How does one buy a rural home?

[seawitch]

So, I'm a little sheepish. I'm trying to find some rural properties in the Smoky Mountains (mainly TN) but I'm coming up short. (We're open to other areas as well, but that's where we're starting to search.)

We have some things that we want:

• 
  Very low budget (although for TN it's not that low - TN is very low COL) - about 100,000 altogether but could push up to 120, 125 ish
  Needs to be a brick house if it's in the SE
  I want at least 1 acre but pref more like 3-5
  We want to be in either a very small town or a rural area

This will be our forever home so we're going to have a bit of a budget for fixing it up (about 25-45 K depending on what our old home sells for) but we will then be living on a fixed income afterwards - so the lower the COL the better off we are. (We will be paying for the house in cash - no way no how we could get a loan unless it was a rural loan and I have no idea about those. I'd rather pay in cash anyway.)

So, I've found tons of properties in larger towns that fit our criteria in our price range, but lack the land/privacy.

And I've found tons of properties in rural areas that have great land - but no house on them, or a house that needs to be torn down and rebuilt. H is handy around the house but not handy enough to build a house, and we can't afford to build one from scratch (though that WOULD be nice).

So um. Am I missing out on something? I don't have any specific towns or even counties we're tied to - basically any scenic, rural, safely accessed, etc etc property will do fine... We're not even located in the area so I can't just go around driving.

How does one find a rural property that's suitable? The MLS listings I've browsed are so limited and all have you search by town, etc.

[JElaineB]

I would try to find a trustworthy realtor in an area you are interested in and let them know what you are looking for and where. They can keep an eye and an ear out for you and let you know when appropriate properties may be available. We had a great rural realtor (a married couple actually) who know everyone and we found out about a number of properties that were not even listed.

[seawitch]

Hmm. So how do we go about finding a trusted realtor? We kind of lucked into a good realtor back in our old housing market, but it was by sheer luck. We don't know anyone in the area and we're not physically located there to feel them out. Should I just email a few different ones from online, or....?

[hopefulfaith]

This is just my experience, but when we bought our home (rural development loan/small town in a rural area), I checked the MLS listings for the area to look at the properties.  Most of the properties were listed with one major realtor in the area, so I figured that was the one who was most knowledgeable about buying/selling in that area and that's who we went with.

We got lucky - they were great for us and in hindsight, they were the ones who knew the most about the area, knew how much lower we could reasonably put an offer in for the property we wanted, etc.  They knew about properties that weren't listed and also steered us toward a lender who did the rural development loans (I know you said you wanted to pay cash, but the RDL was a good option for us:  low interest, no PMI), as not all of them do.

I know lots of people don't want to use a realtor because of paying the extra $$ and all, but I was glad we did.

[PenelopeJune]

I use a website for my state called LandsofKansas.com. I'd think there has got to be websites like that for other states, too. How about United Country realty?

Wow, there is a lot of cheap land in Tennessee! I thought we had it good in Kansas. Although I don't see any houses on their website, it's all just empty land, and a few mobile homes.

[marimara]

It's just like buying any other property.  First of all, you must visit places after you've narrrowed them down online.  I used the website "find your spot" alot, http://www.findyourspot.com/ but it seems the website is down right now.  Anyways, CIty Data has a lot of information.  http://www.city-data.com/forum/

That way you  can ask questions of the people who live or lived there, like where is the nearest health food store, etc.  

After visiting in all seasons, and you still like it, maybe rent for a while.  It takes a least 4-6 months to really get the "feel" of a place.  Then if you still love it, look for a realtor, and start touring properties.

In today's market buying a piece of property could possibly be a permanent decision, so don't make it on a whim.  Make absolutley sure it's the best decision possible.  

From there, it's easy, your realtor will know what to do.  You must "prequality" for a loan if you're not paying cash.  You usually must prequalify before realtors even take you out to see properties. Then you must secure a down payment or $ held on escrow for you that say you mean to purchase the property.  Then you must make an offer, present it, once it is accepted you will order your tests, inspections, etc.  If there is a home you will most likely have a home inspection, termite inspection, well test, septic, soil test, any other tests you might want.

If you plan on homesteading, it will be very worthwhile to find our air quality reports, water quality reports, have your soil and water tested and all that.  You don't want to buy heavily used agriculture land because it will be loaded with toxins. Ditto for being near major manufacturing plants.  

If it all passes and all parties agree on the terms, a closing will be held where you will pay the rest of the purchase price, closing fees, get your loan set up, and get the deed.  Then you move in or build, after you get permits to build of course.  If there is no house on the property, I would make sure you CAN get permits as part of your pre-offer questions.  Calling around to make sure there are no weird laws, regulations against doing the things you may want to do, like have livestock, build a non-traditional home (strawbale, cob, etc.).

Of course if it's just land too, part of the pre-offer questions might be to a well drilling company to make sure a well can be drilled (ie its not sitting on top of a rock ledge or something and that drillign a well would be affordable) and getting a septic test if required by your or county regs.  

All that stuff is important, as you can see it's no easy decision.  Researching and visiting can take years.  It took us 6ish years to make a decision after visiting all over the country.

Good luck!

[marimara]

I just saw that you wouldn't be getting a loan.  Neither did we, and our budget was exactly the same.  We researched forever, the most important part of hte whole thing.  Think hard about what you want in a town/place.  You can change a home but you can't change it's location, without selling of course!

[mattemma04]

I liked looking through http://www.unitedcountry.com/

You want to see a place after a good hard rain. Our property floods.Also,make sure there is a current boundary survey.You don't want to find out your land is on your neighbors!
And for neighbors you can only do so much,but places with absolutely no laws in place could set you up for issue with people who race (mud track) or practice shooting in the back yard.

 When I looked I found a lot of nice brick homes for under 100k in TN. I recall one for 80k that was 8 acres and had a clear spring.It was great,but dh did not like the house.

 If I could do over I would get atleast 5 acres.Current survey before purchase.Some cleared land for growing/animals.Some timber for personal use.A creek.

If you get a place and it turns out to be a dud do your best to sell and move on.Even a bit of a loss is better than staying somewhere you dislike.

[NikonMama]

We started out looking at United Country also.  We recently bought a house on 5 acres in the country (REALLY in the country, 45 min drive to Walmart/any other shopping, but I LOVE it!!  We have just learned to adjust our shopping habits) for $125,000 cash in southwest Missouri, near Branson.  We live in the middle of the Mark Twain National Forest, in the Ozark Mountains and we have the most beautiful view. 

When we first started looking, we just looked at every real estate website we could find.  Just search "real estate ______ (the town or state you are looking for)" in google.  Most of the ones out there these days have a search feature, and some have a spot where you can put in how much land you would prefer (like 2acres or more, etc).  You can also find a real estate agency and tell them what you are looking for (bedroom and bath numbers, size of property, garage/shop?, etc) and then they will tell you what they have found.  Agents have different access to the MLS listings than lay people do, so they will be able to find properties that you may not be able to. A lot of listings in this area are through the biggest real estate company around here, and they set us up with a really great agent.  We found some properties that we liked and told her about it, plus she found some extra ones on top of those. 

We worked with her for a long time, almost a year and through two contracts, b/c we were searching from almost 8 hours away.  The first contract was canceled b/c we didn't sell our house.  One month after cancelling it our house sold, and even though that house was still on the market (it still is, actually, and we cancelled in early December) we decided to see if anything else was out there.  I'm glad we did b/c I fell in love with this house the moment we walked in the door.  Our agent was actually the one to find this house, we hadn't seen it online. 

I would suggest looking in this area (Springfield/Branson area of Missouri) b/c the properties are beautiful, and they are fairly inexpensive.  I think you could find what you are looking for. 

Good luck with whatever you choose!!

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by mattemma04 

Also,make sure there is a current boundary survey.You don't want to find out your land is on your neighbors!
 

Yes.  And walk the boundaries to find the stakes.  Boundaries tend to creep in the country.  Someone has been mowing that field for 20 years and it turns out they are mowing their neighbors land, or cutting down the neighbors trees, that sort of thing.  What appears to be "your" land might very misleading.  A friend of mine had this happen to them.  They always assumed the field behind their house was theirs until it was sold (to a city "slicker") and the new owner was like "Hey, please stop riding your 4 wheeler on my property." 

Deeds are usually pretty easy to read and if you can find one marker or stake, you should be able to pace off to the next point.  I did this A LOT at my first job out of college. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattemma04 

And for neighbors you can only do so much,but places with absolutely no laws in place could set you up for issue with people who race (mud track) or practice shooting in the back yard.

 Yep, the freedom to do your own thing in the country can have an ugly side when that means your neighbors are also free to do their own thing like burn trash all day long on a beautiful day when you want to hang the wash out.  Or keep 10 dogs chained outside that bark all day and all night.  Or let junk cars rust right at the edge of your property line.   I grew up in a rural area and it isn't always peaceful.   It is if you have enough land so you don't need to see or hear the ugly.

[peacelovinmama]

We have been looking on Landwatch.com, it is national and you can modify your searches easily.  Once we knew the general area to look at we went out there to check it out and get a feel for the area, from there narrowed down where we want our land/home.  Now that we know the area and the micro climates, we know we don't want to be too far north or too high up (because we really don't want 5 months of winter!!), we are now talking with a realtor in that area that can help us find just what we want.  We figure we will be doing some more trips out that way until we buy. 

Good Luck!!

[seawitch]

Wow, Landwatch is great!

We're thinking W.Va maybe? We don't pay income tax but the property taxes on properties in WV are MUCH lower than in TN...

I saw some awesome properties in MO but H is absolutely against it. We got caught in the tornadoes out in MO (the day that Joplin had the storms) and he is freaked out that the entire state is tornado prone. Is that true? Even the mountains? Sigh.

I wish we had time to see this through but wherever we buy will have to be our forever home and we are on a really fast schedule (we're essentially homeless at the moment, staying with my mom) so there's no taking our sweet time to go back and forth. I'm trying to do as much research as possible on where we want to find a house before our old house sells, cos when it does sell, we have to basically find a new place ASAP. Argh. Stress! Then again we don't know how long it'll take our old house to sell. Could be weeks, could be months, could be a year...

[peacelovinmama]

Oh yeah, I forgot to add since you are not looking for a lot of acreage you will probably want to know who owns the land around you.  We checked out a couple properties that sat up next to land that was going to be logged in 20 years, it was a nice piece of land but there was no way I was going to live there knowing that 20 years down the road all the trees around us would be clear cut!  Also make sure the property doesn't have annual floods, get the soil and water tested especially if you plan on gardening/farming.  Sorry if I am repeating, I didn't read through all of the responses : )

For us schooling for our son was a huge factor in where to buy and settle, even if we wanted to home-school we wanted to make sure there was a good community of home-schoolers so our son would have friends to grow up with.  Community is huge for us.  That's all I can think of now.  Just make sure you write down all your must haves and what you know you absolutely don't want, as you check out properties you will modify that list.

[peacelovinmama]

I also googled as much as I could on the towns that we wanted to learn about.  I googled the farms, health food stores, schools, meet up groups, anything I could think of to learn more about the areas we were interested in and the communities.  Thank goodness for the internet : )  I also came onto the finding your tribe forum and asked questions about the area we wanted to look at, in our case Colville Wa.  It was great talking with other mom's they were sooo helpful!!  If you haven't tried that you will probably really find it helpful.  We've been living with my mom too and now we are all looking for a good sized property to do a little commune of our own.  We have always known we wanted to stay in the PNW but have just now decided on Colville after 3 years!!  It feels so good to finally know where we want to settle.  When you find the right place you will just know : )

[Caneel]

OP - if you are interested in West Virginia, check out the Chickens in the Road blog.  The blogger settled in West. Virginia after a life change and her blog is awesome!  She writes a lot about life in West Virginia, the challenges of homesteading, farming, her kids in the local school system, etc.  I really enjoy it her blog.  I don't live in WV but in a similar type of community.

[Adaline'sMama]

Everyone has given great advice. One thing to remember, especially in TN, is to watch out for floody/boggy land. If you are looking at it in high summer it will be dry, but see if the owner has any year round shots of the property. Part of our land is flooded all spring and fall. We dont mind, because we arent really using that part, but it would be good to know.

[hildare]

once you find something, another way to see both who owns the land around you and the history of your house/property as well as the amount they paid for it is to check the county tax records.  most places it is online.  while not always accurate, it's interesting and very useful for negotiating a price or seeing if a place has a history of being sold (which might be a clue something's wrong) etc. or if there's industrial ownership of adjoining land, or whatever.

[FarmerBeth]

I'm in Canada, so it's a bit different for me, but maybe not so different.  We actually used Kijiji (which is like your Craig's List) looking for our rural home.  It was great for finding estate sales and other situations that aren't always found in the MLS.  Also, word of mouth goes a long way in rural communities, especially in small town banks and law offices.  Also, consider putting down a larger down payment to give you more wiggle room with lenders.  A big thing in the country is how much driving you may have to do, so consider what activities you will be able to do right at home, and which activities and services you may need to leave home for.  For us, we had to calculate transportation into our budget, as well as some start up expenses related to doing more at home (for us that meant a good TV service through the computer so we could enjoy going to the movies at home, building expenses for chickens so we could have fresh eggs, start up costs for some pretty hardcore gardening, and wine making supplies).  We've learned to look at working on our very old house as a recreational activity, and simple events like church suppers and Penny Auction at the Legion are excitedly anticipated.  We don't miss urban living a bit!

[1stimestar]

Also try message boards that focus on the area you are interested in such as the tribal area here or citydata.com.  Get to know some of those types of communities and they can help you with the local places to look and not look. 

[BubbleMa]

I don't know how much the empty land you're finding is, but if it's cheap enough you could build a modular or manufactured home on the land and still be within your budget.