What's the easiest way to buy land?

[thatdoggJake]

What's the easiest way to buy land in Texas? The best way to get it done right and pay as little as possible to someone else via from the buyer or seller.

 

[Caustic Burno]

Cash is the easiest. :lol2:

In east Texas buying land and harvesting the timber.

 

[jerry27150]

be nice if you had a rich uncle die & leave it to you, some claim land contracts work for them. others get bank loans or gov. loans with low interest. some make deals with previous owners to pay them some as they can & transition the farm over in time. some older farmers want their land to stay in farming

 

[Jogeephus]

I think patience is the key. Letting it be known that you are interesting in buying land and the potential seller knowing your character and how you manage other property will go a long way in getting you in on the inside track. Many people don't want to see their family farm busted up in house lots nor do they want to see you turn around a quick sale it for a profit since this makes them look bad. Like CB said, buying land with standing timber is also a good way. Sticker shock will scare many off but you have to look past this and look at what you are actually paying for the dirt. Oh, it also helps if you can recognize a good deal when you see it and not dally when you find it. One other thing, if you find a good deal you better be sure you have the cash or an honest banker and an honest attorney or you may find either of the latter owning your prospect - or the attorney's best friend. (Just a personal observation)

 

[Brute 23]

Just like any thing else... pay cash, don't get emotional or in a hurry, and do your research.

 

[SRBeef]

A lot depends on if you know and are know in the area of interest.

I would start by letting every real estate agent in the area know you are interested. They often know about land coming up for sale before it gets put on the market. This is not the cheapest method but may be the easiest as asked and also less fraught with other problems. As an outsider figure you will have to pay top dollar anyway. jmho. Good luck. Jim

 

[thatdoggJake]

Thanks. All good coments and points. As soon as I read my post I realized the best answer was cash. I let it be though and wanted to see how many post it took before someone mentioned cash. Lol it took only one post. So.... Let's go into this a little futher... Let's say you already had a place in mind and you knew (or at least think you know, lol) they would take X an acre. What would you do from there? Would you seek a real estate lawyer, a real estate agent, or could it be as simple to bring some papers over (that possibly you could find somewhere; such as the Internet) along with a check and do it person to person? Keeping in mind that you don't want many other people in your business? Thanks for the help

 

[cross_7]

Thanks. All good coments and points. As soon as I read my post I realized the best answer was cash. I let it be though and wanted to see how many post it took before someone mentioned cash. Lol it took only one post. So.... Let's go into this a little futher... Let's say you already had a place in mind and you knew (or at least think you know, lol) they would take X an acre. What would you do from there? Would you seek a real estate lawyer, a real estate agent, or could it be as simple to bring some papers over (that possibly you could find somewhere; such as the Internet) along with a check and do it person to person? Keeping in mind that you don't want many other people in your business? Thanks for the help

first i would want title insurance for sure
second i would want a lawyer involved to protect me from my own good nature/ignorance

 

[Brute 23]

Lawyer and title insurance. Also I would not buy any land with out atleast 25% minerals and/ or executive rights because you will be at the mercy of the mineral owner with little to nothing to show for it. There are all kind of deals that can be made where it switches over after 10, 15, 20 years which alot of older people like because it covers their lifetime.

 

[Jogeephus]

Let's say you already had a place in mind and you knew (or at least think you know, lol) they would take X an acre. What would you do from there?

First thing I'd do is go to the court house and quietly do a title search myself. If there wasn't something terribly wrong with the title I'd feel them out and if we could reach and agreement on the price I give them some earnest money and have them sign a binder. Then, I'd hire an attorney to do a proper title opinion which would be insured and have him draw up the final papers.

 

[dun]

I've bought land like this a couple of times. We have a close friend that is a very experienced (and honest) broker. I have her right up the offer to make sure all of the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. The deal goes through just like a normal sale except there isn;t any commision. There are fees but usually we split them 50:50.
Oh yeah, make sure you either have the cash or the financing all lined up before hand

 

[Brute 23]

Not sure what state you are in but most likely you can print a contract off the e-net. I believe Texas has them at the TREC website.

I would pay for title insurance. Its just like it says, insurance. If you do it yourself and mess up it could be very costly.

 

[TexasBred]

Unless you have a lot of experience with land contracts and are very familar with the real estate market in the area you need to hire an attorney to represent YOU not only in the negotiations but in completing the final real estate sales contract. There are a lot of I's to dot and T's to cross that 99% of we folks may not be aware of. Put up an earnest money deposit and let the attorney handle it from there. He's working for you. He'll get it right. The seller may also have an attorney representing him so the two will work together to bring this transaction to closing. As for going to the title company unless you know what you're looking for and what you've found once you do see something it's a total waste of your time. That's the title company's job and they'll do all that when before they issue title insurance.

As for "cash". That always sounds good but at $4000 to $6000 an acre you're not going to get a lot of land for cash unless you're already independendly wealthy and if you've managed to get to that point you probably already know that you need to hire an expert to do all this work for you mentioned above. Long term financing is usually the route most people take and then IF the opportunity comes up you can pay additional on the principal or maybe even pay it off in full much earlier than the maturity date of the note. It can be very advantageous to use third party financing in many instances especially if paying cash is going to wipe out most of your cash reserves and leave nothing for improvements, cattle purchases and other expenses once you own the real estate.

 

[marksmu]

Lawyer and title insurance. Also I would not buy any land with out atleast 25% minerals and/ or executive rights because you will be at the mercy of the mineral owner with little to nothing to show for it. There are all kind of deals that can be made where it switches over after 10, 15, 20 years which alot of older people like because it covers their lifetime.

As someone who has been searching out land in my area for 3+ years non stop, I can say its almost impossible to get minerals these days. Most places just dont even offer them. Half the sellers dont even own them. I will say that they are almost always happy to give up the executive rights if they have them though, especially on a partial sale of a large tract. Several years back we bought 768 acres, all with known reserves...seller was selling 1000 acres, but would not sell minerals. We ended up with 768 and the executive right on all of our portion. Now if they want to produce, they have to do it on his 232ac portion.

If you can get minerals pounce on it...We get good money just for exploration contracts that take 1 week or less. Also be aware of pipelines....we have made an absolute killing on pipelines. We had 3 already on our property, and 3 more are coming through in the next couple years....they pay a huge sum of money to lay them across your property. We received an absolutely disproportionately huge sum of money for the pipelines. With the geologic survey, and the 3 pipelines, the property is owned free and clear with profit....it was an unexpected thing, but it has been incredible.

 

[TexasBred]

Lawyer and title insurance. Also I would not buy any land with out atleast 25% minerals and/ or executive rights because you will be at the mercy of the mineral owner with little to nothing to show for it. There are all kind of deals that can be made where it switches over after 10, 15, 20 years which alot of older people like because it covers their lifetime.

As someone who has been searching out land in my area for 3+ years non stop, I can say its almost impossible to get minerals these days. Most places just dont even offer them. Half the sellers dont even own them. I will say that they are almost always happy to give up the executive rights if they have them though, especially on a partial sale of a large tract. Several years back we bought 768 acres, all with known reserves...seller was selling 1000 acres, but would not sell minerals. We ended up with 768 and the executive right on all of our portion. Now if they want to produce, they have to do it on his 232ac portion.

If you can get minerals pounce on it...We get good money just for exploration contracts that take 1 week or less. Also be aware of pipelines....we have made an absolute killing on pipelines. We had 3 already on our property, and 3 more are coming through in the next couple years....they pay a huge sum of money to lay them across your property. We received an absolutely disproportionately huge sum of money for the pipelines. With the geologic survey, and the 3 pipelines, the property is owned free and clear with profit....it was an unexpected thing, but it has been incredible.

Mark that's all well and good but the exception rather than the rule. My father in law has done the same thing with the pipelines and has the minerals and producing wells. Sounds like you had some good folks to work with since they have the right of emminent domain and ordinarily don't pay huge amounts. Typical around here is around $30 a running foot.

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Go to your county Title Office and have them draw up legal papers along with ordering Title Insurance. Title Office will have (probably) a local Attorney available. Also, no way I'd buy any real estate without having a current legal survey of the property.

Do it right... Don't want something to come back and bit you in the butt later...

 

[Jogeephus]

Go to your county Title Office and have them draw up legal papers along with ordering Title Insurance. Title Office will have (probably) a local Attorney available. Also, no way I'd buy any real estate without having a current legal survey of the property.

Do it right... Don't want something to come back and bit you in the butt later...

Yeah, you could really be in for some heart break if it doesn't have a clear title. I recently bought some property that had 3 liens on it but I didn't know what the outstanding balances were until my attorney was putting together the release forms from the lien holders. Imagine my surprise when the purchase price would only pay off two of the lien holders and the third was still short about $30,000. I thought the deal was blown but the fella I was buying it from put up some more clean property for collateral which pacified the 3rd mortage and we were able to close. (just another problem with those easy credit rules)

As for surveying the land, I'll split this with the seller if my own survey shows the deeds are short. Otherwise I don't press the issue and use the deed description.

 

[MF135]

Unless you have a lot of experience with land contracts and are very familar with the real estate market in the area you need to hire an attorney to represent YOU not only in the negotiations but in completing the final real estate sales contract. There are a lot of I's to dot and T's to cross that 99% of we folks may not be aware of. Put up an earnest money deposit and let the attorney handle it from there. He's working for you. He'll get it right. The seller may also have an attorney representing him so the two will work together to bring this transaction to closing. As for going to the title company unless you know what you're looking for and what you've found once you do see something it's a total waste of your time. That's the title company's job and they'll do all that when before they issue title insurance.

As for "cash". That always sounds good but at $4000 to $6000 an acre you're not going to get a lot of land for cash unless you're already independendly wealthy and if you've managed to get to that point you probably already know that you need to hire an expert to do all this work for you mentioned above. Long term financing is usually the route most people take and then IF the opportunity comes up you can pay additional on the principal or maybe even pay it off in full much earlier than the maturity date of the note. It can be very advantageous to use third party financing in many instances especially if paying cash is going to wipe out most of your cash reserves and leave nothing for improvements, cattle purchases and other expenses once you own the real estate.

By far the most accurate advice :clap:

 

[bigbull338]

as said let it be known to the real estate people that youd like to buy a farm.then estb the max price pre ac your willing to pay.then get your loan lined up an wait.we bought 320 acres just by family calling us an saying they was ready to sell.an that they knew we wanted to buy it.we had 1 place slidd out from under us that we was gonna buy.

 

[TJAdix]

Hello, We are trying to re-locate to south-central Oklahoma from central Kansas. This web posting has been very benifical to read on the minerals etc. I'm looking at financing now on an Oklahoma ranch. Cash would be nice however, not happening. lol. Didn't get that rich relative in my family. So, I'm got most of my business plan completed and delivering it by next week. I've been told to go with the life companies for major financing and the gov will back at 90% up to 1.2 mil. Has anyone done this out there? Also, these outfitters seem to bring the price per acre up and trying to get my current ranch operation expanded has been a chore. I'm venting but hopefully someone has some good advice for me!