Buying a house in the sticks - what should I inspect?

[R0birt]

I am looking at a few houses outside outside of Hua Hin (near mountains/large hills) where the current owners have bought the land and then built the house on there. The houses are surrounded by farmland or grass-land with a main road a 100 meters or so away.  There is no neighbor next door or on the same road (if they are they are a 100m+ away).

 

I'm new looking at this type of house so I'm wondering what should I be looking for asides for the usual build quality feature when looking for a home because of the location?

Flooding areas?

Foundations of the house?

Alterative supplies of electricity? 
Who owns the land next to me?

 

In terms of pricing would a house further away from everything be valued less than a house the same size in a moo-ban closer to Hua Hin i.e Hin Lek, khao tao etc?

 

 

 

 

[Swiss1960]

Few answers:
- flooding, you should actually easily see on the outside walls of the building, flooding normally leaves marks. My main question would be, whether the house / the land it is built on is elevated towards the surrounding area, i.e. rice fields around it 

- water: where does it come from, does the house eventually have a well, is there a large enough tank in case of water outage?

- electricity: out in the sticks, you will not be the first priority of PEA in case of outage. Therefore, solar panels or a backup generator would be advisable.

[NE1]

Telephone/TV/Internet connections .

Been in the sticks can be more expensive to hook up.

[Crossy]

Yes ^^^, services, flooding issues and most important access rights.

 

Who owns the access to the main road, if it's across private land is there an official easement in place permitting permanent access?

 

Gentleman's agreements have an annoying habbit of getting screwed up by a less-than-gentleman who sees the $$$ ???? 

 

[Aforek]

How far from a river ? in raining season,  water can go very far  and several meters higher than in dry season 

[TorquayFan]

From my own experiences, in the sticks or not, have a very careful look at the ceilings etc. to check for evidence of roof leaks, which can be difficult to find and repair.

Good luck.

 

[NE1]

Speak to neighbours about high winds and and damages to roofs. Living near those mountains in Hua Hin , will get you plenty of rain and strong winds.

[Excel]

Apart from the obvious as to whether the land has a chanote  always buy with road frontage. What you really need to look for is what you can not normally see - the foundations. Differential settlement is a significant problem so suggest you ask to see the design/archotectural drawings if it is a relatively new property and instruct your own civil/structural engineer to evaluate it.  If it is an older property don't touch it unless you can afford to re-build it.

 

And of course don't get suckered by the claim the building was by a Farang developer and/or construction was overseen by one. In my decades here there as many foreign cowboys as there are Thais at least % wise.

[Gottfrid]

I would not contrate so much on the house, as that is quite cheap to modify and change, take away or build out. Like you say, flooding is important. However, the most important for me would be the sticks and the people already living in the sticks. They might end up be the ones who force you to rethink your decision.

[KhunLA]

When time to sell, it will take much longer, as nobody wants a long commute to work.  Our last house took 3 yrs to sell, and was only 15 kms out of town, Udon Thani.  That sold to a retiring foreigner & family.

[CharlieH]

As others have mentioned, services, electric water.

How far is it from a main road or nearest internet connection. Well water or Mains ?.  Sufficient water storage, how old is the pump ? Are the pipes underground or surface ? Whats the sewage method ?

Has the ground its built on been raised ? When ?

Roof insulated ? Type of roof .? Get the Electrics checked, does it have  adequate  safety board  and an earth rod. Check shower heater installed correctly. Obvious signs of settlement.

 

 

 

 

[CharlieH]

Troll remark and response removed.

[BritManToo]

The only thing I ever check is the fibre internet connection.

If there's none, I won't be living there.

[novacova]

Live in the house or village a week or two during a holiday when everyone is partying and get to know the neighbors and pooyai first