When do you know when to use a real estate agent?

We originally started looking for land back in the May/June time frame in 2010.  We had asked one real estate agent about a couple pieces of properties and I don't think she took us seriously.  The one time we finally DID meet up with her, she stayed for maybe 5 minutes to show us the land then drove off.

We were lucky to find another real estate agent that was WAY more into helping us find the piece of property for us.  She came and spent time with us on two occasions at two different properties and was just amazing.  In fact, I was really attached to her.

With us buying land in a private sale, we didn't need her- and in fact, the seller didn't want to use any real estate agents whatsoever.  It made me feel really bad about buying it without her guidance, even though the land we bought was from a family friend and she had no hand in helping us find it.  I mean, I know she's in it for the money and such, but she has such a great personality and everything that it was hard to do all this without her.  She also tried to help us so much to find something that would fit us.

She sent me a message over the weekend to see how we were doing and that sparked my uh-oh we haven't told her yet reaction.  I had to ask Mike how I should handle it.  I feel bad telling her because we did it without her and she's been so great helping us- but at the same time, it's not fair to just ignore it and not say anything and keep her thinking that we are still looking and such.

All in all, I feel bad and I hope she doesn't think poorly of us.  Again, I know she's in it for the money- but she really was great and I'd recommend her to anyone and everyone looking to buy or sell in the area! :)

Learning along the way...

Light Shopping Anyone?!

You know, I never knew that there were SO many options for lighting for a house.  Well, ok I did, but I never thought that the decision would be so hard.  Mike and I went to Home Depot on Saturday to look at the different lighting options and get some ideas for our house.

If you don't know already, our design for our house includes cathedral ceilings in the kitchen/dining area.  So Mike wants to put a sun tunnel in the kitchen area to allow for more light (because lets face it, most kitchens have one window above the sink and that simply doesn't have enough light coming through! :) ).  So with the sun tunnel we are also going to put in 5" eyeball trim lights up in the ceiling.  They'll be flush with the ceiling but be able to move around and such so that we can direct the light appropriately.

One of the things we wanted was a big ceiling fan to cover both rooms.  I figured we'd need two because of the amount of space we are to cover with the fans.  Well, we found one that is 68" across... it's the BIGGEST fan we've ever seen (http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100630835/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053).  Mike made this decision and it makes a lot of sense for me.  Plus, it helped me decide on lighting for the dining area!


I had found this really neat chandelier at Lowes and I really liked it.(http://www.lowes.com/pd_258947-76219-EJV8113_0__?productId=3295176&Ntt=wheat+light&pl=1&currentURL=/pl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dwheat%2Blight).  I was unsure about how it would look in the house with the ideas we have for the kitchen area.  We really need the lighting to flow with the design of the kitchen since there will be no structure in between to separate out the kitchen and dining areas.  I really liked the Wheat Chandelier when I first saw it because it was so unique and sort of country-ish but I wanted Mike to like it too.  With his decision on the fan, it just makes perfect sense now to go with the light I like.

The problem is- we may not be able to wait to purchase what we want because it may not be available later on.  That's where our awesome gift cards to Home Depot and Lowe's come in.  We can basically take 50% off of the lighting fixtures that we want to purchase by using our gift cards!  So Mike and I will hopefully be able to go on Thursday to Lowe's and Home Depot and pick up the fan and chandelier that we want.  As for the other lights, we have no doubt those will still be around in a few months when we begin the building process.

It gets me excited to start this process- and the more we can pay out of our pockets now, the less we will pay in the mortgage in the end.  The gift cards that we got from our parents this Christmas is going to help us a lot (thank you again to Mike's Mom and Dad and my Mom and Dad!  Best Presents EVER!).  The only thing is, we can get the lights and put them into a storage area- but then we can't even hang them and look at their prettiness! LOL!  Oh well, all things in good time right?!


Like our Love, it comes one step at a time.

First Payment Down, a Small Setback, but a lot of Good!

First payment down, and we're already starting to plan the next steps. With the Holidays out of the way, you would think the next steps would be easy to figure out. Maybe not as easy as we thought- but again, I think if Mike and I can make it through this, we can make it through anything.

I called the town for more information on what we need for a driveway permit. We know that we will likely need a culvert and potentially some special permit because we have to cross a small section of wetlands- which I have no problem with. Here's the problem. When I called and talked to the selectman's assistant (which was very nice by the way) he informed me that the road agent that would be approving the driveway will likely not be able to take a look at it until May, when there is no snow and he can view the land more clearly since they know there is some designated wetlands at the beginning parts of the driveway.

It's kind of discouraging because we were hoping to get the driveway underway by March- or even earlier than that. Actually, we really wanted it done ASAP so we can get back in there with some equipment and start clearing the lot. We want to get the trees out of the way too and do the landscaping that we want to do so we can properly set up the house how we want it.

This just pushes the beginning stages back. Mike still thinks that as long as we start near the beginning of May, we can probably be in it by the end of August or sometime in September. I'm glad he's so enthusiastic and supportive about all of this- because let's face it, I'm no expert and have NO idea how long most of this stuff will take- but we will be doing it at nights after work and on the weekends (goodbye social life for a half a year or so!). In reality, it's totally worth the blood and sweat we will shed in the process.

My not so fun feeling is that this is going to be more headache-y throughout the process than we are bargaining for. I guess that's all in building a house anyways. Going through the beginning paperwork for the driveway and building permits alone requires some extensive work. At least we know where we want to put the house, what kind of house we want to build, and where we want to put the driveway. There are other parts that we have to unmask, like a plot plan including where we will be putting the septic- which by the way must be designed by a designer and then approved by the state.

We also have to start looking at going back to the bank and seeing if they will give us a construction loan. Mike seems to think that we won't have a problem with it- and I hope he's right! Again, he's being my steady rock in this process- the light that's keeping me positive. I just see the headlines in the news about what the banks are doing and it makes me nervous. Maybe if they see that we are already undergoing the beginning processes and the fact that we actually own the land- maybe that would change things and give us a far better chance.

In either case, I know everything happens for a reason. Maybe the reason that we can't start till May isn't JUST because of the wetlands area in the front piece, maybe we are in for some serious weather, and this is just a blessing in disguise.

All in all, you just got to have faith in everything that you do. There's a reason for everything and there's a time for everything. I just keep hoping that time is on our side! :)

Officially Land Owners!

So- it’s official!  We own Land!  Just over 8 acres of dirt, rocks, and trees!  Oh ya, and the occasional deer, chipmunk, and squirrel… and probably other creatures of the wood!

It was a little nerve wracking to say the least, but the one thing I can say is: I couldn’t have done it without Mike.  He’s been my security blanket throughout this process- there to reassure me and to make me feel much more at ease.  I was freaking out a little bit when we were just trying to close the first time.  Mind you, our lawyer didn’t see the paperwork until the day before Thanksgiving and then it was right when he was leaving for the holiday.  The closing was supposed to be the following Monday.  We got to push it back about a week and a half because of it.

So- what’s the paperwork you’ll see??

For one- no matter if you are doing a private sale or not- you will see a purchase and sales agreement in the beginning.  This confirms your interest in the property and it always has a check of some amount attached.  When we were looking at a different piece that we really liked, we signed the paperwork and gave a $1,000 good faith deposit.  This ensures that we aren’t just screwing around and that we are truly interested.  Too many people get to that point then back out, making it harder for the seller to sell the property while your interest is there.  The good faith payment is lost if you don’t follow a few steps. 

In our case, the steps were to get financial backing- and it had to be in the form of at least 3 denial letters- to prove that we tried several means.  We had a really hard time securing a personal loan for the first piece (and it must’ve been fate, frankly!).  We were told- we didn’t have enough credit history, that I was at my new job for too little of a time, and we were also told at one point that our debt to income ratio was too high…. ??? Really?  I still crab about this because I could’ve been unemployed for at least a year and still covered all my bills- AND Mike’s.   It’s not like we both owed a butt load of money to anyone and our credit spending is minimal.  We even tried to have Mike’s Dad cosign with us- and we were still told we didn’t have enough credit history- when we inquired about what they meant, we were told it wasn’t the right type of credit.  Apparently, there’s different types of credit now.  All they had to say is that they weren’t loaning and not put the blame on us.  It was ridiculous!

Anyways! I digress!

Since you know that we didn’t do this through the traditional means, I’ll tell you about what we saw as a private sale purchase.

After the Purchase and Sales Agreement, we also had several forms. 

The Real Estate Transfer Tax Form:

This form has information about the seller, buyer, lot, and price that the lot is being sold at.  The State also has a tax rate that it employs when property is bought and sold.  This is usually split between the seller and the buyer.  So- we had to sign off on the tax and on the information that was there- to make sure it was accurate.

Exhibit A

Exhibit A may be called other things as well, but this is usually an explanation of the lot that you are purchasing.  It has quite a bit of terminology that, frankly, I don’t understand or care to.  It seems mumbo jumboish- but always make sure that it’s the correct piece! 

HUD

US Department of Housing and Urban Development.  This is a document with all costs and a breakdown of the costs.  Your final down payment and closing costs are all listed on that.  Our closing costs included things like the Tax from the Transfer Tax Form,  Title Charges (for the title search, which is always done before a piece is bought or sold!), Title Insurance (if you opted for it- and we certainly did- you just can’t be too careful!  You could lose your property if years down the road someone finds out that there was a lien on the property- so spend the $165 or whatever it costs- it’s worth it!), The Deed Recording Fees and Mortgage Recording Fees.  A lot of this information goes to the town and state so that it’s all updated in the records as to who owns the property.  Those are just a few things- we also had lawyer fees of course.

Department of Revenue Administration Inventory of Property Transfer

This document also has seller/buyer information along with more detailed explanation of the property.  It tells what type of property (residential, commercial, etc), if it’s Land Only (which ours is),  what kind of features it has (is it waterfront property?), if there is a structure on the property, etc etc.  It’s just a necessary piece that also gets filed with the state.

Tax Proration

We saw this form, but I have no idea if you will too if you are going through a bank or traditional means!  I’m sure you will see something like it.  The Tax Proration document is a document outlining what taxes has been paid for the current 6 months (because usually tax payments are due every 6 months).  In our case, we had to pay a fraction of this since the seller pre-paid the taxes for the land. 

Title Insurance Offer

The title insurance offer is the form that tells you exactly how much your title insurance will be.  I must say- no matter what- I recommend getting this.  It’s not too expensive and it’s a 1 time fee.  So what, you pay 150-250 bucks or whatever… at least that covers you!  As I explained previously, it’s worth not losing your land or house because of an issue found later down the road.

We also had the following since it was a private sale.  I honestly can’t say that you will EVER see something like this, but I have no doubt that you will see something similar if you are borrowing from a bank… and it’ll probably have a lot more legal mumbo jumbo than ours did!

Mortgage Deed

We had a Mortgage Deed, of course, because it was a private sale.  This sale is also “financed” by the seller.  So we are paying the seller on a monthly basis for the land.  Since we had such a hard time with the banks, we were lucky that this individual opted to do this with us.  Of course it helps that he works for my Dad and Mike’s Dad use to do some construction work for him. 

Promissory Note

As the name implies, this is a note that promises payment to the loan holder (in our case the seller).  It tells how many payments, what the payment is each month, when the payment is due, and the terms to payment, like what happens if you default.

Warranty Deed

This is just a document we received that said that we were purchasing the land from the seller.   It was pretty basic really.

That was all the documents we saw.  If you went through the Traditional Means, I’m sure you would see a lot of the same things I saw plus more.  Banks tend to flood you with paperwork- and sometimes I find it tedious to read all the fine print- but remember this: it’s worth reading because you never know what can injure you!

In the end, we signed all the paperwork- and now the property is officially ours!  After quite a few months of banging our heads on our desks, we finally did it!  I hope this is the hardest part.  Even Mike’s Dad mentioned several times that the economy being the way it is has made it near impossible for us to accomplish such a feat.  Fortunately, we found someone that really wanted to sell his property and was really willing to work with us and finance it for us! 

So- us not getting the other piece was fate.  The piece we just bought is nicer, in a better location, and has more usable land!  The other piece was 12 acres… the one we just bought was 8.  Just enough to not see your neighbors- YAY!

Now comes the fun stuff… like… picking out your kitchen cabinets! Too many choices coming!  I’ll keep you all informed!

Closing Documents and Thoughts

Ok- so we are so close to signing, it’s actually pretty scary!  All these feelings flooding in- excitement, nervousness, sadness, happiness.  It’s all part of it I suppose!

Anyways- so we got all this paperwork to look over before the signing actually takes place- which is tomorrow.  I noticed on one of the pieces that Current Use was underlined (which was in the tax document that I had requested to see before the closing).  I had to question it because we were told that the property was not in current use, plus it was on the paperwork that the seller uses to list the property.  I was quite frankly upset at first because I thought the wool got pulled over my eyes.

Fortunately- I decided to ask the question… to get it clarified- and the Title company told me that it was underlined because it was a question to double check on their end and they did let us know that the land, is in fact, not in current use, which obviously makes me happy because you do have to pay taxes when the transfer occurs to take the land out of current use.  This is usually 10% of what the value of the land is (or what you are buying the land at).  I’m sure that in different states, this is different- but in NH it’s usually 10%.  We simply don’t have that extra at this point since we have literally drained our accounts.  I’m on edge and nervous, but I know and keep getting reassured, that this is the best investment we could possibly make.

They’re right… even if we sit on the land for 5 years and not build at all, we could sell the property for twice what we have paid, I have no doubt.  I’d rather build a house though- even though that means mortgage and financing.  I’m ready for that part of my life to begin though!

I’m happy we are buying land and building.  At least this way, the land is ours, the house is what we want it to be- and it’s part of our lives that will help both Mike and I grow with each other.  I love that he wants to do this.  I love that he wants to put a roof over my head and build something to what I want.  Simply said- I love how much he loves me… but I still love him more! J

That aside- I should mention that we have had house building plans (blueprints) for quite some time.  We had designed and “built” the house on Chief Architect.  Mike is very talented when it comes to this.  He was getting frustrated with me for a while because I had no input.  The only two things I said is that I wanted a porch and I wanted cathedral ceilings in the Dining Room and Kitchen.  He built those in! 

As time went by, and as we continued to look at and design the house, we started changing things to make more room.  Our Master Bedroom is not huge, in fact, it’s pretty much the perfect size.  Our Master Bath, however, was TINY.  I asked him to move it so that it was on one side of the house, instead of separating two rooms, and then make the other room larger.  It was PERFECT.  He was thrilled that I had some input.  We literally doubled the size of the tiny Master Bath (which was probably about the size of what we have currently) and he even added in walls to keep the shower in, and the toilet is behind the bathtub/shower, so when you first walk into the bathroom- you don’t see the toilet. 

I also had ideas for downstairs.  I told him that I thought the best way to conserve space was a spiral staircase for the basement.  Since we want to do a livable, walk out basement, we needed the room for the walk out part.  That being said- the spiral staircase does not cut off where we want the sliding door. 

I do want a farmers porch in the front- but Mike wants a porch in the back where the walk out basement is.  I don’t disagree- I think it would be good there… but we won’t be putting that in right away.  We’ll have it set up so we can put it in easily after we start living there.

Our #1 goal for building a house at this point it to build it so that the basement is unfinished- so we can live in the house and fix it up while we are living there.  To do that, we have to have an occupancy permit.  Our best bet is to finish off the main living area- the kitchen, dining room (which will likely be our living room for a while), two bathrooms and two bedrooms. 

I can’t wait for the house building process to begin!  I’m excited- and thrilled that I will be learning a new trade.  With Mike by my side, I have no doubt we can make this work, and I know he will teach me everything I need to know.

But just imagine what needs to go into the house! Plumbing, electricity, heat options, windows, doors, framing, walls, cabinets, floors, sinks … the list goes on!

I’m ready to start building our home- and continuing to build our love.

Closing on a Piece of Land

So, as you know, we’ve found a great piece of land.  8 acres in a prime location for us.  It’s perfect placement!  We’re currently in the process of setting up a closing date.  Mind you it’s been two months since we started this process.

There’s quite a few ways that you can go about buying and building.  For one, we could’ve gone the traditional route, going through an agent, finding a piece, and paying commission fees if not covered by the seller’s agent.  Instead, this didn’t work out for us- since we couldn’t get financing for the land in time for the proposed closing date… twice!  We could’ve gone with a land loan through a bank, but like construction loans they would’ve taken about 2 months to process.  I personally find this to be extremely ridiculous!

Or you could go through a private sale, using your own lawyers and such.  This is what we did.  Originally, we were going to use the same lawyer as the seller.  I knew this lawyer personally on a different ground, so I thought it would be ok.  After much discussion and debate- we felt it better to use our own lawyer- and frankly, he’s amazing and I’m glad we went that route.  The seller’s lawyer has been pretty difficult to deal with.  Once we got our own lawyer it was like the seller’s lawyer got upset when I’d try to talk to him- but then he’d turn around and talk to me directly after saying that all discussions should go through my lawyer.  It made a lot of sense (I hope you hear the sarcasm in these words…).  Anyways- our lawyer was cool though, as he knew we were very new at this and certainly didn’t know what we were doing right or wrong.  He’s been a breath of fresh air and I’d recommend him to anyone!

That aside, our closing date is supposed to be this coming Monday.  Originally, we were notified that we could close on November 15^th since all the paperwork was complete and ready to be signed.  I told our lawyer this and he said that under no circumstances are we to sign without him viewing the documents (well duh, that’s why we hired you, haha!).  So I continued to follow up with the title company that was used to make sure that our lawyer got all the paperwork.

He didn’t receive it till Wednesday (November 24^th) this week, the day before Thanksgiving.  I emailed him once I got the phone call and told him, first off – I want him to have the time to go through this without feeling stressed out or anything and I felt that they didn’t give us enough time to move money from savings to checking… granted I’ve already done this and we are ready to go- I still have to go to the bank to get a “bankers check” for the closing itself. 

This is why I love our lawyer- he emailed them back and said that he was leaving soon for Thanksgiving and that since the paperwork took so long to receive, there was no way that he’d have time to review all this before the closing on Monday- thus pushing back the closing date shouldn’t hurt anything since it took so long for the paperwork.  Like I said, he’s awesome!  He also sent us all the paperwork so that Mike and I can review it and ask questions. 

Obviously we’ve been looking at the closing costs pretty hard to make sure that we have enough money and that we aren’t getting screwed or something.  So it looks ok with one exception.  The lawyer fees are in the sellers’ lawyers name.  We want to make sure that that fee is going to OUR lawyer- since he’s the one doing the work for us and NOT the seller’s lawyer.  We’ll see if it is the cost for our lawyer or not.  I’d rather have our lawyer get that money anyways- obviously.  We’ll see how it goes if it’s really for the seller’s lawyer.  I’ll protest it without a problem, we’ll just see if he budges.

Anyways, that’s where we are on the land currently.

Some things to think about before you begin your quest to buy land and build:

1. Step one: make sure you have enough money for a deposit and down payment.  We do now, but originally we were going to try to borrow.  Sadly the party we were going to borrow the down payment from ended up being a dead end.  This is a story for another day.
2. Step Two: Decide if you will be going through a bank or if the seller offers financing.  If you go through a bank decide if you are going to go with straight construction loan, which most banks have a time limit to when the construction needs to be completed, or if you will be doing a land loan.  The bank we are still looking at is one year for a construction loan. 
3. Step Three: Know that these processes take time.  Land loans and construction loans take about 2 months to process right now.  This may change as the economy gets better, but know that this does take time.  If you go through a bank, make sure that you put your closing date a couple months out due to bank processes.  If you go with a seller financing loan- know that this also, apparently, takes two months… which under normal circumstances, it really shouldn’t. 
4. Step Four: And I will continue to repeat this throughout my posts: ALWAYS ask the question you may have- no matter how ridiculous it may seem.  You want to make sure that you are protecting yourself as well! 
1. Example: Question: Should I get a Perc Test done before officially saying “Yes I will buy this land”. Answer: absolutely!  You want to make sure that it’s not going to cost a fortune to put a septic system on your land!
2. Question: Should I ask about any special circumstances this land may have i.e. Wetlands protection?  Answer: absolutely! You also want to make sure that the land is buildable or (like us) if the land requires any special driveway stuff in order to get INTO your land.  Our land actually has a small designated wetland area in the front, so we will have to build our driveway with a special covert to make sure we don’t disturb the wetland too much.  It’s fine, we just need to go through a little bit more crap before we start building.

There are so many things to consider when buying and building land.  This is what we are going through now.  I can only hope that this helps some of you out there as you begin your projects in building. 

I’ll let you all know how the closing goes! J

Happy building!

Land Financing and Banks...

When you find the right piece of land, you just know!  Mike and I have been searching for that perfect piece of land for quite some time.  In August of this year, we found a piece we really liked.  It was in a pretty good location- so we decided to talk to a wonderful real estate agent to see if she could show it to us.  She did- along with the sellers real estate agent. 

The piece was 12 acres, and quite a bit of it was wet- it seemed like wetlands run off.  Walking around the area, it was easy to figure out where we would want to put our home… right where the highest spot was, and where it was dry- about 200 feet off the road.  The area there was probably 2.5-3 acres of dry land.  In reality, we probably could’ve only used that much to build on as the rest of the land was pretty wet. 

So we decided to look into it.  We put a deposit on the land and began our search for funds.  We had already been preapproved for a construction loan through this one bank, so we thought it would be a relatively stream-lined process.  WRONG!  We went back to this same bank and asked the representative about starting the loan process.  I asked from the Get-Go what we needed, A-Z for each step so I could make sure we had it all ready.

In the end, this guy kept giving us half information.  We needed ABC and D for the loan application.  He never mentioned EF and G.  Each bank is different, I know this, but this was ridiculous.  I had him repeat to me three times over the phone what he would need from us when we went to go sign up for a mortgage application.  He told us: latest pay checks (for Mike it was amounts put into the bank for the year since he is a contractor), bank and savings statements, driver’s licenses, and if available the house plans.  Well, we made sure we had everything- even the house design.  We had Mike’s brother in law print out a couple of copies so we had one as well.  We went to sign the paperwork and we were missing the contractors’ contract (which had estimates of the job at hand), a building permit (really? How can we get that when we don’t even own the land!!), plus a few other things.  I even made sure we had the plot plans so if he asked for them I had them.  Then when we were discussing costs and closing and time frames, he kept holding information back from us.  Mike and I had to pry information out of him. 

NOTE TO ALL: ALWAYS ask questions… and question you can think of!  It doesn’t matter, it’s always good to know what you’re getting yourself into!  If you feel that questions are being skirted around or if you are only getting part of the information… just walk away.  It’s better to be safe than put your neck out there.

In the end, after we had signed everything- the bank’s rep told us he would hold it for 48 hours before putting it through.  He also told us that it would take 2 months to even decide whether the bank would give us the money to build!  Apparently it needed to go through the board for approval and we had to have that contract from the contractor.  I called him the next day and asked him to shred everything- that we would be building in the spring instead since 2 months would bring us into October before we could even begin building.  Not a good time for New England building by the way!  Both Mike and I really had a bad vibe about him and this particular banks way of doing things.

We learned a lot through this process though.  Always ask the questions and pry if needed! 

We tried other routes to obtain money for this land.  The land was nice, big, in a nice neighborhood, in a relatively good place, and it was cheap!  We didn’t want to pass up the opportunity!  We tried filling out personal loan applications- and were told at first that we didn’t have enough credit history.  Ok, I understand.  Both of us have had car and student loans… but not like 10 of them.  One place also said that I had not been in my current job for long enough (I had just started with MMI not two weeks prior) and I was also told me debt to income ratio was too large…

My debt: well I paid off my Car Loan about a month before I submitted the application- I still have a $90/month student loan and I pay $500 in rent.  I make $590 plus a lot more a month- so I’m really still dumbfounded that they thought my debt to income ratio was too large!  For Mike, he has no car loans anymore and the only loan he has is his student, which he doesn’t have to pay till 2013!  His minimum payment a month once that hits is $100/month.  He helps pay for rent too.  Again… dumbfounded!

So we scratched our heads and went back to OUR bank and had Mike’s Dad co-sign with us.  Two days later I called to see the status and they told me that we didn’t have enough credit history.  That was the last straw.  I asked how we didn’t with three people, one being a business owner with good credit history (and a lot of it).  The guy told me, well you have a lot of credit history… just not the right TYPE.

What the hell does that mean?!  Banks now have “TYPES” of credit histories?!

Needless to say, we pulled out of the piece of land we found.  I liked it, but it wasn’t Perfect.  We got our deposit back since we couldn’t get anywhere with the banks.

Soon after we found that it was impossible to get a loan from a bank (what a joke considering we have little to no debt and extremely good credit!) my Dad calls me and tells me that a guy he works with has a piece of land for sale… 8 acres for the same amount that we were going to buy this other piece for.  Bonus- he was willing to do seller financing!

We couldn’t help it- we had to take a look!  We walked the property and it’s even better than the last piece.  More usable land, with a couple quirks that we will need to work out, but nonetheless, nothing we can’t handle.  It must’ve been fate- that’s all I can say.

So, we talked with the seller- also someone that Mike’s family knows and has worked for before.  He was pretty pushy (in my opinion) and got us to sign a piece of paper with a good faith deposit (which was sizably larger than normal- and still makes me shake a little), and had a 30 day bracket on there so if we changed our mind for any reason, we would get our money back.    

So, we signed it, I gave him the deposit, and we are still in wait for having the closing finalized.  It’s November 24^th right now.  We signed this piece of paper on September 18^th. 

More to come about how seller financing works and a few things I’ve learned to help protect ourselves through this process.