Looking for advice on areas to buy land.

[smoky]

Hello all. 

   A little background. Retiring in a few year's and the plan is to sell here in the US, to move to Thailand. My wife currently of 11 years has been buying land up at the village like a Baron. 

   I don't have much of a problem living out in the sticks. With the exception of the lack of electricity, and the lack of supplies. A large part of my retirement plan is to tinker. As in build whatever my mind comes up with. I have been building things for others all of my life. It's time to build what I want.... I know it sounds kinda selfish. 

    So it looks like we may end up with a farm dwelling, as well as main home closer to what I need. 

   I'm guessing that I will need to be fairly close to Bangkok. Though, neither of us want to live in Bangkok. As you all could guess the wife wants to live on the farm. The biggest problem being no electricity. I was just out to the farm a few months ago, the nearest electricity was at the end of a run, one kilometer away. Two being, not looking forward to a 12 hour drive each way to get tooling or materials for my projects. I know I don't need to justify this to you all. 

   But truly I would like to find a place that would be good for both of us. Maybe near one of the airports. 

   1 out of the flood plane, 2 ample electricity,  3 rural,  4 large enough to build a large shop a home and have a garden. 

   I was hoping to tap into the hive mind to get some suggestions. I know it's a shot in the dark but worth a try.

Thanks to any that endured the read. 

[eyecatcher]

I endured the read?  and it tells me you first need to decide who is wearing the trousers.

 

shes buying up land in the village.....yet you are asking which areas to buy land.?

 

That's not the way forward in your retirement here, believe me.

[bankruatsteve]

^Yah.  My suggestion is to contact the PEA and find out what, if any, plans they have to extend the electric service.  They may suggest that you pay for new transformer and running the lines, but you can still petition.  Her family currently lives with no power?

 

There is no way she will buy land somewhere else to build your home (unless you make room for the family in the new spot).  Also, you may be surprised to find the supplies you need can usually be found much closer to home than Bangkok.

[mejomini]

Being in the same situation (wife owns land in a village next door to mom's) I can tell you honestly that you will live there (we are building a house now) and like it!!! My retirement turned out great so far. The family is great help dealing with immigration, bureaucracy and government.   There is always plenty to do, and supplies are never very far.  Now if you are looking for fast food next door, you'll have to settle for street vendors in the village, just like the Thais do, and  enjoy the quiet life.   For electricity, you may want to consider solar, it's becoming an option here.

[Lacessit]

You could well fall foul of the authorities, because I doubt you could get a Work Permit for the type of work you are proposing. Tread carefully.

Most towns have stores with building supplies. Even the villages. The larger cities have chains such as HomePro, Global House and Thai Watsadu.

I suggest you establish with your wife the purpose of her buying spree. You may end up supporting an extended family.

[cyberfarang]

The OP cannot own or run a farm or any types of agricultural business in Thailand.

 

The OP appears to be very naive. If I were him I`d do a lot more research before throwing in the towel in America and investing in Thailand. Good luck. 

[smoky]

Ok first of all.... I wear the pants. 

   There is no doubt about that. 

Second the land she is buying is farm land from her family members. I think her intent is to put the family farm back together into one piece. She works her ass off and is buying it with her money that she earned. 

   The electricity to the farm area has been planned for years, but has never happened. I guess it will be done in Thai time. BTW the family lives in the village a short bike ride from the farm. And yes they have electricity. 

    Not looking for fast food. I guess I wasn't clear enough on what I will be needing for my projects. Granted some of the things may be a challenge to find even in BKK. Industrial supplies steel aluminum stainless  milling tools. I had a hard time finding a usable screwdriver in the local town. Sure I may be a bit naive but I have spent several years time in Thailand owner the years. So not going into this totally blind. 

   BTW the family is great, can't complain there. 

   Oh looked into solar for my needs, it would be millions of baht to set up what would cover my needs. 

   I suggested to my wife that we need to buy next to a substation. 

   I will not be living in Thailand on a retirement visa. And we will be registering a jointly owned business. "We" will be buying the land and having a business together. 

   So I got several comments but no one has helped me with my question. I know that I have not posted here much but have been around for awhile. 

[bankruatsteve]

Well, when you ask "where is the best place to live in Thailand" after your wife has pretty much told you where that will be, that could be taken as a bit naive.  OK?  

 

You didn't say what your "business" will be but that will be a challenge no matter what it is.  I assume you are over 50 years old.  Your best way to live here indefinitely (retired) is to get an "O" retirement visa, set up a bank account with THB 800K and you can then stay as long as you want.  Forget the "marriage" visa, forget whatever else you might be thinking.  You may/may not be able to set up a "business" together but you will certainly want to do that after you have lived here a while and understand what that really involves. 

 

And, your pants might get a snuggy if you get serious about living somewhere besides the family home.

 

This may not be the "help" you were hoping but I doubt you will get what you thought.

[Esso49]

One or two things with your post are incongruous.   Firstly out of a flood plane rules at both BKK airports as Swampy is built on a cobra swamp , hence its name, and of course Don Mueng was flooded in 2011.   Ample electricity does not go hand in hand with being rural and there are no airports ever built in a rural area as they need customers to fly, not cows to eat the grass.   So choose an area far away from Bangkok say like Udon thani.   50 km from the airport where you can buy land and sensible prices, an build your dream place.  Nice people rather than Bangkok,  or foreigners living in Bangkok, because generally they have their heads so far up their backsides they can not see the wood from the trees. I am sure your wife has given you a good insight into where to invest so why not trust her ?

[mogandave]

I think you might think of living and having your shop on the farm. Most of the hard stuff you’ll been will be one-offs you can source in Bangkok and ship up.

A nice second home might be a condo in downtown Bangkok.

Get with the PEA about what it will cost to get your power run.

Incidentally, the Metalix show will be at the BITEC in November which is a nice place to find suppliers.

[smoky]

Thanks for the replies. 

    I didn't say at the airport or in Bangkok. I said fairly close to Bangkok, maybe near one of the airports. Fairly close to me means within 25 to 30 miles. 

 As for rural and electricity I have looked at quite a few pieces of rural property with powerlines in the pictures.

   My understanding of registering the business jointly with my wife. Is that we do not have to determine what it is up front. Or if we even need to make any money with it at all.

    Why should the marriage visa be out of the question? And I do have a Thai bank account in my name only, with money in it. And if I have "my" own shop. I wouldn't be able to build "myself" a sidecar for "my" bike or a utility trailer for "my" truck? 

   I should have a good thirty years of retirement, taking into account my health and family longevity. It would be awfully boring if I can't do anything. 

   Someone also mentioned that I can do any agricultural business. Although I was raised on a farm. Not really where my interest lay. My wife can work on that if she wants. If being married to me excludes her from perusing that there my be another problem. 

   I guess some of that was Sarcasm.  But we all have different situations that we are dealing with, different interests, etc. I did ask a general question and got mostly you can't do this or that. Some of which had little to nothing to do with the question. 

    Sorry for the rant, we are all on our own path, and yes sometimes we do need help. And I thank all of you for being here to ask. 

    And yes was is a few more questions in there. 

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, smoky said:

Why should the marriage visa be out of the question? And I do have a Thai bank account in my name only, with money in it. And if I have "my" own shop. I wouldn't be able to build "myself" a sidecar for "my" bike or a utility trailer for "my" truck? 

You seem to being advised by people who have had problems with marriage, so they don't like that visa or extension.

 

There is nothing wrong with building stuff for yourself your wife or your home, just with selling it without having a work permit that lets you earn money in, Thailand, you may be able to setup a business with your wife if you have a marriage extension 

[bankruatsteve]

Regarding the "marriage visa"...  I do not have personal experience with that (I am on retirement) but EVERYONE I know (knew) who has/had one got hassled by immigration to keep proving the marriage.  Those that could afford it changed to retirement visa and no more issues.  Opening a business from the get go will just raise eyebrows even higher.  You don't need to answer to us but you will likely be on some agency's radar.

[kannot]

On 9/7/2018 at 4:55 PM, Lacessit said:

You could well fall foul of the authorities, because I doubt you could get a Work Permit for the type of work you are proposing. Tread carefully.

Most towns have stores with building supplies. Even the villages. The larger cities have chains such as HomePro, Global House and Thai Watsadu.

I suggest you establish with your wife the purpose of her buying spree. You may end up supporting an extended family.

Rubbish, built two houses watched by my local policemen both for "us" laid every  block mixed  all cement myself etc etc at least I know they were laid correctly,  buggered if Im going to let anyone else lay them all slapdash, joints aligned etc

[kannot]

On 9/9/2018 at 7:52 AM, bankruatsteve said:

Regarding the "marriage visa"...  I do not have personal experience with that (I am on retirement) but EVERYONE I know (knew) who has/had one got hassled by immigration to keep proving the marriage.  Those that could afford it changed to retirement visa and no more issues.  Opening a business from the get go will just raise eyebrows even higher.  You don't need to answer to us but you will likely be on some agency's radar.

Immigration use marriage as an excuse to make you change, they want you to do retirement as they are too lazy to do the  paperwork for marriage which has to be sent to BKK for approval.

[smoky]

Sorry didn't check the forum for some time as I've been busy way too busy with work. I want to thank you for your reasonable replies to my thread. Regarding Kannot It appears you are a Craftsman as am I. As time allows, I am daydreaming/designing The new shop and house. 

   This brings up another question. I have been looking for quality professional tools while in Thailand. I am specifically asking about metal working tools, such as used metal lathe, milling machine etc. Also tooling suppliers. Having trouble knowing where to start. I am shipping a container, it would be nice not to have to ship 6 tons of iron.

 

   Thanks again.

[kannot]

hm

[kannot]

On 1/19/2019 at 9:53 PM, smoky said:

Sorry didn't check the forum for some time as I've been busy way too busy with work. I want to thank you for your reasonable replies to my thread. Regarding Kannot It appears you are a Craftsman as am I. As time allows, I am daydreaming/designing The new shop and house. 

   This brings up another question. I have been looking for quality professional tools while in Thailand. I am specifically asking about metal working tools, such as used metal lathe, milling machine etc. Also tooling suppliers. Having trouble knowing where to start. I am shipping a container, it would be nice not to have to ship 6 tons of iron.

 

   Thanks again.

By the stuff  in your own country, its  often cheaper and much better quality.........Bosch hammer  drill here is about 30%  more than I can get in the UK, over the years Ive  brought over many things including Honda  Leaf  blowers ( unavailable  here) Honda hedge cutters (petrol)  unavailable  also, all 4  stroke made in Japan, 8  foot ladders  made with thick aluminium (Thanks Emirates) after I got tired of the wafer thin Thai ones  collapsing and with their absurdly  small opening angles photo attached ridiculously  easy to fall  off.

I did however bring it  in my luggage and flew  business  class with gold membership = LOTS of weight allowed often 80kilos inc hand  luggage, and I made sure i was  always maxxed  out. You may get slapped  with all sorts of import  taxes

[kannot]

hmm

[NCC1701A]

On 1/19/2019 at 9:53 PM, smoky said:

This brings up another question.

i am with you in spirit being another American here is LOS. It will be very frustrating sometimes locating quality, well, anything. 

 

and if you do locate what you are looking for the next time you go back for more, the entire store will be gone!

 

i would think about a security system, maybe CCTV for your workshop. That many tools would be a huge temptation for poor Thais. 

 

i would bring as much stuff from the states as possible as everything is total crap here. tool cases, garden hoses, brooms, even cellphone USB cables are better in the USA. 

 

A little off subject, but watches are very expensive here, so even a Casio I paid $175 for in the USA is almost $500 here.    

 

Good luck establishing and maintaining a proper electrical ground as Thais have no idea what that is and most power strips sold for the Thai market don't have a ground plug. Many tools sold here don't have the third ground plug.

 

Water filtration is super important as the water is filthy here.  

 

i hope you can share photos of your shop and the things you are building.

 

and you guys building here in LOS are way stronger than me, it takes all my energy just chasing my maid around the house, much less supervise Thai builders.  

 

 

[smoky]

Thanks again for the replies. I know what you mean, at least up in the village. I went to the three stores and a flea market to find a marginal screwdriver. Although there must be a supplier of professional tools in Bangkok. I will need consumables grinding wheels, drill bits, taps, end mills, inserts..... Not to mention welding supplies gas, filler rod, wire. I wont be able to fly back to the states but may once a year. Of course I will bring everything I can think of but I will run out of stuff. Good lord, I'm moving to Thailand, not Mars. Surely I won't be the only one in the country making things. Then there is the voltage difference. I have already cut myself off buying smaller electric tools. I will need things that work on 220.
Sorry to ramble on but next trip I guess I will just have to go on the search, and not give up until I find the place or places to source what I need. At least then I will know what is available. I should have time as we are planning to stay for two months.
I was online looking for a furnished apartment in the Lat Krabang area.


As always thanks.


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