How did you get your land?

michiganfarmer · #41 09/23/13, 11:27 AM

WHen I got out of the Corps in nov 91, we lived with my parents for a year while looking for a place. 1/4 mile down the road was a small house on 80 acres. We found out who owned it, called them, set up a land contract and bought it.

My wife and I share the place, and the payent with my brother who also has a house on it. That split payment saved us in 2009-10 when our income was cut nearly in half.

Rectifier · #42 09/23/13, 09:43 PM

Looked for ages, nothing affordable. In Canada, nothing is. Eventually got a realtor looking for us in Saskatchewan, the last affordable part of Canada, while we were working in Alberta. Bought a half section with a yard on it a year ago, came with another half of assigned crown lease, a good way to get more land for cheaper. Also it was some grain, some hay, some pasture, which is something that investors weren't interested in so the price was comparatively low, ~$800/ac not including the leased half which is all pasture.
And we are WAY out in the boons, the middle of nowhere. But we have power and gas, and friendly neighbours within walking distance, which is great.

ET1 SS · #43 09/24/13, 07:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rectifier

Looked for ages, nothing affordable. In Canada, nothing is. Eventually got a realtor looking for us in Saskatchewan, the last affordable part of Canada, while we were working in Alberta. Bought a half section with a yard on it a year ago, came with another half of assigned crown lease, a good way to get more land for cheaper. Also it was some grain, some hay, some pasture, which is something that investors weren't interested in so the price was comparatively low, ~$800/ac not including the leased half which is all pasture.
And we are WAY out in the boons, the middle of nowhere. But we have power and gas, and friendly neighbours within walking distance, which is great.

$800/acre is a reasonable price for land.

In my area, forest land goes from $300 - $900/acre.

In 2005 we bought two parcels, one at $350 and one at $900.

BarbadosSheep · #44 09/24/13, 01:08 PM

Our land was part of an estate. 4 brothers were each given a 13 acre lot. When one decided to sell, we bought that lot. We knew all of the brothers, so having them as neighbors would be nice. Well, about a year later, a second brother sold so we purchased his 13 acre lot as well.

jwal10 · #45 09/24/13, 07:48 PM

We bought the off grid cabin property from the county, it was left after a road was moved and another road was abandoned. It was listed in the paper and no one bid on it. I checked after the sale and the county sold it to me for $100.00 and fees. $137.85. The old road made a great driveway....James

Pigeon Lady · #46 09/24/13, 09:07 PM

After passing through this area of SW Virginia we knew it was the place we wanted to focus our search on. We looked at a number of properties but none of them really spoke to us.

I would sometimes read the blog of a guy who lived here and one day he mentioned that a neighbor was putting his farm up for sale. I contacted the blog owner and he came and took pictures of the place for us. He answered many questions the realtor wouldn't have known. As soon as dh had a long weekend ( he was still enlisted) we came down to look. It was just what we wanted so we put in an offer the same day. We could probably have got the price down if we could have waited but we were at the point of needing to find a place quickly before dh retired. Haven't regretted it. It's more than I'd dreamed of and the blogger, neighbor is now a good friend.

Wendy · #47 09/24/13, 10:43 PM

We rented here. Landlord died, we rented from his wife. She died, daughter got it. Rented it from her. She finally decided to sell the house & outbuildings & 3.5 acres to us as she didn't want the upkeep of the buildings anymore.

O Labrador · #48 09/25/13, 08:42 AM

I purchased a for sale by owner !! For now is just gonna sit there but my plans is to farm it & be totally of the grid !!

Tired of the rat race

ChristieAcres · #49 09/26/13, 02:53 AM

I was in real estate and we both had discussed and agreed upon our criteria. Since I have access to the NWMLS, could see everything posted by Agents and also look at all the FSBO's... First, we narrowed down where we wanted to live and looked for a property that met our criteria, after that, what buildings were most important. This property exceeded what we hoped for. We got Seller financing for a year, Recorded with the County, then I worked for a year to structure our accounts to qualify to get a mortgage on it. I had to do that since we were self employed. Also, I knew what the loan conditions were, as I was also a Loan Officer at the time. All that was good, but I wish we could have been in a position to purchase a property for cash. That is always the best way to go. Forgot to mention that our search took just over a week. Narrowing down the area made a huge difference.