Land buying

Ok, I know there is a thread about buying land just under this post BUT its just so lengthy with everyone getting off topic I can't concentrate . Say hypothetically I am offered some land (owner financed). Where would I begin? What questions do I ask? What research do I do? Who do I contact? What kind of payments should I expect besides taxes and of course the land payment? ANY help would be appreciated. I just don't wanna get the shaft later down the road or caught with a big payment for some off the wall "fee".

first,

you have to establish a value of the property. get some comps in the area of similar acreage properties that have sold in the last 12 months.

make sure the Price per acre is in line with what other like-places have sold for recently.

Owner financed places typically are not that different from a conventional land loan. only difference is the owner is playing the bank and collecting interest. Call some banks and get a idea of what loan terms and rates are. that way you have another negotiating tool and make sure you are getting a fair deal.

Run it thru a title company. Make sure the property has no existing liens. have a Real estate broker or Real estate attorney take care of the paperwork end of it. make sure there is no Penalty for paying off the balance early, that way , you can re-finance with a bank down the road and get a better interest rate.

how big of a place are you talking about?


if you have any other questions feel free to ask

Definitely have the title researched, get appraisal, make sure you know where the property is (current survey or really good field notes). Make damn sure that there is a deeded access if not direct from a public road.

I'm now in the process of buying a piece of land that I was told had access and was given a copy of the deed. When I went out and walked the property with just my wife, I discovered that the "deeded access" didn't actually connect to the property I was buying. I wouldn't have wanted to learn that tidbit after I closed.

the access will be shown on a survey and will be shown on the schedule B of the title commitment if there is an easement.

Only way you wouldn't have found out about it is if you just swapped deeds.

Always run a transaction thru a title company

If they have a survey. It'll be on the schedule to be excluded from the title commitment, along with the fifty or so other oil and gas easements, temporary timber easements and everything else. The title company did their thing and nobody knew that the access easement didn't actually connect to the property and never did until I made the discovery. Fortunately it was prior to closing. I was also fortunate that one of the land owners agreed to grant an easement, otherwise I would have walked on the whole deal. Getting the survey for the easement description done now.

So your sellers didn't have a survey?

I thought you had to have a survey done?

not all the time. sometimes the title company will accept an existing survey. more often than not the lenders will require either a new survey or a re-certification of the existing survey if its over a certain number of years old.

if the title company did miss the fact that there is no legal access to the property (the easement) then that's what your title policy is for and they would have covered it. the exceptions (schedule B) are things they won't insure (recorded easements, oil and gas leases, mineral reservations, etc.)

Gotcha... when I did the survey on my place I figured out that one neighbor has about a 1/2 acre of mine fenced off on his side... what do you usually do then?

I was saving it for blackmail

Well if it is fenced off, depending on how long the fence has been up, it may no longer be your half acre. Adverse possession....

When I bought my house I had it surveyed and found out my neighbor's fence was partially on my side, partially on the line, and partially too far on his side. In addition to the fence not being in the right place I later found out their lateral lines for their septic system were on my property. The property was once a bigger piece owned by the same person and inherited and split up and sold when they died. Fortunately my neighbor agreed to fix it without force. I did my homework and the county was going to make them if they wouldn't own up to it.

3years... ill just cut the fence then right?

Have you been paying taxes on it?

They could claim adverse possession since they have been maintaining it

FYI it's not uncommon for fence lines to be off from the actual boundaries.

Yup been paying for 3 yrs now

Not a big deal really I just thought it would be funny to set a pordachitter right in the middle of it and see what kind of conversation it would bring up

write your neighbor a letter stating the discrepancy of the fenceline and ask for a payment of market value of the acreage.

That's a really good plan!!! I just txted that fool

you must know him pretty well to address him as fool in a text demanding compensation for land that is on his side of the fence

He took it well I told him if he didn't comply I was going to go get every stray dog from town and drop off at his house

Don't stop at stray dogs. Insist on running goats on that piece that's yours.

No they didn't and refused to get one done. I discounted my offer greatly to account for the survey cost and risk. Due to the shape, terrain and heavy growth the survey cost would be pushing 10% of the transaction cost. I certainly wasn't going to front the cost of the survey before I owned the property. The existing field notes were good and acceptable to the title company and lender.

I did hire a surveyor to plot the access for me.