About 5 year ago, my neighbor divided up their 10 acres into three parcels and sold to a child relative, the one closest to me. It was so close I offered to by it with a little premium over market. I thought it would somewhere between $50-80K. They considered it, but eventually said no. So, I sucked it up and went about my business. But, unfortunately each spring, something irritated us as they did not respect the boundaries. Over the years, They put in power, dug a well, septic, and planned to build a house. I figured that once the house was in, I would never afford to buy it. Every year, we kicked ourselves for not finding a way to convince them and buy it. Well, this last year, they got divorced, we had a great business year and obtained the cash just when they were ready to sell. Unfortunately, it was either we buy it or it was to be sold to another child relative who would turn it into a junk yard. We chose to buy it and considered some of it as a loss due to extortion...
So, even though I feel we paid more than market, the neighbor stress is gone. I think that we only did it because we had enough income this year to pay cash. If we would have had to mortgage anything, I don't know if we would have done it.
