Tn Land for sale by owner questions ?

   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #41  
I have bought and sold a couple of properties this way and it has worked pretty well for me. The first one I bought was the property where I went in business for myself. I am thankful to this day that the old gentleman helped me out as the bank would not touch me with a ten foot pole. Though I had a good credit report (1976) I had no down payment and had to make a living off the property from day one to pay my family bills. I had no down payment so he took a lein on a second house I owned and agreed to give me one year to sell it and pay off the down payment, plus I was to deposit a monthly payment at the bank every month in his account. (The bank controlled all of this) I sold my house within the time stated, paid the down payment, and continued for about 5 years making monthly payments in his account. Finally it was paid off. About 15 years later I had the property split and was selling part of it to a friend, under land contract also (the amout I received was enough to build a new shop on the remaining half.) He paid me monthly (13%interest at the time)Finally paid it off after about 10 years. (a good deal for him also as he didnt have money to buy it out right,) Gave me enough money for a down payment, enough to get the shell up for my new bulding and with his monthly payments, I finished it like Johnny Cash's car "one peice at a time" Finally when I went to get it deeded over to him, I found out that the bank had never contacted the original seller I bought it off of and had the lein canceled and didnt even know how to get ahold of him as almost 20 years had passed. I found out he had acctually died about 10 years previous. My worst night mare begin to appear. His heirs asked me to prove I had paid it off. I didnt have all the canceled checks from that far back. I simply said you know your dad and you know the business man he was and he would have repossed the property instantly if I missed a payment. Luckely thats all it took, they discharged the lein. My brother bought a house on land contract and paid on it for 10 years, only to have it repossed because the seller had used it for collaterial on a loan and defaulted. (I really dont think he had a good contract drawn up by a lawer).
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #42  
The law in Tn does not require 3 missed payments. On a land contract it is what ever the agreed to contract says. One payment over 30 days late can allow the land owner to re-claim the land with not much re-course from the buyer. The buyer could go to court, but if he signed the land contract agreeing to those terms he is not going to win.

Buy owner land has been around forever and it is the responsibility of the buyer to know exactly what he is getting into. It can be a great deal for both buyer and seller just as easily as a nightmare for both. I have bought and sold land "buy owner" and speaking as a seller trust me it's no fun when you get stiffed on a payment month after month. Phone calls and lies tend to get the blood pressure up.
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #43  
I have about 7 or 8 months left on a land contract where I sold my other home. I had bought it same way from my sister & brother - n -law. The people it is being sold to are 2nd nephew of my Bro-n-law I had bought from. I sold it cheap w 5% interest rate which they are regularly late and pay a 50/month late fee on top of the 500/month payment. If they had made all payments on time they would have had it paid off already lol...

Anyhow my contract I had drawn up gives them one months due 1st of every month and if not paid by 10th is a 50buck late fee. If not paid by following 1st it is null and void becoming a month to month rent. If they are not paid in full by the last day of that 2nd month eviction notice will be sent out.

I pay taxes as the home is in MY NAME until it is paid off but they are "responsible for the amount to be paid" so they pay me at tax rebate time the full year land taxes. I also have the ability to inspect the property with notice if they are late. I also have rights of notification of any damage or major rework. They have not kept up the home/yard like I would have liked but ech they are living there...

One thing about buying wooded land is the actual value of the timber on the land needs to be taken into account as 50K in trees on a 80K property would be a good deal. BUT you have to make sure the NEW owner does not log/clear cut it and walk away from the contract stealing the 50K of lumber leaving a mess and unimproved property now worth substantially less than was originally sold.

Mark
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #44  
Get a certified surveyor plat of the property and title insurance, although title insurance is mostly a rip-off as they have so many exclusions, it's very hard to sue them. A good land lawyer may be a better way to go. Go see the property, old Google aerials may not show that all the timber was harvested and the land is only worth pennies on the dollar.

Pap

We just won +35 acres with a house, shop and pole barn at an auction. For the closing, I've ordered a survey, which I believe to have been completed, and title insurance. I hired probably the best real estate lawyer in the county (he is also the lawyer for the county).

He is also doing research on the road that ends at my property. At one time (i.e. the mid '30's via a USGS map) the road continued all the way through my property, over the side of the mountain and down to the other blacktop about mile past my property. Around the mid-50's the road was shown as stopped at my property line where the gate is now located.

We close the Thursday after next. Wish me luck!
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #45  
We just won +35 acres with a house, shop and pole barn at an auction. For the closing, I've ordered a survey, which I believe to have been completed, and title insurance. I hired probably the best real estate lawyer in the county (he is also the lawyer for the county).

He is also doing research on the road that ends at my property. At one time (i.e. the mid '30's via a USGS map) the road continued all the way through my property, over the side of the mountain and down to the other blacktop about mile past my property. Around the mid-50's the road was shown as stopped at my property line where the gate is now located.

We close the Thursday after next. Wish me luck!

Congratulations and good luck.
We call those "paper roads" here (they exist on paper only) and they can be the source of trouble. I'm sure your lawyer will check that for you.
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #46  
Congratulations FTG-05. If your lawyer is good, he'll know how to file for a quit-claim deed and get that property restored to you. What you described happens pretty often. Sometimes there's an actual road and in other cases it was just a road easement that was never used.
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #47  
Most of our "paper roads" are ones that existed and were used back when more people lived in Maine's rural areas, then abandoned because nobody needed them.

Their legal status can be murky.
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #48  
Dave, my understanding of a quit-claim deed when applied to easements is a way of clearing title problems. Whether a road was ever used and abandoned or just shown as an easement on the plat, the grantor of the quit-claim deed returns unlimited rights of the land to the owner of the deed. So, while the quit-claim carries no title to land, it clears the encumbrance to the original deed. For example, it would allow you to build a structure near or on the prior easement. Does that make any sense at all?:)
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #49  
Jim, I don't know about the quit claim, and laws are probably different around the country too.

The problem people run into here with paper roads is it is hard to determine if it was ever recognized as a public way by the town. The records are ancient and/or lost. If it ever was a true public way, or could be construed to have been one, then I don't think a quit claim from adjoining land owners can extinguish the public interest in the road here. It takes an action by the town to do that.

It's a mess. The legislature has tried to get towns to fish or cut bait on these old roads, but I think the progress has been halting. If a road is legally declared non-existent here, I think the road right of way is split between abutters, and the town issues a quit claim. The towns try to avoid ticking someone off who believes they have a road right of way that their grand dad told them about, while also trying to avoid "owning" the road and the maintenance needed. Most are either totally lost or look like an ATV trail at best.

In the OP's case, if that road is a true public way and it is providing legal access to land owners up the hill beyond him for example, they wouldn't like to see it taken away from their property; even if they have no plans of using that access.
 
   / Tn Land for sale by owner questions ? #50  
Well, the survey is done and in the hands of my lawyer for his title examination!

More good news: When they took the original two tracts (one 18 acres, the other 19.80 acres) and combined them into one tract, I gained another .16 acres!

The reason for this is the two tracts were separated by the old road (now driveway) and when they were combined, I got the road/driveway area!

6 days and counting to closing!!!
 
 
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