather than have a strong password  to block out the culprit.

 

 

 

You misunderstand. I refused to have internet in the house as I'd never have gone out if I had it there. I went to the internet café where it was 10 baht an hour.

It was an unintended benefit that he didn't get to use it.

[isaanbanhou]

53 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

You misunderstand. I refused to have internet in the house as I'd never have gone out if I had it there. I went to the internet café where it was 10 baht an hour.

It was an unintended benefit that he didn't get to use it.

 

You should write a book about your experiences , i can see it being a best seller, kind of an updated classic I am sure