How can I find afforable land?

[SourRoses]

I'm interested in this too, as we've wanted land for a long time. The terms for loans right now are not good... and they've tightened up the requirements. Hopefully, the bubble will burst, and the market become accessible again.

One thing I found in my search is county owned property. These are not foreclosed or ever developed but parcels that were held back when the surveys were first done. Either for prospective roads, county buildings / utilities, or parcels considered unsuitable in some way. Most of those I saw listed came in strange shapes... such as long and thin, or even a 5 acre triangle. Some were low lying lands. Others would never have road access. So it important to be careful and thorough when looking at these.
I first found out about it through this owner financing advertisement (provider not recommended)... when I searched the local parcel ID's on the county website it showed the sale to this individual with the seller being the county. That led me to find nearly hidden in the depths of the county website a listing of parcels owned by the county.
I had to have a separate tab open with the plot map thingy to search the numbers for each one and figure out where they were. Different states may be more or less accessible, but in mine you have to contact them about each one to see if they're interested in selling. Most of the time they've held back far more sites than they needed for future projects, or housing development didn't move in the direction they expected, so there are parcels in the list that are available. In my county it was all favorable farm zoning (A1), likely because they didn't know what they were going to use it for. They are also very cheap, albeit no financing is allowed.
Some looked like gems... hidden in a bunch of junk.
Even on an imperfect parcel, if it's large enough (5 acres?) then you have a high chance of finding a suitable house site on it.
I also saw some that were part ecological habitat. In FL, where a natural water body could come up to, as determined by the surveyor, you can't build within a certain number of feet of that. In many cases the parcels were cut in half or even more by protected habitat. As long as you have a good site to build and road access, I though those sound quite nice for a farm / garden... you're allowed to fence the border for livestock up to a certain boundary and bring sheds / gardens closer than the actual house site. Plus you don't have neighbors behind / beside and may have a more permanently peaceful property.

Of course, all of those are raw land. I concluded that is not as scary as most people think. If you are in a region with a good water table, a well should cost about 5k. And site clearing is something companies should not be in charge of anyway, as they do a horrible raze-everything job. And cart off the lumber to sell.
A good farm site has a mix of old growth trees, and tree dotted pasture areas. You have to monitor that kind of thing in the works to get it right.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

I'm interested in this too, as we've wanted land for a long time. The terms for loans right now are not good... and they've tightened up the requirements. Hopefully, the bubble will burst, and the market become accessible again.

One thing I found in my search is county owned property. These are not foreclosed or ever developed but parcels that were held back when the surveys were first done. Either for prospective roads, county buildings / utilities, or parcels considered unsuitable in some way. Most of those I saw listed came in strange shapes... such as long and thin, or even a 5 acre triangle. Some were low lying lands. Others would never have road access. So it important to be careful and thorough when looking at these.
I first found out about it through this owner financing advertisement (provider not recommended)... when I searched the local parcel ID's on the county website it showed the sale to this individual with the seller being the county. That led me to find nearly hidden in the depths of the county website a listing of parcels owned by the county.
I had to have a separate tab open with the plot map thingy to search the numbers for each one and figure out where they were. Different states may be more or less accessible, but in mine you have to contact them about each one to see if they're interested in selling. Most of the time they've held back far more sites than they needed for future projects, or housing development didn't move in the direction they expected, so there are parcels in the list that are available. In my county it was all favorable farm zoning (A1), likely because they didn't know what they were going to use it for. They are also very cheap, albeit no financing is allowed.
Some looked like gems... hidden in a bunch of junk.
Even on an imperfect parcel, if it's large enough (5 acres?) then you have a high chance of finding a suitable house site on it.
I also saw some that were part ecological habitat. In FL, where a natural water body could come up to, as determined by the surveyor, you can't build within a certain number of feet of that. In many cases the parcels were cut in half or even more by protected habitat. As long as you have a good site to build and road access, I though those sound quite nice for a farm / garden... you're allowed to fence the border for livestock up to a certain boundary and bring sheds / gardens closer than the actual house site. Plus you don't have neighbors behind / beside and may have a more permanently peaceful property.

Of course, all of those are raw land. I concluded that is not as scary as most people think. If you are in a region with a good water table, a well should cost about 5k. And site clearing is something companies should not be in charge of anyway, as they do a horrible raze-everything job. And cart off the lumber to sell.
A good farm site has a mix of old growth trees, and tree dotted pasture areas. You have to monitor that kind of thing in the works to get it right.

Thank you for this info!!!

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

One thing about foreclosed property: You are buying it as-is, at the price listed. Roof leaks? Your problem. Electrical not up to code? Your problem. Well contaminated? Your problem.

Some foreclosures are people walking away from problems that they can't afford to fix, or that are unfixable. There are places in the next county that have polluted wells. Their homes might be unsellable.

I surely wouldn't buy any one of them.

Good point. Honestly I may be more interested in foreclosed land. We can build later.

 

[Sally PB]

Good point. Honestly I may be more interested in foreclosed land. We can build later.

True. But you need to know that you can drill a well and have safe, potable water.

The area I mentioned with contaminated wells? The entire area is probably contaminated. But I don't know that they can't drill new wells.

Keep looking, and good luck!

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

True. But you need to know that you can drill a well and have safe, potable water.

The area I mentioned with contaminated wells? The entire area is probably contaminated. But I don't know that they can't drill new wells.

Keep looking, and good luck!

If the water is contaminated, then it's the land itself. There was this one place we looked at that had more water pumping a minute than I had ever seen. The drilling company had tapped a spring, so first assumptions was the water was fine. Come to find out, the water tests said the water wasn't safe to drink, give to animals, or even water the garden with. This was directly associated with the land itself. Sometime ago, someone had buried a mobile home not too far from where the water was tapped, and it completely polluted the water and the land. (Please don't ask me how or why there was a mobile home buried, but it became a reason why we walked away from the place.)

Bad water is a good reason to run away from a place, especially when farming, but there is an option for the right place. There's filtration systems that can go on any water fount, even a shower head, that'll filter your water clean enough to drink. It can be a little expensive sitting up and I'd imagine the filters would need to be occasionally changed, but for the right place, it might just be worth it.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Thanks, everyone!

I spoke with the realtor today and he said the water hookup is across the street from the edge of the property, and I would have to "run it over". Not sure if this means actually hauling water, or if he means getting piping over to the land. He wasn't sure about the energy company using pesticides.

Idk, I think I am going to take all of your advice and pass on this one. It's not looking good. Not enough info, really.

 

[ChicNmom]

The right thing will come along. There is no point in rushing into a mistake.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Make sure any future potential parcel isn’t landlocked - and in case I’m misremembering the term, what I mean is that the only way to get to your property would be to cross through someone else’s property - that would obviously make building anything on it difficult.

 

[aart]

I spoke with the realtor today and he said the water hookup is across the street from the edge of the property, and I would have to "run it over". Not sure if this means actually hauling water, or if he means getting piping over to the land. He wasn't sure about the energy company using pesticides.

Who is paying for that water across the road?
Do you own a house now?

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Make sure any future potential parcel isn’t landlocked - and in case I’m misremembering the term, what I mean is that the only way to get to your property would be to cross through someone else’s property - that would obviously make building anything on it difficult.

This is accurate, or by other means, by air if there isn't a legal right-of-way. Most landlocked places are cheaper and for good reason, and the landowners that the right-of-way passes over isn't reasonable people, you may have a lot of issues coming your way that aren't even legal.