Buying property?

[Addicting]

We have the opportunity to buy the neighbors land. They came to us and want us to buy it. Price is negotiable, it seems it’s more important to them for us to get it than how much it’s actually worth. We have been tasked with coming up with what we are comfortable with.

This is a hard thing to do to be fair. Post Covid, Land prices are thru the roof and quite frankly ridiculous.

If we pass on it, it will get sold. It is directly behind our house and who knows what will happen to our back yard. Right now it’s just woods but the property could easily get split apart. Imagine having a road cut in and a new house built 50’ from your back yard.

The wife and I feel it’s something we need to do but how do you put a realistic price that won’t offend them.

 

[Dave N]

The wife and I feel it’s something we need to do but how do you put a realistic price that won’t offend them.

Sit them down and repeat those words.

 

[Rack Daniels]

That’s awesome! I’d say look at fair market value and somewhere between 20-50% less is certainly worth the bargain. I’ve never bought a house or land yet but if they’ll take less than FMV I would just feel around to see how much less?

 

[kiwi hunter]

Do it!

This, its easy to price property, a quick run around the internet to compare prices, and its done, you do have to be fair tho, half price is no price. Good luck.

 

[Gellar]

If your county uses Beacon you can look at comparable properties to see what they have sold for. It looks like only a few counties in Michigan use it though.

https://beacon.schneidercorp.com/

 

[brymoore]

How many acres? Curious.

You can start at the tax accessed value and work from there.

 

[Addicting]

This, its easy to price property, a quick run around the internet to compare prices, and its done, you do have to be fair tho, half price is no price. Good luck.

I did that and not seeing sold prices doesn’t help. You can ask anything in a for sale listing. There are listings north of 16k per acre for unbuildable land.

 

[Addicting]

How many acres? Curious.

You can start at the tax accessed value and work from there.

30 and the assessed value includes their current home. So that is locked in because they have owned it for so long. The assessed value is nothing compared to what things are selling for.

 

[Addicting]

Sit them down and repeat those words.

I did and she said It’s negotiable. She thinks her dad would have liked for us to have it for what we have already done to it for them.

 

[Addicting]

If your county uses Beacon you can look at comparable properties to see what they have sold for. It looks like only a few counties in Michigan use it though.

https://beacon.schneidercorp.com/

Does not apply to where we live, it does give me an idea on to search for on our county’s site.

 

[brymoore]

30 and the assessed value includes their current home. So that is locked in because they have owned it for so long. The assessed value is nothing compared to what things are selling for.

My assessment gives a building and a lot value. Lot value could be used to calculate price per acre.

You can do some Google snooping to get an approximate price per acre. Zillow might help. You need to get an idea of what the market value is today. After that, decide what you can afford. Hopefully meet somewhere in between.

 

[Big Sky Guy]

The year was 2018. My wife and I had lived in our place and 4 acres for 2 years. Older neighbor a couple miles up the road had a yard sale and we got to talking and he was saying how he was the first to build in our subdivision and how he regretted not purchasing the adjacent lot(s).

This prompted us to consider a defensive purchase. The lots next to us had been on the market for who knows how long but had since been taken off.

IIRC they were listed around $35k each (2 acres).

Long story short we reached out to a realtor and said we wanted to make an offer for off market property. Made an offer of $25k for the next TWO lots (4 acres total). Seller him-hawed and said to put our best foot forward. Before we could increase the offer the owner said he would sell them if we covered closing costs.

The backstory here, subdivision never really took off and the owner of those lots was also the developer so he’d been sitting on them and paying taxes for over a decade.

My how times have changed. We could probably have sold the lots and paid off our mortgage or close to it but we both value the space more than being debt free I guess? Our only regret is not buying as many of the other 2 acre lots as we could have, but who woulda guessed!?

If you know the neighbors and can have an honest conversation then I don’t think you have anything to worry about if they truly want you to have the land.

Conservation easement could also be another thing to consider to offset some costs depending on property type/size. If there is a structure you can delineate that out of it from what I’ve understood.

 

[Addicting]

My assessment gives a building and a lot value. Lot value could be used to calculate price per acre.

You can do some Google snooping to get an approximate price per acre. Zillow might help. You need to get an idea of what the market value is today. After that, decide what you can afford. Hopefully meet somewhere in between.

Unfortunately ours gives one combined value.

 

[Southern Elk]

Do you plan to live there long term? If not, it may not be worth the financial burden. I think I remember you saying one time you wanted to move because of another neighbor.

 

[npaden]

I’ve never regretted buying a piece of property.

I have for sure regretted not buying some pieces of property.

I’m working on finding a replacement for some land that I’m selling right now. The piece that I had a written offer on at list price ended up with another offer that was substantially higher per the realtor.

The next piece I was looking at just ended up under contract yesterday at full asking price.

Use www.land.com and those prices are going to be pretty close to what things are selling for. You might see some stuff sit around for a while but any of the stuff moving fast is going to be selling for close to the asking price. You can click the filter for sold and get an idea there too. It says when it sold.

 

[Addicting]

Do you plan to live there long term? If not, it may not be worth the financial burden. I think I remember you saying one time you wanted to move because of another neighbor.

That is part of the issue we are struggled with. We have 10 years left here for sure. That gets our kids thru school and into their twenties. The property being sold offers options of house locations where the bad neighbors are no longer in view. We would still share a partial property line but interaction is almost zero back there.

So sell this 4 acres in 10 years, use equity to build a retirement home on the new parcel. Or sell both and move to Bozeman like everyone else. lol

 

[Nick87]

The oppurtunity to buy the neighbors place only comes up once in a lifetime usually. Just saying.

 

[Addicting]

The oppurtunity to buy the neighbors place only comes up once in a lifetime usually. Just saying.

It’s also the last unlogged wooded parcels in our block. 15 of the 30 has huge timber on it. There is a corner red oak that has to be 6-7’ in diameter. There are other trees that are easily 4’ across 3’ up.

 

[jpc01101]

You can pull sold properties on Zillow. I'd allow for the fact that they want you to have it and discount 20-30%. In the end it is hard to go wrong buying property. Is there a home on it, you mentioned it included their current home. If no home I think the process becomes easier. Make them an offer that you are comfortable with and if they take it then buy it. If you end up not using it like you thought you would then sell it in a year or two and likely make a little money. Also you could cut out a bigger buffer behind your home and sell the remainder and likely not end up costing you much money.

 

[duckhunt]

Sit them down and repeat those words.

This