Land Ownership

If you own your own land, did you buy it?

And if so, how did you go about finding it?

I knew the general region I wanted to buy land. I repeatedly searched the internet over and over again, and took to the county roads looking for For Sale signs. After about a year I identified a property that I was interested in. I looked at it for about a month prior to making an offer. I made an offer, negociated and got the property under contract with a clause that I had 90 days for due-diligence during which time I could "walk" the contract at anytime. I got a survey, phase 1(there was some old well heads/pipe lines that I wanted to make sure were environmentally sound), got aerial etc. Got an additional 30 day extension on the contract. Drove the ranch many times looking at fences, assessed existing improvements and needed improvements. And finally closed on the property.

I may have left some details out but that is pretty much how it went for me.

Thats some very sound advise Spence. Thanks for posting the information. I'm getting ready to start looking for a place to retire on and that sounds like a great approach. Thanks again, Baker

My family found ours in The Dallas morning news,Landsoftexas.com is good-most of the properties are overpriced though,people testing the market and all.WWW.texasrealestatemagazine.com is also good.A couple of things to know (1)make sure you have ingress and egress(access to property-cant be landlocked)(2)Minerals-if you can get them do so,it would be heartbreaking to own a beautiful place and then have a well drilled in your front yard with no monetary benefit to you,is it in an area of oil and gas production?(3)once you find a potential property call a water well drilling co.and see if its in a dry area,lots of areas north of I-20 dont have water(4)pay a title company for an abstract of title,basically a chain of title to show the property is unencumbered,and there are no liens or long lost relatives own part of the land.Good luck,if you need any help you can call me at 972-754-8056

Do yourself a favor....get yourself a good buyers rep.

it costs you nothing and will save yourself alot of time and hassle.

find a reputable one, ask some friends, and hopefully you'll find the land you've been looking for.

spending alot of your own gas money, driving around country roads is fine and all, but by enlisting the help of a good agent, you can gain access to property that is for sale, but not being advertised (which happens quite a bit) plus a knowledgeable farm and ranch agent will be able to tell the what and how much drilling activity is taking place, water table depths and water quality in a givin area, et. title company picks up stuff such as encumbrences on property and deed info.

an honest buyers agent will also be able to tell you how good a property is, as far as your overall goals (cattle, hunting, building lakes) most buyers, especially first time, don't know near enough about the land itself to make a totally informed decision, they buy on "well, it looked nice when I went out there, so I offered on it"

We leased the land for 11 years when the owner passed away. His wife called to tell me and that she was going to sell the place and asked if I wanted first shot at it. I told her I did and she made me a great deal.

we searched online and came across a guy named Eric Williams. He is now called Legacy Approved . The property we called about was under contract, but after hearing our wish list (terrain, utilities & dwelling onsite, not too far from civilization / medical, close to paved road, creek, etc on property). He said he knew of another agent's listing. I think within 6 or 8 weeks we closed on it. He helped us make a SMOKING deal. That was back in 2002

A lot of good advice here. Thanks.

Do your homework and all advice above is great. Nothing has sold near my lease within 5 miles and several have been on the market for over 5 years and still asking the same price! They completely inflate the GREAT Hunting they have listed. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. It is all very overpriced so if you are serious, I would knock a good chuck off the asking price. The only land I know that has sold in other areas are by bordering landowners who already have a stake in it. (this is west of Dallas). East still seems to priced better.

There is a website out of Childress that actually has sales and they list from $500 to $1500 an acre.

http://huntinglandintexas.com/Hunting.html

I used several sites including landsoftexas and trrn.com. I actually put together a spreadsheet listing each property and breaking out it's price per acre with notes as to any improvements. That provides a start as to what is roughly the ASKING rate.

You then need to go to the Texas A&M real estate center and find what the average sales price per acre in the counties you're looking for was. It's going to be lower than you're expecting. Unless it's a unique piece, land rarely trades at asking price.

In regards to the "good buyer's agent", good luck. There are 20 lousy ones for every good one, and even though they all tell you they're looking out for your interests, the only thing they're looking out for is getting their commission. Almost without exception, they'll tell you what they think you want to hear to get you to pull the trigger. There is a huge embedded conflict of interest in real estate. If you can find one that halfway knows what they're talking about, that's your man. Most of them don't.

Don't get emotionally attached to any 1 property. You'll think you've found the best deal on the planet and that if you don't get it, you'll never get another shot. You'll be wrong. I lost out on a piece when my crappy realtor bought it out from under me after I spent 3 months negotiating the price down to a price he said "would never be seen in this county again". I was devastated, but ended up with a better piece of land at a better price with better amenities.

Good luck. It's really fun, but do your homework.

cameron,

what part of the state did you find property in?

I used a local Realtor, found a place I liked and did all the investigating myself. Started with the land I was buying and then went to all my neighbors and talked to them about how they ran their hunting operations. Couple of years after I bought the first ranch I bought 2 more that bordered me. Then last year I bought another that bordered me. Seemed easy to buy the other ranches once I got to know the owners.

Don't jump into anything, do your research on the property. The Realtor helped out quit a bit on the first one and I sorta learned what to look for on the others. Word of advise, some in the country look at city folk as marks. Most are good people though.

I had a realtor buddy of mine looking in the area I was interested in. He found a place that I needed to move on quickly so I dropped everything, checked the place out, made some calls to people in the area, and bought it. Actually the land was in a partnership and some of the partners did not want to sell-one of those guys explained all the good things about the property that were his reasons for not wanting to sell and that information was really helpful.

Well dang, I actually agree with txtrophy85 on something.

Great advice!!

real estate agents are like lawyers.....you have your high power sharks and your ambulance chasers.....which one do you want in your corner?

go with the person that specializes in the type of property your looking for and knows the area.

the 32 year old residential realtor isn't gonna be the person to tell you about the average water depth and quality in la salle county.

That there be some good advice.

You do have some responsibility in the agent you choose and if you let them sell you "ocean front property in arizona and throw the golden gate bridge in for free"...Thats your problem.

We looked for about two years, drove all over the Hill Country looking for For Sale signs, visiting local real estate companies, checking out the local want adds, etc.

I also was watching the Houston Chronicle everyday. One day, an add for the land we have now came up. I called the guy that morning and he said he already had eight calls about it. I took vacation the next day, to drive out there and look at it. Called the guy back and told him that we were really interested and would like him to meet us out there. He did and we agreed to buy it that morning.

That was 14 years ago and we have never looked back, lots of good times out there!

Good luck to you.

Central Texas, txtrophy85. Lavaca, Burleson, Lee, Jackson, Gonzales counties is where I was looking. Bought in Burleson.

I didn't let them sell me bs, and consequently, I didn't get along with a lot of them. They'd tell me a price, I'd tell them it'd never sell for that, they'd tell me everything in that county was selling for that, I'd prove them wrong by showing them actual sales, they'd get frustrated and move on to another buyer they could sell their bs to. Of the 4 or 5 properties I was serious about, I followed all of them through to the sale. Without exception, they sold for substantially less than the realtor told me they were worth.

I ended up using a sweet old lady and just doing my own homework. At least she didn't pretend to know what she was talking about, and she actually did pull a bunch of sales stats for me.

where were you getting your comps from? what size land tract did you end up purchasing?

I know of no place that lists sales price's of large acreage tracts

Not large acreage. 40 acres.

It was very easily findable.

I was just checking.

its hard, sometimes impossible to find comps for tracts that are over 500 acres in size unless you have resources....there is no MLS or website that lists them

in big ranch country, tracts that are a few hundred acres are so rare that comps are non-existant.

I have realtor access to 1 real estate database and a 10 second search just gave me recent sales prices for at least dozens of tracts up to several hundred acres, which I consider "large acreage".

When you say "large acreage" are you talking thousands of acres?

Title companies and Capital Farm Credit are also good resources for selling prices.

anywhere from 300 acres on up

what database are you talking about?

MLS will list sales prices only if they were listed on MLS in the first place, in south texas, 95% of tracts arn't listed, a few might be in the hill country, but thats not the rule, thats the exception

I think it's the MLS database I'm searching (realtor access to the Houston site, har.com). It may be the minority overall, but there are a ton of listings on there. If you can find a few that are close to the are you're buying, you can get a good idea.

I don't know where they get the info, but the Texas A&M real estate center's rural land trends annual report claims selling price as it's basis on properties. It may be incomplete, but it was accurate in the areas I looked at.

Hey cameron you said you bought 40 acres? I am in the market right now and am looking basically all over the state of texas. I am also looking for between 50-100 acres. Do you feel that the 40 has been big enough for you? Have you had any problems with your neighboors? Also, how far away is you property? I have looked at some good properties about 6 hours away but dont want to kid myself about being able to go up there as often as I want and keep it managable.. THESE QUESTIONS ARE STILL FOR EVERYONE! Thoughts appreciated..

TallTines&Pines...

Complicated question...

I didn't buy land with the expectation of having a place that I could shoot a bunch of nice bucks. I wanted a place in the country that I could use to get away from Houston and maybe pop a pig or deer every now and then. With that said, 40 acres is plenty big enough for my needs. Disclaimer: I have a lot of friends with a lot of land that let me deer hunt for free.

Neighbors: Only have 2 immediate neighbors because 1 of them is a 2000 acre tract that basically wraps around my property. The other one is great (old Czech guy that knows a little about everything), but I have had issues with the fellow that leases the property next to me. He's a very bad excuse for a hunter - shot a yearling illegal 8-pt last year and I've caught him in lies a number of times. He's nice enough, but it ruins it for me knowing i have someone I can't trust behind a gun right next to me. I think the owner is getting sick of him though, so it shouldn't be a problem for too long.

If you're going to buy a small tract of land, you're not going to be able to let your kids all shoot deer unless you have a very large neighbor or hunting pressure is low. Otherwise you'll shoot out the herd and the hunting will be lousy. Obviously you can find places where there is low hunting pressure or large neighbors, and that's ideal.

My property is only 2 hours from my house, which is key, in my opinion. I work pretty hard and wouldn't want to drive 6 hours or pay for gas to do so.

Went to Jury Duty, saw a sign on the bulletin board in the Courthouse with "Land For Sale". Went and looked at it, contacted the seller, bought it a week later.

Inherited a five generation ranch.

Congratulations! Typically, after that many generations, there are many owners who have differing opinions as to how the assest should be handled. Hope you can keep it together!

I have bought land without a realtor and with. Both can work just fine if you are a detailed enough person and know the right questions to ask and investigate on your own. If you aren't....get a realtor that knows the area and isn't trying to sell you on the first 2 places they show you. If you are detailed and know the questions to ask about easements, mineral rights, water wells, water table, septic requirements, HOA restrictions, hunting restrictions, access to utilities, cable, phone, soil conditions for pond buildng, house building,Agg requirements, wildlife exempt, requirements, etc......then you can save at least 2% on realtor commissions by calling the selling agent and tell them you will work with them if they take 4% commission to broker the deal or you will find a realtor and they will only get 3%..most will jump on it fast!

I am in construction and I see people spend tons of money on a piece of property they THINK they got a great deal on because the price per acre is less then anyone else but they end up spending tons more in the long run on foundation, septic systems, fences, road to house, etc.....add up all the costs you think you will need to spend to get a proeprty the way you like it when comapring. Don't just look at the / acre price.

I used lands of Texas. Got serious & found about 4-5 pieces. Took a friday off & went & looked & drove for 2 days. Turned out the 1st palce was the closest & best priced, I did have to clean it up quite a bit but today I have a great place. 5 miles west of the Brazos I have my own 200 acres & it is awesome. I call it the Wild Wild XXXXing west because it really is. I've killed 37 rattlesnakes in 3 yrs(hence my handle)We have shout numerous wild pigs & the last one was by my buddy while it was charging him. Good deer but in general a lot of pressure. Ducks, dove, Turkeys, Bass in one of my 3 tanks. I even started a small cattle op that is returning $4-5k/yr. But best of all it is my place & I can do what I want when & how & me & my friends & family always have a ball! Except when my wife came last fall & saw some snakes. That's ok My boys & her love to tell the story so memories were made. Get your finance or moeny ready. Go look now as I bet prices are going down due to some wanting out of this heat. Good Luck! Lo'

Well, I have the reverse problem. I am getting ready to sell out soon and I want to be totally upfront warts and all. Agents are hard to convience to show clients with this attitude. You are not there, how can you know they are telling the whole story. Then its hard for me to look with unbiased reaction at the place. To sell it myself I might not be fair to me.