buying land

[bdog]

I am looking at buying some land for the first time. Well, I mean serious acreage for the first time. I currently own a house on 5 acres, but am looking at buying 160 acres. It is basically the dream place I have always wanted. I am not looking to make a living off of the land just a recreation type place and ultimately build a home there. I am excited about it, but scared at the same time because it is a major financial committment and something entirely new to me. Any basic tips or common pitfalls to look out for? Just trying to do some research on this before I jump head in.

 

[MotorSeven]

Here's a couple .......
Talk to someone other than the real estate broker about the bordering neighbors. I'm not saying that you need to get the warm and fuzzzys, but it would be nice to know if the guy on your west property line just got out of prison for cooking meth on his place .
Drive around all of the surrounding area, you don't want any suprises when you go down that old gravel road that is 1/2 mile away and find the county dump.
Get a survey if it hasn't already been done. What i thought was the best(and only) good site on the initial property i bought turned out to belong to the folks on the east side of me .
Get the title insurance, it is cheap, and you never know what could pop up later.
If there is a wetland on the place assume that it will have environmental restrictions that could impact your building site.
Driveways/wells/septic can run into more money if the soil/terrain is not condusive for their use.
Know what the land was used for, because it's remnants will be there for many years.
Hope i ain't too cautious, but it's better to have you eyes open going in.

RD

 

[CDsdad]

Hope i ain't too cautious, but it's better to have you eyes open going in.

RD[/QUOTE]

I'll have to agree with being cautious. On the other side it is land, no more is being made, probably won't do anything but appreciate in value. And a fellow can get a good distance away from folks on 160 acres. I'd jump at the chance to buy more.

 

[dubba]

If there is wetland please get a survey of the property from a soil scientist. They will tell you & delineate on a map all of the areas you may not touch.

My only regret of my acreage is that I didn't get a soil survey before I bought my property.

 

[Nasty135]

I am looking at buying some land for the first time. Well, I mean serious acreage for the first time. I currently own a house on 5 acres, but am looking at buying 160 acres. It is basically the dream place I have always wanted. I am not looking to make a living off of the land just a recreation type place and ultimately build a home there. I am excited about it, but scared at the same time because it is a major financial committment and something entirely new to me. Any basic tips or common pitfalls to look out for? Just trying to do some research on this before I jump head in.

That is exciting!! I think you have received good advice, The other thing that might be helpful but not imperative would be to meet the owners of the adjacent land...

Are you going to need a bigger tractor or just add to the fleet??

 

[Farmwithjunk]

I am looking at buying some land for the first time. Well, I mean serious acreage for the first time. I currently own a house on 5 acres, but am looking at buying 160 acres. It is basically the dream place I have always wanted. I am not looking to make a living off of the land just a recreation type place and ultimately build a home there. I am excited about it, but scared at the same time because it is a major financial committment and something entirely new to me. Any basic tips or common pitfalls to look out for? Just trying to do some research on this before I jump head in.

Look at the neigbors places. You're buying the surroundings too.

Consider nearby developement, or lack of developement.

Consider local government (local/county/state) and the future possibility of laws, ordinances, and zoning.

Look at appraisals from 5 or 10 years ago, vs. current if that info is available to you.

Try to get an arborist or timber buyer to look at the condition of trees on the land. Not critical, but "good to know".

Water. Is "city water" available? If not, do wells function OK? Also, surface water and/or runoff. Creeks, ponds, ect. May play in to your plans. No water and plans for cattle for instance.

Utilities and their availablity. This may or may not be high on your priority list, but can play a key role in the future value of the place, should you choose to sell later or go to borrow money for improvements.

Roads in the area. (Lack of good roads can mean FUTURE roadbuilding in some cases)

Soil structure and condition.

Look for any "superfund site". (A friend bought a farm near me on which he later found a dozen drums full of unknown chemical compound. He spent a small fortune getting it cleaned up) Looks perfectly harmless but can be a real deal killer.

Investment potential and area "stability". No matter what your immediate plans are, buy with an eye towards future value. Plans change as you get towards those "senior years". What seems to be your home for life now may just be your meal ticket 50 years later. Buy smart. And that beautifull 500 acre farm across the way? What happens if it's in an estate and the owners decide to divide it into 5 acre tracts and have an auction? Suddenly you have 100 neighbors with 100 different agendas instead of that one beautiful place. This is a great unknown, but at least you can evaluate the current situation. Ask around. See what's going on with neighboring property. My parents owned their land for 56 years when they died. When they bought it, there was nothing but farms around it. Corn fields on one side, strawberry fields on the other. Both neighbors died and the land was sold in smaller tracts. They ended up with a 25 year old broken down mobile home on one side, and a $2,500,000 home built by a state lotto winner on the other side. You have no control over what happens to the neighborhood when you're "out in the boonies".

If all those things are good to go, then do you get that "warm and fuzzy feeling" when you see the place?

 

[dmccarty]

Check out the deeds in the county for the place you are looking at buying as well as the neighbors. I spent quite a big of time in the GIS(Maps) office in the county and the deeds office. In one case the lady working in the GIS office would have been my neighbor if we had bought the land I was studying. She had some interesting information on the area.

Does the land perc? Does the county have good perc in general or bad. No perc no house. Again go talk to the county. If you need building permits find out what you have to do to get the permit and how much it will cost. In my county, after you show you are not in a flood zone you can pay your fee to get the county to come out and check the site you picked for the septic system. They should be able to tell you how good your chances are or are not.

If you can get a conventional septic that is great. If not then you have to figure the cost of the septic system in your overal financing.

Utilites are the same. I would assume you have to have a well. How deep? How much to get there? Will it need treatment. In my case the same people that provide the permits and inspections for septic systems work with wells. They can give you an idea of how far down people are haivng to go to hit water. No gurantee that is what you will have to do but its a good place to start.

Power. Can you get it? How much will it cost? We looked at one parcel where they power would have had to travel in 1200 feet. I don't think we would have had to pay for the installation. The house we did build underground power was brought in a good 2000 feet that we did not have to pay to install. But I think we are a special case. We had to talk with the power company's engineer to get all of this done. They can tell you if you have to pay or not. If you have to pay I would check with the local and state govenment to make sure you really have to pay.

Subscribe to the local paper in the area you want to move. That way you will pick up on what is happening locally.

Drive around the place in question and see what the neighbors are like. It matters.

If there is timber on the land you need to figure out what it is worth. Get a timber agent to look at it. It might be worth quite a bit of money and help you figure out how much you can spend to buy the land.

Later,
Dan

 

[Pilot]

Good advice from others. I can add ony a couple things:

Call well drillers in the area. They log all the wells they drill & can tell you how deep you are likely to need to go. And in our area, price per foot varies with how busy they are.

Take your time & walk all the property. You don't want any surprises. 160 acres can hide lots of things.

Power: When you talk with the power folks, see if anyone around your area has a plow & can plow in your power line. We are 1300 ft. off the road & it cost about 1/2 as much to have the line plowed in (vs. having a ditch dug & filled in) and we never have to worry about a falling tree taking out our power line--at least on OUR property. And, the underground powerline was also cheaper than poles, but only because of the plow. Related concern: Cable TV, computer service & phone. Our phone line went in with the power line & saved us a bundle. Our phone company owns the cable company and there is no competiton for either, so our DSL costs twice as much as in Portland, 30 miles away. You may not be able to do anything about these things, but it is good to know going in.

 

[bones1]

You have received some very excellent and accurate advice here.Get a plat and title search to make sure no indians still own it .Do the best you can when researching to property and then make the decision.Make sure it's buildable land and then think about when will you get this opportunity again.
I envy your position.

 

[RonMar]

Take your time & walk all the property. You don't want any surprises. 160 acres can hide lots of things.

All ecellent advice so far. the above quote sticks in my mind though.

Take lots of time to walk the property and look over the surrounding areas. it is best not to do this all at once. It takes a while for the "Wow I could own this property" effect to wear off. With that running strong, you might unconsciously overlook things or not see the faults/problems as being as serious as they really are. It is the same with buying a used car. That salesman dosn't want you to take a long hard look, they want you to float out on the euphoria of owning that car before the realities of the situation set in. When you walk, take a notebook and just start write observations down like you were making a map. Don't worry about classifying them good or bad at that time, just pretend it is a friend that is asking your advice on buying this land. Later, away from distractions, take out the list and review it, classifying your observations into plusses and minuses. Next time you go look, build on that list.

I spent what I thought was a fair ammount of time over several days looking at my current place. I have lost count of how many tires I have found. I am still finding them after 5 years and I only own 7.5 acres. Found two antique trucks(both complete scrap) and a bunch of other twisted metal and a large fuel tank shot full of holes. The only thing I recall seeing in my initial surveys was the fuel tank. I am lucky that I have a scrap metal place nearby but I have made at least a dozzen truck loads to take care of the metal. Hasn't cost me anything but it is still my time and energy used to remove it. You know how much it costs to get rid of tires these days These little things all add up in terms of cleanup cost and manhours. The good thing about 160 acres is that if you build out in the middle of it, you might not ever have to see the neighbors. On the other hand, 160 acres is a lot of property line to monitor. Good luck