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chrisser
03-07-2008, 09:44 AM
So my wife and I found a 26 acre piece of property at a great price. Has a run-down house on it.

I talked to a trusted realtor I know and she said buying a property where the land is worth more than the house is problemmatic to finance because its a land loan instead of a home loan, especially if you don't intend to build right away.

I'm just starting my research. I know we could afford the payments if we got a decent interest rate, but in order to free up the money I have to get out of a car loan and that will cost me half the $$ I would have used for a down payment and the various fees and due diligence expenses will eat up a lot of what's left. We got married late last year and between that and what I've spent on our house (roof, remodelling, etc) left me with little equity or savings. I had planned on something like this six months to a year from now, but the place is exactly what we want - its one of those "last place we'd ever live" sort of properties.

Still, I think we could swing 5% down for a place that's listed for less than the appraised land value, and 2/3 of the overall property value.

Just curious what others have experienced lately in the financing marketplace buying land for the land's sake. We have a house in the city that we want to keep and, ideally, rent. Long term, we'd sell it, but the market is soft now.

Just between us, I'd be comfortable fixing up the existing house on the property and living in there for a few years, building another house later, but it appears I can't do the deal that way right now.

Nightphall
04-02-2008, 01:11 PM
You can always approach the seller and ask if they are willing to do a contract for deed sale, depending if that is legal where you are. What you generally do is offer a contract with monthly payments to him to sell the deed to you and you buy the land at a specified date. Like you tell him I will pay 500.mo for 12 months and at the end of 12 months pay the remaining value, but you will have to build an interest rate into the payment so if your total payments for the 12 months are 6000, and the property costs 50,000 then you would pay him say 47,000 at the 12 month mark there by giving him 6% interest over the year. Then you just have to worry about getting a loan in a year!

Terri
05-05-2008, 08:52 AM
Small local banks often loan on the value of the bare land: large chain banks like B of A will not.