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Beginners guide to buying land
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I’d love to purchase a bit of land. Land is a finite resource. If I own land... why I’m a baron or a lord compared to the average Joe.
Is there much to owning land? Can you just own it and not do anything to it? Does it make sense to buy land in a red state where perhaps taxes are lower?
If I am interested in buying land... where is a good place to start?
Top Comment: I impulsively bought a 2 acre fully wooded property 2 years ago. Yes, you can own land and just not do anything with it, I haven't really touched mine until recently I started on getting a driveway entrance built. But I do recommend checking on the place now and then in case someone has dumped garbage on it or something. My lot is in rural Ohio, and the taxes are about $350/year. You may find yourself, if nothing else, randomly standing on it with your hands on your hips going "ah, yep" just because you can. You can't go wrong with land, mostly
Buying land and just sitting on it for awhile?
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So there’s this beautiful 7 acre unrestricted rural lot in the absolute PERFECT location - 35 mins from all my family and friends, and 5 minutes from our family lakehouse. Know this area well and Been looking there for years and never seen anything like this.
But I likely wouldn’t be able to move there for 1-3 years. I wouldn’t even be within driving distance (10hr drive, 2hr flight) until May if I bought it today.
Can y’all think of any unexpected costs I may encounter by simply owning a piece of land?
The area almost certainly wouldn’t have any sort of maintenance fees/regulations/HOA BS etc and I would ask about anything like that before buying, but I just cannot think of what other costs besides property tax might pop up, and figure there have to be some, right?
Any insight is highly appreciated!! 🙏
Top Comment: you never buy land the day you are ready to move lol 2/3 years is almost now you need to get this bought
Advice on what I should know about purchasing land, good and bad?
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I would like to do a cash purchase, ideally 20+acres up to 100k. Other than that I don’t know anything.
Adding: I don’t own any other property. This would be my first ever real estate transaction.
Top Comment: in which area?
Buy land now to build in future
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Buying vacant lot but not building for years
I live in a big city with a high cost of living and would like to move somewhere smaller and cheaper. I found a vacant lot or land in an area that works well for me and my 'future proof' needs; it's not a huge lot in the middle of nowhere. I can live there and walk to both hospital and grocery store. Has good transit and is a decent driving distance to many shops and entertainment. I dont make tons but I can buy the land outright in cash for the listed price and a quick Google search tells me I can afford the yearly property tax on it. My question is would it be a bad idea to buy it now if I don't plan to build anything and move for many many years. Yes the yearly taxes would be kind of wasted but the guarantee of having land in a livable area that is mine is a high desire for me. My thought is to very slowly build a small home there and eventually retire in it (25-30 years to go). Or more likely just leave it completely and building in future.
-- edited to add--
Got a lot of great comments thank you everyone!
Just wanted to reiterate incase more people want to comment (would love the advice). It's not raw land in the middle of no where it is a vacant lot with utilities hook ups left after an abandoned house was demolished. It is zoned for a house; it has neighboring homes still and is located in a small city walking distance to stores. I'm not looking to build a farm or off grid anything just a simple small home for one.
I would be paying for it out right in cash. Any loan wouldn't be for a while when I am ready to build and I will be saving still until then.
I am not building right away because I am staying close to my elder parents until they pass. The property is for way down line. Just wanted to get it now because it's perfect location for me and if I wait till I'm ready to move I worry I won't find something in a good spot that is affordable.
Top Comment: I did just this in 2016 with plans to eventually put a house on it when I got much older. THEN We got pregnant and COVID hit, so we moved out to the 5-acre land after our building permit was approved and lived in two trailers while building. We've been calling for work as the money comes in and making sure to get an inspection every 180 days to keep the permit valid. We got the foundation done first and then put in the septic, so I didn't have to haul the poop out anymore. Now, we are about to call for framing inspection. Been three years since permit was approved. I can taste the certificate of occupancy.
How do I buy land?
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I am a 19-year old college student interested in buying a very small piece of land somewhere, but I don't even know where to begin.
Does anyone here know where I should start? Any help/advice would be appreciated! Feel free to dm!
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Land without a use is generally a bad investment. Otherwise you can find realtors/brokers that specialize in land fairly easily.
Major regret buying land and don't know what to do next. Try it out or move on?
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I have major regret buying a piece of land. I’m posting here to hopefully get some clarity on my situation. My husband and I bought a small piece of land last year sight unseen. I know, this was our first mistake. Please don’t drag me for this. I’ve already beat myself up over it immensely. Believe me.
We weren’t living in the area yet and we just got over-excited and decided that the worst case scenario was that we wouldn’t like it and would do a bit of work on it and then sell. It cost us about 60,000 so not nothing but also not a colossal amount. The reason it was sight unseen is that this was when the real estate market was going crazy and we didn’t feel that we could wait to travel to see it. If we had waited, it would have been snatched up. In retrospect, I wish I’d stuck by my rule that I’d never buy something sight unseen. I was just really excited to buy something in this area and naively thought I’d love anything. Well, when we first went to see it there were a lot of tears. It’s a 2.8 piece of wooded land with a crappy hunting cabin on it. I knew this when buying it, but somehow being there it was so much worse than I expected. This is my first property and I hoped I would feel a sense of “this is home” and excitement but instead I felt an intense sense of doom like this isn’t at all how I imagined our land would look.
It’s very rocky - like huge boulders all over the forest floor. This is somewhat normal for this part of the country but it’s quite extreme. I also can’t seem to get over wishing that the property was bigger. I really had wanted 10 acres, but tried to convince myself that we don’t need that much. There are positives to the property. There’s a nearby river where we can swim, it’s on a very quiet road, and town is only about 15 minutes away. Schools are only around 10 minutes away.
We considered whether we should just sell it, but decided to give it a bit more of a chance. I should also mention my husband didn’t feel disappointed like I did. We have a tiny house so we’re working on a level spot to move the tiny house to. Then the plan is to live there for a year or two and see how we feel once we have some gardens and stuff. And just how we feel on the land. If we like it, we’d like to build a small off grid house (it has to be off grid - not near power lines). We’ve done a lot of work on the property over the last year thanks to our friends (clearing an area, moving sheds, mulching, etc.) This spring we’re getting a driveway, well and pad put in.
The thing is, I feel like I constantly have this sense of dread because we’re doing all this work and I don’t even like the property. I keep trying to connect with it, but I just don’t. If we live there for a while and don’t like it I know that we could sell it and the tiny house and make a profit. Then we could buy something better. But I feel that once we’ve put all this work into the property we’re unlikely to walk away from it. And a lot of this work has fallen on my partner because we have a young child that I’m with most of the time (plus I’m not good at chainsaw work).
I feel like such an ass because we own land plus a tiny house. This should be a dream. But it doesn’t feel that way.
And for a bit more context, we really do want to homestead. We want to grown our own food and have some small livestock like chickens and goats. I think we can do this on our land (with raised beds obviously), but the property isn’t big enough to be a woodlot and we could never have bigger animals. I also don’t think we could really have an orchard there like I’d hoped because it’s so rocky.
I don’t know if we should just stop with this land and sell it or if we should continue. Thoughts?
Top Comment: This sounds an awful lot like expectation vs reality kind of trauma that you’re (unintentionally or intentionally) letting continually ruin your current time out there. You had expectations, from what you’ve said, and they didn’t meet the reality, which seems to be (in your mind) significantly less than expected. My advice would be to be as open to the property and your situation as you humanly possibly can. And yes, I’d give it time. Because it’ll take time. But no, that’s not a guarantee that you’ll eventually be happy there. Whatever u do...don’t let your disappointment ruin what could still be a good time or overshadow the good! It’s all a mental game, trust me. I do consultations for people looking to ‘get into’ farming and/or homesteading...and I can never stress enough about how much of a mental game it really is. Look at the positives and focus on those. The negative aspects can almost always be dealt with in a problem solving, make the best out of it, sort of way. Will it be ideal? Probably not, nothing ever is. Trust me on this. There are ALWAYS down sides. Always. You may eventually find your dream property, see it before purchasing, know mostly what to expect. There will still be many unforeseen downsides down the road. Probably more than most people will ever realize. As for the size of the land issue, seriously, count it as a bonus for starting small. That’s honestly very wise. 10 acres is large for people who haven’t been living on large acre properties before (purely assuming on that one) Maybe see this as a practice property with the potential to be home for a ‘while’...whatever that is. Good luck 🙏🏽
Pros and cons of buying land
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What might a few pros and cons of buying land?
I’m undecided on whether to build a house but investing in land seems like a good opportunity.
Apologies if this question has been asked before.
Edit : thanks to everyone who's responded. A tiny request is to include details on things like 'restrictions'. Though most counties have varying zoning requirements, what might be some common ones which we want to avoid would be much appreciated.
Top Comment: The pro of buying vacant land and building a home is you can build exactly what you want. The con is this is generally much more expensive than buying a new home from a big builder. And that is usually slightly more expensive than buying an existing home. Cost overruns and delays are common when building a one off custom home. There are risks with buying vacant land, it could be very expensive to improve to the point you can start building. Like if you buy land on a slope it could require an expensive retaining wall and drainage system. If the soil is very rocky the land won't pass a perc test and you can't get a normal septic system, a mound type or other alternative system might cost $25k more. If the entire plot of land is a protected wetland you could be prohibited from building entirely. If you are buying land in a suburban or urban area they generally require you to connect to city sewer and water, but then you might have issues with setbacks limiting where you can build. And the permitting process might have a minimum size and other restrictions life fence height limit in the front yard. If you mean just buying vacant land, well the con is you pay taxes. You need to pay for the land or get a loan. And in a populated area you need to maintain it, it is a liability, like mowing the grass and removing litter or you could get ticketed for blight and harboring vermin. But it might be worth more some day, someone could build a home.
Buying land for fun.
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I see there are some opportunities to buy small lots for as little as a hundred dollars
There are also places with $400-1000 per acre but they are bigger peices in the $5 to 10k range.
If I can afford to spend some money on this cheap land, and of course pay some fees and taxes along the way, is there anything that would stop me from buying a few of the cheap listing in different states just to hold onto as an investment, backup place to live and farm, and maybe go camp out one day? Is this a good idea? Terrible Idea?
Any advice is appreciated.
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A lot of those cheap parcels either don’t have road access or no habitable options. I looked at some stuff in Texas and it was cheap, but you’d have to helicopter to it because it was land locked and then you basically melt to death.
Where to buy land : r/homestead
Main Post: Where to buy land : r/homestead
I’m looking to buy undeveloped land and eventually build a home on said land. What do I need to be aware of, and are there any sort of loans I can get for land?
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I want to live on some land but I don’t have 100k on hand in cash to buy land. I could put 10% to 20% down but I’m not sure if that’s a good way to buy land. Also what do I need to look out for when purchasing property that I might not have thought of?
Top Comment: I am currently attempting to do this. Regretting every single life choice of mine and my mental stability at the moment. A loan for just vacant land is quite difficult. Like others have said you typically need 50% down. For a construction loan you roll the cost of the land into usually needs 20% down for the total loan. Once you take out a construction loan the clock starts and the bank wants things done in a timely manner. My loan requires construction finished in 9 months once I open the loan. I can apply for an extension if things come up. I am also putting up a modular which allows for me to have a faster timeline and slightly reduced building costs than a site built home while having a home built to site built home requirements and specifications. I have roughly priced out how much everything will cost. All my permits and inspections will be 2.8k. Well and septic estimated to be 15-25k depending how far they need to drill the well and issues with the septic field and assuming the Health Dept approves the plan. Running electricity from the road and install 6.5k. Excavating and pour the basement 19.5k, that's with a buddy doing it for a slight discount and assuming we are right on the amount of sand I will need to bring in. Now, none of these estimates or quotes shocked me. However, I grossly underestimated how much it would cost to put a culvert and driveway in. I had assumed 4-7k, purely an uneducated guess. I just got my quote for the culvert and drive of 200ft. 15k to start! I now have to either do a shorter driveway and place my house closer to the road than I had wanted or cut back on things inside the house. Seriously, unless you are prepared to take on a full time job of managing the project do not do it. Just picking out which modular home dealer I would use took 2 months. Don't start me on trying to settle on a floor plan. It was a pain. And I probably will change my mind again before I go in to finalize my decision and place my order. Which can change the cost of some of my estimates and quotes I already have. Seriously buy land with a house already on it. Utilities will be there and you have a better chance of getting a loan. I passed on land that had an older trailer on it. It wasn't exactly the acreage I wanted so I passed. I completely regret it now. Would have made things significantly easier. Utilities and driveway were already in place. I could have lived in the trailer while I put up the house if I wanted to.