I have read many posts where folkes asked questions about buying hunting land. I thought Id share my recent experience and hope it helps someone else out there like me.
To start off, Ill tell you a bit about myself. Im 33 years old, make an honest living and have a great family. Ever since I was about 12 years old, Ive dreamed of owning a chunk of land about 100 acres or more. I remember looking at the real estate ads in GON, 20 years ago at land around $700 an acre and begging my dad to start saving so we could one day buy a place of our own. Dad passed away years ago and my dream of us buying family hunting land kind of died too.
A few years ago when I began making enough money that we were no longer considered below poverty level, my dream of land ownership started to return.
Ive hunted public land almost entirely for the last 20 years. A couple years ago My wife gave me permission to join a hunting club in Wilkes county. Wilkes is about an hour 45 min from our home in Clarkesville so it was perfect... close, but not too far away. After hunting the area a year, I realized that there was at least twice as many deer down there than where Id been hunting in the mountains. I also, out of curiosity, checked out land prices and noticed that average price per acre wasnt too bad. Seemed to be around the $1500-$2000 price per acre most often.
The wheels in my head began to turn and the thought of buying land in this area now became a common thought.
First I had to know my budget. My wife and I where fortunate to find a great deal on our home a few years ago and had a goal to have it paid for and we did. So I was able to acquire a simple home equity line of credit against our home in the amount of $76,000. The closing fee was cheap, interest rate was good and it could sit in the bank as long as needed until we needed it.
Now even if I did not have my home paid for, this story might not be much different. If you want to buy land I would talk with the banks about getting pre-approved for a farm loan. Having the pre-approval letter or the money in the bank is essential to getting a great deal on land. Ill explain more soon.
So once I knew my budget was aroung $70,000, I started land hunting. I would look online every few weeks for a deal. I originally thought I may have to settle for a little 30-40 acres first. A place just big enough for a camp and a couple stands on a couple food plots. I kept looking though, waiting for the right place.
Then one evening, I was checking out landwatch.com and a property got my attention. Wilkes county, 78 acres, $750 an acre. I remember showing it to my wife but thinking that at that price it was too good to be true.
I immediately texted the selling agents# and even at 9pm, he called me right back. We talked about the place, I asked him why it was so cheap and I learned that there was an issue with the easement leading to the property. The road leading back into the property was never recorded.
I decided that even with the potential access problem, it was still worth looking at. Two days later I was meeting the agent for a tour of the place. In my mind, I had pictured a wasteland for deer. I pictured a clearcut with poor soil and meth addict neighbors. What it ended up being was actually beautiful land in a great neighborhood. Its almost 1 mile down a logging road surrounded by farms. One side is 500 acre trophy managed club, one side is 150 acres of pine/hardwood mixture with no hunting, and the neighbors to the south hunt very little. Most of the pines were cut in 2008. The land still had lots of big pine seed trees and lots of big mature hardwoods. Two big creeks and a duck pond were also on this land. Deer and turkeys were everywhere!
So obviously if it werent for the easement issue, this would be a no brainer. I asked for more details about the access and learned that the family land the access road passed through needed three signatures to make legal access. None of the family had said they would not sign, they just wouldnt put any effort into getting the papers notarized correctly.
Now, knowing that just like buying a house, I had a 30 day right to cancel contract, after talking it over that night with wife, I signed the contract offering cash, full asking price and no contingencies. That comes to my next tip... if the price is right, dont haggle. If I would have offered just $1,000 less or included any contingencies, I would not be writting this.
As it turned out, with just being on the market a few days, the agent had in his hand three signed contracts for his client. All very similar or the same. One thing that I believe helped me, other than not haggling, is that I met the owner the day I looked at property.
The seller was a very nice old farmer who lived just a mile from property. I was polite, told him how much I loved the place, talked about family and my dream of owning land. We also talked about the easment. He had tried for years to get the signatures needed to sell but had finally gave up and hoped that by asking half what property was worth, someone would buy even with risk of no legal access.
I got from him the names and last known addresses of the people that needed to sign.
Back to the contract, I knew that the agent and owner were having a meeting discussing the three offers but I didnt know what the other offers were. When I got the call from the agent saying the seller accepted my offer, I was such a great relief! But I knew then that I had only 30 days to get those signatures or I would have to back out of the deal.
We tracked down two of the people by facebook (no one had tried that before) the lawyers had mailed letters and the seller even drove to their addresses but no one had ever been able to get these people to sit down and talk about the easment. In our facebook message, we introduced ourself and explained what we needed.
The three people that we needed to sign was an elderly woman in Greene county and her two kids in Atlanta.
Our original facebook message got no reply. I then tract down the aunt/sister of the three and had a phone conversation with her. Luckily, as it turned out, She wanted to sell the land and and she agreed to talk to her sister, niece and nephew, and ask them to sign the papers. Long story just a little shorter, after 29 days, many phone calls, messages, pleas and bribe attempts, one day before due diligence ran out, we had in our lawyers hand, the papers needed to get legal entry onto property!
Thats my next tip- It may take some hard work on your part to get the deal done, but its worth it in the end!
We closed on May 5th and have since put in a few food plots, hung several stands, set up our deer camp and have really enjoyed our land. Since the county tax value was so much more than what I paid, I was able to re-finance the land for near 100%. So basically I bought the place for just a few thousand dollars down and my monthly payment is $571 for 120 months.
With the home equity money back in bank, I am now working on buying another 31 acres from the family that I tract down about the signatures. That would end up giving me 109 acres.
I hope, by sharing my story, it helps someone who like me, has a dream of owning land but may think its not possible. Im here to say, dont give up hope! If I can do it so can you!
To start off, Ill tell you a bit about myself. Im 33 years old, make an honest living and have a great family. Ever since I was about 12 years old, Ive dreamed of owning a chunk of land about 100 acres or more. I remember looking at the real estate ads in GON, 20 years ago at land around $700 an acre and begging my dad to start saving so we could one day buy a place of our own. Dad passed away years ago and my dream of us buying family hunting land kind of died too.
A few years ago when I began making enough money that we were no longer considered below poverty level, my dream of land ownership started to return.
Ive hunted public land almost entirely for the last 20 years. A couple years ago My wife gave me permission to join a hunting club in Wilkes county. Wilkes is about an hour 45 min from our home in Clarkesville so it was perfect... close, but not too far away. After hunting the area a year, I realized that there was at least twice as many deer down there than where Id been hunting in the mountains. I also, out of curiosity, checked out land prices and noticed that average price per acre wasnt too bad. Seemed to be around the $1500-$2000 price per acre most often.
The wheels in my head began to turn and the thought of buying land in this area now became a common thought.
First I had to know my budget. My wife and I where fortunate to find a great deal on our home a few years ago and had a goal to have it paid for and we did. So I was able to acquire a simple home equity line of credit against our home in the amount of $76,000. The closing fee was cheap, interest rate was good and it could sit in the bank as long as needed until we needed it.
Now even if I did not have my home paid for, this story might not be much different. If you want to buy land I would talk with the banks about getting pre-approved for a farm loan. Having the pre-approval letter or the money in the bank is essential to getting a great deal on land. Ill explain more soon.
So once I knew my budget was aroung $70,000, I started land hunting. I would look online every few weeks for a deal. I originally thought I may have to settle for a little 30-40 acres first. A place just big enough for a camp and a couple stands on a couple food plots. I kept looking though, waiting for the right place.
Then one evening, I was checking out landwatch.com and a property got my attention. Wilkes county, 78 acres, $750 an acre. I remember showing it to my wife but thinking that at that price it was too good to be true.
I immediately texted the selling agents# and even at 9pm, he called me right back. We talked about the place, I asked him why it was so cheap and I learned that there was an issue with the easement leading to the property. The road leading back into the property was never recorded.
I decided that even with the potential access problem, it was still worth looking at. Two days later I was meeting the agent for a tour of the place. In my mind, I had pictured a wasteland for deer. I pictured a clearcut with poor soil and meth addict neighbors. What it ended up being was actually beautiful land in a great neighborhood. Its almost 1 mile down a logging road surrounded by farms. One side is 500 acre trophy managed club, one side is 150 acres of pine/hardwood mixture with no hunting, and the neighbors to the south hunt very little. Most of the pines were cut in 2008. The land still had lots of big pine seed trees and lots of big mature hardwoods. Two big creeks and a duck pond were also on this land. Deer and turkeys were everywhere!
So obviously if it werent for the easement issue, this would be a no brainer. I asked for more details about the access and learned that the family land the access road passed through needed three signatures to make legal access. None of the family had said they would not sign, they just wouldnt put any effort into getting the papers notarized correctly.
Now, knowing that just like buying a house, I had a 30 day right to cancel contract, after talking it over that night with wife, I signed the contract offering cash, full asking price and no contingencies. That comes to my next tip... if the price is right, dont haggle. If I would have offered just $1,000 less or included any contingencies, I would not be writting this.
As it turned out, with just being on the market a few days, the agent had in his hand three signed contracts for his client. All very similar or the same. One thing that I believe helped me, other than not haggling, is that I met the owner the day I looked at property.
The seller was a very nice old farmer who lived just a mile from property. I was polite, told him how much I loved the place, talked about family and my dream of owning land. We also talked about the easment. He had tried for years to get the signatures needed to sell but had finally gave up and hoped that by asking half what property was worth, someone would buy even with risk of no legal access.
I got from him the names and last known addresses of the people that needed to sign.
Back to the contract, I knew that the agent and owner were having a meeting discussing the three offers but I didnt know what the other offers were. When I got the call from the agent saying the seller accepted my offer, I was such a great relief! But I knew then that I had only 30 days to get those signatures or I would have to back out of the deal.
We tracked down two of the people by facebook (no one had tried that before) the lawyers had mailed letters and the seller even drove to their addresses but no one had ever been able to get these people to sit down and talk about the easment. In our facebook message, we introduced ourself and explained what we needed.
The three people that we needed to sign was an elderly woman in Greene county and her two kids in Atlanta.
Our original facebook message got no reply. I then tract down the aunt/sister of the three and had a phone conversation with her. Luckily, as it turned out, She wanted to sell the land and and she agreed to talk to her sister, niece and nephew, and ask them to sign the papers. Long story just a little shorter, after 29 days, many phone calls, messages, pleas and bribe attempts, one day before due diligence ran out, we had in our lawyers hand, the papers needed to get legal entry onto property!
Thats my next tip- It may take some hard work on your part to get the deal done, but its worth it in the end!
We closed on May 5th and have since put in a few food plots, hung several stands, set up our deer camp and have really enjoyed our land. Since the county tax value was so much more than what I paid, I was able to re-finance the land for near 100%. So basically I bought the place for just a few thousand dollars down and my monthly payment is $571 for 120 months.
With the home equity money back in bank, I am now working on buying another 31 acres from the family that I tract down about the signatures. That would end up giving me 109 acres.
I hope, by sharing my story, it helps someone who like me, has a dream of owning land but may think its not possible. Im here to say, dont give up hope! If I can do it so can you!
I also don't have much time to be driving all over the state putting boots on the ground which I think is essential to the process.
