Making Offer On Land

drgill · Sep 4, 2009

There is a five acre lot directly behind my property that I am interested in purchasing. The lot is undeveloped and is not listed for sale. I have the owner's address through the county real estate department.

This is my question. With the goal of negotiating the lowest price for the property (if he is interested in selling) should I contact this person directly or through an intermediary? If I contact him directly he will know I own the property adjacent to his property and may ask for a higher price. If I do go through an intermediary he will eventually know who I am anyway but hopefully after a price is agreed on.

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Dennis

Thomas · Sep 4, 2009

I would talk w/him directly also tell him your intent for the land...good relations...may get real good fair price...strange could pay more,plus if the time should come and he wants to sell you maybe the first one contacted.

EddieWalker · Sep 4, 2009

Luck and timing always have allot to do with buying something that's not for sale. One trick that a friend used with some success was to send a card to people with land that he was interested in. He wrote a nice letter explaining what his goals were with the land and why he was interested in it. Then he included a $100 bill in the card with a note that he's like to buy them dinner and if they were not interested in selling now, to pleace consider him when they were interested in selling.

What to offer on it is usually secondary. It's value is based on allot of things, but if they are needing money, that value might be on the low side. If they have plans for the land, then the value will be more in their eyes.

Hiring a profesional to approach them probably wont accomplish allot. Most realtors know this is usually a waste of time for them, and they rarely put allot of effort into it unless they know you and have worked with you before. Saying that, I would contact a realtor to see what the comps for a similar piece of land have sold for in the area.

I did this once and got very lucky. I bought part of a parcel from a corporation that had been having some problems with the people they had hired to manage the land and run their operation. They had just fired the guy in charge and wanted to get rid of the headache. My timing couldn't have been any better, and as a result, I was able to buy it at a discount for what I think it was really worth. Of course, to them, it was costing them money to keep the land and selling it to me saved them more money in liablity issues then they made off of the actually sales price. I did most of this on my own, but had my realtor come in and take over once I was able to get them to agree to my price. I probably could have done it all on my own with the title company, but then again, I might have missed something that he was able to take care of.

Good luck, it's always a gamble, but it's better to try and see what happens then to do nothing at all.

Eddie

studor · Sep 4, 2009

I would proceed on my own and ask if they interested in selling now or potentially in future. If nothing else you get to know your neighbour

. I think if you use an intermediary there is always the danger of being perceived of having another motive -- and I think most times you pay more

sandman2234 · Sep 4, 2009

Another way to do it is with a Real estate attorney rather than with a realitor, as the realitor has to hire a real estate attorney to close, anyway. If you do the leg work, let the attorney to the paperwork.
David from jax

Bird · Sep 4, 2009

I, too, would proceed on my own, with no secrets. Many years ago, my Dad bought two lots on the Texas side of Lake Texoma; thought he might want to retire there someday. But many years later, after he and Mother had moved to Alaska, he got a letter from a fellow interested in buying those lots. The guy said he owned lots on either side of Dad's and also had a lot behind Dad's on which he lived. Dad wrote and asked me what I thought they were worth, and whether I would want them myself. I wasn't interested, but did figure they should be fairly valuable. So Dad wrote back to the guy saying he wasn't interested in selling. About 6 years later, Mother & Dad were back in Texas and went by to see how much the area around those lots had developed. They found the guy who had asked about buying them had planted fruit trees on those lots, had kept them mowed, etc. Dad sold him those two lots CHEAP! Dad said he was a nice guy and he'd been taking care of the place for years, so Dad thought he ought to own them.

SPIKER · Sep 4, 2009

I have been in the same spot, I approached the person and talked and asked if they wanted to sell and if not to keep me in mind if they ever do. about 3 years later the guy was over brush hogging the lot (about 18 months ago now) he said he was hoping to get a hold of me to let me know that they were auctioning off the lot. both I and the new neighbor on the other side had approached him at different times and he figured that auction was best way to get what he felt it was worth, (according to him his son-N-Law) was wanting to build a shop there. long story but I didnt bid it up high enough as the son-n-law out bid it, though I never saw a land transfer and it is still undeveloped. I think he brought in the son-n-law to run up the price, I actually was high bidder until son-n-law started running it up. with the property values, economy & finances and such now I'm glad I didnt get it

Mark

archerm3 · Sep 4, 2009

Bird said:
I, too, would proceed on my own, with no secrets. Many years ago, my Dad bought two lots on the Texas side of Lake Texoma; thought he might want to retire there someday. But many years later, after he and Mother had moved to Alaska, he got a letter from a fellow interested in buying those lots. The guy said he owned lots on either side of Dad's and also had a lot behind Dad's on which he lived. Dad wrote and asked me what I thought they were worth, and whether I would want them myself. I wasn't interested, but did figure they should be fairly valuable. So Dad wrote back to the guy saying he wasn't interested in selling. About 6 years later, Mother & Dad were back in Texas and went by to see how much the area around those lots had developed. They found the guy who had asked about buying them had planted fruit trees on those lots, had kept them mowed, etc. Dad sold him those two lots CHEAP! Dad said he was a nice guy and he'd been taking care of the place for years, so Dad thought he ought to own them.

wow, that's a ballsy guy, from the talk here you'd think that that guy could've risked getting shot by someone for planting and mowing on land that wasn't his. Not that your father would.

two_bit_score · Sep 4, 2009

drgill said:
There is a five acre lot directly behind my property that I am interested in purchasing. The lot is undeveloped and is not listed for sale. I have the owner's address through the county real estate department.

This is my question. With the goal of negotiating the lowest price for the property (if he is interested in selling) should I contact this person directly or through an intermediary? If I contact him directly he will know I own the property adjacent to his property and may ask for a higher price. If I do go through an intermediary he will eventually know who I am anyway but hopefully after a price is agreed on.

I think it's best to just approach the owner directly and let them know you are interested. If they are not willing to sell now they may be later. Try to get a feel for what their plans are with the property and you'll have a better idea of how to proceed.

Now for a story.....there was a small shack next door to a place I have tha I had been wanting to get for years, mainly to clean it up so it wasn't such an eye-sore to my place. Guy who owned it lived out of town and never would even talk to me. I found out through the public records that he had just recently been sued over some non-related property and immediately contacted him again about buying the property next door. This time he WAS intersted in selling and I bought it. As they say, timing is everything.

schmism · Sep 5, 2009

we are trying to do the same thing. aquire ~2.5 acers of undevelopable land directly behind our property (basicly our backyard) its land locked with no access, a wooded area with a creak surrounded by tilled ground.

We are taking the direct approach. Contacting the property owner directly.

We havnt had much success in contacting the old man.... but we keep trying.

Our approach is tell them we are interested in it because its basically our back yard and we would like to own it so we can CALL it our backyard.

Price is the tricky issue. Dont want to low ball because then they dont take you serious. dont want to toss out a high number because "if he is offering to pay x, then he can go to x+2" which obviously isnt the outcome we want.

Ive also thought about trying to bite off a big chunk, with the expectation that it gets shot down. Will you sell those 12.5 acres for 4500 an acer? (no) ok so how about just the crappy 2.5 acre woods part (not the 10 acre pasture) for 2500 an acre? Then the price per acre (for the crappy part) doesnt seem like a low ball.

on the other hand it may mean i have to come up with a whole lot more $$ for the entire thing if he bits at the first offer