Buying adjacent property that is not for sale

[tlj87]

We rent out a ~18 ac field to a local farmer. Our property is 100 ac. There are two ways to access this field: nearly 1 mile of driveway and trails through our property or 1/4 mi of access road on the adjacent property. The adjacent property is a 32 ac wooded parcel and is owned by the sister of the farmers (two brothers). The sister lives out of town while the brothers live down the road. The brothers have asked several times to buy the field from me (and the previous owner of my property). I do not want to sell. In fact, I would like to buy their sisters' property which has the access road. This would allow us to have an alternate access for our property and a good way to get to the field with larger vehicles/equipment (our trails can accommodate a pickup, but no more). If we ever want to discontinue renting the field to these farmers, the field would probably sit unused as there is no other way to get in with large farm equipment.

We have a verbal agreement to use the access road on the adjacent property when necessary and had a written contract to use it when we harvested some timber from our property a few years back.

Does anyone have any suggestions about how to approach this?

 

[300UGUY]

I guess you need to contact the sister. If you know where she lives, you should be able to get a phone number.

 

[oosik]

Make her an offer she can't refuse.

 

[randy41]

offer the sister something for an easement to use the road.

 

[nc redneck]

Go online and get sister contact info if you do not have it. Leave brothers out. If you really want it make offer that hurts within 20 % of your top dollar, put a timeline on offer 3 to 6 months. Include no financing or banks needed able to close in 30 days. I would do it in writing preferably registered mail, so you know she got it. Follow up in 3 and 6 months. Include language that states you are looking at other land or opportunities to purchase something if she does not follow through.
Good Luck
Scott

 

[Jstpssng]

offer the sister something for an easement to use the road.

X2 if your main ohjective is access. Otherwise I wouldn't pay more than fair market value for the land unless it would enhance the value of your current holdings.

 

[EddieWalker]

When I bought my land, there was a parcel next to it that gave me the access I wanted. Without it, I really didn't want the land. I looked up who owned the land and told them that I would like to buy the land if they where willing to sell. They asked how much and I made them an offer. They refused my offer and I walked away from the land. Several weeks later they called me back and said that they had been thinking about my offer and realized it was costing them money to have the land and it was a liability they didn't want to have any longer. They said they wanted more, and I said that I was at top end of what the comps where for land in that area and couldn't go any higher. A couple days later they called me back and agreed to my price. I put an offer on the original piece of land contingent on buying both parcels. My realtor claimed to be an expert in buying rural land, but he was useless at this and kept pushing for me to offer more money. He wad good at getting me the info on the comps and in the original parcel, but not so much with dealing with the owners of the smaller piece that I wanted.

Hope it works out for you

Eddie

 

[oosik]

There is an 80 acre parcel adjoining mine that I would like to purchase. However, folks are moving into this area from the city and land prices are "to the moon". All the land around me and in this locality is zoned agriculture - minimum lot size is 20 acres. Even at that size land is currently valued at $5K to $8K per acre. The high value does break at 80 acres and larger but still is terribly high.
This artificially high value sure doesn't help the tax situation either. Can you even imagine paying $160,000 for a 20 acre chunk of land? And most of the land around here is only good as open range land. Whew!! End of my rant.

 

[dave1949]

I think it will be tricky getting between the brothers and the sister. It sounds like they use the sister's parcel now to access the 18Ac field that you rent to them? If they do, then the siblings must be on speaking terms at least. My guess is the first thing the sister will do if you ask to purchase her parcel is to call her brothers, who are likely to tell her how useful her parcel is/would be for your 18Ac field access if she doesn't know already.

Good luck. Maybe there is some combination or land split that would make everyone happier than they are now. But it does sound possible that no one will get all of what they want.

 

[fluffyone]

you can buy an easment, or if she has agreed to it already you need to record it and make it part of the deed. It is against the law to keep someone from their property if that is the only way to access it. Also you can a private party to buy it for you, sometimes you can get a better deal that way. Because if they know you want it the price will go up.