Thanks for the info. I'll be going for a building progress inspection in February, but not moving yet. I'll have a ton of "sitting around" time. Maybe I should look into opening a Thai bank account. I've been sending a lot of money to my builder by wire to his account. I wonder if that transaction history would aid the Thai bank in trusting me. But, I'll only be on an entry visa.

OK, so I'm going to be the dissenter. IF you have the right builder, you can do it in absentia. I am. I do go back periodically; I was there for the foundations. My builder sends photos via LINE frequently and the building progress is WAY ahead of payment. Trust works both ways. We don't even have a contract, all done by handshake. Now... I did do extensive background on my builder and his reputation is golden, having built 90% of the farang villas in the neighborhood (Ao Nang, Krabi. Near Chanapha Residence, which he also built).