Buying Land
Land is land, but what you need it for is most important. There is land to build a beautiful home, and there is land for hunting, there is land for farming, or even to build a store to sell your goods! It all just depends on what you are searching for! Each piece of land will very in acreage and terrain, those are just a few things that land is all about! Here are 7 essential steps that you should know.
1
Get a Pre-Approval
Similar to buying a home, a lender will look at your debt to income ratio, your credit score, your employment history, as well as what you will be putting down to secure a land loan, usually you will have to find a lender that deals with this type of loan. Typically it will be 20% down minimum of the purchase price. If you are paying full price for the piece of land with cold hard cash then there will be no need for any money lending.
2
Search for the Land
Your agent will now set you up with an MLS search in the area you are looking for land, with them you can talk about how much land, what features you are looking for. Like with any search the criteria can be filtered down to the littlest of things, but be warned, then the system will only give out properties that match that description, so it could be limiting. Also, there will be land that will be for sale by owner, meaning it wont be on any online system, those people will have to be reached out to by yourself or your agent.
Note: Make sure your agent informs you about restrictive covenants, as these are rules that would need to be followed if you do own land close to certain subdivisions and in certain towns, counties, and municipalities.
3
Touring the Land
This is your chance to survey the land for yourself, you can set up a time with your agent, or if its a for sale buy owner, directly with the owner. Spend as little or as much time with your end goal in mind with the land and keep in mind the location and everything the eye can see.
4
Making an Offer
Similar to homes, of you fall in love with the piece of land and decide that it is perfect for what you would like, then it is time to make an offer. Your offer along with the pre-approval letter, or a letter of your funds, will then be presented to the seller and they will decide if they will accept it. Some contingencies you can include in your offer for vacant land is a survey to have a certified surveyor out there to determine the exact area you will be buying, or even a well drilling company to determine if you can even drill for a well, etc.
5
Negotiations
In this part of the process, you can begin to negotiate or not negotiate at all depending on the contingencies and terms of the offer. Your agent can use addendum and amendments to change certain terms of the offer if all parties agree on the changes. If nothing changes typically in this stage of the game it is all about waiting.
6
Closing and Owning
Unlike a home, you wont be getting any keys. Instead you will transfer the title to your name just like any other property. Now it is yours to enjoy, hold on to, develop, and more. That is right after, the title company does there title search and makes sure the chain of title is free of any clouds, liens, or encumbrances. Once that is set, you are now the new proud owner of your land.