Tiger By The Tail...What To Do With This Deal?
Hi All:
I'm leaning a great deal here, thanks.
I have an opportunity to buy a farm from a family friend with owner financing in place He is old and wants to move it quickly.
The farm has a small lake, woods, waterfall and rolling hills and is located 25 miles from the nearest shopping center.
Part of the farm has been divided into building lots, is perked and has electrical service.
In other words, it's a perfect place to build a country home .
So here's my dilemma. I am not a builder, nor do I aspire to be. However, I see the value in the lots, but am afraid the isolated area may deter buyers from purchasing there.
I know this a marketing call, but what would you players do? Buy and hold?
Option for little down and run a test market on the building sites? (I like this idea... It will cost very little but I still control the land in case I find buyers.)
Thanks for any advice.
JQ
something similar happened to us in NJ. We bought a farm of 5 acres, and we were able to work with the township and subdivide the lots. We just held on to them, but we moved into the house ourselves. Now, shopping centers, schools and new housing is going up.
The value of the property has gone up. So what's the problem? I naively thought we were going to be able to sell the lots to a developer. We don't have enough lots to make it worth their while and we don't have the capital to develop them ourselves. We're still looking at our options.
Just make sure that when you want to sell, that it will be feasible.
Theresa <IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_smile.gif"> [ Edited by fiafa on Date 12/10/2003 ]
Try to tie up the property while you due some due diligence. Start with a local civil engineering firm and set up a meeting to review options. This initial meeting should be free and can be set up in a matter of days.
[addsig]
my .02...If you can break even on the property each month with no down, then it could pay off some day. If you have to lose money each month, and hope the value goes up, you could find it to be a headache. If it starts to burden you, or annoy you, you may be willing to dump at any price.. With monthly payment info, and monthly income info, you can get more educated answers to your question.