Poll: Found our ideal farm

butterflygrooves

On Saturday we drove around the area where we want to buy a farm, we found some properties that we liked but they were out of our price range.  As we were leaving we drove by a HUGE lot with a For Sale sign but there was no contact information so I Zillow'd it when we got home.

Turns out that the lot is 1.82 acres and has a 5 bedroom house on it and the asking price is only $97,300.  The house looks more like a mobile home in the pics on Zillow but I wouldn't mind living there temporarily. If the property is still available when we are ready to buy than we are really thinking about diving into it.

This is the cheapest land we've found so far, everything else is above $300k with a house and less land. If you were us and the property was still available at the beginning of the year...

[Poll] 

butterflygrooves

The reason I am asking is because we aren't sure about the structure, everything else is perfect.

Tanya+Da

Well, I am from farm county (Oklahoma) and the way it normally works for the younger couples is:

Buy land. Put trailer-type/temporary cheap housing on land to live in. Wait until the right time (6 months or 6 years, whatever is 'right') to build house on land. Sell temporary housing.

good luck!!!

JoySeattle

I would view the property and home. Depending on whether it's liveable, I'd make sure that my financing would cover the cost of the land and structures and hopefully construction funds to build a new home. Then I'd live in the existing while building a new one. Best of luck and keep us posted.

2mommiesinoh

I voted buy and live because a house is something you could eventually build when the funds were more available. If it is a mobile home it depends on what type and how it is placed. My relatives live out in the country in AL and live in mobile homes on land but they are more spacious than my two bedroom apartment.

seattlekari

JoySeattle:

I would view the property and home. Depending on whether it's liveable, I'd make sure that my financing would cover the cost of the land and structures and hopefully construction funds to build a new home. Then I'd live in the existing while building a new one. Best of luck and keep us posted.

 Ditto Joy's thoughts, it could be liveable for a while but you really need to see the inside to know if you can make it work until you decide to build.

butterflygrooves

seattlekari:

JoySeattle:

I would view the property and home. Depending on whether it's liveable, I'd make sure that my financing would cover the cost of the land and structures and hopefully construction funds to build a new home. Then I'd live in the existing while building a new one. Best of luck and keep us posted.

 Ditto Joy's thoughts, it could be liveable for a while but you really need to see the inside to know if you can make it work until you decide to build.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking.  Since there wasn't a contact for the property I will have to see if our agent can look into it for us.  If it's a mobile home and liveable than we can live there and eventually build a house, if it's a tiny 5 bedroom house than we will be doing some renovating to make it bigger. Our real concern lies in whether the home is liveable, we can't afford rent, mortgage, and construction costs all at the same time.

I'm sure I'm getting way ahead of myself and this place will be gone by the time we are ready to buy. A girl can dream though, right? 

Two*True

Well I voted other but that was before I read your f/u post.  If everything else is perfect then I guess my 'other' isn't necessary but I'll type it out anyway :-p

Basically I chose other because I would still need to do a lot more research. What are the zoning laws? School District? And because you want it to be a farm I'd probably be getting soil samples tested to make sure the land wasn't once used for something possibly harmful.  All of this stuff comes secondary to actually seeing the house and walking the land of course.

ctbride08

Two*True:

Well I voted other but that was before I read your f/u post.  If everything else is perfect then I guess my 'other' isn't necessary but I'll type it out anyway :-p

Basically I chose other because I would still need to do a lot more research. What are the zoning laws? School District? And because you want it to be a farm I'd probably be getting soil samples tested to make sure the land wasn't once used for something possibly harmful.  All of this stuff comes secondary to actually seeing the house and walking the land of course.

exactly what i was gonna say :P 

If this property is well below comps, there is a reason.  Lots of testing and reasearch to be done before you get your heart set on it. 

if that all checks out, though, I would have no problem living in a trailer (as long as it was sufficient for my family's needs) while saving $ to build.  DW and I still cling tightly to the idea of building our own home one day!

2brides

I agree that there is a reason this one is so dramatically reduced in price to comparable parcels of land. You need to figure out why.