How can I find afforable land?

[Sally PB]

We bought a house/5 acres of land through foreclosure here in Michigan. I saw the notice on the front door, went up and read it. It listed the house and property for $22K+, what the owner, Frank, owed. It also had the name of the bank that held the mortgage.

I called my boss at work, as he used to work in the banking industry, and knew all about this kind of thing. He told me to call the bank, ask to speak to the loan officer, and tell them I was interested in Frank's property. I did. The woman was VERY helpful.

She said that banks don't want to own property, so they weren't thrilled about foreclosed property being on their books. All I had to do was offer $1 (one dollar) more than the amount shown, and I could buy it.

There was a date when the foreclosure sale was to be held, and where. It was the local county courthouse, and we had to show up that day. Here's the rub. You have to have the entire amount, cash in hand. Well, a bank check.

We went to the courthouse, and there was a Sheriff there, reading out the properties. A realtor was there, writing the addresses down, and hubby and me. The sheriff read the address of Frank's house, and I said, "We want to buy that one." (Ok, I was bouncing up and down, I was so excited.) We had arranged with the local bank to go get the check after the list was read, so we drove to the bank, got the check, came back, and did some paperwork.

My boss, the bank expert, said that the owner will have one year from the date of the sale to "redeem" the property. That means he has to pay us the amount, plus any interest we've paid on any loan, etc. After a year, we can do whatever we want with the property, and it's ours. But for that year, we can't do anything. Except pay the property taxes on it.

My boss said that he had never heard of a residential property being redeemed. Commercial property was different.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

We bought a house/5 acres of land through foreclosure here in Michigan. I saw the notice on the front door, went up and read it. It listed the house and property for $22K+, what the owner, Frank, owed. It also had the name of the bank that held the mortgage.

I called my boss at work, as he used to work in the banking industry, and knew all about this kind of thing. He told me to call the bank, ask to speak to the loan officer, and tell them I was interested in Frank's property. I did. The woman was VERY helpful.

She said that banks don't want to own property, so they weren't thrilled about foreclosed property being on their books. All I had to do was offer $1 (one dollar) more than the amount shown, and I could buy it.

There was a date when the foreclosure sale was to be held, and where. It was the local county courthouse, and we had to show up that day. Here's the rub. You have to have the entire amount, cash in hand. Well, a bank check.

We went to the courthouse, and there was a Sheriff there, reading out the properties. A realtor was there, writing the addresses down, and hubby and me. The sheriff read the address of Frank's house, and I said, "We want to buy that one." (Ok, I was bouncing up and down, I was so excited.) We had arranged with the local bank to go get the check after the list was read, so we drove to the bank, got the check, came back, and did some paperwork.

My boss, the bank expert, said that the owner will have one year from the date of the sale to "redeem" the property. That means he has to pay us the amount, plus any interest we've paid on any loan, etc. After a year, we can do whatever we want with the property, and it's ours. But for that year, we can't do anything. Except pay the property taxes on it.

My boss said that he had never heard of a residential property being redeemed. Commercial property was different.

How recent was your purchase? There's a huge variety of age ranges on BYC. I can't tell if your story is from 2022 or 1972

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

I appreciate your honest advice. I did drive out and visit that property today. It really was beautiful, minus the giant electrical towers lol, and the huge space had me daydreaming about all the fruit trees I want to plant and all the chickens I could run in that space. But once my mind returned to earth, I had a lot of questions, like how will I get water out there? And are there regulations on how close I can plant things to the towers?

I don't think there is a water hookup, but I can ask the realtor. But even if there is, getting the water from one side of the property to the other will probably be tedious, unless I put a bunch of money into piping, which... there's probably some regulation on that because of the towers. It seems like a lot of complications. Maybe it isn't worth it.

Shopping with my Mom, we've come across some beautiful places. Anything from acres and acres to rome to this one home that was like a mini castle. The best places sold before we could get to the broker, but on the majority of them, there was something that we couldn't live with. On some of them, it was the power lines. On others, it was little risks that could have become life-threatening to my Autistic brother who was unpredictable at the time, like a pond, a mini cliff, a highway, or even unsafe stairs to a basement. All these things were taken note of and became the reason why we had to walk away from so many beautiful houses.

I'm glad that you set aside your excitement and questioned a few things. Unfortunately, I don't know what the regulations are about planting around the power lines, but I have mentioned the risk of a corridor. Something I haven't mentioned but could be a problem for your trees, is they do spray down the power lines to ensure nothing grows below them. That being said, anything you try planting might not grow anyway. And if it does, and if sometime down the road they bring in a corridor, they might cut your trees down regardless.

On land, even if it doesn't have a water hookup, you can have it done and it'll improve your property price-wise. The thing is, is if it doesn't, you want to talk to companies who have worked in that area if you're going to need to drill. You want to know any and all costs before purchasing, and putting in a simple well may cost you only a couple thousand dollars, or it might cost you twice as much as you paid for the property or more.

I don't think it's worth it.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

We bought a house/5 acres of land through foreclosure here in Michigan. I saw the notice on the front door, went up and read it. It listed the house and property for $22K+, what the owner, Frank, owed. It also had the name of the bank that held the mortgage.

I called my boss at work, as he used to work in the banking industry, and knew all about this kind of thing. He told me to call the bank, ask to speak to the loan officer, and tell them I was interested in Frank's property. I did. The woman was VERY helpful.

She said that banks don't want to own property, so they weren't thrilled about foreclosed property being on their books. All I had to do was offer $1 (one dollar) more than the amount shown, and I could buy it.

There was a date when the foreclosure sale was to be held, and where. It was the local county courthouse, and we had to show up that day. Here's the rub. You have to have the entire amount, cash in hand. Well, a bank check.

We went to the courthouse, and there was a Sheriff there, reading out the properties. A realtor was there, writing the addresses down, and hubby and me. The sheriff read the address of Frank's house, and I said, "We want to buy that one." (Ok, I was bouncing up and down, I was so excited.) We had arranged with the local bank to go get the check after the list was read, so we drove to the bank, got the check, came back, and did some paperwork.

My boss, the bank expert, said that the owner will have one year from the date of the sale to "redeem" the property. That means he has to pay us the amount, plus any interest we've paid on any loan, etc. After a year, we can do whatever we want with the property, and it's ours. But for that year, we can't do anything. Except pay the property taxes on it.

My boss said that he had never heard of a residential property being redeemed. Commercial property was different.

I wonder if that's something only in your State on redeeming? I haven't heard of that yet here in Maine.

You got me curious. I just looked that up, and we do have that in Maine. That's very good to know. Thank you for sharing this.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

The best places sold before we could get to the broker

This happened to me around a dozen times back in 2021. Most properties that are genuinely worthwhile tend to sell for above asking price, in cash, in less than 24 hours

I read an article last year that stated the most successful real estate investor of the year was using a computer algorithm to automatically buy, hold, invest and flip properties with zero human involvement for it's billionaire owner

I don't think boomers have any idea how screwed the market is

 

[Sally PB]

How recent was your purchase?

This was about 15(?) years ago.

I wonder if that's something only in your State on redeeming? I haven't heard of that yet here in Maine.

I don't know what happens in other states. My boss was involved in the banking industry in several states, so I just assumed that was likely to be a national thing.

Most properties that are genuinely worthwhile tend to sell for above asking price, in cash, in less than 24 hours

A house on our road was listed for $450K and sold in a few days for $510K. The seller had an offer for $600K, but the buyer couldn't line up the loan.

Land is selling FAST here. We have gotten many unsolicited letters and even a text wanting to know if we wanted to sell.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

We bought a house/5 acres of land through foreclosure here in Michigan. I saw the notice on the front door, went up and read it. It listed the house and property for $22K+, what the owner, Frank, owed. It also had the name of the bank that held the mortgage.

I called my boss at work, as he used to work in the banking industry, and knew all about this kind of thing. He told me to call the bank, ask to speak to the loan officer, and tell them I was interested in Frank's property. I did. The woman was VERY helpful.

She said that banks don't want to own property, so they weren't thrilled about foreclosed property being on their books. All I had to do was offer $1 (one dollar) more than the amount shown, and I could buy it.

There was a date when the foreclosure sale was to be held, and where. It was the local county courthouse, and we had to show up that day. Here's the rub. You have to have the entire amount, cash in hand. Well, a bank check.

We went to the courthouse, and there was a Sheriff there, reading out the properties. A realtor was there, writing the addresses down, and hubby and me. The sheriff read the address of Frank's house, and I said, "We want to buy that one." (Ok, I was bouncing up and down, I was so excited.) We had arranged with the local bank to go get the check after the list was read, so we drove to the bank, got the check, came back, and did some paperwork.

My boss, the bank expert, said that the owner will have one year from the date of the sale to "redeem" the property. That means he has to pay us the amount, plus any interest we've paid on any loan, etc. After a year, we can do whatever we want with the property, and it's ours. But for that year, we can't do anything. Except pay the property taxes on it.

My boss said that he had never heard of a residential property being redeemed. Commercial property was different.

Nice! That's a great story. Well, I definitely won't be ruling out foreclosures.

Shopping with my Mom, we've come across some beautiful places. Anything from acres and acres to rome to this one home that was like a mini castle. The best places sold before we could get to the broker, but on the majority of them, there was something that we couldn't live with. On some of them, it was the power lines. On others, it was little risks that could have become life-threatening to my Autistic brother who was unpredictable at the time, like a pond, a mini cliff, a highway, or even unsafe stairs to a basement. All these things were taken note of and became the reason why we had to walk away from so many beautiful houses.

I'm glad that you set aside your excitement and questioned a few things. Unfortunately, I don't know what the regulations are about planting around the power lines, but I have mentioned the risk of a corridor. Something I haven't mentioned but could be a problem for your trees, is they do spray down the power lines to ensure nothing grows below them. That being said, anything you try planting might not grow anyway. And if it does, and if sometime down the road they bring in a corridor, they might cut your trees down regardless.

On land, even if it doesn't have a water hookup, you can have it done and it'll improve your property price-wise. The thing is, is if it doesn't, you want to talk to companies who have worked in that area if you're going to need to drill. You want to know any and all costs before purchasing, and putting in a simple well may cost you only a couple thousand dollars, or it might cost you twice as much as you paid for the property or more.

I don't think it's worth it.

Thank you so much, again! I didn't think of the spraying thing. I plan to go organic or as close to it as I can. I would be extremely unhappy having a company come spray chemicals on my property.

And I also appreciate hearing how many properties you went through until you found the right one. I think I just need to be patient. It's just difficult when to know when the right time to pull the trigger is. There is no such thing as a perfect property, so it might be difficult to know when I've found one that is good enough.

 

[HenriettaPizzaNolan]

Looking at foreclosed properties... a 3920 sq. ft. lot is $20,000. This is not going well...

Foreclosed properties with houses on them are going for $150-300k, even when the property is less than half an acre. I wasn't able to come by any in pre-foreclosure. This is just on Zillow, but it's definitely discouraging.

 

[ChicNmom]

No on the electrical towers.

Keep saving your money while you look. Real estate prices are starting to normalize and the housing bubble is due to burst again.

During Covid people would pay any amount to get out of the cities so a lot of people are upside down in their loans.

I think looking into foreclosed properties is a good idea.

Also maybe look into private home/property sales.

 

[Sally PB]

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.