Beginning to look for land in OK

Started by Homegrown_Tomatoes, October 11, 2007, 01:40:08 PM

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glenn kangiser

It could help pay for building materials and advance you toward your goal of getting your place there.

Long distance rentals are not my idea of the greatest situation but maybe if you find someone with a good record as a manager you could come out OK.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

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Homegrown Tomatoes

maybe I could rent it out and still keep it on the market for sale, too.   :-\  At the end of August it'll be six months since we moved.  The company agreed to pay six months of temporary housing and to "work with us" if we hadn't sold by then.  I hope their idea of "working with us" isn't sending me and the kids back up north and putting DH in some cheap apartment here until the house sells because that AIN'T gonna happen.  I don't care if I have to call the "we buy ugly houses" folks.  Speaking of that, do they actually give you a decent  price for your house?  Anyone ever sold something to them?


Homegrown Tomatoes

What about offering it  with a lease-to-own option?  If they close at 6 months, they get a discounted price, or if they wait a year, the price goes up.  If they choose not to buy, they can renew the lease at a year, but the price goes up for every six months that they wait to buy it?

glenn kangiser

Various creative approaches can work better than a straight sale somtimes.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

Homegrown Tomatoes

Talked to the WI realtor yesterday and got an email from her this morning.  She bought a dehumidifier and is hooking it up for me today...  I have also been watching the housing market up there.  A house nearby that is smaller with one less bedroom and a lot about half the size sold just the other day for about $10K less than we are asking.  It was on a different lake which is a less desirable neighborhood in that area.... but it sold anyway.  That gives me hope.  Ours is cuter... and it is on one of the cleanest, nicest lakes in the area.  If someone would just make an offer--any offer--then we could negotiate.  When I talked to the realtor the other day, she was waiting at her doctor's office, so I didn't get to talk long, but she agreed that she should add that it is only five minutes away from the Metra station (the commuter train into Chicago) as an added plus about the property.  Didn't get to discuss a lease-to-own option yet... maybe I'll call her again at the beginning of next week if we still haven't had any offers.  I want that 40 acres so bad and am so ready to get out of town... :-\


brianand

if your realtor hasnt even mentioned that you are 5 mins from the nearest metro station then I would be concerned that they are clueless, this is obviously a major selling point for any property and one of the 1st things that should be advertised...Perhaps a serious word with your realtor or start looking for a more competent one. It may be a weak time in the U.S housing market, but its also ripe for buyers too with lower prices and interest rates...

benevolance

it  can be a bad time to sell a house... Unless you want to sell it for 50% less than it was worth 2 years ago. Cheap houses are selling...And foreclosures are selling like hot cakes... Cheaper home sales are up... by a huge margin.

Truthfully we needed a huge market correction Prices were doubling every 6 years or something and it was not healthy or natural and it could not last..The bottom had to fall out and it has.

I do not want to see you lose money, but have you considered just lowering the price another 10-20k so that it will just sell and be done with it?

Homegrown Tomatoes

We have already lowered it $25K. :(  Can't afford to lower it much more.  Especially since we just poured more money into it to repair the water damage and fix the cause of it.  However, did get an offer to rent it to the contractor's son ( a neighbor we trust) for two months until he gets his house ready to move into.  That would offset the cost of the work done on it, and we could still have showings/open houses  in the mean time.  Even if an offer is made, we could set the closing to coincide with them moving across the street into their own place (they bought an eyesore across the street from us and have spent the last year getting it ready to move into... it is almost ready, but they're expecting a baby at the first of next month and want to get out of the inlaw's house and have a little more privacy and space.)  It is a thought.  I think it will sell at the price we've lowered it to, especially now that the basement is totally repaired.  My realtor is on a road trip for two weeks though, so I don't know when she's going to get around to holding an open house.  Hope something happens soon with it.  I am going completely stir crazy here in the city....  it IS a terrible time to be selling.  A year an a half ago, we could have sold that house at our original asking price in a heartbeat.  Folks probably wouldn't have even tried to get us to come down on it.  Now we'll be doing well to break even... there is no way we'll make back all the work we put in to it, either.  Maybe the actually money, but certainly nowhere near enough to pay back all the backbreaking labor on it.  Kind of makes you sick. :P  Never the less, I've found the place I want to buy here, I'm pretty sure.
Just hope we can get in it before winter.



benevolance

trust is a difficult thing...renting my property out scares the hell out of me... Good luck!

I would probably rent it out for a while... to create some money to offset expenses and tide you over until it sells... As long as the renter takes good care of the place you should be okay...

We are going to list our home in SC in the spring and it is a tough thing to navigate through.. I just hope that there is some kind of good news between now and then... maybe continued lower gas prices or increased employment...Something anything will make me happy. We do not have a lot of money in our home....But we worked like slaves on it... And it is very upsetting to think that our houses were worth 30-40% more 2 years ago...If I can sell my house for 20% under it's  value I will be very happy....If I can get for it what the tax acessor would value it for...I would be happy


Homegrown Tomatoes

I hear you.  At this point, we'd be thrilled just to get an offer.

Last night, I had my Mom come up and watch the big girls and DH and the baby and I went back to the 40 acres I like.  It has an old house on it.  DH borrowed the realtor's flashlight and was crawling around under the crawl space and checking out all the details. He didn't see the big things like the ponds and the barns, etc. until I pointed them out to him because he was so busy going over the house with a fine-toothed comb.  I'd told him before that the  house was nothing special and I think it is overpriced by about $50K.  However, I figure they should be willing to negotiate to some degree; they have to come down at least that much or I won't even consider it.  So, his analysis was that it was a plain-jane house with work to be done and was overpriced at least $50K, which was exactly what I'd already told him.  We also looked at another 40 acres nearby with a manufactured home on it.  The house was on a foundation but had some serious foundation problems... cracks in the drywall everywhere, and they'd done a really shoddy job of trying to cover it up, apparently right before we got there and I reached up to feel a spot on the ceiling and got wet paint all over my hand!  The land was pretty, and looked like a good place for horse people... there were trails all through the woods, three big ponds, etc.  However, probably only 1/4 was farmable land, and it was out of sight of the house, meaning that it'd be hard to keep an eye on livestock if they were in either of the front pastures.  From the hill up above the house you could see for miles.  I could see the train going through the little town down in the bottom land, etc.    The biggest negative IMO was the defunct oil well out in the back yard and the four tank batteries at the entrance to the drive... mainly from an aesthetic perspective.  My thought is always for everything they tried to cover up that we actually noticed, how many more did we miss?  I'd rather buy land with nothing on it than the land with the mfg. home.  Also, they situated the house with the ugliest of views when there were so many great ones to choose from... can't for the life of me figure out why. 

benevolance

We see houses built in terrible locations and a lot of the time is involves cost time and effort.

People put their houses right on top of the highway practically because it means you do not have to pay for additional power poles, you have a shorter driveway, less cost to hook into town water and sewage..

Other times someone will put a house in a bizarre location simply because it was the best spot for drainage in terms of septic or it was where the best water was found. Sightline, view and privacy sadly almost never go into the equation when deciding where to build for most people

Homegrown Tomatoes

We had a friend who bought a place like that.  Had a crappy little trailer practically sitting on the road, and 80 acres.  They lived in the trailer while they built their house a quarter mile back from the road, and then they moved into the house and let their daughter and son-in-law live there for a while until they could save up enough to buy their own place, and then after they'd pretty much trashed it, my husband went over and helped them tear it down and burn up the rubble.  I'm sure the original owners just couldn't afford to run all the lines, etc. back to the back of the property, but why buy 80 acres if you're not going to use any of it?

benevolance

That is an easy question about the 80 acres and not use it. Even though we are mortal we can if lucky live a long time. I would gladly buy 80 acres of land and live in a piece of **it trailer with the hope that someday I can build my dream house back on the hill out of sight.

I would much rather do that than live in a wonderful house in town. This is kind of funny because a few years ago when we bought an amazing old house dead in the center of town...We fixed it and now we are going to sell it for a piece of land that has no house it is not cleared no power poles nothing...

We will have to build a camp or live in a motorhome the first year at the new land..And we would gladly do it just to be on the land.

People sometimes do not get all the way to the destination before the ride is over...They get the land, they just never get to burn the old ratty trailer and build their dreamhouse.

I still like to think that they have the dream to build that perfect house on the perfect spot on their 80 acres...Just like you and I ;)

Homegrown Tomatoes

Well, yeah, I know WHY they put the trailer right at the road and so forth, but in this case they didn't do ANYTHING with the land.  In a heartbeat, I'd live in a tent on my own property in the country rather than live in a relatively luxurious rent house in town (or even a house I owned in town.)


benevolance

I am in exactly the same boat as you on that...

apaknad

HG,
  i can't wait until i have that opportunity. land, used travel trailer, build house. hopefully not too long from now. 2009
unless we recognize who's really in charge, things aren't going to get better.

benevolance

It is a great time to buy a motorhome... You can buy a 25 year old 25-30 foot motorhome for a couple thousand dollars...They are everywhere. Gasoline is expensive it is getting harder to insure them cheap and they charge a lot of money for hook ups at campgrounds for the motor homes.

My wife and I are currently looking for something around a 30 foot...I will fix a leaking roof or whatever..minor damage does not bother me either...It is short term investment...if it is cheap enough I will junk it when I am done...

glenn kangiser

I gave mine away to get rid of it, but got my moneys worth out of it.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

MountainDon

Make certain the appliances work... fridge, water heater, furnace are the ones that give the most problems. And the A/C if so equipped. Try 'em out. The one we bought years ago had faults with all four and we negotiated the price downwards to where it was nearly free.
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

benevolance

yes I know all about trying to find someone to repair a propane fridge... That said the appliances are great to take out of cheap nearly free motor home when you are done with it for a hunting camp

I used to haul those pop up trailers away all the time cleaning up yards and I would get a couple hundred bucks for the propane stove and fridge to someone wanting a small hunting camp... They would build something like 8 x 10 in the woods and use the furnace and fridge in it.

the appliances out of the motorhome would be even more valuable for that sort of application


Homegrown Tomatoes

We almost bought a big pull-behind trailer before we left WI.  It was still in immaculate shape, and they only wanted something like $1,500 for it.  We have a vehicle big enough to tow it with, too.  My thought was that we could live in it temporarily if we needed to build (it had plenty of room for all five of us) or if we ended up buying a place with a house, we could always use it for vacations or sell it for what we paid for it, or very close to it.  DH didn't want to rent a lot in some seedy trailer park until we could buy though, so we didn't buy it.  Now we're stuck in this $1100 a month rent house and with no buyer for our house in WI yet.  It could get bad really quickly if his company quits paying our rent here... it's been more than six months now.  Last night we were trying to decide what additional jobs we could take in the mean time so as not to have to go into debt for our rent on a credit card, or where/how we would get by until we do have a buyer.  DH suggested we move in with my 81yo Grandma, but that's kind of a mean thing to do to an old woman!  Even if we bought all the groceries and did all the cooking and cleaning, I don't think she'd appreciate having her peace and quiet interrupted for any length of time.  I figured I could sell my quilts and other sewing projects on the internet maybe and babysit one or two kids during the day.  In the mean time, I'm hurrying up to finish up a couple of paid quilting projects for someone in Wisconsin.  Even though it would've been really difficult to be in a little pull-behind trailer with a newborn, I wish we'd done that because at least the possibilities of being unable to pay either rent or mortgage wouldn't be looming so realistically on the horizon.  Just another reason men should listen to their wives!  I hate debt of any sort.

benevolance

$1100 a month is a lot of money to rent a house...I mean you could have a mortage for 150,000 for less than that a month...Is the housing market really that precious in Oklahoma

ScottA

$1100 is pretty steep for OK. We have a nice 3 bedroom brick house rented out in a suburb of Tulsa for $800. Must just be the OKC market.

Homegrown Tomatoes

It is really high for OK because it's in some whoopty-doo northwest OKC neighborhood I could care less about... we were really bound by time to find a place to rent, so the company found us a few leads.  The one I wanted was even closer to DH's work in an older neighborhood and was over $500 a month cheaper, but the guy didn't call me back about it the first ten times I called on it, and it ended up renting out before I could send my mom up to check it out for us.  There is NO way this place is worth what the company is paying for it!  It hasn't been maintained at all and all sorts of corners were cut in the building of it.  If we had to pay the rent on it, I would've moved out before the first month was up.... it is ridiculous that they're charging this much.

In good news today, I just learned that we've had three showings of our house in WI this week, and there seems to be some more serious interest in it!  I am praying that someone will make an offer very soon!

Homegrown Tomatoes

Our realtor is having open houses the next two weekends.  I am really hoping.


Went to look at another place yesterday.  It was pretty, but I didn't like the fact that it shared the driveway with another 5 acres of interior land and there was no way you could shut and lock a gate at the road if you wanted to.  Also, because of the way it was situated, it'd be hard to keep your animals off the other person's 5 acres, and  vice versa.  I still like the other 40 acres the best, but am afraid they won't come down much on their price... I'm prepared to walk away if they won't.  There was another 40 acres right down the road from it for $50K less and with a bigger house on it.  The land wasn't as useful, but boy was it gorgeous, and it had great views, too.  I don't like it as well, because it isn't as practical, but it is a possibility... I'd honestly want to sell the solitaire home that is on it and build over from the ground up (because they apparently didn't set it on the foundation right, or the soil has shifted, or something, and besides, those things feel like cardboard boxes to me.... and they all look alike.)