Help me decide to do with some land

RollingsFarms · Jan 28, 2015

I inherited an acre of land from my father's estate that I'm not sure what to do with. I say an acre, I would guess it's 1.3 acres or so. It has a well on it that hasn't been used in a couple of years and I'm not paying to have it tested or fixed, has city water hookup, is right next to a busy road, neighbors on both sides, is in town. It has an abandoned mobile home on it (this was an old rental property of his) and a falling down old house. I have had several people ask me about the mobile home and the house and I've told them I'd GIVE both to them if they'd move them. No dice yet, I never hear back from them. The land is also somewhat grown up but not too bad, I'm not going to clear it off. I basically don't want to sink any money into it if I can help it. I'm not keeping it because the taxes were $571 this past year! I want to sell it but houses nor land is selling around this area right now unless it's farm land(that's selling like crazy). I don't know what an acre of land that fits this criteria generally goes for, even upon doing some research of land similar to this around my area I can't nail down a price I think I need to get for it. The prices are all over the place. I've thought about renting the land but can't fathom what anyone would want it for other than to stick a double-wide mobile home on and that would be a whole 'nother basket of worms to open and headaches I don't want. I wish I could absorb it into my farm but this land is in town and has never been declared as farmland so that's a no go. One thing this property will have going for it is it will be the only lot for sale on this street as the others have houses on them, but I'm sure to sell it I'm going to have to pay to have it cleared off and those prices have ranged anywhere from $2000-$5000+. I gotta get the trailer and house torn down and moved first. When did people stop wanting stuff for free? Can't even give stuff away anymore.:laughing:

mfreund · Jan 28, 2015

Ask the neighbors on both sides to see if any of them has a interest in buying the property. Win for you, no realtor fees. Win for them, no crummy neighbors or mobile homes!

Iowan · Jan 28, 2015

mfreund said:
Ask the neighbors on both sides to see if any of them has a interest in buying the property. Win for you, no realtor fees. Win for them, no crummy neighbors or mobile homes!

Maybe they would want to split the property.

RollingsFarms · Jan 28, 2015

mfreund said:
Ask the neighbors on both sides to see if any of them has a interest in buying the property. Win for you, no realtor fees. Win for them, no crummy neighbors or mobile homes!

Already did that and neither were interested. I won't be using a realtor anyways as I have a real estate attorney that I use who said he'd draw up all contracts and transfers for me and I'll make the buyer pay those. He only charged me $160 to have the land put in my name from the estate so that wasn't too bad. The taxes are just so high because the county views it as my second property and charges me at 6%.

Jarrod32 · Jan 28, 2015

Don't really have any advice on what you should do with it, other than to suggest that you make sure you have liability insurance on it given the old house and mobile home could be hazards...

joecoin · Jan 29, 2015

Auction

Gunny · Jan 29, 2015

It seems to me that the land will have to be cleaned up before you can ever hope to get anything near what it's worth.

Can you do some or most of the clearing yourself? Around here there are always some people that would take an old mobile home to scrap it out, sell the frame and siding, etc. Maybe offer a little money to one of those people who asked about the house to see if that would spur them on to tearing it down.

If it was mine, I'd put some elbow grease and some money in it to make the place look better (and sell better) than to just basically give it away to a lowball bid.

JamesHW · Jan 29, 2015

Maybe just let the fire department burn the house, though I guess there would still be cleanup costs regardless. If there is anything of value in the old house like old doors, moldings or light fixtures that could be harvested or copper pipe that could be torn out some value might be extracted to offset your expenses. Maybe put the mobile home on Craiglist as free to the first person who can haul it off who can prove they have liability insurance.

To determine value, the town's assessment could be a starting point. Often assessments separate out land from structures.

RollingsFarms · Jan 29, 2015

I did get a quote from a friend who has a Bobcat with a grinder type attachment that grinds up trees and brush. He said he'd do the whole lot for $1500. It won't be a true clean up job but it's better than nothing. I just can't sink $5k cleaning this place off and having it hauled off and fix this and fix that and then not be able to hardly get my money back out of it. A lot on this same road went for $14k several years ago but it had a small house on it that helped the price.