How did you find yur place?

hehe, i found mine on this site right here, on the barter board !!! Thanks Joan

ive also listed another piece of property we own for sale on here, so far no takers, but theres an offer in the works... im giving it a couple more weeks, and if tis a no go , then it will be up again ((hint hint))

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Good timber does not grow with ease,
the stronger the wind the stronger the trees.

I buy property that has faults and then I correct the problems. Burned homes, neglected grown over sites, trashed mobile homes with land, no road frontage/access, foreclosures, title problems, disputed heirs. Very few people have any imagination or willingness to work. If the property has resale potential I clean it up and put it back on the market, sell and buy long term investment tree farm acreage. If the property can generate income, I clean it up and rent it for residential use. I use the rent income to buy tree farm acreage. I visit places that I want to buy acreage and go to the local coffee shops. From the customers I ask if there is any acreage available for tree farming, there seems to be no opposition from tree farming and they assist. I also go by the courthouses and read what is forsale at the courthouse steps. Then I go walk on the land. Never take anyone else's observation as to what is on such land. I also contact paper companies, these companies sell small parcels that they may have traded for and are not economical for them to maintain. During bad business cycles the paper companies sell off property. They have to keep the bottom line looking good for the stockholders. Often they sell below the appraised price in order to meet income requirements set by some bean counter that has never seen the land. I listen to horror stories from landloads and often to get from under a bad tenant situation they are willing to sell rental property at a steal. I carry with me some money and I always have a generic offer to purchase and contract form with me. I have learned to get a committment and to make a deposit when I find the right parcel. Verbal agreements are not worth the air expelled to make them.

i forgot to say , back when i was first looking for land with the last husband , we went to an area we liked with a bunch of posters stating EXACTLY what we wanted on them . put them up in restraunts, gas stations grocery stores, where ever we could put one up the seller found it at a restraunt

posters said
Wanted , SMALL FARM

financially stable family seeking to move into the area requires land contract between 25-50k .,needed to be horse ready,had to have a livable house(cosmetic fixes ok)
had to have at least 1 barn minimum 20 acres, surrounded by fields, or 40 acres with neighbors

after about a week , we got a call, and the land was just what we asked for , i kind of miss that farm ,

but if i were moving from one state to another ever again , thats what i would seriously think about again , but since i have my land, i guess that wont be happening in the forseeable future

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Good timber does not grow with ease,
the stronger the wind the stronger the trees.

Found my 70 acres on the internet while stationed in Japan. Kind of funny really, I am originally from Iowa and used to go camping down in the southeast corner as a kid. So here I am getting ready to retire as a Marine and was surfing the net and find a website (back in 96) here in this part selling real estate. Well, I keep watching this piece of real estate for almost a year and no one is buying it so I figure it's worthless river bottom. Took a vacation with the wife and drove down here and come to find out it's up in the hills along the Des Moines river. Bought it for 600 an acre an built a 1500 sq berm home out of ICF's, burn wood for heat and raise yard birds. The work nor the dreams are never ending and that's the way it's suppose to be.

Back in 77 we were looking for land. We already had a house and 2 large lots but were wanting a farm.

We had looked at several places but none of them were right.

We went to a public auction one Sat. and discovered the place was for sale. It was 30 ac. with house, shed, and barn. While checking the house out, we discovered the lady that had it for sale, her brother had 80 ac that joined it. He wanted to sell it also. We left the sale and went to the real estate office that had it listed. We made them an offer for both properties. They left us setting in the office and they went to the auction where the people were. RE agent came back and told us they had accepted our offer.

During the time we were waiting on the real estate agent to return a guy we knew came in wanting to buy it too. They told him it had an offer on it. This man already had thousands of acres.

We got our 120 ac with a house that had to be redone. We started working on it and after 6 months we sold the other place so we could pay the 120 off.

We bought another place just up the road from this one a few years back. It has 18 ac and a house. Seems like the neighbor had told ever one but us it was for sale. She came to a yard sale and mentioned it. DH went up there that evening and just bought it from her.

Another place we got a couple years back has a house and 5 ac. We bought it after the real estate agent put up a sign on it. Come to find out the lady had it for sale before and no one knew it, so the real E A had bought it from her. He kept it for awhile and she rented from him, then he put it up for sale.

There have been 2 places we weren't able to purchase adjoining our 120 ac. One of the persons that owned one parcel was renting us pasture, and we had told him if he wanted to sell it let us know. Next thing we knew he had sold it to another neighbor. Didn't even mention it to us. Another parcel we lost because of a crooked RE A. He told me he would take 20,000 for it after I overed 19,000. That evening I called him back and told him I would give him the 20,000. He wouldn't take it said he had to have 22,000. Guess these two weren't meant to be for us.

There are a lot of places that are forsale if you have the money, an sometimes there are some bargains.

I noticed in a local newspaper that the place where the Beatles stayed near Alton, MO is for sale again. It is a beautiful place with a lot of acreage. It has a river that runs through it. If I could just win one of those millions of Powerball ticket, I would go buy it.

If you cant buy try looking for a place to work and live in inthe western livestock journal til you can afford a homestead. Northern California has quite a few ranches listed for sale [prolly trying to kketch a sucker] in the multi million dollar range, but they list alot of everything in there as well.
Western Livestock Journal

Making a list of what "you" have to have is helpful before actually going to any realestate office, so they dont waste yourt time or verse visa.

What part of Northern cal are you looking into? the heavy snow areas of the higher elevations or the hotter destert like regions of the inner valley or the extreme windy coastal vistas? okokokokok so im prejudiced against living in some of those places..... but i have visited there for months/weeks at a time and have seen a few good places that i wouldnt mind if the place wasnt overwrought with idiots.....[ok so alot of them have moved to Idaho now and there isnt much difference anymore]

Good luck hunting which is nearly all the fun part, thework begins once the place is purchased.

William

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Upon the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions, who when on the dawn of victory paused to rest, and there resting died.
- John Dretschmer

We used online newspaper classifieds. www.newslink.org is the best source I have found. You can break down searches by state, daily and non-daily (weekly) papers. Non-daily online papers are the best for rural areas and low prices.

You are smart to look within driving distance of where you live. We accidentally ended up with a place about a 5.5 hour drive from where we lived in Dallas. We bought in Arkansas after taking a vacation there and falling in love with the area. I would recommend that anyone looking for land, buy within driving distance of where they currently live. So, draw a circle of a max of 300 miles from where you live in CA. That would put you within 6-7 hours of where you are and make it possible to go on weekends to make improvements as well as get out of the city.

Next, I have mixed feelings on contacting realtors-----and I used to sell real estate. When we were looking, one of the realtors told us that he didn't have a thing like what we were wanting, yet he had photos on a buletin board in the office of exactly what we were looking for. He even refused to show us the place, and thankfully another agent there showed it to us. We signed a contract that day. Most real estate firms have web sites now. Start with the Chamber of Commerce in the areas that you seem interested in and then access the web sites of the real estate firms. Narrow down your selection of places and then take a vacation to look at the area in more detail.

One of our main desires was a really nice creek. We looked at some properties that advertised "creek" and when we looked, the creek wasn't much more that a wet spot. Not exactly what we had in mind. The reason I bring this up is that you need to stay focused on what you are really looking for and don't just buy anything for the sake of buying and having land.

We looked online too. DH and I were staying in the area, had a very specific need for an in law suite, or room to add one easily. Found 2 homes we wanted to see, called a real estate agent and set it up. The first house we looked at was horrible, needed major work but had the best price and 10 acres. So we made an offer. The REA tried to talk us out of buying it, lol, they were so nice and honest, the house was really neglected. And here we are in a 3000 sqf house (1000 for my parents) about 3.5 acres of pasture, over 6 wooded, the big projects are wrapping up, and the house appraised for 3x what we paid for it. Of course we got lucky and bought before the market got crazy a few years ago.

I will say we got lucky with the REA, and we did our homework on the area, what was a reasonable price, exactly what we needed in the house and our price range. We didn't want to waste our time looking at things we didn't want.

Carla

I rode around for two years looking at different areas, then narrowed my search down to the least populated area in my county. I went through a realtor but they only showed me property that was out of my price range, even though I told them I could only afford so much. So while working in an attorney's office, a man we represented came in and we started talking. Turns out he had a real estate deal go sour with a developer as the developer had agreed to buy the entire 48 acres but then reneged and didn't buy the last 32 acres. The developer only wanted the road frontage so that left the back land and 120 feet of road frontage for sale.

I rode out and looked at it and even though it was bare land (correction, it was scrub trees, old forest, briars and brambles and a cemetary), no well, no septic, no driveway, nothing on the place at all, I fell in love with it as it had hills and and a year round spring that fed a small stream that runs the length of the property.

I made him an offer and he accepted. Went to the bank and they didn't want to finance the place (one vice president of a local savings and loan, even came around from behind his desk and patted me on the head and said I needed a husband to buy me a farm ). Well an old attorney friend of mine that I worked for sometimes offered to give me a second mortgage and another bank gave me a first. I paid the second off a year early and refinanced the first and here I am, 19 years later and close to paying off the place entirely.

Would never have known this place was for sale if it weren't for that chance conversation in my office!!

Now have between 10 and 12 acres cleared, and the rest is still in old growth forest and I even bought the cemetary as the owner was going to move it if I didn't want to buy it :no: .

Look at the unlikeliest places and sometimes you'll end up with quite a deal!

Sidepasser

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Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

We already had a place in a Small Town of about 300,good Jobs.My wife found our Property,we came down looked at it,had to walk all the way in.Drove back Home I threw all the Paper Work in the Trash,told my wife the Guy was a crook,I had a place paid for.

She went behind me Paid the Down Payment.Then I made all my neighbors Mad at me,wife said I better get out of Town or I was going to be put in Jail or worse.Sold out to my neighbor at my price.

Like the wife says I'm not good with neighbors ,oh well they just think I'm Crazy around here. :haha:

big rockpile

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I love being married.Its so great to find that one person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.



If I need a Shelter
If I need a Friend
I go to the Rock!

Enjoying all responses and ideas..Here are a few more details about our search
We are currently looking in Humboldt,siskiyou,Del Norte,Trinity and maybe Modoc or Shasta counties.
Plan on turning current home into a rental (using property mgmnt,break even at best) taking a year or so to get something liveable on property before moving.
Idea is to get my kids in a rural setting and teach them the basics of nature.My only real requirements are lots of trees,water source, and enough room to teach my kids to shoot.
Being a single dad is tuff work and i want to do it in a way that my kids will appreciate when they are adults.
We are currently in Sacramento slurbs and I hate the fact that i can hear my neighbor sneeze......
Pogitondo

Ken Scharabok,

What was that ten item list?, If you don’t mind sharing.
George

wow wy_white_wolf! I would love to have a private campground! up here i could rent it out to hunters, just need the money to develop a small part of our land into one. what kind of development has been done on yours?

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www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm

We had to stay in the county and near the city to keep our multiply handicapped youngster in the excellant programs available in this area. Realtors were told what we wanted, but most could not beleive it. So we were shown places we could not afford and that were landscaped to death. Finally just started looking at the ads for open houses, bought a county map, and started hunting. Taxes are sky high, but we figure that is what is keeping the kid in all those marvelous "free" programs that would be non-existant in low tax areas.