In my young life 27 years, I have done 2 real estate deals. 1 my first home and 2 110 acres. I didnt use a realator on either one, dealing direct with the title company, nothing was real difficult. Both properties were somewhat distressed the land much more than the house, but I honestly dont see a need for a realator on any part of it. I can market the same way a realator can...Hell I'm in sales. I can post adds to the internet ect. Word of mouth travels pretty fast as well. I do agree that its pretty crappy that people used you just to save some money. IMO they hired you to be their advocate no matter the outcome. If they would have done everyhting on their own which IMO they should have there never would have been an issue. I know that my research and time that I put into looking for property/finding financing options are worth way less than the 15k in closing costs saved

It's like anything you might buy, car, boat, house, etc., it's always in the buyers best interest to do their homework first, and foremost. Then, speak to several professionals, check references and decide if their services would be beneficial for you. Even going to buy a car, without first, doing your homework, is like pasting a sign on your forehead that reads 'sucker', and well, you are obviously starting to do your homework, and that's definitely the right direction. Good luck.

Poker, let me ask you this:

you said you bought 110 acres FSBO. I'm curious to what county but that is more for my own curiousity.

anyway....you bought 110 acres of rural property.....did you have an attorney review the contract? who wrote the contract? How do you know what the current market value was for that sized acreage that you were looking at? Who looked over the schedule B exceptions to title coverage on the policy? did the property have any easements, issues/defects that can adversely affect the value of the property? how old was the survey?

As a buyer, I would never go it alone since it doesn't cost me anything.

The 110 acres I bought is in Archer City, in Archer County. As far as the contract my representative through capital farm credit provided a basic contract to protect both parties. The property was a distressed sale and I bought the acreage well below market value. Not going to go into numbers but the place 2 places to the south was sold in November for more than mine and it was just 47acres. As far as schedule B Travis Thorne who I will speak very highly of with Capitol Farm Credit as well as Archer Title handled everything and was top notch. In buying the property I was provided the original contract from when he bought it and we followed a lot of things in it. The property does have an electrical easement. As far as adversely affecting the price of the property it came with 3 shipping containers 40ft hiboys. 1 empty 1 full of tools and one full of stuff that I have since sold on eBay for right at 7000. It also came with a 72in diesel 0 turn, and 2 32 ft FEMA trailers. It also included a 2008 enclosed trailer and a 2010 equipment trailer. Which I recieved title on all but mower and containers. For my benefit I paid 450$ and had it resurveyed into 2 55 acre tracts running east and west splitting my property for exit strategy in the future. I'm less than a mile from town and electricity was at the rd. No well or water though. It had one existing pond when I bought it. It also had new fence in 2011 on 2 sides. His survey was from 08 if that matters. As far as mineral rights I didn't get them. They were last sold in 1958 and held by a firm in Pennsylvania that said they aren't for sale. As. Far as drilling right now there is no drilling near me I am very close to town. There is however a lot of windmill activity. As far as the value question you asked earlier. The one part that made no sense to me in the process is that the appraisal wasn't done until 3 days before I closed. Travis told me from the beginning he could lend 90% of appraised value. I could have in the grand scheme of things not put anything down other than closing costs. I learned a lot in the process doing it and have learned a lot since purchasing. I can tell you that I spent many hours reading and educating myself. The point I was trying to make earlier I could see how it was misinterpreted. As far as being a seller, I think there is a much lesser need for an agent as far as listing it for sale. I think this is the longest I've ever wrote only phone so excuse grammatical errors!

X2

The one thing I learned involving purchasing land with minerals, have someone research the title history to find out if the minerals conveyed is accurate.

I bought some land about a year ago, seller said he owned 10% minerals and conveyed all to me. About 2weeks ago, a landman called wanted to lease my land for oil. Asked how much minerals I "thought" I owned. He said he shows I own 50%. When he dropped off the lease agreement, he then says I own 31%.

I currently have a lawyer searching to find out exactly how much minerals I own before signing the lease agreement.

in essence you did have a person working in your corner, only it wasn't an agent it was a loan officer for Cap. Farm. I'm glad it worked out well for you, I personally would not trust a loan officer and a title company to look over my documents I would want a knowledgeable attorney or broker doing it.


Sounds like you got a good deal, was Cap. Farm about to repo the property?

In reality the loan officer at Capital Farm Credit is working in his best interest. You just get to piggyback on their resources. They want things (title exceptions) clean in case they get it back. They are not going to make a loan that will have problems if they foreclose. They don't want issues when/if they own it. These include environmental, lien, or encroachment issues. That's why there is a title commitment issued prior to the policy so these thing can be addressed. Further, they don't want to loan too much on a property that they will be underwater on. So it's in their best interest to not let you get in trouble on value as they may have to sell it in the event they get it back. It really is no substitute for a professional that is working for you, be it a realtor, attorney or whomever.

I have never, ever once seen a loan officer object to any exception on a schedule B. not saying it has never happened, but I've never seen it.

sounds like they just more or less used the previous contract since that's what was loaned on prior, and rolled with that.

Most loan officers don't know what their looking at when they review the title commitment. Goofy easements, environmental liens, mineral reservations, deed restrictions. They depend on the title company to alert them and generally never even go beyond the coverage amount. They also don't read appraisals. They only look at the reconciliation of value to make sure their number is OK. Most don't check comps to see if they are current sales, they don't look at income and expenses in the income approach and seldom check the cap rate to see if it's applicable to the market they are in. Always, ALWAYS hire someone that is at least as smart or smarter than you at what they do. This includes attorneys and realtors. If there are mineral issues, I want an attorney that specializes in oil and gas. I want a realtor that knows the market better than anybody else including me). If I know that I am OK going in, I can feel better about having to get out at some point down the road. Just my opinion.

No he had it owner financed and couldnt come up with the balloon payment and couldnt qualify for a loan.