Stories of how you came about your property

[Torvy]

We spent over 5 years driving around East Texas from Nacogdoches to Texarkana. Looking around for 10-20 acres on which to retire. Pine trees were a must. Sure wish we found it sooner. Closed in June on just under 20. Power lines already on property and they just ran county water on our road. My avatar picture is my future driveway. Now it is just a problem navigating the delays in everything.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

If anyone has leads on 10-40 acres in south west va or East TN from Lexington to Bristol, with a view, let me know.

 

[Torvy]

If anyone has leads on 10-40 acres in south west va or East TN from Lexington to Bristol, with a view, let me know.

Here's a tool that helped us...

Land for sale, Property for sale in Tennessee | Lands of America

1 - 25 of 15,406 listings - Browse Tennessee properties for sale on LandsOfAmerica. Compare properties, browse amenities and find your ideal property in Tennessee

www.landsofamerica.com

 

[two_bit_score]

I can update this thread now, tomorrow we close on 9.5 acres. No improvements on it, all wooded, just outside of town, and less than an hour commute to work. Excited to be buying it but now all the real work begins of building a house and turning it into what we want for a home.

CONGRATULATIONS!

 

[check]

My story.
As a late teen we accompanied a real estate agent that was showing a property.
I asked where the road led and she said 'some gov't crown land, a dead end!
Thinking all those adds in Popular Mechanics for free gov't land I did some research.
After many dead end leads I obtained a lease on a beautiful spring fed lake just 1 hour north of Montreal.
So here I still am, retired and sitting on a piece of paradise.
Back then we'd boat in but as time went by we DIY'd a road, had it taken over by the city Hydro came in and now days most 'squatter' properties have been upgraded to beautiful year round homes.
Best choice I ever made.
Hunting out the back door, fishing 30 ft away but best of all, peace and quiet.
Fortunately all the neighbors are of the same mind set.
Water so pure that we all use it as we are all spring fed and at the head of the water chain.
Power boats were banned years back and federally blessed due to our initiatives.
OH, and many miles around have been declared a national 'green space' hence no more building or exploiting of any kind.

Paradise!

Great story, Bob!

 

[riptides]

Our real estate agent would not even show me one of our current properties. Said she just could not sell me the property because it was that bad off. She had done the walk through with the wife a few days earlier.

So the wife drove me to the property and kept repeating two things:

"Keep an open mind"

"It needs a little work"

Now, if I hear those two things, I cringe. I warn all my friends too that if they hear that from a REA or the SO...

run away.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Be careful.

I saw the listing for my 55 acres, called the agent and he suggested i walk it. I did and arranged to meet the agent at the property.

A friend who grew up locally was with me. As we walked the land my friend kept saying....this guy has never seen this land. Turns out my friend was right!

We came around a bend in the creek to where my house now sits and the realtors jaw dropped. I have about 20 big boulders, some as big as the old VWs. He started taking pictures, all the while my buddy is whispering...i told you so i told you, he's never seen this land!

A couple days later I call the realtor ready to buy. No response. Call again, no reply. F him, there's plenty of land out there!

2 weeks later my buddy who walked the land with me calls with an silly attitude. He had something special to tell me and was gonna make me squirm a little first, i would have done the same!

My pal says, i think i just saved you $20K.

Ok.....hmmmmm....how did you do That?

We live in a rural community and everyone knows everyone. My buddy was at tractor supply and sees an old friend of his.

His friend says...is that piano player still looking for Land?

Yup

The tractor supply friend knows of about 55 acres for sale by his neighbor.

Same land i walked 2 weeks prior!

I call the owner, appoligised for walking his land and told him his realtor had given me permission.

The owners reply was great!

THAT LITTLE SOB. He hasn't had the listing for over 1 year and never called once when he had it!

I bought the land minus the 10% commish on undeveloped land and the previous owner and i have become good friends.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Back in 1970, I worked in NJ but lived in the Pocono Mountains of PA. I just couldn't afford the cost of living in NJ at the time and endured a 2 hour commute each way. In 1979, I was living in a trailer when a friend introduced me to a farmer who had just subdivided some land. It was a beautiful piece of property on a hilltop with a great view. He offered me the entire 25 acre, 7 lot subdivision for $25K. That was way more than I could afford back then so I bought a single 6 acre lot instead.

I moved my trailer to the lot and made plans to build a house. I used the value of the land to get a construction loan and began building, using my own labor. Over the next 10 years, I used the accrued sweat equity to borrow $$ to buy additional lots. A few were from the original farmer / subdivider and some from other land owners who had purchased from him. By 1990, I managed to buy all of the original 7 lot, 25 acre subdivision. It cost me $120K to buy what I could have had for $25K just 11 years earlier! It's amazing what can happen over time.

 

[deezler]

Franken, you mean the realtor didn't want the property to sell? Kind of hard to follow.

 

[deezler]

Back in 1970, I worked in NJ but lived in the Pocono Mountains of PA. I just couldn't afford the cost of living in NJ at the time and endured a 2 hour commute each way. In 1979, I was living in a trailer when a friend introduced me to a farmer who had just subdivided some land. It was a beautiful piece of property on a hilltop with a great view. He offered me the entire 25 acre, 7 lot subdivision for $25K. That was way more than I could afford back then so I bought a single 6 acre lot instead.

I moved my trailer to the lot and made plans to build a house. I used the value of the land to get a construction loan and began building, using my own labor. Over the next 10 years, I used the accrued sweat equity to borrow $$ to buy additional lots. A few were from the original farmer / subdivider and some from other land owners who had purchased from him. By 1990, I managed to buy all of the original 7 lot, 25 acre subdivision. It cost me $120K to buy what I could have had for $25K just 11 years earlier! It's amazing what can happen over time.

Thats funny. It's amazing how many people in the poconos commute 2 hours to the NY metro area for work.

My family did the opposite, dad taught at NYU so we lived in Manhattan, but my parents couldn't handle constant city life. So they bought a 1800s hilltop farmhouse in Newfoundland PA to escape to on the weekends & summers. Was only on 6 acres but surrounded by hundreds of empty forest. I felt like Calvin & Hobbes out there, just endless exploration. Beautiful area.