This morning was a pajama morning. I slept in way later than usual, and I think it’s because I’ve been pushing hard looking for properties, and my body isn’t used to it.
Nevertheless, it’s time for an update on the progress.
So, my husband and I have been looking for land. Ideally, we’d like 2+ acres on the edge of town. We want to be far enough out that we don’t have many neighbors and no land restrictions, but close enough to have utility hookups. We also want to be within 30 minutes of where we currently are.
What’s making the search more difficult is that we’re looking for really rough pieces of land. We’re actually kind of excited to clean it up. We have no money, so restoring a piece of land is the only way we’re going to get what we want, but rough places usually aren’t listed on real estate sites.
We found one place that we like (followers of this blog will know it as the W house), and it’s PERFECT (nearly 7 acres with a house-shell and utilities)! The owner of this property is not, however. He hasn’t spoken to us in nearly a month, and he’s beginning to make me mad. For the time being, we’re putting the W house on the back burner and searching for other options. (I still have the notion in my mind that we’re going to end up with the W house, but we can’t keep focusing solely on that when nothing’s happening.)
We haven’t seen anything that even comes close to having what the W house has. There is one piece of property that we have high hopes for (for ease, let’s call it the P place). We’re going to check it out this weekend, but it’s nearly 3 acres with a homesite cleared. We will have to get our own place, but I think that won’t be such a process as finding the right piece of property.
What has me excited about the P place is that, though there’s no home now, it used to have one. There’re already utility hookups on-site, space is cleared for a home, and someone lived there and liked the area (they owned for 7 years, and a family member owned it for 30 years before that).
What worries me about it is that P place is listed on a real estate site for $40K more than the county says it’s worth. If we end up trying to buy it, the owner may just laugh at our offer, because there’s no way I’m paying anything close to what it’s listed for. If this property deal doesn’t go through, then we’re back to step one.
I wouldn’t mind staying here if the situation were better. We’re in a great location, and my father-in-law is our landlord, so we can pretty much do whatever we want. Unfortunately, the other portion of this property is owned by an estranged Aunt whom I’ve never met and been told that I don’t want to. Also, I want to have a huge garden and orchard, but my neighbors trees shade out my yard. I can chop down trees in my own yard, but I can’t chop down my neighbors’ trees.
So that’s where we are. My finger’s are crossed for P place. I’d drop P place and go with the W house in a heartbeat, but the owner isn’t talking to us. So, (lifts imaginary glass) here’s to P place!
Frugal Treehugger 