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Interviews with entrepreneurs and business leaders who’ve “made it” in Thailand. Real stories of ambition, setbacks, and strategic wins on the path to success. Built for founders and operators who want to win in Thailand.
Guests from the US, UK, Australia, and Thailand. Honest journeys and cross-cultural lessons. Inspiration for anyone building in the Thai market.
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Hosted by Scott Pressimone, a US expat based in Thailand for 13+ years and owner of Fractiond, a Thailand-based strategy consultancy.
#ThailandBusiness #ExpatSuccess #ThaiExpat
Have you ever considered moving
into a house in Bangkok, Thailand,
or in the suburbs of Thailand?
I actually moved with my family to the
north of Bangkok in a place called Pathum
Thani about four and a half years ago.
Now it's not for everybody, and the
reason I did it was mainly because
I have a couple young children.
My wife is Thai, so we're able
to make a purchase and get a
mortgage and things like this.
But I think there are plenty of
people in similar situations to me.
Maybe you just recently had kids
and wondering whether or not it's
worth it to purchase a house here.
And again, just a reminder,
foreigners can't own land.
So this would mainly be applicable to
individuals with a Thai wife or a Thai
husband that can make the purchase.
And you have to make sure
that makes sense for you.
Obviously if you don't have a secure
relationship and you purchase a
house here, that can be a big risk.
I'm just gonna share my situation and
some of the pros and cons that I've
experienced moving out to the suburbs.
And I'll note again that I am
north of Bangkok in Pathum Thani.
It's also known as Rangsit,
and it's accessible to Bangkok.
So I could still commute into the city.
So I'm just gonna talk through
the pros and cons of what
it's like living out here.
So the first thing is
quite obvious, more space.
When I was living in central Bangkok, we
had a one bedroom, then we upgraded to a
two bedroom place and it was fine and we
had enough space to let the kids grow up.
But as soon as they were riding
bicycles and doing things like this,
we could go out to the parks, but
it wasn't easy to just let them
go outside and just play outside.
Even with like rooftop areas, it just, it
got, it was limiting after a while, right?
And here, living in a house.
First, there's just a lot
more living space, right?
So there's enough room for
a kids' playroom or for a
separate bedroom for the kids.
There's room for a home office.
And I just like having all that extra
living space, having a couple floors.
It it goes really far.
So definitely that's one
of the big perks for me.
Now that also includes outdoor space.
So it's, you're not gonna probably
get a super large yard when you're
living in a gated community like this.
It's also called a Moo Baan here.
But when you're living in one
of these communities, you will
get maybe a small side yard.
We have our own mango tree.
We grow some of our own parsley and
things like this, so it's a little bit.
It's not perfect.
It's not like living on a farm, but at
the same time, you actually can grow
some stuff and enjoy some outdoor space.
The second benefit is the shared area.
So what I'm walking around here, what
my neighborhood is really quite nice.
We have little community center.
We have a playground.
And like I said, it's just really
helpful when you have kids, especially
to be able to just go outside.
One other thing that my kids love
to do is feed fish in the fish pond.
And that's not something we have to go
to an aquarium or anything like this.
We just walk down the street,
bring some bread and feed the fish.
And a lot of other families
are here doing the same thing.
The third thing is that we
have good security guards here.
And so similar to just having all
this outdoor space, it's safe.
The guards make sure people
aren't driving too fast.
It's not dangerous for the kids.
And when delivery people and visitors
come in the gate, the guards escort
them around, taking down their
tag numbers, things like that.
One of my neighbors was recently
telling me how he feels safe enough
here that he would be fine just
leaving the door unlocked all the time.
And I feel the same way.
My wife doesn't, but.
But I'd say it's very safe.
And that leads into neighbors.
When I was in the city, I would
maybe give a nod to neighbors
in a condo nearby, right?
And you meet someone in an
elevator and you say hello.
But it's not the same as having
neighbors that you actually know.
And we're really fortunate to have
close by neighbors that we talk to about
education, that we talk to about the
economy that, that we have barbecues with.
It's not every day, but I just think
our most recent new year celebration, we
had a barbecue outside of our house in
the little kind of end of our soi, and
about three or four of our neighbors came
by and we, share everything together.
And it was just a good experience.
And I think, there are a ton
of nice neighbors that we have.
There's Khun Yai, who is an older
woman that lives here that we like to
help and she helps us all the time.
There's a dog that comes
running by seeing my kids.
It's just nice people.
That also leads into the
neighborhood restaurants.
A lot of these communities will have
people that have their own little side
business going on and they'll have a LINE
group where they'll sell certain things
and you just send 'em a LINE message and
they drop by your house and deliver it.
So when there's, 300 or 500 houses
in your community, chances are
you're gonna find someone that
offers something that you want.
Another perk I have is something,
of course you can get in central
Bangkok too, but we live in an area
that has these canals or khlongs
and at the end of each khlong there
are, there's a market at each end.
And so when we basically go out of our
neighborhood and drive down the street
for a few minutes we are instantly
have access to a large open market
where we can get poultry, where we can
get vegetables and little snacks and
smoothies, things like this for the kids.
So we do that about every weekend,
I'd say about once a week.
We just have quick access
to fresh produce, everything
from that local market.
And it's nice to buy sometimes from the
local market as opposed to the big chains.
Now this is a perk that's probably
just not beneficial to everybody.
But I personally love having,
door to door delivery.
So if I order Lazada packages or
I don't, we don't often get food
delivered, but when we have something
delivered, it comes right to our door.
For me, actually, something unique
about living in a neighborhood like
this is I'm able to have an ice bath
right under my little outdoor garage
type area, and I have an ice bath
and I have someone deliver three
large bags of ice to me every morning
and just pour it into my ice bath.
That's something that doesn't
cost me anything extra.
It's just, it's super simple because
they can deliver it right to my door.
That wouldn't be possible in a condo.
Another benefit I like here is the
slower pace of life, and I know that
people might think that Thailand is
generally more slow paced, especially
if you're coming from maybe a western
city, but still it's just congested and
rushed when you're in any city center.
And of course this is the perk
behind any suburbs, but people
are just a little more laid back.
And like I said, with
neighbors and people around the
neighborhood that you chat with.
Everyone's just not in a rush.
They'll talk with you casually, and
I really enjoy that because I think
that there's work time to where you're
really focused on getting something
done, but then there's life time where
you might want to actually enjoy a
conversation with someone, and you
definitely can get that when you're
living in a community like this.
Another perk is being nearby
schools and affordable schools.
So living up in the north here, there
are good schools nearby and my daughter
just got picked up this morning
with a van that went straight to her
school and it's about 30 minutes away.
But there are other options
that are even closer.
And just having a van be able to
pick us up or the bus be able to
pick your kids up to go to a good
school nearby, it's huge for us.
it's one of the main reasons
we moved out here was access
to a good multilingual school.
The last benefit I had is
easy access to Bangkok.
So when we were moving, I think there
are a lot of different options, but I
particularly chose this area because
it's easy to get into the city or
easy enough to get into the city.
We're pretty close to a tollway, so it's
a matter of going down one of the main
highways for 10 or 20 minutes getting
onto a tollway and heading into the city.
And of course we have
to pay for the tollway.
But my point is that it's not
like I have to think of taking
a big trip into the city.
It's maybe 30 minutes on when there's
no traffic, and maybe an hour if
there is on a typical scenario.
Now, of course we get hit sometimes
with much heavier traffic.
My point is I think some people
might think in terms of, let's
live in Bangkok, or let's live in
Chiang Mai, or live somewhere else.
And my only fear with that personally was
I'd be getting a flight or driving a very
long way if there was something going on
in the city or if I had to be in the city
for a meeting or something like that.
Whereas here, it's an inconvenience,
but it's just far more accessible.
Now that's it for the
pros that I can think of.
I'm sure there are more.
As far as the cons, living in a house,
you have to take care of things yourself
and so there's always maintenance things.
I'd say overall we've been
pretty lucky 'cause we went
with a pretty good developer.
There's water pumps that break.
There's air conditioner units
that need to be cleaned.
There's lawn that needs to be mowed.
And overall it's really
not that big a deal.
It's totally fine and there are people
that can help with certain things, but
you have to take care of your own space.
And it's different than calling the
people in the main office of a condo and
saying something broke, fix it for me.
In this case you're calling your
own person out to clean your air
conditioners or whatever, and a very
small con, but I thought I'd mention it.
The second con I have is
the access to hospitals.
So there are plenty of good hospitals in
this area, but we do drive into Bangkok
when we get certain things taken care of.
My wife recently had a surgery.
We went into Bangkok for that to
get the good surgeon that we wanted.
And we all know that Bangkok is really
well known for the healthcare options, and
all I'm saying is when you get a little
bit further outside the city, you're
just not gonna have as many options.
The hospital that's closest to us
is definitely mediocre at best.
I'm not gonna call out its name,
but the point is it's okay.
It's fine.
But when we actually want the better
quality healthcare, we're gonna typically
go into Bangkok versus staying out in
the suburbs where there's other local
options that aren't quite as good.
The third con is the
access to taxis and grabs.
When you're in the city, you can
just call a grab, jump on the
BTS, go where you want to go.
Whereas here I often do my best
by planning ahead quite a bit
more, so I'll call a grab unit
or schedule it maybe two to three
hours before I want to go somewhere
just so I get priority treatment.
Otherwise.
The grabs will often reject my
request because if they're out in
this area, they don't always want
to go into Bangkok or they don't
want to fight the traffic, right?
So they'll often reject it.
Or maybe they will accept it but
then not move for a long time.
And maybe they're just waiting
for me to reject it so that they
don't get that on their record.
And.
It is just annoying, I guess when
you think about how to get taxis.
Now I think there's ways around that.
If you meet some local taxi drivers
around here that you can call and get
a personal relationship with, then I'm
sure it would make it a little bit easier
to organize trips where you need to go.
But just know that grab
is a lot less reliable.
And that ties into the fourth con,
which is, you have to plan ahead.
And I think I do miss when I was in the
city and I'd be chatting with a friend
or I'd be talking with a business and
we'd want to have a quick meeting, right?
Let's just grab some coffee.
I don't often tell this to the
people that I'm meeting with, but I
don't, the people that know me know
that just grabbing a coffee means
it might be an hour and a half.
It might be quite a hike for me.
It's gonna be a long time in a taxi,
so it doesn't always make sense just
to have a quick chat with someone on a
over a 20 minutes drinking some coffee.
So I definitely miss that.
I miss that convenience you have
with always being able to say yes
and meet with people all the time and
maintain those friendships and whatnot.
It's a little bit harder to do when
you're a little bit further out.
And those are all the cons that I
can think of off the top of my head.
I definitely recommend considering
it, considering moving out to a
neighborhood, whether it be in the
area that I am, or it be an area maybe
south of Bangkok, closer Suvarnabhumi
Airport or Bang Na, something like this.
There are a lot of great communities
like this and I honestly didn't
realize they existed before meeting
a friend that had a nice house in
a community close to Suvarnabhumi.
And when I saw the community
I just, I was so surprised.
I saw he had kids, he had a nice house,
he had a playroom, he had all these things
and I was thinking, "this is Thailand?"
It didn't seem like Thailand to me.
But here I'm in a community of 500 houses.
It's maybe three foreigners live here,
but this is all just nice Thai families
that live in a great community out here.
And I think the middle class or
maybe is the upper middle class,
but a lot of people live this life
and I don't know that everyone
knows this type of life exists here.
I know I didn't.
So if you're at all frustrated living
in Bangkok and you're thinking, maybe
I'll move my family back to my home
country, or maybe I'll move somewhere.
Another country.
I'd say to give it another chance.
Look at other areas that exist
that you just didn't know existed,
because it's easy to live in a bubble
and not look at your other options
and just think that what you're
experiencing today is all there is.
For me, it's been big, it's
been a big improvement.
It's been four and a half years, and it's
been, as I shared, really mostly positive.
I'd say 90% positive.
If you have questions about living
in the suburbs, anything like
that, leave a comment in the video.
I'd be happy to help.
I'm not a real estate agent.
I don't have specific recommendations,
but I could certainly give you my
guidance or give you some tips if it's
something that you're considering.
And lastly, if you like videos like
this, if you are either in Thailand
or thinking about moving to Thailand
and you like to get this type of
information, either in more of a
presentation format or this walk and
talk style video subscribe to my channel.
I'm not a traveler YouTuber, I'm not gonna
tell you so much about food and whatnot.
I'm gonna tell you about living here
as a professional with a family.
I don't make money off this.
I'm a business owner here and I just
like to share things with other people.
So like I said, subscribe if that's
the sort of thing that you like.
And I wanna thank you for taking the
time today and making it to the end.
Alright, bye for now.