On Sat, Jun 13, 2009 at 12:39 PM, slurryguy <slurryguy@yahoo.com> wrote:
A comment in another thread got me thinking about this topic.
I'm thinking that was my comment as I bellyache over not being a land owner now.I was, however, a land owner before... I sold because I hadn't lived in my house for over a year and a half and refused to rent it out and thought I'd never return to Texas. I'll answer this though, from the point of view of the property that I did have prior to 9/11
1. What motivated you in the beginning. How did you get started?
I have always wanted property. Sizeable property with few to no neighbors, plenty of land for garden and lots of trees for privacy. I had moved to Austin Texas for a new job. I am in the software business. One search around town had me immediately going east because that is where the trees are. To the west, it is dry "hill country" with sparcely populated live oaks and lots of rocky sandy soil, sage brush and tumbleweeds. I spent the weekends driving around the country roads east of Austin, found a lovely area very nearby the town of Elgin which is a famous town in central Texas for its Sausage. There are two sausage manufacturers, Meyers and the other place I don't recall. I found a subdivision that had 1/2 acre to 2 acres sites. Not big enough for me but also it was an upper scale gated development with home owners association fees and the gammit. Yuck! But nosey I asked more questions and thats when I found out the same developers had another tract of much larger lots (5 - 10 acres) with more mature trees and further deep in the woods. I drove by that place, and picked my lot the same day. I knew that was my place. 7 acres of white oak, hickory, cedar and some other bush like trees which had red berries.
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?
Oh, I jumped the gun I see. I answered this above.
3. (Optional) If you do not mind sharing numbers, How much money had you saved up for a down payment when you started looking?
$8000
4. Did you go through a Real Estate Agent? Auction? Personal Transaction? Other? Why did you make the choice you did?
Went straight through the developer. Saved on closing costs. Got financing from the developer too. Not bad for vacant land at 9% interest 15 year ammortized.
5. Did you hire an attorney?
Nope. Why inflate the cost? :)
6. Did you get a survey?
Developer surveyed already. All boundaries marked already. The property was also marked by neon tape tied around branches in trees the whole distance so you'd know where to put your fence if you wanted one since the woods were very very thick and you could not cut down trees close to property line (part of the CC&R's).
7. Extremely important. WHAT MISTAKES DID YOU MAKE? Please highlight your mistakes. What would you do differently if you did it all over again?
Biggest mistake I made was staying in California after my contract there was over. I shoulda stayed in Texas and just developed roots there. I had a fine property. By the way, my property was in escrow and due to close within a week when 9/11 happened. I was there packing my stuff to take back to California. Went through the drivein at McDonalds in Elgin to get my last meal in Central Texas. Was fixing to leave by 10 AM. While in the drivein, had the radio on, thats when I heard the news on the first plane. Drove home fast as I could flipped TV on and within 5 or 10 minutes second plane hit. Very surreal day. I should have at that very moment ripped up the escrow papers and decided to stay in Texas. I don't feel like going over the details of why though.
8. Other than the purchase price of the land, how much money did you spend on fees and professional services.
$500 is my memory, for buyers costs on title insurance.
9. How did closing go?
Painless!
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".
After putting down $8000 on property, I immediately went to find a "cheep manfactured home" because I was hoteling still at $2200 a month hotel costs, so I figured it was fastest to get a manufactured home than site build. I found an awesome deal on a 2400 square foot home with real 2x4 wall timbers and 2x6 floor timbers, comp shingle roof, vinyl siding, the whole gammit for $47,500. Brand spankin new! Including refrigerator and washer and dryer. This company was going bankrupt and I bought one of the site models because they had to skedattle. A deal like that is something you don't walk away from. My things were being shipped by Beacons from Iowa where I last lived. I had them put on hold until my house was solidified. They delivered all my furniture like a few days before the house was delivered. They had to put them inside the house. When the house was delivered, because it took a long time to get down the driveway (I made it curvy on purpose to lend privacy, but this made it hard to position the home) the movers had to reschedule the put together for like a week or two later. Ugh.. I wanted out of that hotel room, so I camped out on my home unassembled for that length of time. I had to crap in the woods and take a shower with a garden hose, etc. I also took that time to go feral by spending hours walkign around naked on the property on the weekends. It was the first time in my life I did something like that. It made me feel really connected to the land.Now, it is years after the fact. I sold that property at a loss believe it or not. $20,000 loss as a matter of fact. Texas is different than California and at that time I was lucky to find a buyer in a 3 month market period. Anyway, I had mucho dinero in the bank though from lucrative contracts. 9/11 changed the whole scene with my line of work though. Since then software has been outsourced like crazy to India and Philippines. I started a company with 3 other partners. We marketed a product I authored. It was a decade before its time. Partners got greedy, I picked the wrong partner to side with, lost all my money, landed myself a lawsuit I couldn't fund, lost ability to conduct business, had to go bankrupt. I am now lik 5 years post bankruptcy. Sure do wish I could be a land owner again. California is mega expensive. Though I do currently live in heaven, San Luis Obispo. 45,000 population and #8 in the top 10 places to live in the entire country. But I can't afford to buy here. Have wistful thoughts of finding a rich lady who's husband's 6 feet under and looking for a life mate, but that's a crazy thought that leaves my mind about as quick as it enters it. The ability to own land just seems to me to be out of arms reach for the foreseeable future. I have negative thoughts about this country's future. It's not fear, I don't fear this, not even fear.. but I do believe that we are headed for a horrible future and sometime soon. I'm now sort of busy preparing for that eventuality, stockign up on food, survival things, and ways to protect myself from all angles including the crashing of the banks which I believe is pre-destined by evil forces that pull all the puppet strings from our trusted leaders. If that sort of future doesn't happen then at the very least I will have saved some costs in the future by plunking all my cash into things now at a lower price. I'll wait for the total market crash that I believe can happen and I'll sweep up some property at that time perhaps, either by trading what I have, or by buying it with massively devalued dollar. That sort of thing happened before during the "great depression".
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