Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire land beside my place is up for sale

Go offer them the $5k an acre before someone else does.

Some of the few responses I've read has been of some real bullshit advice, so mine can't be any worse. Rather than try unscrupulous methods to circumvent contractual obligations, try this approach. Talk with the seller and be forthright and honest with him, you could include the agent in the talks. Find out his motivation for selling. It may be possible the seller would be happy with a good down payment and monthly payments. Figure if you can carry the loan for five years, as it may well take that long to make the land productive.

This is the most intelligent post on the thread.

I don’t know your financial situation nor your future expectation for the growth and maturity of previous investments but from my 2 story studio in the ivory tower of life I couldn’t spend top dollar for land I wasn’t planning on using to its fullest financial potential. $1,600,000 is a lot of money for a place to shoot deer. That’s a hell of a lot of guided hunting trips in 5 star accommodations worldwide.

If you pay top dollar developer prices today then in 20 or 30 years you’ll be hoping that it’s matured into the price you paid decades earlier. I’m the last guy in the world to tell someone to not follow their dreams so whatever you decide I hope it works every bit as well as you dream it will. Good luck!

I paid top dollar about 4 years ago and very glad I did.

Sorry, I’m not gonna read back through these posts . But, could you cut off any frontage lots and sell them to ease the purchase?

Would you want to keep all of it? Maybe buy it, sell off part of it and keep what you want to make the loan more managable. Or think of ways to be creative. Land next to you is worth more to you than anybody else. 1.6 mil is a lot of money though.


I see Alwaysoutdoors beat me to this idea. May be something to think about.

I think there is some excellent advise above. Cannot comment on what is a fair price down there, but I tend to agree 5K would be my top offer.

160 acres is what- 440 yards by 440 yards? Hard to get 25 deer a year off that unless surrounding land is feeding them in, and as said, everything legal is shot on sight.

Also, you might consider making that an income producing property, say, with hunting leases and tax write-offs. Or as said, sell a couple lots for home development. Probably won't even pay for the monthly mortgage payments, but there could be some benefits that way. See a tax guy.

Las,160 acres is a 1/4 section which is 1/2 miles x 1/2 mile or 880x880 yds MB

Figure out the absolute max you can afford and make them a standing offer. It is important to you so don't even think about trying to get it on the cheap. Offer your max and be done, one way or the other.

It's hard to give advice without being there to know all the details and what's going on. From what I read hear, my guess is the guy wants to give his kids some money before he passes on, or who knows, maybe he expects to pass on before long. Maybe he's sick, but regardless, as fast as he's dropping the price it's obvious his priority is selling it as quickly as he can.
First you need to do your homework (maybe talk to him) find out his plans on the property, why he's selling kind of a do you know something I don't know? Maybe they are thinking of moving a military base into the area and you think you may need to put your property up for sale as well if property legitimatly is going for that price. How much longer is he under contract? But also find out what property has sold for in the area for the last couple of years and get it into the conversation with I heard the Jones place went for $2000/acre. What did Smith's place go for? I heard it only went for $1800/acre. I can't imagine someone has the money for that kind of develpment in this area, heck the whole place has only grown by 2000 in the last 3 years. Find out if he was making any money off the property? If it's not an income property, how can it be worth $XXXX/acre? Sounds high. What do you really expect to get. You know most people won't pay more than the property is worth income wise. You already stripped the trees off. That depletes $X value on it. How's your health doing these days? What motivated you all of a sudden to put your land on the market?
You ask as many questions as you can think of but BUT LISTEN TO ALL THE ANSWERS. He'll give you a tip or two along the conversation. If property has been selling for $2000/acre, maybe ask him how long before he'd take $2500/acre. TIe the value to what land actually sells in that area. Tell him when he's ready to talk turkey to give you a call. THEN, SEND HIM A NICE CARD AND THANK HIM FOR HIS TIME AND PUT YOUR NAME AND PHONE NUMBER ON IT. MAYBE INVITE HIM OVER FOR DINNER SOMETIME AND GET TO KNOW HIM BETTER.
Make sure you make him feel good about his property, even if it causes question as to the value.

No way I'd spend $10k+ an acre for recreational land. Heck no. I'd pray he sold it for that, then sell my property and homestead somewhere else at $2k an acre and have five times the land. Dont get emotional on me.

First, find out what comparable pieces of land in your county have actually sold for.

If it's worth even half of the asking price, the value is for development and the area around it WILL be developed.

I would pass. I was in a similar situation years ago and passed. Instead, I have hunted big game out west, in Alaska, and in Africa. Now I hunt birds on preserves and just shoot Sporting Clays. And I have a lot of cash left over.

I’ll share

Land comps are very difficult for this area. Land prices peaked high before the 08 crash and the plummetted. Now they're drifting back up. A couple of 30-40 acre tracts on the other side of the land in question sold 8-10 years ago for 10k/acre. These were raw fields turned into retirement houses, one house per lot not subdivided.

But, 2 other tracts in similar condition (clearcut close to 20 years ago) to this land sold in 2018 for much less after being on the market for many years. One tract was close to 80 acres, across the river, sold for close to 4k/acre. The other tract across the highway, exact same size, sold for 3k/acre. However, the guy who bought that land has put another million or so into clearing it and putting in access and farm roads. There have litteraly been a half dozen guys over there working around the clock on big equipment. a year and half later, the only building that's gone up is a barn (can't see from the road) and I met an engineer recently that did some of the road work and he said it's just a rich guy putting in a hobby farm with possible wedding venue. This guy may get eyes for this land and so is probably the biggest possible competition. 40 acres of this land is right up to his on the other side of the highway.

There is another large multi-million $ cattle operation that has well over 1000 acres and shares a little bit of border on the far side. They could be interested too. This is the only large land that borders mine so this will be my only chance to add to my homeplace farm where I grew up, and moved back a couple years ago. My wife and I paid cash for the place and got a good deal from my mom, but we spent pretty much all our money on the land, house, and renovations/improvemnts. We are both self employed and make good money. I don't want to lose out and regret it.

I will wait until after taxes this year, and see how much I can scratch together for a down payment. I can probably come up with about 200. Then see about getting preapproved for a loan for the rest, 10 year loan. I got a buddy who'se a realtor. See what we can do with about getting this place. I will draw a hard line at 5k/acre. I will work extra to pay the loan down as quick as possible.

I tried to find the owners number and could not. Last time I spoke to him was 6 years ago. He and I have both moved a couple times since then. Only way for me to contact him would be by mail. He's up in his 80's now and lost his wife a couple years ago. Have never met him in my life but talked on the phone about property issues a few times when my mother still owned my place. The reason they can kill so many deer over there is they shoot anything that moves, the whole place was cuttover 15 and 5 years ago (2 cuts covering 95% of property), this county has over 50 deer per mile and that small river that borders the other side is like a deer highway and also other wildlife. I kill 5-10 does and a buck or 2 every year and don't put a dent. However those guys shoot enough 2 year old bucks that I expect to see an uptick in antler size when that property sells one way or the other.

can you farm all or part of it ?/
are farm taxes cheaper ?

Did he farm it ? can you lease part of it out for crops ?

Do you have equipment to work it ??

lots of questions

See if you can put an option on it ,,,lease purchase??????

norm

Sounds like a good plan.

Look on your county's tax website and find out where he lives. Or PM me his name and I will find him for you.

Here's the update on this another 6 months down the road:
- the price has dropped a couple more times, now down to just under $6500/acre (under 1.1million)
- right after I posted last time the guy who bought the similar property across the highway came over and introduced himself. He is a professional developer but bought that land for recreational use and it's safe from development. He's not interested in this property "at that kind of asking price" I kept my cards tight.
- about 6 weeks ago I contacted my bank and they don't finance raw land or agriculture. You basically have to get farm credit. I talked to the local lender and they have great rates. However, they do 20 year loans and will finance only 80% of appraised value. The lender contacted an appraiser and was told in this area a piece of raw land that size will go between 2500-3500 max on appraisal.

-I would be in for this at 4-5k/acre. Probably offer 4, and hope to get it for 4500. but would be willing to go to 5k if necessary.
-that means I would need to be able to produce 200-400k at closing. That's not going to happen overnight. I could come up with the low end relatively soon but would need a huge bounce in the stock market (to capitalize on recent buys) or probably well over a year to come with some cushion to let negotiations play out.
-I have 2 concerns: the owner dies and his heirs keep it, or the guy that owns the land across the road makes a cash offer that is close enough for him not refuse.

I'm old and cannot see paying that kind of money for "just dirt". I see your dilemma though. Were I in your shoes, and "young" as someone else mentioned months ago, I'd be taking the route you are and trying to get that property.

Good luck with it. How long does it take to grow a merchantable tree in that area? You might be able to leave something for your heirs.

Fixed it for you.

Don't forget about taxes my friend.