Thread: Got the land, now what?

Originally Posted by armstrong

My wife is in the process of buying land in Samut Prakan and the prices are skyrocketing. Found a suitable plot but they're waiting on a legal agreement about an access road with a nearby condo.

I'll have fuck all to do with it, obviously.

You or rather she won't lose so close to Bkk

Someone near here built a row of five 4-story townhouses in a very nice, clean modern style 7 years ago. Good fittings, keeps them clean and maintained, big For Sale signs on the strong electric gates for the last 7 years, never rented them out and they've sat empty.

Don't know what the selling price is, but would rent for 45k+ each, for sure at 35k.

15 million baht in lost rental income since built.

Will tell them to put a few banana trees in the garden.


If ya fancy a build BB, Toots is yer local go-to guy.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Anyway, not sure what I am going to do with this property yet.

Perhaps build another house there, and install a Mia Noi.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

To be continued

Without a doubt.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai (Got the land, now what?)Anyway, not sure what I am going to do with this property yet.


Perhaps build another house there, and install a Mia Noi.

I must had been drinking,because I don't remember saying that.
If I could I would get rid of the "Mia" never mind getting a "Noi"

Is this BanzaiBaan thread going to be a slow burner? a tree here and building plan there and then the plot sold for 50K THB profit in 8 years time? as mentioned what is he land title attached to it?

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

I like banana trees.

The only think I don't like about is the dying leaves that turn like old paper and hung there, Periodically I take a pair of shears and cut all the dead leaves.
When the banana tree (pland) fruits and I cut it out, i used to give it to a neighbor that had a cow, I will plant a few of them .

BB
True about the leaves you need to keep cutting them off as they die and dry up. What I do is then cut them up and put around the base of the clump as mulch. My problem is the chickens then scratch them all around the place so i have to keep putting them back, I sometimes throw some soil on top of them.
As for the "trees", once they have fruited I cut them down and then I chop them into 0.5m lengths, these I then cut into quarters and place as mulch. They lose the water and dry pretty quickly into good mulch. If you don't quarter them they take forever to dry up.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

You or rather she won't lose so close to Bkk

Not so sure. It's a flood central

Originally Posted by malmomike77

Is this BanzaiBaan thread going to be a slow burner? a tree here and building plan there and then the plot sold for 50K THB profit in 8 years time? as mentioned what is he land title attached to it?

Lets just say, that I am willing to milk this thread for all that it's worth

Originally Posted by ootai

As for the "trees", once they have fruited I cut them down and then I chop them into 0.5m lengths, these I then cut into quarters and place as mulch. They lose the water and dry pretty quickly into good mulch. If you don't quarter them they take forever to dry up.

Cutting them in small pieces and adding the to soil is a great idea that never occured to me.
I think I will start a compost pile, I bet they would make great compost material.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

I think I will start a snake incubator, I bet they would make great nesting material.

They will

Originally Posted by malmomike77

They will

Ok scrap the compost idea, It sounded like a lot of work anyway.

Funny story. I showed the wife a picture in Mendip's pond thread , trying to talk her into it. But I had not noticed a picture right below it that showed a snake in his pond eating a frog.
As you know Thai's fondness of snakes , that's all she had to see, now I am lucky id I get a bird bath LOL

^ actually compost is doable but you just have to keep and eye on it and turn it regularly. The other problem is termites, they love some vegetal material.

Originally Posted by Bonecollector

Great thread to start Banzai as I have many questions that will hopefully be answered, if not I will chime in later as this is your show. All I can say is speculation seems to be picking up again somewhat. Land around Mueang Surin appears to have shot up for some reason. Apparently many people are now looking to leave the Cha Phraya river basin area in search of safer investments. Two sisters from Ayutthaya just bought over 10 rai of separate parcels around our area and plan to move to the biggest parcel of land soon.

Forgive me if this has already been stated but I think you just want to clear it, pack it over the next 2 dry seasons, concrete post and wire fence the fucker and then either plant to pass the time or as someone else said, put up a for sale sign with some added value and see what happens.

Chok dee!

Thank you,
I will post pictures as soon as we close, because as I am sure you know. Nothing is sold , until you close.
As far as speculation is concerned , our area is probably the fastest growing area in Khon Kaen.
Non Ruan is located just outside the ring road, and about 15 min from the airport or Central Mall in the heart of the city, but still quite with a rural atmosphere. Property was still relatively inexpensive, and consequently there is a tremendous amount of development , there are Moo Bans . stores and individual stores popping up everywhere.

The Lot we are buying is in a subdivision that is designed for homes with a bit of property around it and a three rai Cafe resort at the other end. There was a three rai lot being the resort that I liked but wife thought (I agree) it was too close to the proposed resort and was afraid there might be noise from it.
The lot we are getting is the last unsold lot in that development and is located at the furthest possible spot from the resort.
Anyway It is cleared but and fenced with just these concrete post that they use around here, the dirt they used is very sandy , so I will need some topsoil.
Please dont be concerned about chiming in , this forum is very relaxed and has kind of a pub attitude, aside from all the bickering they are all a bunch of great guys. I started this thread (beats doing real work) so we can all talk about something else other than politics and have some fun , so please jump in .

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

As you know Thai's fondness of snakes

I have a small compost pile. Grass clippings, leaves from the trees around the place that I ran through the mower to sort of grind them up, a few banana leaves and then I roll in some dirt. I use the tiller head I have for the Honda weedwhacker to turn it over every few weeks or so I keep a black tarp over it to help speed up the process of it decomposing, keep the rain off it and to keep the smell down. The good thing is it typically makes it so hot under the cover not much lives there. However on a few occasions I take the cover back and there is a snake there that has taken up residency along with a few big black scorpions. They do not bother me but my wife will not go near the pile. She asks me to bring dirt for her plantings. As NPT stated, the key is keeping it turned over.

Originally Posted by Stumpy

I have a small compost pile. Grass clippings, leaves from the trees around the place that I ran through the mower to sort of grind them up, a few banana leaves and then I roll in some dirt. I use the tiller head I have for the Honda weedwhacker to turn it over every few weeks or so I keep a black tarp over it to help speed up the process of it decomposing, keep the rain off it and to keep the smell down. The good thing is it typically makes it so hot under the cover not much lives there. However on a few occasions I take the cover back and there is a snake there that has taken up residency along with a few big black scorpions. They do not bother me but my wife will not go near the pile. She asks me to bring dirt for her plantings. As NPT stated, the key is keeping it turned over.

That might be a good future project, I wonder if one of these big blue plastic barrels laid on it's side on a base with a couple of rollers might not work well and keep the snakes out.
Yea wife does not relate to snake well. At the home we are now we are now I have not seen many snakes , did see two water snakes at our koi pond about a year ago,
We have a 2m wall all around , so perhaps that keeps most of them out. Having four dogs also helps.
I pity the fool (snake) who gets in our property LOL.
The property we are buying is fenced in , but only with those concrete posts thais use to put barbed wire on, I was thinking about putting chain link on them and plan some vines along the base. But that will do nothing to keep snakes out,
So perhaps back to the drawing board with that idea.

BB, I'll jump in and apologies if I wander off topic a bit. We live in a very fast growing area of Korat and land prices have probably quadrupled since we moved here in 2006. This gives me some solace as everything should end up with the daughter and the land price increases should hopefully cover the accumulated building costs, which makes me feel better. In saying that I very much hope the daughter ends up having more of an 'international' lifestyle and doesn't end up in Korat.

The area has been subdivided for residential building plots and is now around 30% developed. The whole area has become very busy with bypasses, shops, apartments etc etc which the Thais like but I'd rather it had stayed quiet and rural as it was 16 years ago.

We have developed our land as and when neighbouring land plots became available. I have had real difficulty finding out who owns neighbouring land and then, getting sales agreed or even getting any answers to inquiries. I think that those in the 'know' already knew that land in this area was going to increase and bought a long time ago to sit on the investment. With the new high speed rail link to Bangkok (the station will be close to this area), the new motorway and ongoing rumours that a lot of government departments may move to Korat from Bangkok, the future may look good for land investments here. I met one guy who reckoned this area could be another Sukhumvit in the future although I don't think it will be in my lifetime. And he was fairly pissed.

Anyway, I'll stop rambling... we have a little over a Rai total but the design is a disaster due to the piecemeal way we acquired the land. You can design your entire development from scratch which gives a lot more freedom. Our pond is around 18m by 15m across which is far too big for the land it is on, but at the time I had visions of buying a neighbouring plot which would have finished off the area nicely.

The red lines are our boundary, the yellow lines are previous boundaries that became internal walls as we acquired additional plots.



We started with the long double plot at the northeast (50m x 20m). Then a couple of years later bought the southwest plot on which the workshop/gardener's flat and veggie plot now sit. Lastly we bought the southerly double plot which has the pond and you can even see my new jetty. I had visions of buying the southeast plot (to the right of the pond) which would have squared off the land nicely and would have made a great location for a small, standalone office away from the house but two things happened. One, the land owner asked way over the going rate for the plot, knowing that we wanted it and two, several years ago (around 2009/2010 when the pound started it's long slide and prices in Thailand started to become real) I decided that I was no longer prepared to put money into a country that doesn't let me own land, legally work here or even live here without jumping through hoops each year. I'm through with putting money into Thailand, but that's another story. The landowner built four apartments on that land (bottom right of the picture) which has spoilt my pond area somewhat, but there you go.

And just for clarification. When I say 'we bought', I mean me. When I say 'we own', I mean the wife.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Ok did not really get the land yet, just put down a 100k deposit and is waiting for transferwise to transfer the balance so we can close.
-I am starting this thread so as not to contaminate Mendip's pond thread with my questions and inane comments I try to pass as humor.
-So the property is a little more than a Rai and is well proportioned. A rectangle , longer in the front , with shorter sides. I did not bother measuring it yet , I just saw it and liked it , and the price and location was right. In proportion it resembles a Golden Rectangle .
Will post a picture when I have one.
-Behind it and to the right it is vecand fields, so there might be room for expansion if the owners are willing to deal.
-Mendip among other things is known for his great Issan pond thread, and since I am considering digging one, I posted a question in his thread , and it would be proper to discuss answers to the question and opinions in the subject , but not proper form IMO to take it "off topic"
So if the moderators want to move some of the comments concerning my purchase to this Thread, it would be fine by me.

100,000 baht seems quite reasonable for 1 Rai. Where is it?

^ It seems incredibly reasonable but I think that was just BB's deposit.

Round our way (outskirts of Korat) 120 Talang Wah / 500 square metre (approx) residential plots were selling for 500,000 THB a few years ago.

^^ it would be but as per the OP that is the deposit

Originally Posted by Hugh Cow

100,000 baht seems quite reasonable for 1 Rai. Where is it?

No. Mendip is right, the 100k is the deposit while I wait for transferwise to get my moula,
The total price is 700 k , which is a very good price, since everything I have found so far on a paved road , with electric, was 1.5 mil. and this property is land filled!
It is located about 10 minutes drive outside the ring road , at the University side of Khon Kaen.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

At the home we are now we are now I have not seen many snakes , did see two water snakes at our koi pond about a year ago,
We have a 2m wall all around , so perhaps that keeps most of them out. Having four dogs also helps.

Water is a good thing for wildlife generally and snakes are just part of the food chain. Most snakes here aren't going to hurt you, I'd rather see the rat snakes than the rats. I don't have a pond, I still have quite a few snakes though. Apart from sheer laziness it hasn't been the threat of snakes that has stopped me making a small pond, it has more to do with the water table being a long way down so a pond would need to be concrete and I don't want more concrete.

700K is still pretty good but is now becoming the norm for the type of area you speak of in most of the major Isan cities. Edge of inside ring road in Surin is 1mil per rai now.

Originally Posted by Mendip

In saying that I very much hope the daughter ends up having more of an 'international' lifestyle and doesn't end up in Korat.

Raise her in an international place then.

Originally Posted by Mendip

the land owner asked way over the going rate for the plot, knowing that we wanted it and two.

The landowner built four apartments on that land (bottom right of the picture) which has spoilt my pond area somewhat, but there you go.

Better than him squeezing the money out of you by building a pig and chicken farm next to you and jacking up the asking price.

One of my urban jogging routes in Bangkok was through a lower-class moo baan, and 2 meters across from a row of town houses was a massive warehouse of roosters. Could hear them squawking at each other from a kilometer away. Can only imagine what it's like living 2 meters away from them at 5 fokin' a.m.