Six People You Should Have on Your Team Before Submitting an Offer

1. Local lawyer.
Every buyer should talk with and retain a local lawyer before buying country property. This individual can provide invaluable knowledge and advice. An out-of-town buyer may want to have his local lawyer negotiate with the local seller. Talk with your lawyer about possible legal issues that might arise with particular properties.

2. CPA.
A CPA can help you figure out the seller’s numbers—his basis, equity, remaining debt, appreciation and after-tax income from your offer. He can help you determine what the property is worth and whether it’s priced fairly in terms of itself and the current market. He can help you set up your purchase in the most tax-advantaged way. If you’re buying a working farm, he can help you analyze the seller’s financial information. Read more »

Why do men buy country property?

Many good reasons exist for men to buy country property—investment appreciation, family bonding and environmental stewardship.

Among motives not adequately researched by academics and real-estate organizations are the T factor and the S factor.

Tree house and sandbox.

I’m now about to step into the minefields of evolutionary biology and gender. Parental guidance is too late for me.

The typical suburban house meets none of our early evolutionary needs. It does not camouflage our whereabouts at night. It does not grow breakfast without effort on our part. It does not raise us above our own garbage. It does not provide protection against airwave predators who roost in our brains like Billy Mays. Read more »

Property sellers can help themselves: Think outside the hole

Many sellers are stuck. They want to sell, but can’t because buyers are stuck too.

Why is everyone stuck? Fear and money.

Sellers are afraid to sell at prices lower than a year ago, and buyers are afraid to buy until the market bottoms out.

Sellers and buyers are afraid to lose money; lenders are afraid to lend it.

Everyone is scared of the future.

Might it be said that the main thing we have to fear is…ourselves.

Doing the same will not solve this mess. Doing different — lenders lending, sellers selling, buyers buying — will. Read more »

13 Documents You Should Have Before Buying Country Property

1. Copy of the seller’s deed with the boundary description.
This description may be found in an earlier deed, which is referenced in the seller’s. The deed may include the price the seller paid for the property, or tax notations, such as deed stamps, that would allow you to calculate the price.

2. Topographic map with boundary lines drawn on it, taken from seller’s deed description.
Use this map to locate boundaries on the ground and find your way around unfamiliar terrain. If a recorded survey is available, make a copy for your files.

3. Recorded documents, in addition to seller’s deed.
These would include easements the seller holds, easements that others hold that impact the seller’s property (such as right of way held by a neighbor that crosses seller’s land), sale or lease of minerals, utility easements, mortgage note, liens, estates, reservations of interests, releases, survey and so on. Water contracts and leases should be recorded. If the seller’s property is burdened with a conservation easement, make sure that you read and understand its restrictions, with which you will have to comply. All recorded documents should be found in the county courthouse where deeds are recorded. Permits and licenses are not recorded documents. But both are publicly available. If the seller’s property uses a septic system and a well, obtain the relevant documents/permits from the local sanitarian or health department. Read more »

Stocks vs. land: Which is the better investment?

Many more Americans own corporate stock than rural land. Why do we invest in stock, which is risky, rather than land, which is not?

Based on a statistically valid opinion survey that I conducted with the reflection on my computer screen, I offer six reasons.

First, stocks are easy to buy and sell. Second, they’re easy to follow up and down. Third, each company provides information, the quality of which, it may be said, varies.

Fourth, the numbers and ratios associated with companies and stock lend a certainty to forecasts that gives investors confidence in their crystal balls. Quantitative analysis can always be confirmed by the guy on the next barstool who says he plays the market. Fifth, much investing wisdom is free for the listening, such as Buy and Hold. All such wisdom is true, except when it isn’t. Finally, some ordinary people occasionally win, just like in Vegas. Read more »