After spending countless hours online looking for land sales, my wife finally found one. She has been hunting and hunting, calling, driving around town, and she finally got lucky.
She contacted an agent that had a piece of land for sale and my wife went to look but it didn’t suit us. Fortunately, the agent had some other properties that had just come on the market and had not been listed online.
Wife saw one very close to where we are currently renting and fell in love with it. It is 1610 square meters – just over one rai and cost 1.3 million baht. My wife had looked at a property right across the dirt road from this one and the guy wanted 2.5 million baht. So, we think we got a deal.
The problem we had was I was still waiting for a check to come from the sale of a property in Hawaii. That took some time and then it took almost 2 weeks to clear. My wife asked the agent to NOT post the property online and to please wait for us. Wife also gave her 3,000 baht to be quiet.
Well, we got the money and the agent kept her word. My wife went to the land office and met the owner. The agent had already done all the paperwork and all that was required was to exchange funds and sign on the dotted lines. I was called in later to sign a certificate that the money belonged solely to my wife and that the land was hers.
Land Office Lady made it clear that it would take up to one month to finalize the paperwork unless we wanted to pay a fee to expedite and have it done within the hour. Another 3,000 baht but we got it done before lunch.
Next step is to have the land surveyed to show where the corner posts are. Building the house cannot commence until this is done. Land Office Lady tells us there is a backlog and we will have to wait until December (6 months). However, she knows someone who can maybe help.
Land Office Lady calls last night at about 1800 and gives my wife a name to call for the survey. Wife offers Land Office Lady a tip – but she refuses. My guess is she will get a cut from Survey Guy. Wife calls Survey Guy and he says to call in the morning and he will check his schedule.
Wife calls in the morning and he tells her to come NOW. I give wife 5,000 baht not knowing how much this tip will cost. But this has to be done or we can’t start building.
So – are these bribes or fees to expedite. Call it what you want but it is how business gets done in Thailand
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