Hiring Help

[Pierrot]

We have a medium size piece of land where we just finished building our house. Very unfortunately, we don't live there and we plan to hire a local couple to take care of our land and the house. Basically, it's for security purpose (my wife doesn't feel comfortable leaving her house with nobody watching) Also watering the the few plants we have, maybe in the future taking care of some tree plantation ...For information, we have around 40 rais.

Then we have many questions: Is it a good idea to begin with ? What can we expect from them ? I hired the last few days a couple of local guys to help me do some land cleaning, I'm not impress at all !

How much should we pay them? What about the accomodation? Is there any other important question I should ask ?

Thanks in advance

[Lickey]

You have a situation i would not want! Does your wife have a family member who could be trusted to look after your house and land? or even a close friend that has the time to do this for you, is you farm fenced off? we dont live on our 40 rai farm, and it has barbed wire all round, on the farm is a borehole pump,booster pump, sprinklers, small wood house for all the fertilizer and weedkillers ect, carpenters building [not secure] with lots of eletric machines for wood preperation,I was worried about security, my wife talked to the man [Mr Poo] who lives across the road from farm entrance and for over a year now, he has helped on the farm, with market traders early in the morning buying fruits and salad things, irrigation ect, he gets paid for his efforts, but if there is nothing to do, wife will pay him 200bht a week to keep him sweet and watch farm, ok, kids go on farm, take papaya, banana,tamarind, oranges, thats small things, but if a pick-up goes on the farm, and takes all the water pumps and fertizer, plus the wood working tools, i could loose 100.000 bht in 1 night, so is your farm fenced off, is there somebody near main gate to watch for you?

[slapout]

Lickey asked the important question, Does your wife have family near or who can live on site (trusted I may add also) In the Northern area, the pay is 3000 to 3500 per month, with shelter furnished. This would normally be a couple, who would live on the property. Single males have a habit of disappearing on a fairly regular basis, or inviting friends in for a party, and they never seem to want to go home. With 40 rai, wanting to make improvements and just keep the land cleared would almost require a full time laborer, I would think.

[Pierrot]

You have a situation i would not want! Does your wife have a family member who could be trusted to look after your house and land? or even a close friend that has the time to do this for you, is you farm fenced off? we dont live on our 40 rai farm, and it has barbed wire all round, on the farm is a borehole pump,booster pump, sprinklers, small wood house for all the fertilizer and weedkillers ect, carpenters building [not secure] with lots of eletric machines for wood preperation,I was worried about security, my wife talked to the man [Mr Poo] who lives across the road from farm entrance and for over a year now, he has helped on the farm, with market traders early in the morning buying fruits and salad things, irrigation ect, he gets paid for his efforts, but if there is nothing to do, wife will pay him 200bht a week to keep him sweet and watch farm, ok, kids go on farm, take papaya, banana,tamarind, oranges, thats small things, but if a pick-up goes on the farm, and takes all the water pumps and fertizer, plus the wood working tools, i could loose 100.000 bht in 1 night, so is your farm fenced off, is there somebody near main gate to watch for you?

Thanks for your concern. My wife is from Bangkok with some relatives up north and the farm is near Korat, so not much help to expect from this side.

We too have barbed wire all around but it was mostly to settle some minor border dispute and because we were sick and tired to find cows in our garden eating our flowers and vegetables. But for security purpose honestly it's useless.

For the time being we have very little equipement, only two pumps, mostly for the house and the nearby garden. I'm working on a more serious irrigation system but, as advised, I'm doing my homework first before submitting my project to this forum for approval ...

The main reason to hire a caretaker (my wife thinks of a couple ???) is to let people know the land is occupied, that they don't get the wrong idea and start growing their stuff. Also, we spent quite a lot of time and effort to turn a piece of mostly jungle into something that looks nice and clean. As you know, vegetation is growing pretty fast in the area, so we need regular maintenance to keep it this way. We also plan to grow some trees but we are still doing our homework for that too.

So far we made quite a lot of error, as I said my wife is from Bangkok so she's as much a foreigner in Isaan as me, but compare to what happend to other people we know, we consider ourselves lucky. That's why at this stage we welcome all advises from more experienced people.

Thanks in advance

Pierrot

[Pierrot]

Lickey asked the important question, Does your wife have family near or who can live on site (trusted I may add also) In the Northern area, the pay is 3000 to 3500 per month, with shelter furnished. This would normally be a couple, who would live on the property. Single males have a habit of disappearing on a fairly regular basis, or inviting friends in for a party, and they never seem to want to go home. With 40 rai, wanting to make improvements and just keep the land cleared would almost require a full time laborer, I would think.

Sorry, no help to expect from my wife family, we chose the area (80 km south of Korat) because we really like it, not because of family connection.

For the choice of a couple, you answered my question, I understand better, thank you.

For the salary, it seems it is a lot more in our area, we heard of 8,000, does it seem reasonable or are they "taking advantage of foreigners" ???

What do you call a shelter ? We have some basic standard for what it should be, I understand it's a bit above what it is usually offered, but we can use it in the negociation.

Any other point to consider ?

[Maizefarmer]

We have a medium size piece of land where we just finished building our house. Very unfortunately, we don't live there and we plan to hire a local couple to take care of our land and the house. Basically, it's for security purpose (my wife doesn't feel comfortable leaving her house with nobody watching) Also watering the the few plants we have, maybe in the future taking care of some tree plantation ...For information, we have around 40 rais.

Then we have many questions: Is it a good idea to begin with ? What can we expect from them ? I hired the last few days a couple of local guys to help me do some land cleaning, I'm not impress at all !

How much should we pay them? What about the accomodation? Is there any other important question I should ask ?

Thanks in advance

This is not the same piece of land with pan handle access to it by chance you discussed on the other thread ?????????????????????

What can we expect from anyone looking after your hosue who is not family? - anything, anything could happen. AS Lickey said - not a position I'd wanted to be in.

[slapout]

Pierrot: Shelter I refer to is a tin sheet roof, wood floor, sides of wood or bamboo siding, with porch for cooking etc, we called them shotgun housing where I come from, primitive but dry. Most in my area are put up in a week by 3 or 4 people. Of course a outhouse and bathing facilities would be avaliable. Full time help on farm is 3500 for a man while wife can work outside or do daywork with man as needed. There are a lot of Burma people in our area so prices may be higher in your area. If you give them access to some land for garden and have water for it it would give them a sense of belonging and taking care. ( possible) Congradulations on the house and land and good luck.

[BEENTHEREDONETHAT]

Maybe a farang couple might be better suited for you and they would find out how they like living in the area, you might not even need to pay them. You would both gain.

[Pierrot]

We have a medium size piece of land where we just finished building our house. Very unfortunately, we don't live there and we plan to hire a local couple to take care of our land and the house. Basically, it's for security purpose (my wife doesn't feel comfortable leaving her house with nobody watching) Also watering the the few plants we have, maybe in the future taking care of some tree plantation ...For information, we have around 40 rais.

Then we have many questions: Is it a good idea to begin with ? What can we expect from them ? I hired the last few days a couple of local guys to help me do some land cleaning, I'm not impress at all !

How much should we pay them? What about the accomodation? Is there any other important question I should ask ?

Thanks in advance

This is not the same piece of land with pan handle access to it by chance you discussed on the other thread ?????????????????????

What can we expect from anyone looking after your hosue who is not family? - anything, anything could happen. AS Lickey said - not a position I'd wanted to be in.

Not a position you wanted to be in ? I should send you a picture of the view I have when I'm typing this message and I'm 100% sure you will change your mind. As I said, we didn't buy this land because of some family connection but because it's awfully beautiful here !

Regarding dealing with family, I know it is the usual way here but it's the reason why I never did any business in Thailand. I don't mix family, friends and business and I'm much better off this way. So obviously I'll have to find an other solution ...

[Pierrot]

Pierrot: Shelter I refer to is a tin sheet roof, wood floor, sides of wood or bamboo siding, with porch for cooking etc, we called them shotgun housing where I come from, primitive but dry. Most in my area are put up in a week by 3 or 4 people. Of course a outhouse and bathing facilities would be avaliable. Full time help on farm is 3500 for a man while wife can work outside or do daywork with man as needed. There are a lot of Burma people in our area so prices may be higher in your area. If you give them access to some land for garden and have water for it it would give them a sense of belonging and taking care. ( possible) Congradulations on the house and land and good luck.

What we plan is a bit nicer, concrete structure with indoor shower, it can be a part of the bargain and, as you said, give them a better sense of belonging.

We are currently narrowing out choice on a family with kids, we feel they will be more stable and responsible. Given the size of the land, to give them access some land for their own use won't be any problem, it should help too.

[Pierrot]

Maybe a farang couple might be better suited for you and they would find out how they like living in the area, you might not even need to pay them. You would both gain.

Could be a good idea but they would probably insist on a better housing that the one we plan to offer. On the other hand, we may be interested by young people (farangs or locals) who, in the course of their study, may help us develop sustainable land use.

[Maizefarmer]

Depending on where you are, you may be able to touch base with one of the NGO's in your area - they are always on the look for good clean acomodation - and prefer new builds wherever poss.

[Pierrot]

It could be a good idea.

We are in a similar situation that Alexboy describes in an other thread, I don't believe that farming incomes can match those of our city jobs and unfortunately we need them for the time being. So why not forget commercial farming for the time being and try to do something useful.

Does anybody has experience of working on an agricultural project with an university, a research centre or an NGO? What do they usually request ? What kind of help can they provide ? ....