About buying land

[goodoleboy]

Hi i posted this in another section of the website but i think I will get better response here.

I am interested in buying some acreage. At the moment we have about 2 acres. .I am located in oklahoma but would like something in oklahoma or even down in South texas houston area.
I would like to buy just bare land.
Being new to this is there any scams i should watch for?
How do i go about looking for problems like enviromental,Floodplain, things like that?

Bank finanacing is also some thing i would like to know about..Also can you recoomened any good books or websites that deal with this?

I have many more questions to come in the future..Thanks in advance.

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> Hi i posted this in another section of the website but i think I will get better response here. </font color>

Then if you can, I would delete the "other" thread. It's kind of frowned upon to start separate threads on the same subject in different forums.

Best advice to give you is get a good real estate attorney. There are all kinds of scams with regard to land.

As far as buying land I won't buy anything that you can't draw an income from or that may have some tremendous resale value in the future. The best land to buy, in my opinion, is producing land. The land will have a crop base to it and you can cash rent it out for income. I have some land that is rented out and the rent from the ground pays the payment and taxes. I wouldn't buy ground that does not have a crop base on it. Like it or not the government payments play a huge factor in farm ground prices. If you lose the crop base on ground around here you might as well figure that land is 20-30% less in value.

Bank financing is NOT the same as house financing. The interest rate is usually a couple or more percentage points higher. You usually have to put 30% or more down as well. Unless I can get into a situation where I can make the payment off of working the ground or by renting it out I will try and pay cash for the ground. By the time you figure the higher interest rate, taxes, and no income from the property the 5-6% that land usually generates in value added is soon eroded to a negative balance. Unless it is in a business that interest is also NOT tax deductible either.

[chrisjbell]

Saw your post in the other thread (do delete it so we don't get confused [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img], please [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]) and didn't think of this at the time, but another resource you should consider (a real estate attorney is a great suggestion, BTW) is a real estate agent. Those can come in good and bad flavors, but if you get someone who specializes in property and has been around in an area for a while you can get some pretty good info. I do recommend getting referrals, though, as there are as many bad realtors as there are lawyers. But good ones are worth their weight in...well, what they charge [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]...

[goodoleboy]

Hi, and thanks for those who replied with information. My father is an attorney with a real estate license but lives in california and hesitates to give me advice on any subject that lies outside of California.What good that does me it little. LOL
But i will look into a good realtor or find one that specilizes in land.

Ill let you know when I take a look this weekend.

BTW, I tried to delete the other post but it wont allow me to.

[Gatorboy]

<font color="blue"> BTW, I tried to delete the other post but it wont allow me to. </font color>

That's because you took to long to get to it. I think you have 12 hours to edit/delete any of your previous posts.

I would completely leave the realtor out of it. Unless he is a friend they are in the business to sell property for the most amount of money possible. They do work on commission. I have had more bad advice from real estate agents than anyone else. Most times just bald face lies and from good ones. They play the game if they are successful. You need to look at the price of the ground. Do research at the courthouse to see what comparable land is bringing. You need to do cost analysis of the ground. Profit/loss figures. All of these things I would not trust a real estate agent to give you.

[SLOBuds]

I live in California and buy California real estate without the use of attorneys. The practice here is to use realtors and escrow officers to finish the transaction.

Realtors are good and bad and in between. Yes they work on commission but NO, they are NOT all thieves and poor-performers.

If you use a realtor, be sure to find one that specializes in country property. Then make sure they work for you instead of the seller. Walk away from anyone who is not performing those duties.

The realtor should be finding target properties according to your specification, should be good at assessing value of those properties, should give you straight-talk about positives and negatives, and should be honest with you regarding your own expectations. If you are looking for something that WILL NOT be found, your realtor should be able to let you know that in a tactful manner.

Things are very bad here in California regarding the price of property. It's just made it impossible for anyone to buy anything. I don't know how young kinds can buy real estate in this type of climate.

Good luck and I hope you find something that you like.

Martin Petersen

[goodoleboy]

Well its been a while since i last posted thank you all for the great information provided.

Today we put our offer in a 15 acre piece of land that would be perfect for my wife and I.

Were off to vacation but we should no if the offer is accepted by tommorow the realtor said our offer is fair.

[theboman]

I'm considering some land (again). Found a 52 acre place full of deer, turkey, etc and a huge pond... Lots of work needs to be done to build my dream home, a small cabin.
Right now, no decision has been made. Did an informal walk around part of the property, asked the asking price and a few other parties suggested I make an offer....
Just trying to figure out what I have to give up in my life for the payments.... Then that 30% down...could handle 20% but not sure about 30, but then the payments are substanially lower.....