Land Purchase Question

[ChrisB]

My father-in-law and his sister inherited a farm from their dad when he died. His sister would like to sell but FIL wants to keep it in the family; so my wife and I are buying the sisters half on a contract for deed.

We have a contract written up and are ready to sign with a Notary Public. In the interest of saving money neither party really wants to get an attorney involved but I am unsure of what other stuff needs to be done. Does anyone have some tips on what we need to do with the county, state? Or should we bit the bullet and get an attorney to walk us through the process?

 

[TexasBred]

My father-in-law and his sister inherited a farm from their dad when he died. His sister would like to sell but FIL wants to keep it in the family; so my wife and I are buying the sisters half on a contract for deed.

We have a contract written up and are ready to sign with a Notary Public. In the interest of saving money neither party really wants to get an attorney involved but I am unsure of what other stuff needs to be done. Does anyone have some tips on what we need to do with the county, state? Or should we bit the bullet and get an attorney to walk us through the process?

Has the land actually been divided between the two heirs or are you buying an undivided interest in the entire place??

 

[skyhightree1]

My comment is this bite the bullet get an attorney. Get a survey or if theres a recent one you are good. Are you buying the sisters half ? Is there her part ? his part but a combined mutual ownership? Does your wife have other siblings ? If so it can get messy there. If something happens to FIL and there's other siblings is there a clause to buy the whole thing in a certain amount of time ? ETC... theres many things you may not have ironed out that could cause issues in the future better get someone that deals with it daily to point those things out.

 

[tater74]

Spend a little now or a lot later. There are a lot of things that need to be decided while everyone is still friendly.

 

[cross_7]

I'd get an attorney to be sure everything is legal
As mentioned a survey is a good idea as well

I recently bought a place without a survey and when I sold it the buyers lender required a survey
Turns out I bought 3 acres that wasn't there
Lesson learned there

 

[ChrisB]

My father-in-law and his sister inherited a farm from their dad when he died. His sister would like to sell but FIL wants to keep it in the family; so my wife and I are buying the sisters half on a contract for deed.

We have a contract written up and are ready to sign with a Notary Public. In the interest of saving money neither party really wants to get an attorney involved but I am unsure of what other stuff needs to be done. Does anyone have some tips on what we need to do with the county, state? Or should we bit the bullet and get an attorney to walk us through the process?

Has the land actually been divided between the two heirs or are you buying an undivided interest in the entire place??

The land is not divided up. It is what I think is considered a Tenancy-In-Common. Both parties share equal ownership of the entire property.

 

[Rafter S]

Get a lawyer.

 

[TN Cattle Man]

Get a lawyer.

+1!!!

 

[Jogeephus]

Its not hard to do if you've done it before. Be sure the title is clear, have it notarized and witnessed by someone then be sure it is recorded at the courthouse and from there the county and others take it from there.

If you have an attorney you could get them to just draw up the documents and not close it for you. This is cheaper because it doesn't require their time. Mine charges me about $300 for a title search and the documents and I do the rest. Courthouse charges about $15 to record the document then its done.

 

[Brute 23]

My father-in-law and his sister inherited a farm from their dad when he died. His sister would like to sell but FIL wants to keep it in the family; so my wife and I are buying the sisters half on a contract for deed.

We have a contract written up and are ready to sign with a Notary Public. In the interest of saving money neither party really wants to get an attorney involved but I am unsure of what other stuff needs to be done. Does anyone have some tips on what we need to do with the county, state? Or should we bit the bullet and get an attorney to walk us through the process?

Absolutely YES! :nod:

Don't let them talk you in to a big process. That is an easy deal that can be done for a couple hundred dollars. Title search is worth every penny also... survey is up to yall.

A good attorney is worth every penny. If at any point you feel like you are getting a sales pitch or the person is not doing what you ask..... WALK OUT.

 

[greybeard]

When you say "my wife and I are buying the sisters half " does this woman (your wife's aunt I presume) have a currently recorded deed to her half--and is her "half" an actual surveyed out parcel or is it just a result of a will from her dad that stated something like "she gets 1/2 and her brother gets the other 1/2" without delineating property lines??

If she currently has full deed and clear recorded title to her part, SHE needs to get an attorney to draw up the contract for her sale of the property to you. You, if she did not recently do so, need to have it surveyed!! You also need an attorney, to ensure that you get an easment--don't end up landlocked or father-in-law end up landlocked if one half does not have an entrance/exit to public road. You can both use the same attorney, but he has to represent both sides equally.

My sister inherited some property a few years back. 41.4 acres. She wanted to sell it, so my brother and I decided to buy it. She had applied for and recieved full deed and title to the property--said deed was recorded at the county clerk's office.
1st. Brother and I decided how we were going to split the property, which had recently been surveyed in entirety but not in division. We walked it, and decided where the new property lines would be, and drove stakes.

2nd We then had it surveyed for division between he and I. We didn't split it 50/50--I wanted what turned out to survey only 17.4 acres, he wanted the other parcel which surveyed 24 acres.

3rd. Now that my sister knew who was buying exactly how much acreage, she had her attorney draw up the contracts, spelling out the acreage, including a copy of the metes and bounds, referencing that she was keeping mineral rights, and contract stated the selling price. My attorney looked it over, said my brother would need an easement on the contract and in the survey. Had the survey re-done to include access-egress easement. His attorney looked the new contract over said it was good, mine concurred and we paid sister. Took our copies of the signed notarized contracts: "________ did appear before me today with payment in the amount of $XXXXX.XX blah blah blah..for property blah blah blah..." down to the county courthouse to the clerk and filed for deed.

 

[TexasBred]

The land is not divided up. It is what I think is considered a Tenancy-In-Common. Both parties share equal ownership of the entire property.

That's what we refer to as an undivided interest. Don't do it!!!!! YOu have no idea where your interest is. Have it surveyed and divided into two tracts agreeable to both parties involved and have attorney do the proper paperwork to show proper ownership. Why would you want to do it on a contract for deed?? Sign, a note, a deed of trust that can be recorded and make your payments on a piece of property that is your's subject to the debt.

 

[backhoeboogie]

It really hurts to say this, but, Texas Bred is right. Divide it. Survey will cost a few nickels. Think we paid $4500 for a 6 way split of property surveyed out. Lawyer around $220.

 

[John SD]

What I have found is that a good lawyer is both necessary and expensive. The reason it costs so much is you are paying the going price to get the job done right.

In my own personal experience dealing pirvate treaty with neighbors, I have found the legal and title costs to be pretty much identical whether selling 160 acres or 2000

 

[Jogeephus]

The land is not divided up. It is what I think is considered a Tenancy-In-Common. Both parties share equal ownership of the entire property.

That's what we refer to as an undivided interest. Don't do it!!!!! YOu have no idea where your interest is. Have it surveyed and divided into two tracts agreeable to both parties involved and have attorney do the proper paperwork to show proper ownership. Why would you want to do it on a contract for deed?? Sign, a note, a deed of trust that can be recorded and make your payments on a piece of property that is your's subject to the debt.

If this was only YOU and you were buying half of your family's land, I would disagree with TexasBred but since this is your FIL and what could be your EX-Wife I agree 100% and you better nail it down or you could be screwed royally.

 

[bigbull338]

I'd get an attorney to be sure everything is legal
As mentioned a survey is a good idea as well

I recently bought a place without a survey and when I sold it the buyers lender required a survey
Turns out I bought 3 acres that wasn't there
Lesson learned there

cross 7 did you buy the land according to what the deed said.all the land we ever bought was done so with the deed saying more or less.we also bought 50% mineral rights.and get the other 50% mineral rights in 50yrs or when said heirs dies.we bought 1 place according to the deed and it was 3acs short.but we paid for those 3acs anyway.

 

[HDRider]

I did not read all the comments. Most are saying get a lawyer. I'd say to not share ownership with another person. One might want to sell and the other does not. You are stuck...

 

[John SD]

If this was only YOU and you were buying half of your family's land, I would disagree with TexasBred but since this is your FIL and what could be your EX-Wife I agree 100% and you better nail it down or you could be screwed royally.

Good point. Not a pleasant subject, but I've seen too many bad things happen that I would have never dreamed possible.

EX-wifes do not only happen in ranching. Young man who owns a small town auto parts/repair business is currently paying the price. I'm sure it's almost like ranching, and the same maybe worse than when he started from scratch

I throw a lot of my business his way and will continue to do so. He is good at what he does, and he is gonna have to keep hard at it to recover financially.

 

[Brute 23]

I'd get an attorney to be sure everything is legal
As mentioned a survey is a good idea as well

I recently bought a place without a survey and when I sold it the buyers lender required a survey
Turns out I bought 3 acres that wasn't there
Lesson learned there

cross 7 did you buy the land according to what the deed said.all the land we ever bought was done so with the deed saying more or less.we also bought 50% mineral rights.and get the other 50% mineral rights in 50yrs or when said heirs dies.we bought 1 place according to the deed and it was 3acs short.but we paid for those 3acs anyway.

Yup. Happens all the time. We have a property on a creek and originally the property line was down the middle of the creek. My grandfather purchased all the bank from the land owner across the creek so the could put a fence up on good ground. Now that property has been tracked up. Every time one sells the people try to access the creek. They even advertise the creek as a selling point.

 

[Jogeephus]

Once helped a guy with a land purchase and the owner had set a price based on the deeded acres but his bank wanted him to survey it. He talked to the seller and they were not interested in sharing the cost of the surveyor. We surveyed it and found more acres than the deed called for and I told him to keep it to himself since this was only for the bank and had nothing to do with the land sale since the seller was adamant about selling on deeded acres. He chose to tell the seller and the seller promptly upped the price accordingly and the land cost him an additional $20,000. Never understood why someone will ask for your help then not listen to you.