In our seemingly eternal search for "our place"we spent a few days in Tn in the Tri-cities area.After a few non-starts with the realtor on our way home we decided to take a look at a few properties by ourselves.

While looking at one such property we got to talking to some locals and one of them gave us a lead on a tract next to the one listed.Long story short it is 108+- acres,was a farm in the 60's,has trails throughout and covers two hills.No buildings,no septic,has a spring and power is available.The four brothers were asking $2000 acre but have had no takers.

We are able to pay up to at the MOST $75000.They may be willing to either 1: select cut to bring the price down considerably 2: divide up the land to smaller parcels

What do you think is the least the land is worth? Which of the two options would you choose? Why?

Most of the land if we bought it would be left as a buffer against "civilisation".We would build a house and have a small homestead in the woods away from it all.

Thanks for your help.Jon and Ruthie

-- Jon Hanson (warpaint@islc.net), February 25, 2002

Answers

Whats its worth is what your willing to pay for it. To many variables to know what land is worth.

Make an offer what you think is a fair value. They answer can only be yes or no.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), February 25, 2002.

I don't live far from the tri-cities area. I don't know a lot about real estate but I do know that most land around there sells for more than $2k an acre unless there is something wrong with it. You can ck. and see what other parcels in the area sold for at the court house. Be sure to check every angle about the land and have title searched and have it surveyed.

-- Emil in TN (eprisco@usit.net), February 25, 2002.

To get an idea of the 'per acre' value, talk to some of the Realtors there. You said you had a few "non-starts" with them. At least they ought to be able to help you with that by looking at other properties. DO NOT, however, tell them about the particular property in which you are interested because they could then go get a listing on it and cause you to pay more. Good luck. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), February 26, 2002.

Definitely ask around and try to get a feel for what land is worth per acre in the area you are looking. Also keep in mind that land is worth more per acre in smaller tracts (less than 10 acres for example) than in larger ones, because more people want smaller pieces of land than larger.

We just purchased 40 acres in January. When we were looking at it, it was being offered in three pieces, two that were about 4.5 acres, and one that was 32 acres. The asking price on the two smaller pieces worked out to about 8000 an acre, which is unfortunately the going rate in my area (mid-MI), but the price on the bigger one was only 4000 per acre. We wanted the larger piece, but were concerned about what problems our future neighbors on the smaller pieces might pose to our plan of homesteading (complaints about livestock, etc). So, even though we never planned on buying so much land, we made an offer on the entire 40 acres (all three pieces), offering about 50k less than the combined asking prices of all three parcels, but that was the absolute maximum amount of money we could spend and still afford to build a house. We made it known that we were open to negotiating the amount of land, but could not go up in price even a penny. To our surprise, the seller accepted our offer because she really needed the money, and there had been no other offers. So we ended up with all 40 acres, and don't have to worry about neighbors being so close now.

This may or may not work out in the same way for you, but it's something to consider.

-- Kris in MI (ckarmom@ivillage.com), March 01, 2002.

look over land and if it is ok[no problems] and what you are interested in, go to them and make a offer. a offer can be anything as long as it is agreeable between the two parties. you could buy half and mortage the balance. don't forget taxes, lawyer, deed and other fees that you must pay. could make them part of the deal. lexi

-- Lexi Green (whitestone11@hotmail.com), March 01, 2002.