Looking to Buy a Pool Villa

[boydeste]

2 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

Meanwhile, back at the swimming pool.

We seem to have settled down a bit activity wise from the moving and getting the house startup activities done. I am starting to notice additional things that need to be done. Went for a night time swim tonight and noticed that one of the under water lights was out. 

Like I have said before, I have never owned a swimming pool before. I am guessing that this is an easy fix, but would prefer not to electrocute myself. Turn off the light, hmm maybe kill the electricity to the pool, unscrew the mounting, replace the bulb, reset the mounting, get out of the pool, turn on electricity, test the light.

Any comments? 

One would assume you may need to drain the pool to below the fitting to replace the bulb, unless the cables are run loose down the inside of the pool wall in which case any external fixings could be unscrewed and cable fixing lifted to enable the light fitting to be removed from the water.

[Golfingboy]

@ChiFlyer Little off-topic, but have you heard about what’s going on in Illinois? Many homes, mansions even, being abandoned due to some of the highest property taxes in the USA. Got sent a few YT shorts on the topic…shame

[CampariO]

10 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

Meanwhile, back at the swimming pool.

We seem to have settled down a bit activity wise from the moving and getting the house startup activities done. I am starting to notice additional things that need to be done. Went for a night time swim tonight and noticed that one of the under water lights was out. 

Like I have said before, I have never owned a swimming pool before. I am guessing that this is an easy fix, but would prefer not to electrocute myself. Turn off the light, hmm maybe kill the electricity to the pool, unscrew the mounting, replace the bulb, reset the mounting, get out of the pool, turn on electricity, test the light.

Any comments? 

You will not get electrocuted as the pool lights have a low voltage power supply which is not dangerous at all.

If your lightbulbs are halogen, they usually don't last long and replacing them is usually a pain in the ass. If the lamp is not assembled correctly, water will enter and corrosion will occur. Then a brownish water filling makes the lamp look ugly.

Best solution:

Replace all lamps with LED lights. No more bulb replacement required. Will cost you at least 3000 Bt per lamp depending on whether you want colored light or not. But it's worth it.

[ChiFlyer]

7 hours ago, Golfingboy said:

@ChiFlyer Little off-topic, but have you heard about what’s going on in Illinois? Many homes, mansions even, being abandoned due to some of the highest property taxes in the USA. Got sent a few YT shorts on the topic…shame

I have not been following this. Taxes vary a lot by county in IL. DuPage is terrible. Will not so bad. At least that is the way it used to be.

[KWA]

14 hours ago, boydeste said:

One would assume you may need to drain the pool to below the fitting to replace the bulb, unless the cables are run loose down the inside of the pool wall in which case any external fixings could be unscrewed and cable fixing lifted to enable the light fitting to be removed from the water.

Another possibilty is there's enough spare cable behind the lamp to allow the fixture to be removed from the pool wall and brought above the surface for bulb replacement.

[ChiFlyer]

On 4/23/2023 at 9:52 AM, CampariO said:

You will not get electrocuted as the pool lights have a low voltage power supply which is not dangerous at all.

If your lightbulbs are halogen, they usually don't last long and replacing them is usually a pain in the ass. If the lamp is not assembled correctly, water will enter and corrosion will occur. Then a brownish water filling makes the lamp look ugly.

Best solution:

Replace all lamps with LED lights. No more bulb replacement required. Will cost you at least 3000 Bt per lamp depending on whether you want colored light or not. But it's worth it.

Good idea, but I am increasingly thinking about re-tiling the pool and reflection wall next January-February. I can coat the reflection wall with a material to prevent the calcium discoloring at that time. I am likely to add in additional replacement equipment at that time including temperature control for the water. I will try an LED for the one light that is out, but will hold on the rest until I figure out my next steps. 

The overall re-tiling effort obviously will not be a cheap upgrade. It is not a large pool (484x770 cms). I am guessing that I am talking in the neighborhood of 125K for the work that I have described, which would likely take 2 months. Pool is not really usable at the planned time of year as the water gets too cold for my liking.

Big expenditure by my standards and lots of shopping to guide the decision. Still my pool is important to me. It is something I wanted most of my adult life and I did bust my ass a little over the years to get to a position where I could afford this. Me thinks the old guy should accept the gifts paid for by the young guy's efforts. 🙂 

[tommy dee]

5 hours ago, ChiFlyer said:

Good idea, but I am increasingly thinking about re-tiling the pool and reflection wall next January-February. I can coat the reflection wall with a material to prevent the calcium discoloring at that time. I am likely to add in additional replacement equipment at that time including temperature control for the water. I will try an LED for the one light that is out, but will hold on the rest until I figure out my next steps. 

The overall re-tiling effort obviously will not be a cheap upgrade. It is not a large pool (484x770 cms). I am guessing that I am talking in the neighborhood of 125K for the work that I have described, which would likely take 2 months. Pool is not really usable at the planned time of year as the water gets too cold for my liking.

Big expenditure by my standards and lots of shopping to guide the decision. Still my pool is important to me. It is something I wanted most of my adult life and I did bust my ass a little over the years to get to a position where I could afford this. Me thinks the old guy should accept the gifts paid for by the young guy's efforts. 🙂 

i have three pools, different houses, and a few years back replaced the tile.  its a week to10 day job from pump out to refill.  make sure your people use two pack grout or it wont last 5 minutes.  the lights are low vltage so you will be safe but any idea of temperature control is a waste of money unless you plan to have your pool indoors.  a cooler or heater cant compete with the weather here.  also if you are being sold on the salt water idea, remember you will still need to add chlorine most months as the salt water system cant compete with.. the weather and heat either.  good luck

[ChiFlyer]

18 hours ago, tommy dee said:

i have three pools, different houses, and a few years back replaced the tile.  its a week to10 day job from pump out to refill.  make sure your people use two pack grout or it wont last 5 minutes.  the lights are low vltage so you will be safe but any idea of temperature control is a waste of money unless you plan to have your pool indoors.  a cooler or heater cant compete with the weather here.  also if you are being sold on the salt water idea, remember you will still need to add chlorine most months as the salt water system cant compete with.. the weather and heat either.  good luck

Thanks - I am surprised to be reading that it can be done that fast. I think it may be longer in my case because I have a tiled reflection wall (about 4 M high) that runs along one side of the pool. Looks great when it is wet and isolates my place noise wise from a neighbor. That reflection wall is seriously discolored when dry. I have been told that this is due to calcium deposits. 

I have read that there is a treatment to prevent calcium deposits. This may require that the pool is flushed twice. Not sure. In any case this work level is beyond my usual Thai worker guys, whom I am happy with. If you have a recommendation of someone to talk to for this level of pool work, I am all ears. Send a PM if that is a better option for you.

Edited April 26, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[ChiFlyer]

Well an update on life out here in the Boonies.

Songkran has come and gone. Thank God.

We have had a variety of house guests and visitors (no monkeys) over the last month. Most of the visitors were relatives of the Thai Wife. Reminds me a bit of what her then brother-in-law said to me when she and I first started getting more serious (about 5 years ago) -> "It is a big family. You are going to have to learn how to do the machine gun wai."

Besides Songkran our visitor influx was increased because many of the next generation of family members were on holiday from Khon Kean University. Additionally, a couple of my TW's sisters (a loose term in Thailand I have learned) are school teachers, so they visited as well.

Not many stayed directly at our house, but a few did. Additionally, since the rent is already paid at our VT2A condo, I let a few of the younger people stay over there. They are all cleared out now. I was ok with them staying for a while so the wife could get some extra family time. That is important to her. I was getting to a place where I was needing some space.

Oh - my TW and I still are not married. The lawyer screwed up a date on one of the forms. This process of getting married has been going on since late January. It will likely finally conclude next week.

Life in the boonies remains good. Next week we will likely complete the startup projects for the new house. I had budgeted 500,000 for that. We are coming in close to that number. Projects were needed to handle the following:

• Old doors and windows were not secure. We replaced several of those and also added screening for said windows and doors.
• Some pool work.
• Several appliances needed work (stove top, stove top fan, dishwasher, ..)
• CCTV cameras and installs for security.
• Ceiling fan out at the pool table.
• Washing Machine, and other various clothes related equipment.
• A Weber Grill and associated gear.
• Various home owner tools that a condo person does not require.
• Furniture for changing a former small bedroom into my office. I am happy with the way this turned out.
• 

• I have another 300,000 of projects that I want to do including a re-tile of the pool, but these can be allowed to wait until next Winter.

So as usual when it comes to being a home owner, I am not paying rent and I have equity in a house, but my cash outflow has increased.

Next up -> after the marriage is finalized, get back to the Wills stuff. Very complicated in our situation due to owning a house. In case anyone does not know, a Farang can not directly own a house or property. Instead one has to form a company that owns the house. The Farang can own up to 49% of the company, but also be the only one that has voting rights within the company. The other stock owners must be Thais. My TW owns 48% of the stock. 

I also need to protect my US assets for my bloodline. More later.

Edited May 5, 2023 by ChiFlyer

[ChiFlyer]

I will add this update about getting married to a Thai woman here, as it is a result of buying a house. Don't get me wrong. I am glad we bought the house and she has been great about making things happen. The practical reason for getting married is that now that we have more substantial assets in Thailand this gives both of us a clearer path to resolution of said assets upon the death of either party (most likely me).

More about getting married to a Thai woman. I do mean in an administrative sense.

• We started this process in late January. I am an American who lives in Thailand.
• We had our second scheduled attempt at the Bang Lamung Amphoe today. The first was cancelled at the last minute because a mistake was noticed on one of the forms (a date was incorrect) by our lawyer. He made the mistake. Stuff happens.
• Today the paperwork hung up because Bang Lamung noticed that the Khon Kean Amphoe registered divorce number for my fiancee was incorrect. Khon Kean agreed to correct this and say that they have done so. Bang Lamung says not true.
• Day 3 will be my fiancee only at Bang Lamung going over the Khon Kean info with Bang Lamung.
• Day 4 is scheduled for Monday, when we may possibly become legally married in Thailand.

This has caused me to reflect a bit on why Thailand creates these paper tiger roadblocks. I think I figured it out.

The roadblocks further enables the massive corruption.

[Freee!!]

1 hour ago, ChiFlyer said:

The roadblocks further enables the massive corruption.

Just quietly back channel the info that corruption gives very bad karma.

[Rompho Ray]

On 5/5/2023 at 12:54 PM, ChiFlyer said:

In case anyone does not know, a Farang can not directly own a house or property.

Just catching up on this thread. 

You have more recent experience with this than I do of course, but the last I knew a farang could not own land, but he could own a house he builds on land owned by someone else.  A quick web search confirms, but I won't represent whether the sources I found are legit or trustworthy.

All sources did agree that farangs can buy land through a Thai LLC.

[Freee!!]

32 minutes ago, Rompho Ray said:

Just catching up on this thread. 

You have more recent experience with this than I do of course, but the last I knew a farang could not own land, but he could own a house he builds on land owned by someone else.  A quick web search confirms, but I won't represent whether the sources I found are legit or trustworthy.

All sources did agree that farangs can buy land through a Thai LLC.

That is also the information I have.

[boydeste]

45 minutes ago, Rompho Ray said:

Just catching up on this thread. 

You have more recent experience with this than I do of course, but the last I knew a farang could not own land, but he could own a house he builds on land owned by someone else.  A quick web search confirms, but I won't represent whether the sources I found are legit or trustworthy.

All sources did agree that farangs can buy land through a Thai LLC.

He can only own 49% of that company though!

[Freee!!]

5 minutes ago, boydeste said:

He can only own 49% of that company though!

Even a bit stronger, total farang ownership of the company can not exceed 49%, so there is no use in a couple of farang getting together to circumvent that limit.

[Pumpuynarak]

I'm sure i'm correct in saying that assets (house) need to be purchased AFTER you legally marry if you want your 50% in the event of divorce otherwise you get diddly squat as the purchase is the sole property of your lady.

But i could be wrong lol

[Zambo]

3 hours ago, Pumpuynarak said:

I'm sure i'm correct in saying that assets (house) need to be purchased AFTER you legally marry if you want your 50% in the event of divorce otherwise you get diddly squat as the purchase is the sole property of your lady.

But i could be wrong lol

These arrangements are work arounds to circumvent the law that foreigners cannot own landed property. You can get your wife to buy land, lease it to you for say 30 years, then build the house which will then belong to you. Bit awkward if you do divorce or wife dies as you cannot own the land.

Even purchase by a Thai LLC has to be done very correctly and many arrangements do not follow the letter of the law. There can remain a risk, including that of minor ammendments to the law having a significant effect on the ownership.

My understanding of Thai divorce law is that everything from before the marriage belongs to the respective partner and anything gained after marriage is split 50% in case of divorce, apart from the case of a foreigner where he (it is typically he) has to sign an agreement on purchase of land/ landed property that this will not be shared 50%.

[ChiFlyer]

18 hours ago, Rompho Ray said:

Just catching up on this thread. 

You have more recent experience with this than I do of course, but the last I knew a farang could not own land, but he could own a house he builds on land owned by someone else.  A quick web search confirms, but I won't represent whether the sources I found are legit or trustworthy.

All sources did agree that farangs can buy land through a Thai LLC.

You are correct. I do no directly own land or a house. They are owned by an LLC. I inturn own 49% of the LLC. The Thai Wife owns 48%. Another Thai owns 3%. I am the only one with voting rights. This is a fairly common arrangement.

I just say we own a house.

[Rompho Ray]

19 hours ago, Rompho Ray said:

On 5/5/2023 at 12:54 PM, ChiFlyer said:

In case anyone does not know, a Farang can not directly own a house or property.

Just to be clear, this was the remark I was responding to, with emphasis added.  We agree on the matter though.

[tommy dee]

On 4/26/2023 at 11:44 PM, ChiFlyer said:

Thanks - I am surprised to be reading that it can be done that fast. I think it may be longer in my case because I have a tiled reflection wall (about 4 M high) that runs along one side of the pool. Looks great when it is wet and isolates my place noise wise from a neighbor. That reflection wall is seriously discolored when dry. I have been told that this is due to calcium deposits. 

I have read that there is a treatment to prevent calcium deposits. This may require that the pool is flushed twice. Not sure. In any case this work level is beyond my usual Thai worker guys, whom I am happy with. If you have a recommendation of someone to talk to for this level of pool work, I am all ears. Send a PM if that is a better option for you.

the local water has chalk in it, its pretty hard. hence the markings and any black marks.. are from the smog

[tommy dee]

18 minutes ago, ChiFlyer said:

You are correct. I do no directly own land or a house. They are owned by an LLC. I inturn own 49% of the LLC. The Thai Wife owns 48%. Another Thai owns 3%. I am the only one with voting rights. This is a fairly common arrangement.

I just say we own a house.

as indeed you do.  have happily been here 15 yrs and owned 3 houses, currently.  no issues.  al on the up and up.  beats paying rent for sure and stops you from spunking your money

[ChiFlyer]

"I am getting married in the Morning. Ding, Ding, the bells are going to chime."

I guess I better get my somewhat drunken ass to bed or there will be legitimate hell to pay.

[Stillearly]

^ good luck for tomorrow!!

[boydeste]

1 minute ago, Stillearly said:

^ good luck for tomorrow!!

@ChiFlyer

Ditto from me too.

[Painter]

1 hour ago, ChiFlyer said:

"I am getting married in the Morning. Ding, Ding, the bells are going to chime."

I guess I better get my somewhat drunken ass to bed or there will be legitimate hell to pay.

Hope it goes well!