How much $$ to sell house on unsolicited basis?

[Richard]

Ok, here’s the setup:

I live on “family farm” (non working, it’s just fields/woods) of about 250 acres. Father in law and Uncle in law own farm 50/50. My house is in middle of farm, next to theirs and of course, my land is deeded to us/bank mortgage. We have just a couple acres. The farm is on a lake and is essentially a peninsula with water on almost 3 sides. Other than the fact that TVA owns the actually “lakefront” land, we have a lot of exposure to water.

Across the lake from me is a retirement community with large, expensive houses. Development is just now starting on MY side of the lake and is working its way towards us.

Between the current development and us, there are two willing sellers (like 100 or 50 acres each) and then us (250 acres).

The development that’s starting on MY side of the lake is going to be a real hob knob. Evidently, they won’t even let you in to SEE a unit without seeing financial statements. My understanding is the lowest priced CONDOS will be around $500,000. The houses will be more.

Ok.. we (father in law) have been contacted before, and now again about selling the farm. The repeat “buyer” is a sleezeball as far as I’m concerned given his prior tactics, however, they clearly have the cash given what they’ve built across the lake and have started on my side.

Here is the crux of the issue… they want to buy the entire farm, INCLUDING the 3 homes. They want my father in law, uncle in law and us to push on.

My lovely wife is thinking “fine, sell them the place”. Her mentality is, (and I’m just making up numbers, I have no idea of current market value)

Anyways, her thinking is, the house is a 3,000 sq log house, on the lake, it’s worth say $300,000. Since we did most of it ourselves, we have a mortgage of under $50,000. She says give it to them for $500,000 and run.

I’m sitting here thinking… hmmm.. first of all, I don’t WANT to move, I put a LOT of sweat, design, work, time, broken fingers into this place to make it the way I want it to be.

Fact of the matter is, we might find someone willing to pay $500,000 for the place just to be where we are on the lake. Our landscape job alone (so someone said) is worth $100,000 though I’m a bit dubious on that number.

I told the wife, we can talk for a million, after all, they want the house, but want us (unwilling people) to move, so that HAS to carry a premium…besides honey (speaking to wife), if they put 200 1 acre lots here and sell them for an average of 100,000, that’s 20 million BEFORE the first house is build, so they DO have and will have plenty of cash.

Anyways (didn’t mean to create a book), the buyers are supposed to come out today to look at the farm again (for the 10th time over the years).

My base question is…

If you can ascertain that your house market value is “X” dollars, what kind of premium do you put onto it to UNWILLINGLY hand it over to someone that wants to buy it unsolicited and have you vacate? What other thoughts might you put into the equation?

I told the wife, I’m MORE than happy for them to build mansions around us and live here amongst them, so they can meet our price or be our neighbor.

 

[thcri]

I would get a couple of realitors in to give you an estimate. Tell them you are thinking of selling or you can call one them places that do estimates for closing company and pay them to give you a real market analysis. You could pay around 500.00 I suppose to have this done where the realitors would be free. This at leasts gives you an idea of fair market value and would help you in your decisions.

Now I know you want to keep the place so it is of a value to you not anyone elses. If you have a lot of sweat in it you have to ad for that from the market analysis you got. But you also have to remember if the others sell and you don't, how will the development be built around your house. You may not like it anymore?? I would start high and work your way back. These deveopers if they want the land bad enough they will pay.


murph

 

[_RaT_]

I agree with Murph, get some pro's involved like real estate agents or pay for a professional appraisal. You may also get advice about how much more value your place is worth to the developers to maintain the continuity of the new planned community.

 

[Richard]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( how will the development be built around your house )</font>

I brought that very point up to the wife. The flipside of it is, how will our house affect their development /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

It seems we have a driveway right? Well, if you drove up, what you drive up on is not our legal driveway.

Imagine a 3 legged octapus. Our house is in the middle. We have an easement (with TVA) for two different gravel drives as our "driveway". Neither one is our legal driveway. (this is where the octapus comes in)

Our "legal driveway" shoots through the woods behind the other two houses and out to the road.

If we do not move, then we "control" THREE different roadways via easement & legal ownership that could REALLY bugger up their larger design plans because our access points encircle ALL the houses.

although we're in a corner of the farm, I'd suppose that fact alone, would bugger up 10/15 acres with us owning one "arm" around this circle and having legal rights to the other two arms.

If we all move, they could do as they please with ALL the drives and make their life MUCH more simple.

I wonder if they build around us, if they'd like me hankering around on my backhoe?

/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[thcri]

Looks to me like your in control with them easements. Them easements have to follow the new buyers and I would think them drives would really mess up their plans. Another thing you might do is go out and look for property that would be available for you to buy if you sold. No sense of selling with no place to go. In other words you should be finding a place that is as good as your last place with money to spare or a place that is nicer than the place your in now.


murph

 

[jpr62902]

Talking to a real estate agent may be helpful, but their word should not be treated as gospel. Afterall, they want you to sell so they can possibly make a nice juicy commission -- an inherent conflict of interest.

I would also check your county Auditor's office. There, you can see how much the developer paid for the other folks' land accross the lake, and in turn, how much the developer sold the land for (the Auditor typically breaks down the property values between the structure and land itself). From this info, you can probably get a much better idea of what they'd be willing to pay for your spread.

A word on the sweat equity thing. It sounds like you're in a great position to make a huge profit in this deal. Don't get sentimental. Add up the hours you've put into your place and divide that into your projected profit. I'll bet the number will be somewhere in the hundreds per hour. Makes the whole sale thing a little more palatable. Good luck!

 

[thcri]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Talking to a real estate agent may be helpful, but their word should not be treated as gospel. Afterall, they want you to sell so they can possibly make a nice juicy commission -- an inherent conflict of interest.
)</font>


I guess my thing with the realitors is they typically will try and sell your house for more than what it is worth. In fact realitors will try and outbid each other to get the listing. This bidding war may help.

Your other advice about checking what the other land sold for is a good idea. I would even take it a step further and find out what the lots are being sold for after the initial buy of the land.

murph

 

[DKinWA]

What's the chance of property taxes going up with the high end construction going on? I'm familiar with a couple of similar situations and taxes have gotten so high the long term residents are having to sell and move. It's a crummy situation, but don't make any hasty decisions. Personally, I think you're in a pretty good position to make out on a profitable transaction from the turd ball. I've often wondered what I'd do in your situation and I have to say I'd consider selling for the "right price". I'm not sure what the right price would be, but I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap.

On second thought, get a bunch of livestock and start putting in a manure lagoon /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. The fresh smell of manure should keep the potential buyers to a minimum.

 

[jpr62902]

Murph,

I just reread my post and I said pretty much the same thing (albeit not as clearly) you did about checking what the developer sold the land for. My point was, the Auditor will use the sale price as the property value (with the structure included) and break that down into values for the land and the building. From there, Richard could get an idea of what the land is worth after the building is on it.

 

[Harleymsn]

Richard, going along with jpr62902's idea, being Tennessee, you can actually check the sales prices on the state website.
http://170.142.31.248/SelectCounty.asp