Anyone ever purchase an empty lot before?

[bbhaag]

Last fall my wife and I purchased a new home an a 1/2 acre lot. Around half way through the purchase we caught the home owner and his realtor in a lie about the size of the lot the house was on. They intentionally were misrepresenting the size to include the empty 1/2 acre lots next to us.
At the time of closing we approached the owner of this lot and he was not willing to sell it to us. Fast forward one year and he approached us about wanting to sell the lots to us for $36K.

So has anyone here ever purchased an empty lot before? As far as financing and term length go is it similar to your typical residential lot 15/30 year loan with interest? Also this lot is zoned light commercial so I don't know if that would play a role in financing either.
I'm getting ready to call the banker this morning but thought I would ask here to. Here is a picture to help visualize what I'm trying to say. We are the house on lot 54 and lots 51, 52, and 53 are the ones we might be buying.

 

[LikeLinus]

"Around half way through the purchase we caught the home owner and his realtor in a lie about the size of the lot the house was on."

What was the resolution of that? Obviously you went ahead and purchased the house. Did you reduce the cost? I'm surprised you didn't walk away from the deal.

Is the owner of the lot the same owner as the house and land you purchased??

 

[bbhaag]

"Around half way through the purchase we caught the home owner and his realtor in a lie about the size of the lot the house was on."

What was the resolution of that? Obviously you went ahead and purchased the house. Did you reduce the cost? I'm surprised you didn't walk away from the deal.

Is the owner of the lot the same owner as the house and land you purchased??

The old owner reduced the price of the house by $15K and the guy who owns the empty lots next to us is a different person.

 

[nakedfrog]

Land loans are fairly different than a typical mortgage, from my research (haven't bought a lot, but have been looking into it).

 

[Scarpozzi]

Most states/counties have nice maps of the plats you can get printed out with the owner information. I've even seen map services show those with the lines that are updated through common GIS software.

You should put a bunch of fake headstones on the side of your house....buy lot 53 for half price when it doesn't sell....then move the headstones over to that lot....rinse repeat. Buyers are scared of dead people.

 

[highland145]

Land loans are fairly different than a typical mortgage, from my research (haven't bought a lot, but have been looking into it).

Bought 8ac raw land, bank wanted ( and got) 35% down. Check what the up/down sides are to including with your current lot vs keeping it separate. And I would combine the 3 regardless.

 

[snoopy7548]

I've never bought land but I may at some point if I decide to build my own house in ~10 years. In that case, I would certainly (have to?) pay cash in full.

 

[bbhaag]

Bought 8ac raw land, bank wanted ( and got) 35% down. Check what the up/down sides are to including with your current lot vs keeping it separate. And I would combine the 3 regardless.

Ok that is good to know. I called our banker this morning and left a message but she hasn't returned my call. 35% down is doable hell if we really wanted to we could just pay the $36K out right but that would leave us a little strapped for cash heading into 2020.

What about the Commercial zoning anything to worry about there as far as financing goes? Also why would you combine the 3 lots into one?

 

[bbhaag]

Most states/counties have nice maps of the plats you can get printed out with the owner information. I've even seen map services show those with the lines that are updated through common GIS software.

You should put a bunch of fake headstones on the side of your house....buy lot 53 for half price when it doesn't sell....then move the headstones over to that lot....rinse repeat. Buyers are scared of dead people.

I did find the GIS website for our county. Very handy tool that I didn't know existed.

 

[highland145]

What about the Commercial zoning anything to worry about there as far as financing goes?

I would say no but ask your banker. Ask you lawyer/realtor about other problems too. Our house was zoned limited professional, a mix of residential/professional. Had a chiropractor next door and a dentist 2 doors down. Some city council back room shit earlier in the year and now we're limited business...woot, I could get a quick shop next to me. Damned fuckers. But if you own it, no worries about that.

Is the property tax higher being zoned that way? Another reason to see about having it attached to your property.

 

[bbhaag]

I would say no but ask your banker. Ask you lawyer/realtor about other problems too. Our house was zoned limited professional, a mix of residential/professional. Had a chiropractor next door and a dentist 2 doors down. Some city council back room shit earlier in the year and now we're limited business...woot, I could get a quick shop next to me. Damned fuckers. But if you own it, no worries about that.

Is the property tax higher being zoned that way? Another reason to see about having it attached to your property.

Your post is exactly what we are nervous about happening and why we are going to purchase the 3 lots. We don't some guy putting a small Morton shed on them and then start a small business on it. It could get junked up in a hurry.....

As far as taxes go right now it is $270/lot so $810 a year. We currently pay $6400 a year for taxes on our house so I was worried that if we combine the land into our current lot it would cost more than $810 a year.
Plus if we sell the house in 10 years that land goes with it if we keep it separate then we can hold onto it as long as we want.

 

[highland145]

Good points. Mine was out in the woods and I was paying on 3 lots. Combining 2 of them saved me $$.

$6400...dang, it's good to live on podunk S.C.


Time for a bigger garden.

 

[bbhaag]

Good points. Mine was out in the woods and I was paying on 3 lots. Combining them saved me $$.

$6400...dang, it's good to live on podunk S.C.


Time for a bigger garden.

That's before the re-assessment happened this year. They were at $6800......

It's funny you mention a bigger garden. My wife already wants to plant some fruit trees and have a small orchard on it and a pumpkin/gourd patch. She also wants me to bring the tractor home from and build a small dirt bike track over there. Our youngest is into dirt biking IDK about all that but usually she gets her way. haha

Anyway, thank you for all the good info you've been really helpful and I appreciate the advice/insight.

 

[highland145]

YMMV. You mentioned re assessment... bro and I were looking at buying the building I'm in. Tax was ~1K/yr. Bro asks what it will be when we buy it. Me, why wouldn't it be $1K/yr? Well, it's rate capped because the same family has owned it for many years. Tax was going to ~$6K/yr if we bought it. Always good to know people that know shit.

 

[Scarpozzi]

You can buy up those lots, sure....but remember if development starts in the area, it may be inevitable if zoning is changing from residential to commercial. May not be next door, but development spreads like wildfire once it starts. It's tough to stop.

I would check and see where the closest commercial lots are....and keep your eyes peeled. They usually have to post a sign for 30 days if they apply to rezone a property. On my lot, I added onto my house and had to file a variance to change my backyard setbacks from 25' to 10'.....and boy did I. My neighbor wasn't happy when his little house was in the shadow of my great big mansion..... (another time, he called my house a massive apartment building because he was intimidated by its size) Don't worry about him though...the stress killed him. He's dead now.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Been looking at buying recreational land in an unorganized township but have not bought any yet. In the city I think it's more involved, as there are requirements to build, and everything needs a permit, and tends to be more expensive and overall have more red tape. Every time you hit a red tape situation that requires a permit your taxes go up too. It's like a double whammy. So like, I don't think you can just buy the lot next to you for a bigger lot. You are required to build a house that has to meet certain specifications such as size and having separate utilities (extra bills) installed etc. I guess this varies between municipalities though. There may also be a way to buy a lot and then combine it with yours, so it's considered one lot, that would be your best bet if that's an option. won't be cheap though due to fees etc. I would definitely check with the city before buying to make sure that whatever you want to do with it, they won't give you trouble. Your taxes will also go up significantly no matter what.

It's why I've been looking in unorganized townships myself, you buy the land, pay for it, taxes are like $100/year and you can do what you want (there's a few exeptions but they arn't too big a deal and don't involve ongoing costs). Only thing is these types of properties I'm talking about are like an hour from the city so I would need to be retired or have a passive income to live there, but it is one of my long term goals. i feel like I'm not getting anywhere living in the city. Work work work, money in, money out. Not getting ahead, too much costs of living.

It's crossed my mind to buy a lot in the city and bite the bullet and just play the whole permit game then build a super efficient off grid house but don't think I would save much in the end because of the permit process, taxes etc.
There's a reason new houses now are starting at like 300k. There's just so much more red tape than say, 20-30 years ago. If I built myself it would probably still end up costing me like 150k, half of which is permits.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

the empty 1/2 acre lots next to us.
At the time of closing we approached the owner of this lot and he was not willing to sell it to us. Fast forward one year and he approached us about wanting to sell the lots to us for $36K.

Not a chance. I paid 20K for my house on three acres. (no, there's not a zero missing, or any other digits.)