Is this a business opportunity in Issan?

[Jamesons son]

Just curious, and sorry to hijack your thread Marclssan, but how does the "Whatever a Thai-National can do, a foreigner is not allowed to do" work out with all the foreigners owning/renting bars? It's ok as long as you don't work in them? Seen foreigners working in some tourist bars on the islands, but they probably don't have a permit I can imagine, only work for food/accomodation/drinks probably..?

 

Also diveshops..?

 

Been thinking of doing a long time stay in the future, but need a income while I stay there. Sounds like I need to find some freelance job from my home country then..? Cause I definitely don't know that much about rocket-science or astro-physics.

 

 

[bwpage3]

We have a rice farm in Isaan and when we moved back to the US, gave BIL combine harvester, tractor, pick up truck, wagons, tons of power tools, chainsaws and other things he is making a good living from.

 

Where he can make money is from the well I had put in at my FIL's house. Whenever the town is running low on water in the dry season, they know where they can get water.

 

Rice, between feeding an extended family of about 50, is not a money maker. He makes enough to take care of the family and is not rich by any means. However he can cut rice fields, plow, haul trees and sugarcane, etc.

 

We did not expect or want repayment and this means we do not have to support them every month.

 

They can survive on their own and that was the goal.

 

Plus one thing the OP needs to understand? The cost of the job Thai to Thai in Isaan?

 

You could never make any money a westerner could live on because the cost of the job and Thai labor is nothing.

 

If you wanted 1,000 baht to plow a field, some other Thai with a tractor would do it for 400 baht and be happy.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2017 by bwpage3

[Tony125]

Thinking of working in Thailand? Here are the 39 things that you can't do!

 

Image: Sanook

 

A list of all the things that foreigners can't do in Thailand has been announced by the Thai media.

Among the forbidden items are "Making Thai dolls" and "acting as a guide".

But the good news is that international pilots are allowed to work and various specialists are exempted from certain jobs.

There are 39 jobs reserved for Thais only though a couple have been relaxed for laborers from neighboring countries.

Here is the full list of forbidden work and jobs that Sanook put on their website. They relate to laws promulgated in 1979.

1. Laborer
2. Farming including looking after livestock, forestry and fisheries (exception: farm manager).
 

3. Bricklaying, carpentry and other construction tasks.
 

4. Wood carving.
5. Driving including operating heavy machinery (exception: airline pilot between countries)
6. Selling in shops.
7. Auctioneering.
8. Accounts work (unless it is temporary in nature)
9. Gemstone cutting and polishing.
10. Haircutting, styling or beauty salon work.
11. Weaving cloth by hand.
12. Mat making or making objects from rattan.
13. Making paper from mulberry by hand.
14. Lacquer ware making.
15. Making Thai musical instruments.
16. Making niello ware.
17. Making gold, silver and copper items.
18. Stone engraving.
19. Making Thai dolls.
20. Mattress or quilt making.
21. Making monks' alms bowls.
22. Silk work by hand.
23. Fashioning Buddhist images.
24. Knife making.
25. Umbrella making using either paper or material.
26. Shoes making.
27. Hat making.
28. Acting as an agent or representative (except in contact with foreign companies)
 

29. Civil engineering work including design, quantity surveying, organization, research, testing, looking after the progress of work, and giving advice (exception: specialist work)
30. Various work and duties of an architect including producing blueprints.
 

31. Making accessories for body adornment.
32. Pottery.
33. Rolling cigarettes by hand.
34. Acting as a guide or tour organizer.
35. Carrying goods around for sale.
36. Thai language printing.
37. Silk weaving.
38. Acting as a clerk or secretary.
39. Legal work and handling lawsuits.

Sanook noted that these days nationals from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia
are allowed to be laborers and do housework.

 

Source: Sanookosted

Edited July 15, 2017 by Tony125

[Tony125]

On 7/12/2017 at 9:17 PM, MarcIssan said:

Thanks. Well my CAD skills get me by but by no means an expert, or novice...just basics..enough to get my work done.  

 

I'll take it one step at a time. First is to get the equipment necessary to do my part of the house building. Grading and hole boring mostly. I'm looking into doing my own precast fence and precast mold making and concrete stamping etc then see where I am on the business ides. By the time I'm 70 or 71, my interest may just be that of retirement and travel.

 

By the way I head in to town once a week for English conversation and cold beer...let's meet one day soon.

 

Thanks for your comment.

Thinking of working in Thailand? Here are the 39 things that you can't do!

 

Image: Sanook

 

A list of all the things that foreigners can't do in Thailand has been announced by the Thai media.

Among the forbidden items are "Making Thai dolls" and "acting as a guide".

But the good news is that international pilots are allowed to work and various specialists are exempted from certain jobs.

There are 39 jobs reserved for Thais only though a couple have been relaxed for laborers from neighboring countries.

Here is the full list of forbidden work and jobs that Sanook put on their website. They relate to laws promulgated in 1979.

1. Laborer
2. Farming including looking after livestock, forestry and fisheries (exception: farm manager).
 

3. Bricklaying, carpentry and other construction tasks.
 

4. Wood carving.
5. Driving including operating heavy machinery (exception: airline pilot between countries)
6. Selling in shops.
7. Auctioneering.
8. Accounts work (unless it is temporary in nature)
9. Gemstone cutting and polishing.
10. Haircutting, styling or beauty salon work.
11. Weaving cloth by hand.
12. Mat making or making objects from rattan.
13. Making paper from mulberry by hand.
14. Lacquer ware making.
15. Making Thai musical instruments.
16. Making niello ware.
17. Making gold, silver and copper items.
18. Stone engraving.
19. Making Thai dolls.
20. Mattress or quilt making.
21. Making monks' alms bowls.
22. Silk work by hand.
23. Fashioning Buddhist images.
24. Knife making.
25. Umbrella making using either paper or material.
26. Shoes making.
27. Hat making.
28. Acting as an agent or representative (except in contact with foreign companies)
 

29. Civil engineering work including design, quantity surveying, organization, research, testing, looking after the progress of work, and giving advice (exception: specialist work)
30. Various work and duties of an architect including producing blueprints.
 

31. Making accessories for body adornment.
32. Pottery.
33. Rolling cigarettes by hand.
34. Acting as a guide or tour organizer.
35. Carrying goods around for sale.
36. Thai language printing.
37. Silk weaving.
38. Acting as a clerk or secretary.
39. Legal work and handling lawsuits.

Sanook noted that these days nationals from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia
are allowed to be laborers and do housework.

 

Source: Sanookosted

[klikster]

After 21 years in TL, "owning" 2 remodels and building 1 new; I strongly recommend that you put the machinery purchases on hold and rent for at least another year or so year while you learn more about Thailand.

 

Reason is, you don't seem to comprehend many of the laws and pitfalls.

 

If you choose to forge ahead with your current plan, I wish you luck -- because you will need a tuk-tuk full!

Edited July 18, 2017 by klikster
edit

[MarcIssan]

Thanks Klikster but I'm going to by an mini excavator plus a front loader for my Kubota anyway as it will make my live easier in so many ways just on my own property.  If I ever look into a business or not, time will tell.

[Rc2702]

Seems like the OP has all the equipment so better to put it to use under the brothers labour and be a consultant for the business.

 

If the guys got all the tools and nous for the trade and a hard working BIL then that's a good recipe.

[nasa123]

MarcIssan@ Remember 1 thing,When you are finish to building the house, so are the owner of the house  you girlfriend`s house. And she can kick you out the day after you finish building. This is`s a gift from you to this girl.

You can go to Land Office and and make a contract fore rent the Land the house you building on in you name for 30 +30 Year, then nobody can make problem fore you.

 

I have some friends som have lost every thing in Issan.

[Squeegee]

OP, I fear for your quickness to throw money away as a solution in Thailand, but you certainly created a fine topic resulting in some very good insights into SE Asian culture, building in the tropics, dealing within a developing country, etc. Some great replies!

[MarcIssan]

Yes I agree about several things including lack of training, lack of tools, lack of work standards and inspections.

 

A recent example of this is when they brought main power 200 meters from the street to our property.  We paid for 8 new poles that were supposed to be 30 meters apart.  Some were 26 meters and some were 45 meters apart and nothing physical like trees or houses prevented from proper spacing.  I would expect the poles to be plumb not leaning but no.... several leaned 5-10 degrees clearly visible.  When they ran the main cable along the ground, they measured and cut leaving some extra at each end but when they started putting the cable up on the poles they realized there were feeds running across the street to the houses between us and the street and the cable was beneath the feeds to the house. So instead of grabbing one end and feeding it over the drops for 3 houses, they cut and spliced the cable in 3 spots.  Now there are 3 more points of failure to consider.  And their splices were nothing short of stupid using no mechanical cable clamps or split bolts but merely twisting a few of the ends of one wire on the body of the other.  I am surprised it withstood the stretch by the come along to get the wire tight.  I honestly will bet money that in a year or so once the wire has heated and cooled, waved in the wind and in so doing loosen the twists on the 3 splices, one of them will give up and fall apart.

 

So now comes adding the connection box.  The vent fins for cooling were pointed and were on the bottom of each side forming little water scoops and when it rained water would accumulate in the power box.  But instead of turning it over in the proper orientation, they tried to pound in the vents but alas could not completely close the holes.  I caught that right away and the boss said basically "Woops I didn't check my workers.  I read that to mean "Woops you caught me and we didn't think you would notice"!  

 

The next day he replaced the box with a new one but it had old breakers in there, not the new ones from the day before.  They were so old the printed labels were worn off.  We called again and said we paid for new and we want new.  

 

I also noticed the main 30 amp feeds were pushed through the bottom of the box but nothing was installed to keep the sharp edge of the box (where the knock out was removed) from scuffing the insulation off the cable and shorting everything out.  In the USA we protect against the probable but here I guess they wait for failure and say "Gee Wizz let's fix it exactly the same way and see if that works".  I asked that the proper cable clamp be installed and sent a photo of what I wanted.

 

I have a 30 amp service to the house and the main cable is sized to 30 amps but the main breaker is 100 amps.  So I can draw 3x more than the rating on the main cable before the breaker flips.  In other words, the main cable will melt before the over-current protection shuts down power. That main breaker is supposed to prevent a melt down but not in this case and I am sure the main cable cannot withstand sustained use of 3x the current draw.

 

The weird thing is that a PEA rep was on site and when I called all this to his attention, he said "That's ok, this is the way we do it".  No wonder the electric service is so messed up here!!

Edited July 25, 2017 by MarcIssan

[superglue]

Where I live by far the majority of building workers are Burmese. 

The big bonus is that they speak English.

[MarcIssan]

Nasa123 has a point.  Here is a counterpoint.  She is my wife of 11 years not my GF but still I've been divorced 2x already and didn't get married thinking I would also get divorced and give half my stuff away.  So I entered into a 30 year lease of the land with my wife and added supplemental clauses and superficies.

 

So if my wife gets pissed and wants to separate, she kicks herself out of the house and the lease and additional documents assures my continued use of the land no matte who owns it. She can sell it but the lease goes with the land and the new buyer must honor the lease until I die, then deal with my heirs after that.

 

The Superficies state that my heirs will inherit the use of the land on a continually renewable basis.  So if she divorces me and I remarry (like I ever would ...right?) , my new wife has the use of the land etc etc., thus making it hard to get rid of me.

 

All legally done before we started building anything and filed with the land office and all taxes on the lease paid in full for 30 years.

 

If we stay married then she is my heir and nothing for her to worry about.

 

 

Superficies and land lease

The right of superficies can be registered as a separate right or in combination with a land lease. Normally superficies is used by someone (e.g. a foreigner) who acquires a lease interest in titled land and uses the land for the construction of a building. A registered right of superficies is a strong supporting right to a lease agreement, e.g. you could loose your lease (termination upon death) but your superficies remains in full force and can be transferred to your heirs.

 

[Alantct]

If anyone is looking for a Professional English Construction Company in Thailand please feel free to drop me a pm.

 

Regards

 

Alan 

[puchooay]

1 hour ago, MarcIssan said:

Nasa123 has a point.  Here is a counterpoint.  She is my wife of 11 years not my GF but still I've been divorced 2x already and didn't get married thinking I would also get divorced and give half my stuff away.  So I entered into a 30 year lease of the land with my wife and added supplemental clauses and superficies.

 

So if my wife gets pissed and wants to separate, she kicks herself out of the house and the lease and additional documents assures my continued use of the land no matte who owns it. She can sell it but the lease goes with the land and the new buyer must honor the lease until I die, then deal with my heirs after that.

 

The Superficies state that my heirs will inherit the use of the land on a continually renewable basis.  So if she divorces me and I remarry (like I ever would ...right?) , my new wife has the use of the land etc etc., thus making it hard to get rid of me.

 

All legally done before we started building anything and filed with the land office and all taxes on the lease paid in full for 30 years.

 

If we stay married then she is my heir and nothing for her to worry about.

 

 

Superficies and land lease

The right of superficies can be registered as a separate right or in combination with a land lease. Normally superficies is used by someone (e.g. a foreigner) who acquires a lease interest in titled land and uses the land for the construction of a building. A registered right of superficies is a strong supporting right to a lease agreement, e.g. you could loose your lease (termination upon death) but your superficies remains in full force and can be transferred to your heirs.

 

That's all well and good but, if your wife gets seriously upset or annoyed I'm sure she would not worry about any legal standing. With the family nearby they could make the house a very intimidating place to be. I'm sure many people on here have seen that happen. 

Edited July 26, 2017 by puchooay

[Destiny1990]

4 hours ago, puchooay said:

That's all well and good but, if your wife gets seriously upset or annoyed I'm sure she would not worry about any legal standing. With the family nearby they could make the house a very intimidating place to be. I'm sure many people on here have seen that happen. 

Well worst case scenario is that he simply drives of with his own kubota tractor so he not comes out empty handed.

[nasa123]

23 hours ago, Destiny1990 said:

Well worst case scenario is that he simply drives of with his own kubota tractor so he not comes out empty handed.

That was a friend of me he do that here in Phuket, house to 8 mill :)

He have receive fore every thing about the house building  in his name. 

No problem after and hi still have the land for 16 more year.