slurryguy wrote:
> 1. What motivated you in the beginning. How did you get started?
>
We sold our downtown condo in Canada and moved to Texas. We hate
renting, so finding a place to buy was my job. After looking at about
1000 houses, we decided that the only realistic option was to build our
own. For the first time in our lives, we could afford to buy a really
nice place, but we couldn't find one. It seemed to us that the houses
were designed to impress the neighbors, not to live in. Huge, grand
entrances, bedrooms that were so small you needed to go out to the hall
to change your mind. Master bathrooms big enough for a 3 piece band and
a cocktail party, but no storage space to speak of. And the kitchens,
work triangles in some of them were over 22 steps. Not designed to
actually cook in. Needless to say, the style of home available was not
our cup of tea.
> 2. What type of land and what area were you looking for when you started? Did your desires change as the process went forward? What were your critera?
>
When we first started looking, we didn't have anything in particular in
mind, we looked at heavily wooded places, cleared places, all sorts.
However, we found that the financing on bare land was almost impossible
and we couldn't qualify for it. We looked at a couple of fixer uppers,
but most were beyond repair.
> 3. (Optional) If you do not mind sharing numbers, How much money had you saved up for a down payment when you started looking?
>
We had about $5000 US saved up, but we had the backing of our Canadian
money from selling our place up there, we weren't first time buyers.
> 4. Did you go through a Real Estate Agent? Auction? Personal Transaction? Other? Why did you make the choice you did?
>
We tried Agents and just looking, especially at new homes. We finally
bought through an owner finance place that was a developer of sorts. He
offered 3 acres with a 1200 square foot shell of a house for $18,700.
If I was going to have land, I wanted enough to get agriculture status
and a tax break, so in this county, I needed 20 acres. I looked at the
construction of the shell and knew I could do a better job myself, so we
didn't take one. We bought 20 acres of bare land, with very few trees,
mostly pasture on the black top. My husband was on call at the time and
back roads that became impassible with heavy rain just would not do.
> 5. Did you hire an attorney?
>
No, I did talk to one, but there isn't much they could do to help. I
did spend time at the county court house looking for liens on the land.
We also talked to the legal people, mostly the secretaries about the
developer. We asked in town about what the local experience was.
> 6. Did you get a survey?
>
No, no need to. The developer had a survey on file with the county, so
I got a copy of it. All four corners were clearly marked already.
> 7. Extremely important. WHAT MISTAKES DID YOU MAKE? Please highlight your mistakes. What would you do differently if you did it all over again?
>
I would have bought an RV or holiday trailer and put most of my stuff in
storage and lived on the land while building, instead of driving back
and forth. Since I didn't know how long it would take for me build
something to live in, our rent went on a month to month and was rising
monthly. I would not have wasted money on a well or a septic. I
should have put in compost toilets and water catchment right away, that
would have saved me $10,000. But back in 1992 the internet was still an
infant, all the wonderful information was not available as it is today.
It would have been nice to be off grid, to start with. We did not know
enough about what we were doing. It has been a wonderful journey, many
of our viewpoints have changed along the way.
> 8. Other than the purchase price of the land, how much money did you spend on fees and professional services.
>
None, the joy of owner financing. The heartache is the interest rate,
it was very high, even for then, 12.75% We threw every dime we could at
the mortgage and paid it off in 4.5 years.
> 9. How did closing go?
>
Super easy. Since it was basically rent-to-own, there are few hassles.
Just don't miss payments or get behind. You don't own the equity until
the place is paid for in that kind of contract. No matter how long you
have been making payments, miss three in a row and they can foreclose
and take the property back. Also, they have the right to interfere with
a sale of the property, you can't just sell it to someone else, at least
not without out the original owner's permission. As soon as it was paid
off, the owner applied to get us a formal deed. No problems.
> 10. Please don't try to turn this thread into a sales pitch for a Real Estate company, or an attorney, or try to market a particular piece of land. Please speak in generic terms. This is intended to be a learning discussion about the land purchase process, not a sales pitch. (Papercreters is adamantly anti-spam.)
>
> 11. Please share as much detail about other factors or other parts of the process as you feel comfortable sharing.
>
> 12. A funny story or a joke about your situation is encouraged. Keep it light. I'd rather see us "laughing and learning" than "ranting and @#%ching".
>
We have been on the land for 16 years the end of this month, I still
don't have a house. My original building was severely damaged by a near
miss of a tornado. We installed a large metal building as a barn, and
wound up living in it. Our dearest wish is to have our home built
before we turn 60. However, the 20 acres now supports us, so we have
very few worries in the current economical unrest.
Bright Blessings,
Kim
