question on buying land...

[Hunter_Man]

I went and looked at a property yesterday... 100 acres.
a little background....

land is in west texas. Robert lee to be exact.

owner owns 419 acres. sectioned off 200 to sell. he ended up dividing that 200 acres into 2 - 100 acre areas because he got an offer on 100. the 100 acres that sold had a well, tank, watering trough, and windmill on it. it ended up selling for 1500$ an acre.

the remaining piece is what I'm looking at. I like it.. (a lot) but it's a hair out of my price range. my piece doesn't have a well, but it says the seller will put in a well before we close on it. (the realtor said a well service is coming out next week). it would just be drilled and cased. no pump... no tank... nada.

fences are good. new fence on one side. there are basically no roads on the property... it's thick on 1/2 of it... the rest is overgrown pasture. will need work.

my question is, I know with buying houses most of the time you're not going to get more than 10% or so less than asking price knocked off.

asking price is 155k$ on this property, and I'm wanting to spend 130k MAX. is it unreasonable to offer that? 1300$ an acre for basically unimproved land?

[RealTreeHunter]

An offer is an offer. You can submit whatever you want. Everyone reacts different to offers, but yours is very normal. Expect a higher counter though. If you can only afford $130k, I wouldn't offer that right off the bat because when he counters at $145k, you're SOL.

[captainsling]

The one thing that my realtor told me that has always stuck in my head is people that own land usually don't NEED to sell. They WANT to sell. There fore they can wait until the right offer comes along, or wait for a full price offer. If the last piece sold for $1500 and he is asking $1550, I don't see him taking a hit.

Just my opinion.

[BTLowry]

If the place he sold had all of watering system in place I would offer less.

Maybe negotiate a price without a well and drill well later?

I would offer $1200/ac, you can't counter less when he makes his counter

I bought a place for less than 1/2 of asking price, first offer was about a 1/3 of asking price

It also depends on the market and what similar properties in the area are selling for, or at least that is what I would look at

[DUKFVR]

I would offer that. When we bought out place it was on the far end of our budget. We didn't think he would take our offer ,but its all we could go.. He accepted. Never know. I don't think you are out of reason offering that.

[RutnBuk]

I just offered 2700 on a place that was 3800 per acre. We met at 3350. Im happy as thats what I wanted. Some people do need to sell to move on.

[elliscountyhog]

In Robert Lee if he sold the place with the improvements at $1500 and he is now selling a place of raw land I would offer $1000/acre or $1300 in contigency that they hit good water on the well.

[AntlerCollector]

I'd want to see the water test results of the new water well. Also wouldn't you want a say so in where the well is drilled? Are you planning on living there or building a cabin? If so I would want the well near where I wanted to build.

[MQ32Shooter]

When deciding what your MAX number is to get you into your own land, remember that once you own it; it still takes a bunch of money to get it ready to use. Septic, electric, clearing, etc. Lot's of things you don't think about due to the excitement of closing a deal. Good luck. Hopefully, it's the best investment you ever made. I big on buying HARD assets. Everything I ever bought that was in "paper", went south. Can't take your land as long as you pay the taxes.

[Kdog]

Start low, and be ready for a counter offer. I don't think you are being unreasonable at all. I would only advise is that you should be willing to walk when the negotiation starts. He may not just "want to sell", he may need to. Good luck.

[texanatrv]

Im from the Robert Lee area Drilling water wells in the area is expensive and most of the wells will be salty..I would make an offer you can afford

[glpoe1]

Seems a bit steep to me for that part of the country. Juniper will take over in a heart beat and it is grubbed out to control if wild fires don't get it first. It is a great area though but isn't he asking more for your unimproved acreage than the first 100ac? I would definately offer less than what you have budgeted. You will need to come back and pay taxes and probably some road work, etc. and your going to need a bit of cash after the sale. Good luck.

Water well drilling just for a cased hole is $20 per ft.

[BetramHunter]

When i bought 67 acres 2 years ago the asking price was 2k per acre that they had recently lowered from 3300 per acre. I offered them 1200 and they came back firm on 2k. I threw out 2 more offers before paying the asking price of 2k per acre. Land in that area is now going from 4500 to 10k per acre depending on acreage.

[Codie]

I would start between $1,000/acre and $1,150/acre and try to get a counter for your desired number of $1,300/acre.

[Jaybo31]

I would start between $1,000/acre and $1,150/acre and try to get a counter for your desired number of $1,300/acre.

This. Dont offer close to what you are setting your max at.