Thread: Building a house on in-laws property

Originally Posted by JohnG

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

50k for house USD,10k for bank to live legally in Thailand, 15k truck,living expenses until work is found.

$50k / 1.5m baht will build you a more than reasonable house in a Thai village, even with your friendly local Brit expert ripping you off.

Let's be brutally realistic, though. If your life savings and assets at 60, including house, are around $75k then you're obviously not some high earning computer geek who can make a good living anywhere. Your chances of finding work locally as a 60 year old unskilled farang that will give you an income and enable you to support a wife and child are zero. Nil. Non-existent.

If, as you said last year, you are making enough in the States to support her then maybe that's what you should be doing as, by what you've said here, you won't be able to once you move here. There's no point in pretending you will.

You may be able to help her out by getting her some training as a hair-dresser or something where she can make some money, but from what you've said here you're living in dreamland if you think you're going be able to find a job in Thailand.

I'm beginning to think

I have read a couple of your posts JohnG regarding remarks about the builder! would you like to meet him and explain your comments above? which are slander of course as you do not know him,he is very keen to hear why you are slating him without any knowledge of who he is and his work.

After seeing the post about your wife planned visit to America I have to ask the question did she indeed go to the states? What were her reactions? If she did not go, may I ask as to why? The reason I asked is that my wife learned more about me than I could have ever told her in a 6 week trip back to the USA soon after getting married. 25th anniversary in 3 weeks.

I wont comment further until I hear back from you. thanks.

If you do have a child, make sure your name is on the birth certificate. Get that translated into English and then register the birth at the US consulate in Thailand. That way you can also apply for a US passport and Social Security Card at the same time. When you start to collect Social Security, your child will be eligible for half your maximum benefit up tomthe age of 18, which comes in handy.

I wish you luck and the only way to make it in Thailand is to make sure you have enough funds. Don't rely on a job or business to bail you out..

I would never do a restaurant as all the family and half the town will expect you to pick up the tab.

I have heard of this happening. Anyone else ever hear of this phenomenon?

Hell one time we were invited to a party at a local roadside restaurant. The beers kept comming , speant a few hours having a good time. It was upon leaving that the gal ,a cousin, wanted me to pick up the tab. She was kinda upset when I gave her about 15 bucks as it was all I had on me at the time.
She gave me the sour face as we left. Six months later I borrowed the youngest bil some money for a pool table as they had set up a road side tavern / restaurant. I guess then alot of the town folks would hang out there and not at the other gals place.

I don't think the lady was too happy with that arrangement. Oh well.

I have heard of a wise man tell of how he made a million dollars in Thailand.

He showed up with two million.

Originally Posted by Keyser soze

Originally Posted by JohnG

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

50k for house USD,10k for bank to live legally in Thailand, 15k truck,living expenses until work is found.

$50k / 1.5m baht will build you a more than reasonable house in a Thai village, even with your friendly local Brit expert ripping you off.

Let's be brutally realistic, though. If your life savings and assets at 60, including house, are around $75k then you're obviously not some high earning computer geek who can make a good living anywhere. Your chances of finding work locally as a 60 year old unskilled farang that will give you an income and enable you to support a wife and child are zero. Nil. Non-
existent.

If, as you said last year, you are making enough in the States to support her then maybe that's what you should be doing as, by what you've said here, you won't be able to once you move here. There's no point in pretending you will.

You may be able to help her out by getting her some training as a hair-dresser or something where she can make some money, but from what you've said here you're living in dreamland if you think you're going be able to find a job in Thailand.

I'm beginning to think

I have read a couple of your posts JohnG regarding remarks about the builder! would you like to meet him and explain your comments above? which are slander of course as you do not know him,he is very keen to hear why you are slating him without any knowledge of who he is and his work.

Slander is spoken so "of course" my comments aren't slander. Neither are they libel as he's anonymous as nobody else has a clue who he is.

I'm slating him because @fredwiggy has said that he's got little more than $75k once he sells his house and according to him your mate wants $50k of
that to build him a house, which is three times as much as he needs to spend
on a small but reasonably pleasant house in Issan, and again according to @fredwiggy your mate's advising him of his 'legal rights' when he doesn't have any.

With friends like your mate (?) around to help him out @fredwiggy doesn't need any enemies.

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

..... I was thinking of teaching english or us opening a small restaurant where we would live.

......I do understand the importance of having something in tne bank, and that's what I'm working on now, not wanting to struggle while I'm there.

So presumably you've got your degree and all the teaching qualifications you need for Thailand, which as you must know has some of the strictest rules in Asia on teacher qualifications ? ... unless you're going to teach in a rural government school, as a gap year student from Malawi does in my local
school for 100 baht a day (she's very proud that all the students call her maa-dam).

... and if your wife can cook / make a go of a restaurant then why isn't she doing that already?

... Being brutally honest again, you seem to have two choices. 1) Work on having something in the bank, not wanting to struggle while you're here, and being able to at least contribute something to your family, or 2) Move here to be with your wife. I'm sorry, but I just can't see how you can have both - it's one or the other. ... and it looks as if you've already made the choice.

I'll be building a 2 or 3 bedroom house,kitchen, Thai kitchen outside the kitchen door, living room,air con,hot water tank and shower heater, good windows and doors,insulation, and a large garage building(high ceiling) for all of my things, so I'm thinking 50k would be just about right. What I'm contributing to my family is a house to live in, a man that will do whatever it takes to survive, and is faithful to my wife , will help out family anyway I can. My wife's family has only the farm for rice and a little more, and you need money and help to open a restaurant. If I can teach english and make a little to get by, more the better. Most people in America struggle to stay afloat, just like most do in Thailand and everywhere else in the world. If I'm going to struggle, I want it to be with my wife and child.

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

..... I was thinking of teaching english or .... opening a small restaurant where we would live.

Don't do it .

Don't do it .

Don't do it .



Wasp

There is also a third choice. Coming on a tourist visa, asking for an extension for up to a year, reporting every 90 days to the local amphur, and doing this every year or so, going across the border and getting the visa that way.

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

reporting every 90 days to the local amphur

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

I'll be building a 2 or 3 bedroom house,kitchen, Thai kitchen outside the kitchen door, living room,air con,hot water tank and shower heater, good windows and doors,insulation, and a large garage building(high ceiling) for all of my things, so I'm thinking 50k would be just about right. What I'm contributing to my family is a house to live in, a man that will do whatever it takes to survive, and is faithful to my wife , will help out family anyway I can.

You can build all that for around $20k unless you want thermal blocks, tiled roof, upvc windows, etc. You can't afford any of that.

You can't afford aircon, which if you use it will add at least 2,000 baht you don't have to your electricity bill every month.

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

... you need money and help to open a restaurant. If I can teach english and make a little to get by, more the better. Most people in America struggle to stay afloat, just like most do in Thailand and everywhere else in the world. If I'm going to struggle, I want it to be with my wife and child.

... all you need to be able to open a village restaurant in Thailand is to be able to cook and a table and chairs.

1,000 baht will do it. If she can't then she can't and pouring in more money won't make it any more profitable.

Can you teach English? Do you have a degree and the necessary qualifications? An employer in Thailand?

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

reporting every 90 days to the local amphur

Agreed - him and his little friend @keyser soze.

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

There is also a third choice. Coming on a tourist visa, asking for an extension for up to a year, reporting every 90 days to the local amphur, and doing this every year or so, going across the border and getting the visa that way.

No there isn't.

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

I wonder how all the other married expats live in nice houses there. I guess we're all taking a chance things stay good.

I live in a huge six-bedroom house on a large hunk of land. Everything - house, other house, other land, cars, motorcycles, etc is in my wife's name as I will almost certainly croak first. As I planned it. But, we've been together 26 years and I don't see that changing. Knew her ten years before we got married. We built the house after we'd been together 18 years.

Time is funny in that way. As the time is invested into a relationship and it finds itself comfortably moving towards LT , then it makes proper sense by increments to add financially into the pot if that is affordable according to ones plan. (IMO)
Personally I feel one should always have a fall back position by not putting all their assets forward until they are fully comfortable against the 'test of time'.

I also feel Fred would be best served waiting until he is living in LOS for at least six months out of the year before commiting major savings to building a home in Thailand unless he has expendible assets that he can well afford to part with.
Contemplating purchasing a second-hand scooter has me wondering. Just saying...

Originally Posted by JohnG

Agreed - him and his little friend @keyser soz

@keyser soze is probably his builder?

It seems to me that those little restaurants make enough for the family to eat out of . And that's all . Except for the numerous ones that fail .

With a fallang involved the police happily pop in for some lunch and tend not to pay . On a nodding agreement of scratching their back . But you're paying for their lunch . Then staff will happily take bits of cash and sell a 20Baht item to their friends for 10 Baht .

And so on .

You are a fallang .

You are a miilionaire .

Smile .....because you are a fallang so you can automatically afford the losses.




Wasp

Sounds a barrel of laughs retiring to isaan.

Fred, simple way to test the water as to your standing in the tribe.
Get the family to transfer the land into the child's name, when it''s born, their grandchild.
If they won't do that, then they aren't giving you anything, but your giving them an asset that they can borrow on.

Love does not over come money in Thailand, promises made today, not in writing are gone tomorrow.
You are heading to a cliff with your eyes shut, sit down and have a real Issan rural meal, sticky rice, chilli paste, frogs, bugs, snake or anything else that walks, crawls, flies or swims, that's what you will be eating unless you can make some real money.

We are going to get the family property in wife's name, and the house will be in both of ours. John G and Prag, why all the negative comments? I was asking for advice here, because although I'm constantly researching ideas, including the legal issues regarding visas,and yes, 90 days at a time is a choice,with extensions up to a year possible, and I wanted the opinions of those that succeeded, not failed because they didn't treat their wives respectfully.

You want success stories, success stories in the fields you have chosen are thin on the ground. In your research,if you happen to find just one, share it.

Originally Posted by fredwiggy

We are going to get the family property in wife's name, and the house will be in both of ours.

No it wont. Thats what people have been trying to tell you. You simply cant own land. I did find out years ago you can sign a note for a loan for the house.
Good luck. Please think about coming, and living for a few months without buying once again. Come quickly its 40 or over 105F and wonderful now.

The land will be in her name, the house both, so in the event things don't work out, the house gets split 50/50, along with any assets accrued after the marriage. And James, that's what is usually eaten there, and I enjoy it along with them, exception being the bugs, which my wife knows I won't eat.