Gonna get some land!

[O.S.O.K.]

I'd like to see your land if you don't mind.


Rage

I will. I don't have the pics from the camera handy but I'll post some of those. I can also post a satelight pic too. Hopefully soon!

I talked to the bank Pres today (small bank) and he gave me the go ahead - said to let them know when I had a purchase agreement. I do want to get some other quotes though... and I'm still waiting to get feedback on the going land value before making the offer.

[sksAL]

sounds great! you get mineral rights too? i like the water on the property.

[Mark Ducati]

Mineral rights? That's right... get a shovel in the creek and try some panning, you never know what you might find a foot or so down that's been covered for a 1000 years.

There is Gold here in GA... when we get our land, that's one of the first things I plan to do.

[old Grump]

There is a natural draw that we can put a levy/burm accross to trap the running water and make a pond below where the bouse will sit.

You do know that there are a host of regulations regarding running water and what you can do with it. If it doesn't originate on your land and it leaves your land the regulations are even tougher. If you are really going to try and make a pond you will need to get with the state boys and get all your permits in order before you turn over the first shovel full of dirt or it is going to get real complicated and expensive.

I had considered making a pond on my land and I was going to have to fill it from a well because I have no running water. Then I looked into the permits and the requirements and the restrictions on depth, and surface measurements and what I could put in it and I dropped the plan. Then there was the question of insurance and the tax assessor taking another look at my property. Things you need to consider.

[coppertales]

mean SNAKES, the watermoc kind. Be careful. I gave up on the land plot in west Texas. I am concentrating on a UP camp now....chris3

[O.S.O.K.]

My buddy didn't get any permits that I know of. He just did it. I don't think there are any such required in this area.

Coppertails - I wondered about that West TX deal - very remote and dry... kinda cool but very remote and dry.

[coppertales]

I would do the west Texas land deal. It was on Terlingua Ranch. Lots of land for sale there cheap. The only problem is that most of it is off the grid. At 67, I just don't want to take up another project that is rather out of the way. I am satisfied with my camp in east Texas and the one I hope to buy in the UP. I have two on the line. All I have to do is convince the old lady to pull the trigger on one of them. After all the whining she has done about buying a place up there, now she is getting cold feet....chris3

Forgot to mention that I already have a lake access lot in the UP. We are just trying to decide wether to build a cabin on it or buy one already built.....chris3

[O.S.O.K.]

My wife did the same thing. She was gung ho and then after I call and tell her the loan is approved she has some misgivings.

I think its just the normal wife thing where they want you to be the one making the decision. If it works out great - fine if not, its on you

That's the way it is...

And I JUST FAXED THE OFFER IN TO THE AGENT!



Can't party or celibrate yet - he has to accept or counter now....

I came in a bit low but did my research to see what land was actually selling for - since this land is mixed pre-salable lumber and hardwood bottoms, I had to guestimate a proper price. The offer is $500+ below his list per acre though... but that was based on the whole parcel which was mostly presalable and salable lumber - which is higher.

So now we wait...

[old Grump]

Depends on how long the land was up for sale and how bad the seller needs to move it. I bought my place for basically what the owner needed to pay off the IRS so he had to sell and I was the only firm bid he had. He hadn't been reassessed for years so I was able to get it for what it was assessed at. Since then I have been reassessed twice and my taxes have tripled. I couldn't afford to buy it from me now with the market down and the assessment so high. Thank God I busted my hump with all those extra payments and got it paid off before I turned 65. Now all I have to worry about is stupid things like utilities, taxes, new roof, (ouch).

If your offer is firm and he doesn't have any other firm bids you are in the catbird seat. Good luck.

[abpt1]

My wife did the same thing. She was gung ho and then after I call and tell her the loan is approved she has some misgivings.

I think its just the normal wife thing where they want you to be the one making the decision. If it works out great - fine if not, its on you

That's the way it is...

And I JUST FAXED THE OFFER IN TO THE AGENT!



Can't party or celibrate yet - he has to accept or counter now....

I came in a bit low but did my research to see what land was actually selling for - since this land is mixed pre-salable lumber and hardwood bottoms, I had to guestimate a proper price. The offer is $500+ below his list per acre though... but that was based on the whole parcel which was mostly presalable and salable lumber - which is higher.

So now we wait...

Good luck!

[O.S.O.K.]

Thanks guys. I do have to check all of the pitfalls - back taxes, etc.. I don't think things are moving that quick right now but it depends on how badly the owner want's to sell.

There's not a lot of land for sale in this area but there is some - my buddy found another guy (timber man) that knows of other places - but they are all 150+ acreages and you don't know if the owner will subdivide...

30-35 acres is all that I want (to pay for)...

And OG, you should look into setting yourself up with wind/solar power generation. Once that is paid for, it's just maintenance and of course eventual equipment replacement, but the monthly cost works out to a very low figure. And if you have timber on your land, you should be able to take care of the heavy lifting with that (heating and cooking).

[old Grump]

Thought about both but I live in a valley and while I have a lot of pesky wind funneled up the valley most of it is of limited use. more slack time than high wind time. Solar is an option I am thinking of when I redo my roof but both are limited because of my location. Solar water heat would be good maybe 5 months of the year but the maintenance goes on year round. Solar electric appeals to me because the front of my house faces south, (on purpose), but the initial cost of solar panels and the wiring is way out of my reach. This is in my field of expertise and I know batteries and inverters well. To make a unit big enough I need to give up a room or add a small out building near the house.

But, and this is a real big 'but' for me, my area averages 89 full sun shine days a year and another 90 days of partial sunshine. Winter or summer it doesn't make any difference, solar power would work in cold weather but there is a reason suicides in my part of the country go up in February, you can go over 30 days with no sun showing at all and when you do get sun it gets colder than hell. If I lived where I want to live my house would be an advertisement for solar power but family obligations has me in Wisconsin and I'm getting a little long in the tooth to make a major change unless I win the lottery.

Wood I got and my brother and I both prefer wood heat, the problem is we got old and rickety when we weren't looking. Now it is only supplemental because we aren't able to go out and process it like we should. Hill what damn hill, I don't remember no friggin' hill. I have a hard time just getting a garden in and while I still shoot way more than most it is beginning to become more of an effort too.

[coppertales]

My fingers are crossed. I spoke with my BIL and he thinks I am doing ok with this buy. FIL likes it too. He said he will walk the property to see if it is all like the front part. I notice a dirt road touches the NE corner of the property so I may have access to the back side. This property is a HUD and in forclosure so the bank may just want to dump it and claim the loss to zero and get a refund. My inlaws live on an excellent walleye lake about 3 miles away. I am looking forward to spending my summers there. Now, to get this house ready and sold so I can get out of the city....chris3

[old Grump]

Good luck on the house sale but that might take awhile too unless you are willing to take a big chunk out of its market price in order to move it. I hope you have a heck of an aggressive Realtor pushing your property. One house I sold in Prospect Heights Illinois when houses were selling still took me two years to move selling for market price and two houses I sold in Wisconsin since then I basically sold for what I had in them, took me 6 months to get rid of them.

[O.S.O.K.]

OK, this is a satelite pic of the total parcel - I have the offer in on the part in the lower right-hand corner. See the white county road running north to south? That's the western side of the division that I'm after which lies to the east of the road and outlined in blue. It's about 35 acres or so. The total blue outline is 154 acres. The light color is 3 year old pine in this pic which is from 2007 - the pine is now 7 years old. The little dark green spot on the left is actually an area that has a small family cemetary on it (there's one headstone for a young woman who died in 1840's). The other dark areas are hardwoods and bottoms. The land to the south and east of this is a cattle ranch (a guy from Texas - go figure!).

I have some ground shots too - from when we were "touring" but they're on my wife's camera and I can't find it... I'd blow this up but I had a hard enough time getting this off of the pdf file that I had...

[coppertales]

You can do a little paranormal investigating. Nice piece of land. Tell us where it is after you buy it.

I don't think I will have any problem selling this house. When I bought it I did the location, location, location thingie. Quiet street, elementary and middle schools two blocks away, 4 grocery stores within 3 miles, major mall 5 miles away, DFW airport 12 miles away, Fort Worth 10 miles away. Besides, this area is fast growing. chris3

[O.S.O.K.]

Things in Texas aren't as slow as in other parts of the US. Houses are still selling - though slower than before... but they are selling. I've seen it in my own little community.

I will say that the large, expensive houses are sitting. It's the smaller houses $150K and less that seem to be selling.

My town is typical of a lot of smaller towns - has large mansion type homes for $500K on down to stuff that needs to be knocked down.

[O.S.O.K.]

Well, heard back from the agent - he countered with $2260 or flat amount of $70K. Not what I was looking for. Further, they want $7000 in earnest money - WTF? Crazy.

We located some other property and there's another guy that has some listings I can check out.

[O.S.O.K.]

I replied to this guy and thanked him for the quick response, told him how I got to the offer price and let him know that there's other acceptable land available.

We do like this spot but there are more... see what he does.

[O.S.O.K.]

Contacted another realtor and she recommended a bunch of other banks - said that 20 and even 15% down is more like standard.... she also has some good listings - going be back in the area in a few weeks and check em out. One place is 80 acres for $86K - doable but is out further... but the sats look very nice - prime hunting area.

This may take a while... but I'm on it like a bloodhound now - the wife's even bugging me now asking what I did each day