How much does an acre of land go for in your area?

[Ken]

I bought 8 additional acres by my home for $5000 an acre a couple of years ago but this was an unusual deal.

Where land is subdivided into 1 acre lots here they sell for about $80,000 per acre but they had a couple of 200+ acre spreads selling for $16,000 per acre.

Land 1/2 mile away from me across the Mississippi is selling for $400,000 for a 1/2 acre lot.

I have 160 acres of timberland in the Ozark National Forest in the mountains of Northwest Arkansas with great deer hunting and a site where a home could go with a great view bordering on a creek and with blacktop access. I have had it listed for sale for a year now and only want $1000 per acre but so far, no buyers.

Give just a little more information on location of the NW Ark. land
I'm in the North Central part of the Ozarks.

 

[tallyho8]

Give just a little more information on location of the NW Ark. land
I'm in the North Central part of the Ozarks.

It's in Johnson County on Hwy. 123 bordering Little Piney Creek in the Piney Creeks WMA.

 

[Gordon Gould]

This is the scariest thread I've ever read. How do people make ends meet ?
I bought this 170 acre place for $500 an acre in 1999 and in my mind thats propably about what it is worth today. Plus the 1300 sq-ft house my wife and I built on it ourselves. I am glad we like it because we couldn't afford to go anywhere else from what I see here.

 

[Ken]

It's in Johnson County on Hwy. 123 bordering Little Piney Creek in the Piney Creeks WMA.

Check for a private note from me thanks
ken

 

[grsthegreat]

The wife and i paid $2,000 an acre for my place (20 acres) with 10 additional across dirt street. We bought in 1993. In 2008, an acre here was selling for $40-50,000 per acre....i kid you not. My taxes went nuts. It was all due to nutty Californians coming here and buying whatever they could with the ton of $$$ they got from selling their 3 bedroom house in Calif back then.

Since then, prices have come down alot. But their still high. Near my place theres 7 acres without a house selling for $179,000, and its a crummy lot near a train track and intersection. Mine is all treed and weve built a nice house, shop, barn and carrage barn.

I'm fortunate to have bought when i did, as i couldn't afford to do it now. Everything is paid off and no loans over my head. If i had to do it today (and if any bank would loan $$) the payments would be unbearable.

I'm at a loss how today's kids will ever be able to afford their own home. its truly sad.

 

[grsthegreat]

I may have misread... isn't the $77,500 for the entire 25.69 acre parcel?

The reason I ask about property taxes is that is my biggest expense and one way to be forced from your land if the taxes become unaffordable...

Right now, my taxes property tax is $9,000 ($750 per month) for a 1725 square foot home built in 1956/57 with the original Formica Counters and Linoleum Floors on 1 acre with a public 20' easement bisected the property...

When my job was on the chopping block because the company where I work was being sold... I looked to Washington State... the property taxes there went up 80% two years after I bought and are now over $13,000... almost doubled the assessed value for what I paid and this is for a home built in 1977 and land...

I fear property taxes the most because it is something that happen to property owners and not a lot an individual can do other than fighting it every year... not how I want to spend my time.

Not independently wealthy... still working for a boss like most everyone else and on call 24/7 should anything happen... I started paying in Social Security at age 12 and very good about saving... not cell phone, cable, Video Games, Flat Screens, etc... in this house... did buy a new car once and it is 11 years old now... daily drivers are my 85 and 91 Chevy Trucks...

you searous about the taxes??? I pay $1,200 per year for taxes on 4500 sf house (new in 1996) a 30x40 shop, a 48 x 60 barn and a 30x60 carrage barn. Id shoot myself if i got hit with a 9K tax assassment.

 

[JimRB]

A few years ago which I suppose means 5 years ago the school system bought land 2 miles south of me for a high school at I think $18k an acre. 1.5 north of me closer to town someone is asking $600k for 100 acres. We paid $4k an acre for our little 9.3 acres 20 years ago and overpaid I guess because we did not have cash.

By the way no cell phone bill and no $160 a month tv bill. I get mad at a $80 satellite bill. I bet there is lots of fluff in some folks budget. I know I have fits of blowing money buying tools or going off bicycle racing. Then i have sanity for a few months.

 

[beppington]

This is the scariest thread I've ever read. How do people make ends meet ?
I bought this 170 acre place for $500 an acre in 1999 and in my mind thats propably about what it is worth today. Plus the 1300 sq-ft house my wife and I built on it ourselves. I am glad we like it because we couldn't afford to go anywhere else from what I see here.

Just wait till your property taxes catch up with everybody else's ... which I expect will happen at some point, since one way politicians take the easy way out is to say, "Oh, look, they're solving their problems that way, so we might as well, too. In fact, we'd be lagging behind if we didn't." It takes real mettle to not do what everybody else is doing, & politicians ain't got that kinda mettle.

 

[ultrarunner]

you searous about the taxes??? I pay $1,200 per year for taxes on 4500 sf house (new in 1996) a 30x40 shop, a 48 x 60 barn and a 30x60 carrage barn. Id shoot myself if i got hit with a 9K tax assassment.

Unfortunately yes... to be exact, the 1721 square foot home dating from 1956/57 is $9300.

People say California has a low tax rate... well the rate is only part of the equation and doesn't mean much with Bay Area prices coupled with the fact addition taxes were routinely approved by the voters of my fair city.

The one saving grace is California Taxes do have some predictability thanks to Prop 13... unlike WA where individual assessment do not.

On the bright side, the WA assessor notified me today my assessment has been reduced so I am only 20% higher then what I paid for the place... much better then the 80% it jump to 18 months after I bought.

Like Idaho, the WA assessor pointed to a property, someone from CA bought for a huge price and it affected everyone... now that the guy lost the property and it still hasn't sold... assessments have slowly dropped.

Idaho was a top destination for folks from the Bay Area and many took the insurance money from the 3,000 home Oakland firestorm and resettled around Sun Valley.

 

[ultrarunner]

I'm at a loss how today's kids will ever be able to afford their own home. its truly sad.

Not to get too far off topic...

I know young couple just starting out that have had no problems buying homes...

Just to give you an example.

They are married and 25 years old... she is a Registered Nurse making 135k and he is a Police Officer making 110k... almost a quarter million between them...

As a side bar... thousands of Bay Area Nurses are striking as I write this... the typical nurse at the 800 nurse Children's Hospital earns 135k per year... and yes, they are striking because management wants the employees to give back paid sick days and contribute more for Health Insurance.

I hope the Nurses didn't misjudge public support... the strike affects 33 Hospitals.

I know a specialty nurse working two jobs bringing in 200k... she works three twelve hour shifts and one Hospital and weekends in another.

 

[grsthegreat]

Not to get too far off topic...

I know young couple just starting out that have had no problems buying homes...

Just to give you an example.

They are married and 25 years old... she is a Registered Nurse making 135k and he is a Police Officer making 110k... almost a quarter million between them...

As a side bar... thousands of Bay Area Nurses are striking as I write this... the typical nurse at the 800 nurse Children's Hospital earns 135k per year... and yes, they are striking because management wants the employees to give back paid sick days and contribute more for Health Insurance.

I hope the Nurses didn't misjudge public support... the strike affects 33 Hospitals.

I know a specialty nurse working two jobs bringing in 200k... she works three twelve hour shifts and one Hospital and weekends in another.

Yeiks...

I have been thinking of buying some houses here and renting them out. There are entire subdivisions of 2-3 year old houses on 1/4-1/5 acre lots that used to sell for 180-220K, now going for about 100K cash sale.

I thought of bying a few and renting them out as side inclme, but have second and third thoughts of the damage a tennant can inflict on the house. Still looking though...who knows. Banks WONT loan on these houses, but cash is king.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yeiks...

I have been thinking of buying some houses here and renting them out. There are entire subdivisions of 2-3 year old houses on 1/4-1/5 acre lots that used to sell for 180-220K, now going for about 100K cash sale.

I thought of bying a few and renting them out as side inclme, but have second and third thoughts of the damage a tennant can inflict on the house. Still looking though...who knows. Banks WONT loan on these houses, but cash is king.

All depends...

The first questions would be is it worth your time and do you have the temperament to be a residential landlord?

The price of some of the homes around here are well below the cost of replacement, Labor, Material, Fees/Permits

I would think being a Landlord where you are has to be much more straight forward then in a large urban area with Rent Control plus other issues. Many starting out here quickly run afoul of compliance issues which gets very expensive real fast.

Start with a clean sheet of paper and figure your expenses vs income... take into account vacancy factor and maintenance allowance. When done, compare the rate of return to other investment opportunities.

Many have done very well over the years buying when the market was down, holding by renting and then selling and taking capital gains later.

Tenants will make or break you in this business.

The problem I was seeing is many were no longer treating income property as a business... they banked everything on appreciation and didn't care that rents came no where close to break-even.

New tracts in outlying areas are having some of the biggest problems... too many similar properties in foreclosure and then becoming rentals which pulls and area down.

A very young 96 year old lady friend of mine told me years ago... take care of the property and the property will take care of you.

She owns huge old Victorian home in Alameda CA... during the war years, they converted the ground floor into 4 apartments and she continues to live upstairs... She loves every minute of being a landlord... it has been her life since she lost her husband during WWII...

 

[brin]

Just remember , all it takes is one tenant from **** to do $10K or more damage...easily, it does not take much to reach that number..and you will never know until they leave in the middle of the night some time....be careful and like ultrarunner said, get that blank sheet of paper ...run the numbers and examine your own tolerance for fools and then make your mind up ..it is not an absentee business.

 

[beppington]

Yeiks...

I have been thinking of buying some houses here and renting them out. There are entire subdivisions of 2-3 year old houses on 1/4-1/5 acre lots that used to sell for 180-220K, now going for about 100K cash sale.

I thought of bying a few and renting them out as side inclme, but have second and third thoughts of the damage a tennant can inflict on the house. Still looking though...who knows. Banks WONT loan on these houses, but cash is king.

I think you have to just let it go & hope the deposit you collected is enough to cover the repairs

 

[clemsonfor]

Not to get too far off topic...

I know young couple just starting out that have had no problems buying homes...

Just to give you an example.

They are married and 25 years old... she is a Registered Nurse making 135k and he is a Police Officer making 110k... almost a quarter million between them...

As a side bar... thousands of Bay Area Nurses are striking as I write this... the typical nurse at the 800 nurse Children's Hospital earns 135k per year... and yes, they are striking because management wants the employees to give back paid sick days and contribute more for Health Insurance.

I hope the Nurses didn't misjudge public support... the strike affects 33 Hospitals.

I know a specialty nurse working two jobs bringing in 200k... she works three twelve hour shifts and one Hospital and weekends in another.

Holy *****. Thats crazy money! Now i realize after watching all these house hunting and redoing shows on tv how yall do it in those big cities!! I never in my mind realized that kind of money was bing paid!!! I live here in SC in a rural area but even in columbia and greenville the 2nd and 3rd or something largest towns in the state a nure might make 55K-60K if shes about 25 less if she lives in my area , which is rural. A 25 yr old cop with a college degree would be lucky to make 40K here!

 

[Mousefield]

Just remember , all it takes is one tenant from **** to do $10K or more damage...easily, it does not take much to reach that number..and you will never know until they leave in the middle of the night some time....be careful and like ultrarunner said, get that blank sheet of paper ...run the numbers and examine your own tolerance for fools and then make your mind up ..it is not an absentee business.

You are right BRIN. I have had good tenants and some REAL bad one's. If we could we would get rid of the two rental mobiles on our property. While it can be a good business it can be very stressfully as well. You will find "nice" people who are con artists and real good at lying. It only takes a few weeks for them to do many thousands of dollars in damages. Up here we have a government tenancy branch that does not do a lot for landlords. I know one person who was not paid rent for 4 months and the tenancy branch still would not let the landlord evict them. He finally went over with a few friends and physically removed the tenant and his belongings. It can be a very tough go at times but if you get some half decent tenants it can be rewarding. Good luck if you do become a landlord, you just might need it.

 

[Dargo]

Holy *****. Thats crazy money! Now i realize after watching all these house hunting and redoing shows on tv how yall do it in those big cities!! I never in my mind realized that kind of money was bing paid!!! I live here in SC in a rural area but even in columbia and greenville the 2nd and 3rd or something largest towns in the state a nure might make 55K-60K if shes about 25 less if she lives in my area , which is rural. A 25 yr old cop with a college degree would be lucky to make 40K here!

Well, I don't know if that's crazy money, but there are no nurses or police in my area that make that sort of money either. I'm not about to say they aren't worth it, and not implying you are saying that either, but the market just won't bear even half those wages in 'fly over country' like where I live. I don't think our mayor makes what that nurse makes. There again, she's probably worth 10X what our mayor is! LOL

 

[ultrarunner]

Holy *****. Thats crazy money! Now i realize after watching all these house hunting and redoing shows on tv how yall do it in those big cities!! I never in my mind realized that kind of money was bing paid!!! I live here in SC in a rural area but even in columbia and greenville the 2nd and 3rd or something largest towns in the state a nure might make 55K-60K if shes about 25 less if she lives in my area , which is rural. A 25 yr old cop with a college degree would be lucky to make 40K here!

It really does boggle the mind...

I don't have the city salaries in front of me...

My high school buddy retired with credit for sick time and got his 30 years in... he never made it too chief... but worked his way up... his pension at age 51 is 186k per year with lifetime medical...

Who would have known? Some of my other high school friends had dads in law enforcement... they were always working side jobs with permission because money was tight... never a new vehicle.

 

[Pete Judd]

I think that the only way to make money as a landlord is to have several rentals, so you can average it out over the year. I have a horror story as well with the renters, and use a good agent to act as your interface with the renters as well. They will know how to get rid of them in a legal way, and will only charge you 10 percent plus costs. They can also run the credit checks, and background checks before renting them out. It is nice to have an broker to buffer you from the day to day.

 

[mjarrels]

Some of the best advise I ever heard was to look inside the potentional renters car when they are looking at the house. IF the car is trashed inside/out... DON'T rent to them.

mark