We used a Realtor for the 8 acres we bought. We found the area we were interested in and then used a Realtor to find something within the area.

A friend is trying to buy in the same area we did and has the Realtor send her information and pictures when ever something comes up in that area.

It gets frustrating but keep at it.

If you live in the area in which you will be buying, spend every minute you can driving around and seeing what's out there. Many times it's just a little sign in a field.

We own a large piece of property ina fairly desireable area/school district. We have received several letters in the mail over the years from folks who have pulled the county maps and written to the large land owners in the area in which they wanted to live. We are zoned for parcels of greater than 5 acres so usually the question is asking if we will sell 5 acres.

PD

We used a broker. He would email me lists of properties and we would drive by and then give him feedback.

Not sure if many of you are looking out in rural areas but has anyone ever tried to just drive around, find some good land and contact the owner to see if he will sell a small piece of it?

A co-worker drove around and found the area where he wanted to build his home. Then he got on-line and looked at the county data base of the land parcels in that area - and the data base provides the names and addresses of the owners. He then wrote them all letters asking if anyone was interested in selling - and that is how he got his lot.

I would also talk to custom home builders in the area, some of the them have land holdings themselves or know of other builders who have lots to sell.

We found our lot through a friend of a friend. You might ask any homeowners nearby the area you are interested in - they might know someone who has a lot to sell.

We searched for 3 years in the area we wanted to buy. We called people in the community that we knew had unused land. We searched the land registry to detemrine who non-resident land owners were and contacted them too. We eventually got something that met all of our criteria but it was a long time coming.

I searched the internet for all of the local agencies serving the area in which we wanted land, then looked at all of their listings. Not all agencies had their land listed with MLS (like Realtor.com) so going to each agency's website was necessary. We found our perfect place this way.

I've used realtors, and you do need to visit with every realty office in the locale. My best realtors have been very small offices because they really seemed to pay attention to what I wanted. My worst experience was a small office where the realtor wasn't really interested in selling land [he preferred estates or commercial property], and he gave the impression that a) looking for acreage was a waste of his time and b) he preferred not dealing with a woman. That happens; this woman was happy not to waste his time.

Know what you want and be upfront about it. If you are looking for "a lovely view of the lake", don't waste time checking out the wrong side of the hill. The more specific your desire the more likely someone will find a match; so be very exact about it. "A few acres with trees" is very generalized; but "4 to 8 acres, no steep slopes, at least 3 acres in untouched woods, pond or spring a bonus" will help elimate mountainside properties with 20 trees scattered around.

Pass the word in the area you like. Friends of friends or even slight acquaintences may know of something soon coming available. Don't forget to thank whoever, no matter how unsuitable their offering (the next might be just what you wanted). My favorite property actually came to my attention because I had mentioned to the cashier at a gas station that I was looking for a small acreage, at least a couple acres that were flattish. Over several months, she mentioned two sites, which weren't quite right, but then -- Are your ready for this? The cashier's mother's neighbor's sister had been helping an elderly couple. Himself passed on and the wife wanted to sell part of an old farm for cash. Yes!! The process is called word-of-mouth and it works very well in small communities, but you [or a good friend] have to be in the vicinity to hear about things.

Thanks everyone! I do have a few different areas outside the city in mind and am pretty specific on what I want, without being too much so.

I had never thought to pull the maps and send letters. I see tons of unused fields and woods, but nothing really listed on MLS. Great idea!

We had the opposite problem when looking for land in SC- too many choices! Since we live 600 miles away, we did everything we could to whittle down the pile. Some things to check (once you find some prospects) Many areas have GIS, which will be a county website that you can type in the particular lot, and it will have tons of information, from flood zones to crime statistics. On the Greenville County GIS, you can even find out the soil type! There are also aerial photos, and all the surrounding parcels are all identified, so you can literally find out who your neighbors are. As you zoom out, you can then determine whether or not you are down wind of a sewage treatment plant or some such thing. Realtors will NOT tell you about all the bad stuff- you have to do your homework. In some cases, they can't legally tell you certain information, even if you ask. We also used Google Earth (that's how we discovered we had a mountain view before we visited in the winter). We went to SC armed with this info, plus Mapquest from one lot to the next. Mapquest is also handy if you want to see what your potential commute might be. Out of 24 or so properties, we still only had two on our 'short list', and wound up buying the first one we looked at, which had only been on the market a few days. You can also look up property owners on GIS, and it lists their contact information. You could then write to them to see if they would sell some land. From the aerial maps, you could quickly see how much land they have, and what kind of road frontage, etc. For example, we have one neighbor with 11 acres, and frontage on two roads, but the back neighbor has 27 acres, but only a right of way to access his property. If you're going to try to buy from a private landowner, make sure you know what the land is worth (from area comparables) and try to assure the owner that you're not a big city developer who's going to put in hundreds of condos. People out in the country might tend to be suspicious of your motives. Good luck!

My husband's a realtor and often keeps his eyes out for folks who are looking for a particular kind of property/land. When something comes up that they decide to buy, he will sometimes list a home they already own, but if not, he's at least made another contact, so he's more than happy to do this kind of work. I think it would be well worth your time to find a realtor who wouldn't mind you checking in with him/her from time-to-time.

flgargoyle,

You said in above "In some cases, they can't legally tell you certain information, even if you ask." What information are you talking about? I thought realtors were obligated to give 'full disclosure', if they know about something. I can understand if it is private info about the sellers, but if it pertains to the land, I thought they must answer if asked. I may be wrong, and it may vary state to state. I am in NY, and will be looking in PA. I just started this project of ours, so I am trying to learn all I can so I don't get shorted.

Rusty

VERY good point about being downwind of something... and keep in mind that the realtor might not be aware of it. Many years ago I bought acreage in a mountainous area and a few months after buying, discovered that it was "downwind" of a plastics manufacturing plant, 18 miles up-valley. Because of seasonal wind patterns, the ah, aroma was rarely noticeable 7 or 8 months of a year, but the rest of the time fresh air smelled worse than a dead skunk. That's when I discovered that talking to your [future] neighbors can be vitally important *before* you buy. The realtor was used to areas on the other side of the mountain and unaware of windy quirks. I also learned a negative about being in lee of a mountain ... many storms would be aft and fore without a drop of water falling on my garden.

Took us 2 yrs to find the right piece. We worked with various realtors who specialize in building land, but were not very successful. We started looking in an area that was exploding with growth, meaning that while there was a great chance that our new home would increase exponentially in value once built, it also meant that our land budget would not get us the acreage we really wanted. We'd have to settle for 2 or 3 acres, rather than 5 to 10.

So we decided to widen our search out further, which meant we were willing to accept a longer commuting time to get the piece of land we were looking for at a more reasonable cost. My husband and I both ride Harleys, so were spent nearly every weekend and nice evening for the better part of a year cruising around the country roads in that area, looking for our ideal land. And just when we were about to give up, we found it!

We were riding down what we decided was a perfect country road - little traffic, away from heavily traveled roads, peaceful, with lots of tranquil meadows, Amish farms and yet the road was freshly paved and maintained. Just as we came around a bend, there was a spectacular rise, with woods behind it, sloping down about 1000 feet off the road, with a natural pond and a meadow/pasture sprinkled with wildflowers. We both pulled off the road and pointed to each other at the same time! We knew we'd found it.

As we walked around, we found a very rusty "for sale" sign in the ditch by the road, almost covered by weeds. Eureka!
We called the realtor listed and set up an appointment with her for the next evening.

When we met with her at the land the next day. we found out the story of the land. The realtor was the owner of the land. It had been under contract to someone else who couldn't get the financing necessary, so the deal fell through. The realtor/owner had been pretty patient and had give the previous buyers several extentions to get their financing, so she was eager to sell it and move on. We offered her a cash deal at a great price (for us), rock bottom, since we had already done some research into what the surrounding land had sold for. To our great surprise, she countered at only a couple of thousand more, and offered to throw in the 3 acres that butted up against the back of our woods as well, since selling that as a separate parcel would involve getting an easement from us as a flag lot. We were (and still are) thrilled with the deal! We got over 8 total acres, with a pond, a stream, woods with 100 yr old oak and maple trees, and a perfect site for a house, set about 800-900 feet back from the road - think LONG driveway with trees, overlooking what will become the pastures for our horses. We'll be able to sit on our front porch and look out over our horses grazing in the pasture and the ducks swimming on our pond. We have herds of deer passing through our land, and wild turkeys roosting in our woods. We have beavers in our pond and owls hooting in our woods at night. We have a den of red foxes who live in one of the banks of our stream. We have Amish farms all around us, and no close neighbor. Our Amish neighbors have welcomed us with open arms(that was a concern, since we're the "English" to them, and we've gotten invited to their homes for dinner. They're happy to have us there and we've offered the use of our phones and to provide transportation in our cars to them whenever they need us. We recently took a pregnant wife and her husband to the local hospital for a difficult birth. We've become a part of their community already and we haven't even finished our house yet.

This is Eden on earth to us and we're glad we were picky and patient enough to find the perfect place to live.

That's my advice to you - be patient and be picky. You'll see many pieces of land that you think may be "alright", but don't settle for something ordinary when the truly extraordinary might be just around the next bend. You'll know the right place when you find it and there will be no doubt.

Good luck!

My husband found ours when he was hunting (deer) in PA...sign stuck in ditch. However, we had been looking for several years. We had called local realtors and told them to keep us informed if anything was coming on the market. We got emails very frequently of what was for sale. Our problem was, however, with living out of state, by the time we were able to get off work at travel there, the property was already under contract or sold. We bought ours almost sight unseen -- got there just before dark on a miserable snowy night, looked some of it over (it was being sold as 33 acres), saw it was flat, called the realtor and bought it that night. We lucked out -- it was advertised as 33 acres, but survey proved it to be 38. We then discovered gas on it and the royalties we receive have already more than paid for the land. It is abundant in cherry timber, has a natural spring and is surrounded by farm land.

One (bad) example of something they can't legally tell you is the ethnicity of the neighborhood, for example. It doesn't mean anything to me, but it might to other people.
We were looking for a house here in FL about 15 years ago, and one neighborhood looked perfect- and right up the road from my son's school. We had heard bad things about the sewage treatment plant across the canal, but the realtor insisted that the problem had been taken care of. We didn't buy the house, and to this day, that plant stinks under certain conditions- at least several times a month. Since we spend a lot of time on our porch, we would have been really disappointed. Did the realtor lie, or was she just misinformed? Either way, get your own facts! Once you find your slice of heaven, be diligent in doing as much research as you can, and be sure you know if it is buildable. Everything from wetlands to zoning to percolation testing for septic systems can come into play. One limiting factor for us were the many lots we found with minimum house size restrictions- some were over 2500 sq. ft! We plan a very modest empty nest home, probably under 1200 sq ft, so we eliminated land with restrictions like that.

Don't rule out improved land. You may find just the land you want -- that happens to have an old house or out-buildings on it. If it's nothing historic, you could do a teardown. This can turn out better than unimproved dirt if it already has utilities and/or a well.

We worked through a realtor looking a several pieces of property. During that time we were not having much luck. The land was either not suitable for what we wanted or it was on deposit quickly. A good piece of property seemed difficult to come by. I was searching through realtor.com one morning and noticed an 81 acre piece of property in NH which was fairly close to where we currently lived. This property was the same price as 5 acres in MA. How could that be? DH called the listing realtor to view the property. Once we saw the beautiful piece of property we both knew this was where we wanted to live. We hoped to find a few acres, but never expected to find this. It took us 5 years to get here. It was worth the wait.

Actually we looked on MLS and found some stuff, but it didn't pan out... We found our land by driving around the area where we wanted to live. We said - ok, this is close enough to the highway for DH who commutes, and we like this area, so let's drive around and see what is available. More difficult if you are looking for something isolated though.

This probably sounds like a really stupid question to you guys. If you find your dream lot does it have to be paid for before you begin building or can it all be rolled into the mtg. loan when the interim building loan is complete?

Talk with your banker, and at least a couple of other bankers too. Lots of variations out there. Yes, the land-loan can be re-financed to become part of the overall mortgage, assuming your credit qualifies. Whether that's the best thing to do will depend on the interest rates and your financial status.

Study all numbers carefully, because the bank is planning to make money, not lose it, which means your wallet is the one that's going to take the hit. Do not ever forget this -- it's your money and they want it. Look ahead, especially if there is any mention of balloon payments. Two big things to consider: a) What is affordable now may not be affordable in five years and b) what the total cost is going to be after you've paid both interest and principle. It is popular to consider house/land as an investment with easy option to sell if you can't afford to make the payments. The other term for that is 'foreclosure'.

You may prefer to pay off the land and use it as partial surety for building costs, or you may prefer the gamble of having everything consolidated into one loan through one bank (and that's not a promise, banks can and do sell mortgages to other banks). Or you can even hold the land title separately; IMO, most banks don't like that, preferring to be able to sell land and building in case of default.

Having opined all that, my experience is to combine the land into the mortgage if the lot is small; and to subdivide if there is acreage involved, risking no more than minimal land immediately surrounding the house. BTW, land division can be a separate problem if there are restrictions on land size or on frequency of re-sale. I bought in one area, and had to wait five years before I could sell a portion of the acreage --ouch.

cynluvsbrett...that's a great question...you typically know what is possible, but knowing what you should do is the hard part...we own land and aren't sure if we want to sell current home and build or just try and get away with a small cabin and use it for weekends. We want to do the cabin thing because, even though the land is only 20 miles from our current home, I don't want a 2.5 mile commute to turn into a 20 mile commute (one way). Gas prices are insane and that would add up quickly, plus I do like the convenience of Lowes, HD, grocery stores just a mile up the road.

We have a mortgage still on our current home and we have a loan going for the land....we too had the same question you did as to what to do...lots to think about.

patches123...we too looked online and through a realtor for land..but not much luck...as much as I studied what one should consider before buying vacant land...I realized that the value of the realtor wasn't much (as far as finding something) and the two we dealt with on our first attempt to purchase land knew less than we did. If you use a realtor, make sure they specialize or have a good bit of experience in buying/selling vacant land. Also, different counties, townships etc..have different rules about the sewage permits, zoning, and use of land..so make sure you can do what you want on your land before you buy it.

I had gotten wind that sometimes coal mining companies own a good bit of land and sell it occasionally. Wow, talk about being careful going that route...but I called around and found a company that was selling several tracts of land...they were larger tracts of land and portions of the tracts had been mined...meaning portions of it hadn't...so we decided to check it out. (We live in Western Pennsylvania where mining is pretty common.) We looked at a few for sale, found one that was disected with a country road where 1/2 of it had been mined and the other hadn't...so we put in an offer and got the land..and will build on the half that hadn't been mined so that finding water will be easier and not a concern. You don't want to worry about a well, or your house settling on an old mining site...anyway we bought 127 acres about 4 years ago and are very happy with it. It had woods, but not alot so we've been planting trees to help with that. It has a pond but we may put in another...there's a creek that runs about 2/3 of the year, but dries out in summer....

Bonus...(at least to us) the old mining area (from 30 years ago) has some usable coal (with the new technology they can go back and get the stuff they once threw away and use it now) and we're going to get some $$ back out of the property. We won't get rich, but it will pay for my husband's dream of a pole building.

Good luck and keep at it...keep in touch..I too was in your position and felt everyone else had luck finding something and that we didn't..but it did happen.

Visit the realtors, drive around... all good.

But as a landowner, I have to say a really hate cold calls and find them insulting.

I get a couple calls and letters a month, as well as a lot of relatives and friends begging, sometimes pressuring me to sell them 'only' a few acres, maybe a just a nice 40 with privacy, a trout stream and mature trees that borders the National Forest [big deal around here].

They apparently think I'm too stupid to call a realtor or blow 99 cents on a For Sale sign if I wanted to sell something.

orubis,
I am glad you brought your point up.
In my area writing "personal letters" has been around a while and the Realtors and developers have been using it as a tool to buy real estate for years. Some are on the up and up but I find some letters very deceiving.

My parents live in a desirable old historic neighborhood and one of their neighbors received a letter from a Realtor stating how much she loved her house and how she has for years imagined raising her children there.It was her dream home. She asked if the homeowner would sell it to her for a fair market value.
A week later every neighbor on the block received the same letter from the same realtor.

Across the road from us, the landowners never wanted their land turned into a subdivision. A woman sent a letter begging the owners to sell her just 10 acres for her horses.
She loved the land ..wanted to build a horse farm there ..etc. They turned her down. This woman "worked" on the landowners. Finally after a year, On good faith, The homeowners sold her 10 acres and within one month of closing, her boyfriend (a developer) started a subdivision.The original landowners are sick about it.

My point is you can write a letter but do not expect a good response as probably the landowner has received quite few already. Unfortunatly, the deceitful letters have tainted the way for the people that want the land for the right reasons.

Due to this practice, There is some beautiful land near us and there are signs everywhere that state this land is not for sale-do not ask.

lsst

Your examples are one of the reasons we are considering taking the long and winding road towards putting our farm in an agricultural easment. It's funded by our state. There are many hoops to jump through and your county or local govt entity has to have a long term land plan in place- which ours does not. We have to start by campaigning for development of such a plan. You are more likely to be granted the easement ( in essence the state buys your development rights in perpetuity) with large tracts of undeveloped land at the edge of aggressive growth. We will work with some of our neighbors who also have large land holdings as we are more likely to be granted with a very large parcel.

I am very active in the equine industry and land conservation is becoming a biggie - "where will you ride tomorrow".

PD