Any "strange" circumstances in the purchase of your property?

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Small Cabin Forum / Properties / Any "strange" circumstances in the purchase of your property?


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VTweekender Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:31pm Reply I thought maybe some of us might have a interesting story to share surrounding the purchase of your land. My purchase went a little weird.... It was in VT not to far to drive from home which was ideal. It was in my price range etc..etc..looked great for a small cabin. It was in January a couple years ago in that huge winter we had, there was no way I was going to go up that mountain and try to find line markers in 6 feet of snow cover to try to figure out exactly where it was. But I just had the feeling it was what I was looking for and called the owner that was selling it. We talked for a while and I offered the "asking price" sight unseen with the money delivered within 3 days. In other words "Sold I will take it". BUT, he replies "Well I did have someone that wanted to look at it monday afternoon too, I will call you after that"........ I was a little taken back with that answer and didn't know what to say actually...LOL...I mean, I was thinking didn't I just say I will pay the asking price and take it? But I just said OK and goodbye. A week later he calls me and tells me that the other party is offering 3k more than my offer, (which my offer was "the asking price"). I tell him I will not go higher, and that our deal is over , he then starts asking what I want to do up there and so forth, so I tell him just a small off-grid cabin for weekends. He says Oh OK and sorry we couldn't get together on a deal etc..etc..and he still has my number.. I tell him I will be moving on looking and really that was that as far as I was concerned. I was not about to get into a bidding war with anyone, not after I offered the asking price. 2 or 3 weeks go by and he calls me again, says its still available to me. Turns out they made a down payment on the 3k more on price, but later asked a lot of questions about septic, water, being buildable etc..and wanted him to sign that it was suitable for all that.....they were from NYC and wanted to put something up a lot more than a little off-grid cabin like I wanted. He said he also had a few more buyers from the city call and wanted to look at it now, but wanted to contact me first as he now knew what he was getting into with those type buyers, even if they were going to pay a lot more. This guy didn't want anything to do with signing up for that type paperwork. So now he knows that I was the best buyer at offering the asking price AND no strings attached...so he is now being real nice and wants to refund their down payment and sell to me for my original offer of the asking price...lol.. I told him I would think about it and that I would call him back in a couple days...I knew I was going to buy it right then and there really....but just wanted to let him sweat it out a bit..called 3 days later and bought it. Long story condensed...I got my property ONLY because I wanted just a little off-grid cabin!!! Looking forward if anyone else has a unusual story when purchasing. Kev

larry Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 08:00pm Reply great job! why did the previous owner care what the buyers were planning? just curious

VTweekender Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 08:12pm - Edited by: VTweekender Reply Thanks Larry, he didn't want to sign off that it was suitable for septic etc..etc...which is what most want in a contract....if he did and it didn't pass anything they put in the contract, he would have to refund the down payment and also all the time elapsing between all the hoops to go through, waiting for perc testing in the summer, the town inpectors etc.etc.... I thought at first he was just trying to bump me up on the price with this story...thats why I made him wait a few days to sweat it out, and also to be honest to cool off as I was not happy thinking he was bumping me at the time...... but Later on I got to be friends with a guy that lives just below me up there and he told me about those people that were up there at that time, he talked to them when they were there and they said they had bought the property and were from NYC...so it turned out true.

Martian Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 08:53pm Reply Well........ We were sailors that had decided to sell the boat and explore the interior of the country in an RV. Because my, now, ex wife's brother lived in Wichita, we came to Kansas. I had never been to Kansas, and like most people thought of it as "flat". In other words, not interesting. I was wrong. I fell in love with Chase County. During our year of volunteering at what was going to be a new National Preserve, (so we could experience all 4 seasons before deciding if this was "home"), we bought an old house in a tiny town that was falling down and rebuilt it. Unfortunately, it was in a flood plain, but it was surrounded by a dike. However, if it rains enough, dikes can be broached, and that happened just as we finished the exterior. I vowed I was not doing any more work on the structure until it was either on a hill or 6' in the air. Fortunately for us, the house had belonged to the grandfather of the owner of an abandoned homestead we just loved. The family had been in the area for years, and had established their ranch in 1871. When I approached him about buying the old homestead, he was pretty hesitant. Nobody in Chase County sells small parcels, and here we were wanting him to sell us a 3 1/2 acre plot out of his several thousand acre ranch. We intended to have the flooded house picked up and moved, once the site was ready, if only he would consent to sell to us. His main objection to selling was that he didn't want neighbors. Now understand he lives over a mile away, on the other side of a large hill. He said he liked us, but what if we decided to sell out? After all, we were strangers ( he and I having known each other for only a year) in a place where less than 5 generations makes you a newby. So, I made him an offer he couldn't refuse. I knew that if we could get this place, it would never be sold again as long as I'm alive. With that in mind, I told him that if we ever decided to sell, he or his wife could buy the place back for exactly what we paid for it, including improvements. Him being a lawyer, he inserted that clause in the deed. We took a compass, tape measure, and some steel fence post and marked off what we wanted. Our love of the land has lead to an interesting living arrangement. We did move the old house out here. It belongs to my ex. I have my cabin on the other end of the property where I wanted to put the house originally. We're much better neighbors than mates. Tom

hattie Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 09:13pm Reply Before us, our property was owned by a man who got it when his buddy (who was dying) wanted to settle his poker debts. He couldn't pay the amount owed to the man, so he gave him our cabin and land. The guy who got it didn't really want it but took it to settle the debt. Then the guy who "won" it, got sick and he was dying. He had never even been to the place and his wife wanted him to get rid of it before he died so she wouldn't have to deal with it. He put it up for sale for $45,000. We were in the area gold panning and thought it would make a good cabin to use when we were here to work our claim. We thought $45,000 was pretty steep because it was covered in graffitti inside, had no electricity, septic or water. One year later it was still for sale so Hubby asked the real estate agent about it. He said a deal had just fallen apart for it. We asked how much was offered and he said $25,000. That sounded more reasonable so we said we'd take it for that as long as it was approved for septic. The owner didn't want to bother looking into all that so Hubby did some homework and took some measurements. Turned out the only place to put the septic was where the building was sitting. The building would need to be moved. We told the seller and said we'd pay $25,000 if HE moved the building. He said no and to make another offer. We finally settled on $19,000. We moved the building, hooked it up to electric, put in septic, painted it and renovated it and here we are.

Borrego Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 10:05pm Reply Well funny you should ask...... We had been looking in this little homestead community for a few years with no luck,, every place that did change hands went to the kids or grandkids or friends or neighbors.....that kind of place. Very desirable - in it's own way - for a desert place...never on the MLS, ever! Well I got the swine flu that was going around in 2009, ended up in the hospital for almost 2 weeks, sucking on an oxygen tube, Doctor said I had a 30% chance to walk out alive. Somehow I did. Couldn't move or walk for a while, so I got on the ole laptop and said, I survived this, I'm buyin a desert place, forget the homesteads, I'll take anything, anywhere, life is too short! So I went on the MLS with the intent to buy just anything and lo and behold, there was an street address I recognized! One of the owners had gotten a divorce and said hell with it! So I called the realtor and said "I'll take this place". She said (believe it or not) "you don't want it, it's in the desert and has a mountain on it". I said "bitchin'". Took it sight unseen, sent the money and then went out to look at it. I was so weak at the time i could barely climb a small hill, pictures show me as an emaciated weakling. Here we are 3 years later, happy as can be, house is almost finished, it is our favorite place in the whole world! Honest!

mrmiji Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 10:24pm - Edited by: mrmiji Reply I found an undisclosed grave marker the day after closing. Strange enough? A fine individual I work with took me with him to his family ranch. Though mine's about 80 acres, his is measured in miles and is the combination of his wife's and his families. BIG. He'd already taken what he'd wanted and was taking me to shoot a doe. We saw mule deer all day but that wasn't what we were there for though if I had my Browning 1885/7mm, I could have tagged any of them. They had a range they felt safe (though they were wrong as I practice at my ranch to hit gallon jugs at out to a measured 500 yards) and would maintain it watching us work the field. We'd watch them to see what they could also spot. They would glance to a spot opposite us occasionally and the cattle were behind us so we worked our way around the ridge to see a large whitetail doe jump a fence line and drop into a canyon. Jim went one way and I went the other with an agreed meeting point. As I knew he was flushing the fingers of the canyons ahead of me and saw him on the ridge in front of me, I knew she had to be in the next finger canyon. I found an offset wash to crawl up with my Ruger 77/MkII Frontier rifle on my back, settled down for about 3 minutes (I tried to count it out) and then slowly stood up. She was 40 yards from me but missing a hole in her chest. I fixed that. After that, I kept remembering my college years where I learned to hunt with my roommates because I couldn't afford meat. We were damned efficient. The vehicle was a Honda XL125...a tow vehicle really and I'd tow a roommate miles out to the fishing and hunting sites. I really missed that. Finding land to hunt has become so hard. Permission disappears with groups like the Edmond Sporting Society bring their deep pockets up acquiring leases. I'd regularly get offers from acquaintances but it almost always fell through. What I missed most was a connection to the land. Through an inheritance, I was able to acquire my ranch. It has some odd stories behind the property that neighbors have shared and I can if anyone's interested. I paid just short of 100,000 USD for it. I think I got it because it wasn't auctioned but listed and improperly. It was also probably too small for a large OKC-related leaser to pursue. We've had it for going on three years. Every time I head out there, I feel a little more free and sane. My blind is the only structure so it's pretty raw with a commanding view as it's on the crest of a butte. Other than a couple months this summer where one neighbor's cows came to visit, it's been a wonderful therapeutic experience. No more permission to hunt, phone calls, or annoying hippie neighbors. Along with the deer, there are several large coveys of quail moving through the place and enough squirrels to profoundly reduce my stock of .22s. Yeah, it's nice out there. It's the first weekend since after we'd closed on the property. My wife had never seen the place and my daughter didn't really understand the significance of what we were doing. I'd been out twice looking at the place but really though I'd seen about half the place at a distance, the other half I'd never seen. I still haven't been up three of the canyons. We get out there and are walking one of the driving trails that had at one point been graveled. I'd walked some of the deer trails and was showing the family around when a clearing caught my eye...no shrubs, just a straight path through some trees covered in bluestem. It's one of the highest points on the property with a commanding view of almost all of my land. As we walk, I pick up a shiny reflection on the ground and it strikes me that I know what it is - a gravestone. I don't recognize the name but it's dated maybe seven years ago. It's Friday. I stew on this all weekend and call my lawyer that specializes in real estate transfer and ask him, "Do you think that at closing maybe Mr. XXXX might have mentioned the body buried out on the ranch?" He thought it was rather funny and explained my options but encouraged me to just call Mr. XXXX. When I called him, he stated that it was his sister-in-law and that they'd sprinkled half of her ashes there and half in her home state. I'll pull the whole granite hunk out along with its concrete pier. We'd like to build a small cabin there one day to take advantage of the view. I'd asked my minister what he felt the implications were of uprooting the monument and he didn't seem to think there were any. I suppose if we do end up haunted, it'll only be one ghost and how scary could that be? I'm still searching for a complete history of the property. One owner was involved in heavy construction, earth moving, and such. He brought his own equipment in to build the dam. The spillway has two water traps constructed of stacked sacks of concrete and is really something to see. They're quite large and tall; something I could never afford to do today. The dam itself is just earth moved from near the canyon. I'm told by different sources that while prepping the dam, they hit bones...dinosaur bones. They shut the dig down and allowed the University of Oklahoma to come out and dig through the construction site. As this was a low spot created by erosion and they were only allowed to dig in the construction site, the obvious conclusion is that there are plenty more under there. As I wander around trying to explore the whole place, I continue to find odd things. For instance, in the middle of a stand of trees, there's a galvanized trash can held down with three steel T-posts and bailing wire holding it all in place with the top wired down. I'd sure like anyone's opinion as to why someone would do that. I opened it with a fair amount of trepidation and there was some indication that some small amount of organic material had been in it and the bottom had rotted out. There's a small old trash dump with a lot of bailing wire wadded up, old wine jugs and other containers of glass and rusted metal. There's even an old clamshell truck hood in it. All that will get hauled off to the dump but I have to cut a trail through the trees to get the trailer near enough to make it less physically challenging. When I purchased the place, there was a lot of steel on it left over from the previous owner's attempt to drill for oil. They didn't hit anything. The concrete cap on the hole is there. The oddest thing left behind was a 1951 Tulsa Airplane Company Spartanette Tandem trailer. New, these were really something and cost as much as a house. Built much like an aircraft using jigs, they were the highest order of quality and finely finished on the interior. Sadly, it was neglected over the 30 plus years it had sat on the ranch. Squirrels had worked their way into it along with wasps and it was in horrible condition. There was probably 300 pounds of squirrel poop in it. Still, a single running light was worth maybe 100 dollars and it had three. Though it didn't have the original stove and furniture, most of the original and unobtainable hardware still was present. I posted it on a forum website not unlike this one offering it for free BUT you had to take everything inside as well...worn out tires, 5 gallon buckets of god-knows-what, the squirrel poop, and all the loose insulation the squirrels had pulled out. My wife thought I was nuts. I bet her one dog washing (normally) my job that someone would want it. The day after posting, I had an offer to pick it up but the person had a budget limit and essentially wanted me to pay for his travel !?! The next person wanted pictures. The third indicated he could pick it up that weekend. WINNER! He brought 4 new tires on matching wheels. We bottle jacked the suspension up to get the long-since flat tires off using a 6 foot piece of pipe over the ratchet as a cheater bar on the lugs. After all that time, the freshly mounted tires spun effortlessly. We used my 4WD to pull it off the ranch after we'd cut a path through the woods that had grown around it and swapped it onto his Suburban. We followed him back to Enid and noted while he was refueling that the bearings were still cool! He made it home to Denver after stopping for the night in Wichita. I guess he has 7 others in various states and mine will provide hardware and sheeting for those more restorable I'd venture to guess that trailer had $1000 in parts on it. I could have Ebayed it out and then scrapped the aluminum sheet but then I'd have a big mess and no place to take it. The damage to the trailer didn't happen overnight. I was a little surprised to hear that the previous owner had still come out and stayed in it for weeks on until only a few years before I owned the place. He'd tried raising cattle but there's little forage out there worthy of grazing. I'm told he'd drop the gate and let the neighbor's bull onto his property to get him to breed the cattle and then deny any knowledge of any of it. I guess he gave up on the cattle fairly early on but continued to spend time out there. It's also considered common knowledge that he grew the number one cash crop though I've not seen anything of the weed. Apparently, he would have fairly large extended parties and there's some sign of various campsites around the pond area. There's also a massive concrete picnic bench we use when it's not hunting season. Even when he didn't have company, there was a festive spirit out there. I'm told he walked across the property line to my neighbor's picnic bench in his backyard and laid down on it. When discovered, he wasn't real chatty but did acknowledge that he'd rolled his truck off the dam. That's about a 40 foot drop. It's not there now. Yeah, as much as I'm viewed as a city boy, I'm considerably more accepted by the neighbors in that at least I'm quiet and am working on cleaning it up and improving the habitat for wildlife. I can even fix a fence. But then I paid for my college education doing janitorial services and installing fence so I know how to do manual labor. BTW, my wife did end up washing the dog though she's still bitter about it because she just sees that as my job with no up side if she won.

mrmiji Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 10:25pm Reply That trash can thing? Anyone have any idea why someone would but a trash can out in the middle of nowhere 1/8 of a mile from the paved access to the property and then stake it down and wire it closed? I didn't and, again, both I and my wife were rather concerned about opening it. I gave myself a bigger scare though when I did some investigating. It stuns me how much information you can get online. I Googled the previous owner's name but all I had was his given and last but no middle name. What I found was the name of a person that had murdered 2 people. Great, the previous owner was killing black people and burying them on the ranch. Well, I found the previous owner's middle name and it didn't match. Still, for that period of time I believed there might be someone underneath that monument and I'd be building right next to it and essentially making it the oddest garden between the driveway...well that was a little easier to take.

TomChum Member	# Posted: 23 Jul 2012 11:12pm - Edited by: TomChum Reply For almost 2 years I was beating the bush for 10-20 acres for $150-250,000, and found NOTHING that I was remotely interested in. All of the parcels on the market were STEEP and had no streams. Or it was in a subdivision with paved roads. Or in a subdivision with crappy roads. Or a McMansion next door. Or 5 acre parcels in subdivisions with 40-foot wide roads, and a stream for $200,000. None of them fit my dream for an off-grid retreat. Then I found a place that was last sold in the '40s, lightly logged in the '90s, (only) 2 miles from snow-plowed roads. It had 2 streams, a fantastic view, a nice green meadow, and was completely surrounded by pristine Gov't forest. It had 1.5 miles of perfect, narrow pine-needle roads; to each far corner of the property and was 10 miles from a town with a Lumber store. It was 100+ acres and at the time I had a good feel for the value and thought it was worth about $360,000, and was afraid of it, because it would be years until I could afford a cabin or anything for that matter, if I signed up for $360k. We offered $150k and settled for $160k. I've since learned that VERY few people want property OFF the grid, and I wanted off-grid specifically. Which left some $$ for my little 172 SF cabin that I love! And a nice snowshed, and soon, a little shower house. Which set of a new wave of anxiety, because if this was available, what ELSE had I missed over the last 2 years? Was there a bigger place for less? How about bigger streams? Well for another MONTH I searched like a madman, and found that there was NOTHING on the market even close to satisfying my criteria. I found this place because I approached the landowner (thru a realtor) and asked. They don't put properties like this on the market because not enough people want them to be worth listing.

rayyy Member	# Posted: 24 Jul 2012 05:37am Reply I looked at a dozen different lots and none met my requirements until this lot came along.4 acres,half mature wooded and half field.(good,good)3 miles from work and town.(Good,good)Nice quiet back country road,(good,good)Year around flowing stream.(good,good)Great neighbors.(good,good)Priced right.(good,good)How could I go wrong!

Rob_O	# Posted: 25 Jul 2012 12:47am Reply My search was anything but typical. I wanted to buy 5 - 10 acres and wound up with 27 The property had been listed for about 2 years, price per acre was really good but I couldn't afford the total. When they suddenly dropped the price by 40%, I made an appointment for the next day and signed the contract right after I walked the land Fast forward 3 months and I had all but given up on the deal. Because the banks didn't own the property, they didn't want to loan me any money on it so I threw in the towel and signed a release on the sales contract. 3 days later the owner came back with a lower price and 50% owner financing Haven't found anything too strange on the property. There was a small area fenced off in a back corner with a bunch of nursery pots inside but I haven't seen any "unusual" plants sprout up in that area.

VTweekender Member	# Posted: 25 Jul 2012 11:02am - Edited by: VTweekender Reply WOW!! We have a little bit of everything here!!! GREAT stories!! Thanks folks and keep them coming mrmiji, that trash can deal sounds like an attempt at a composting bin.

cabingal3 Member	# Posted: 25 Jul 2012 12:08pm Reply well lets see.i was always looking for cheap land.something hard to find in the Williamette Valley. So i would go thru the ads in obscure newpapers i would find.Found some ads that said land 100$ down and 100$ a month. so we contacted the people selling this land and got to be shown the land.its the land we bought and got our cabin on now.Who could believe it? high water tables,no snakes,flat land with tons of trees and a meadow.we grabbed it.Paid it off.some odd things-the contracts and people we bought it from changed hands several times.in the end...we found out the last person accepting our payments quit accepting. i guess we were done paying.then the new land we purchased was connecting.we found out who owned the land and i called her and she was never coming back to the land..so i asked her if we could have it for 5000$ and 100$ down and 100$ a month.Gary O up drew up our own contract...but she then changed her mind.she talked to her brother and he said dont sell it for less than 7000$.shoot.i was so happy to have a super good deal.over and acre for 5000$...well !7000$ is not so bad either.so now we are paying off this piece.and plan to purchase the other piece of connecting land on the other side.we already have the fellows name.he lives in hawaii and we plan on purchasing that piece too.eventuallly.

Sustainusfarm Member	# Posted: 25 Jul 2012 02:09pm Reply At 25 yrs old I was looking for something to build a cabin on...I drove all over central and western Wisconsin to find it...One day I stumbled on a property that looked perfect...rolling hills, evergreens and prairie. One problem...it was not for sale! I found out who owned it, turned out to be a large tree farm company. I called and they said "NO it was not for sale". I sent them an offer anyways and then 12 more. Each time they kept telling me NO...on the 14th offer they finally said "fine $10000 for the 10 acres and leave us alone!". Two weeks later we closed and here I am.....

Lurker	# Posted: 4 Aug 2012 07:02pm Reply I have the dangerous habit of browsing the MLS but you never know. Since I was a teenager I always wanted a place in the bush - now in my 30s with some savings that I can acutally do something. Start browsing at parcels greater than 100 acres and work my way down while filtering by lowest price first. 3-4 years doing that, plugging cordinates into the GPS and walking interesting looking properties. Never found what I liked. And then.... 16.5 acres consisting of a 16 acre parcel and a .5 acre parcel on a road that is only open 3 seasons (a bonus to my mind). Hmm, interesting. 0.5 acre is actually waterfront on a 3 mile long lake. 16 acre parcel is about 800 feet away up the road and consists of 13 acres on one side of the road and 3 acres on the other side (essentially subdividable but I don't have to pay 2 property taxes) AND that 16 acres has a 2 acre beaver pond and is bordered North, West and South by 360 acres of crown land (shooting and hunting land that I don't have to pay taxes on, even better). This was the last parcel subdivided by the original landowner and because ''the 0.5 acre lot is too small to be allowed to be built on'' he was selling them both just to get rid of them. Asking $32k (bang on assessed value in an area where raw land is usally 1.8x assessed value and waterfront 2-3x assessed). I walk the properties, lake is gorgeous, nice pine and fir cover, 16 acre backs onto a mountain and to top it off when I talk to the municipality they tell me that with the way the 0.5 Acre is laid out I should be able to build a small cabin! SOLD!! Asking price offered with no qualifications and it is mine! The icing on the cake! It is only 30 min from where I live and only 40 min from a major city of 900,000. What a steal! I have not had the time or the money to do anything with it but I camp up there periodically and showshoe up there in the winter for the peace and quiet of getting away from the city. If I can build I will put a small cabin on the 1/2 acre and keep the 16 acres as a shooting range/hiking/hunting area. If I can't build on the 1/2 acre I will put up a gazebo, small dock and build the cabin on the 16 acres and just use the 1/2 acre as my swimming hole.

Anonymous	# Posted: 22 Oct 2012 02:08pm Reply Lurker , you could see what it would cost to merge the two properties into one if the .5 acre piece is really where you want to build. Where I am it is a rather simple process.

ericfromcowtown Member	# Posted: 7 Nov 2012 02:28pm - Edited by: ericfromcowtown Reply I was playing around on the Internet by looking at cabins, since I liked the idea of a weekend retreat even if it was out of my league monetarily. Most places closer than 5 or 6 hours from here would cost $200k or more, which is far far above what I can afford. When I saw a "lakefront cabin" listed 2 1/2 hours away for $69,000 I was suspicious. Inquiries revealled that the cabin was a "fixer upper" and that the lake was shallow enough for winter kill to have erased fishing from equation. That was enough, I suppose, to drive some people elsewhere. But, it was a third the cost of other cabins in the area, and at 2 1/2 hours away a reasonable drive on a Friday afternoon. The problem was, that I didn't have $69,000, and I hate debt. Not in a "I'd rather not be in debt" sort of way, but in a "debt is evil and enslaves you" type of way. So I let it be and snooped back at the advert every couple of months to see if it was still for sale. Six months later I saw that it was now listed at $40,000. Surely someone would snatch that up. We took a drive out there to get a lay of the land and since I still couldn't afford $40,000 I half-jokingly told the owner that I'd give him $25,000. Sold. He just wanted to get rid of it. Now of course, I own a cabin that I really didn't think I would own and the fun begins.

TheWildMan Member	# Posted: 7 Nov 2012 03:49pm Reply got my place dirt cheap, not many people want to live and farm on top of a landfill. back in the 50s the state Dept of trandsportation used the acreage as a dump site for rocks and debris from expanding a highway. they piled 20 feet deep with roack, dirt, stumps, metal and whatever else on top of the old farm house and field. then gave it back to the old owner who did nothing with it till i bought it 2 years ago and moved there. overgrown trees and shrubs on top of rock, the back half is a swamp with sawtimber size ash and oak (forested wetland). can't build anything conventional on it so no one else wanted it. i saw the for sale sign walked into the real estate office, found out the out of state owner was trying to sell for years, offered the value of what i had in my pocket and had the deed a week later (the guy was tired of dealing with it and sold 5 acres for only a couple grand) i moved in two days after i had the deed, lived under a tree and camped out while building and clearing.

toyota_mdt_tech Member	# Posted: 7 Nov 2012 04:39pm Reply The land they was showing me was too steep, I was going to pass. Then they remembered (I think they wanted to sell the ugly parcels first) that they had a repo, wife didnt make payments. got hooked on some drugs and for 7 months, spent the money on drugs. They showed it to me, I took it. There was an old trailer on it, plus some cobbled stuff made from local logs and log slabs. Spend an entire weekend hauling it all away, someone else took the trailer. I know who did, that was great, I didnt want it or have to deal with it.

neb Member	# Posted: 7 Nov 2012 08:04pm - Edited by: neb Reply Very interesting!!! Well, I owned land but contnued to look for land in the badlands. This type of land is where my heart really is at but land like this is hard to find because it comes in big junks. I look all the time and if I didn't find this 70 acrea piece of badlands which borders the river. I was on the phone right away and found out where it was at and it was 20 miles from where I have a home. I went right away to look at it and had to walk in one mile to see my dream. This was in the middle of the winter and the snow was deep but that walk in made my heart fall in love with the place. To make a very long story short it took one year to close on this land. The guy that owned the land lived in the mountains and he did have a phone but was very hard to get in touch with him. We where back and forth on price and I needed easements before I would agree to buy. Well it took a year but finally we got easements and many other issues taken care of before I sent the money. I was blessed very much on finding this land and wouldn't part with it for anything in this world. The big hold up to get it bought was the guy had no money to get paper work in order and to get someone to survey the easement to this property. He would have to come off the mountain to call me back and so forth. It was a very interesting journey and many times I was ready to bag the deal. I had plenty of time to think this deal out. LOL I don't live on the land but do have a small shack I spend time at and stay there over night. This land is a dream come true for me.

morganplus8 Member	# Posted: 7 Nov 2012 11:57pm Reply I save you all long story and tell you that we shopped around for a piece of land, called the realtor to confirm that it was for sale, he came out with paperwork and showed us the land. We offered a fair price and the deal went through. We were so excited we asked if we could clear the land and develop the shoreline. After all that, I met a neighbor who had collapsed at the edge of his property, we carried him to a chair, gave him water and food and nursed him back to life. Long story short, he asked us how we stumbled upon him and I said I owned the property nearby. He laughed and asked if we were the dummies clearing his bosses land, turns out the realtor showed us the wrong property! Now the rub, my property was actually next to his cousins place and we owned a stunning piece of land, tons of trees and a great shoreline and easily worth more than the one we cleared. I couldn't be happier.