Land we rent sold

[AlanB]

PhilS, fortunately, or unfortunately for us in my immediate locale, (next to Ft. Campbell, home of the 101st Airborne division, just returning from Iraq)
we are definetely in a sellers market at the moment.

Will be good when selling my existing house, but not so good as I try and buy.

Just the way the cookie crumbles though, and it keeps me employed so no complaints here.

ByronBob, that is really the essense of the back and forth that is going between the CFO / CEO / DW and myself. While we will be applying all the money towards the new area (which I like) we still have to pay all the bills. But yes, that money that we do not have to pay in rent will certainly offset some costs.

 

[gemini5362]

Dusty, I think you missed the part in the thread where he said the rental agreement was a handshake deal, probably not much to go on in that department.

AlanB I dont know if this will help but it is something to be optomistic about.

There was a gentleman in Arkansas a long time ago that wanted to start a mercantile buisness. He found a nice building in a small town in Southern Arkansas and signed a 5 year lease. He bought all the fixtures and display cases to start the buisness. He really scrambled to find deals on merchandise and worked hard to get a nice buisness going. At the end of 5 years he had a very good customer base and was doing well. When he went to sign a new lease the owner of the building told him that he had a son that he was trying to set up in buisness and he was not going to renew the lease so that his son could take over that location and hopefully the customer base. This gentleman had no choice he had to give up the store. The building owner bought out all the fixtures and display cases at a fair price so he at least did not lose that investment. The gentleman found a little town in Northwest Arkansas named Bentonville. He built a small store there and started over again. After a while he built another store in a small town near Bentonville and started to branch out. This gentlemans name was Sam Walton. So cheer up, maybe losing your current local will force you to locate somewhere else and you might become the walmart equivalent of the landscaping buisness

 

[meledward23]

Look at the bright side of a seller's market. You should have an easier time selling your house.

Just a thought

 

[AlanB]

Well, after talking with the bank and the DW, giving them blood samples and lifes history (actually it was pretty painless been dealing with the same bank the last 13 years or so) they said I could borrow $289K against another house. Hmmmmm NO problem right, go find a house with some land 3+ acres or so, close to where we are at for around a cool quarter mil, NO PROBLEM...

We can't find one.

If someone had told me that this would be a problem I would have laughed at them. There just seems to be something seriously wrong with everything we look at, and I keep going back again and again to see if maybe I am just too picky, but I have to set some criteria to base against

The nice houses (and boy there are some real nice one's in that range) all seem to be just slighlty beyond BFE, and about 1/4 mile past where the sunlight gets piped too. Or there are deed restrictions (5 pages on one house, the first being that you could not operate a business from your residence (doh)) Or somehow they are convinced that a 1982 mobile home sitting on 3 acres in the middle of trailer trash land is worth $265K.

It is just killing me. I just had no idea that it would even be the slightest issue.

The thing I have to do now is be patient and wait till the right place comes along. I will only probably have one shot at this, so I have to get it right.

Sorry to Rant, but I figure this crowd would understand.

 

[EddieWalker]

Alan,

I'm assuming you have a realtor?

They have access to the MLS and can pull comps for everything that you are looking for. One thing I've learned with realtors is they are not overly creative or very motivated to think outside the box. If it comes up on there listing, then that's it.

Price on a listing is just a number. It's a starting point, but isn't what it will sell for. It cost you nothing to make an offer on a property that you are interested in. Your realtow is required to submit all offers, regardless of how low it is. Most will try and tell you it's too small and offer or give you some other reason why you shouldn't submit it. If your realtor gives you too much grief, fire him/her and find another.

I've sold a few homes and parcels of land over the years and you wouldn't believe some of the offers I've recieved. People will and do ask for anything. Don't be shy about doing so yourself.

Don't be afraid to look at property way over your budget. Remember, you can make any offer you like on it and all they can do is either say no, or counter offer. Some properties have been on the market so long the owners are willing to accept just about anything. I know a guy that offered less than half the asking price on a property and got it. It was an estate sale and the family was fighting over everything and just wanted to get it over with.

When I bought my place, I bought more land than I could afford or needed, then I split it into three parcels and sold two of them. I made enough off that to pay off my land and build my house for cash.

One of the things I did when I bought my land was aproach a company that owned the piece with the road frontage I wanted. I asked them if they'd sell it to me and they said yes. In fact, they were wanting to get rid of it, but just hadn't had a chance to list it yet. Turns out that it was a liability for them without any benifit to owning it.

You gotta get creative and try things your realtor wont. Make him/her find out who owns parcels that look abandoned to you. Contact the owners and make them an offer. Don't ask if they will sell. Skip all the games, just tell them what you'd give them for the land and see what they say.

Don't be discouraged by a no. Your not out anything. Just keep at it.

I know a guy like that with picking up women. He just goes up to them and askes if they will go home with him. 99 our of a hundred say no, but he always finds one who will say yes. If you keep asking, you will find that one who says yes.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[AlanB]

Hi Eddie, yes we have a realtor, who is also a freind, and a customer, but sometimes I get the distinct impression that the only listings that are good listings, have her name on the sign, and fair listings have her companies name, so I take all that she say's with a big grain of salt.

I have a problem with doing what you say, but I know full well that you are right about offering less. Something I have been working on, but still not real good at.

I am trying real hard to look "out of the box" and the GIS web here has been real helpful, and have just started cold calling folks with property I have interest in.

There are times that I think I just don't have the "luck" of the folks that make the great deals, but I think a lot of it stems from those guys making a lot of deals. Kind of like your guy picking up the ladies, we just do not notice the misses that much, but when we see the deals I wonder why I did not make that one.

But that is what we are trying, matter of fact going out and talking to some guys tonight about some land adjacent to thier construction lot.

Thanks for the advice, I will keep plugging away.

 

[DUMBDOG]

Have you tried using REALTOR.COM for listings in your area? This would give you an idea of what is available if your Realtor is not showing you all that is on the market. When we bought a out of state property and had limited time in the area, we ran into the same problem, the only properties that we were being shown were the agencies listings. Did a search and found the property that met our needs, told the Realtor which one it was, made an offer and closed from home.

 

[AlanB]

Been using Realtracs.com but will try that one as well.

Thanks

 

[EddieWalker]

Dumbdog has a good point. Do a google search for real estate listings in the area your looking at. Also search for home for sale by owner. Sometimes you can find land that way too. Don't forget the free classifieds like Classifieds - Classified Ads - Advertising - Used Cars - New Cars - Homes for Sale - Real Estate

For whatever reason, there are realtors out there that do not put there listing on the local MLS. I found land in the local paper that wasn't listed in the MLS and the realotor who listed it was several counties away. I was just looking through the sunday paper and recognized the road it was on. I took a look, liked it, called for a price and was suprised to find out it was way under market. I personaly think the seller made a mistake by hiring an out of town realtor with neither knowing what land prices went for in the area the land was located. Even my bank was sceptical at the price as it was way undervalued.

It's not any special skill to buy and sell land, but you have to be persistant and never get discouraged. You are the guy with the cash!! you are the boss!!! Your realtor works for you, so make her work her but off. If she doesn't want to, move on. Like anything, there are those who are hungry and willing to do more than others to get your business, and there are those who think more highly of themselves then they are realy worth.

Eddie

 

[AlanB]

I am seeing more and more that things like realtracs and realtor.com only have some of the listings there. I guess one thing that I am just missing is why? I think they must pay somehow for that, and then they just kind of use it as a teaser to get you over to their website to then see all the properties that they have.

I am getting much better at recognizing odd street names now and where they are in the county

Something will come together I know. The great thing that happened yesterday was a freind of mine with a shop and about 4 empty acres offered to let us put our landscaping stuff at his place if needed till we can sort out where to go. Not what I would like ideally, but, it does give me a certain comfort margin knowing I have somewhere to put my stuff.