Purchasing our adjacent property/easement

[DawnM]

I think I have mentioned this before, but the .25 acre next to our .75 acres is being foreclosed on.....it was meant to happen last September, but it didn't.   I called on it today and the woman who owns it, owes $350 in back taxes.    The property is taxed as being worth $3,000.   She hasn't paid the taxes is about 10 years.

In NC, you can't just go pay the taxes and take ownership, it has to go into foreclosure and get auctioned off.

However, it isn't in foreclosure yet.   I have contacted the owner directly and we are willing to pay the $3,000 plus $350 in taxes if she is willing to sell it to us.

I am going to start off by asking her what price she wants to sell it for.....it is entirely possible that she would prefer to sell for less and get it off her hands, but I do worry she will ask for a larger amount.

Anyway, wish us luck!

And any advice?   

I know the property will be added to our existing property and will not be available to put a house on, and the HOA says no 2nd dwelling on the property (unless it is attached to your house and the building approved by the HOA).   This property would just be for added land for us.   We may extend our fence line and put a swing set up, that sort of thing.

[Catwoman]

No advice, but good luck!

[Harriet Vane]

I hope this works out for you! I'm all in favor of extra swing set space.

[mommyoffive]

Oh I hope it works out.  I thinking buying land around your home is such a WONDERFUL idea!  Does this lady still live there? 

[Carol in Cal.]

That sounds fantastic!  

My only advice is, see if you can make some of the property into an edible forested area.  That’s much easier upkeep than typical city or suburban land, and fruit and nut trees are some of the lowest maintenance edible gardening around.  Even if you don’t want them now, it’s a fun thing for kids to be able to just pick a snack off of a tree, and often local groups will do your harvest for you and give you a sizable portion of it if you will let them give the rest to a hunger charity locally.  Plus you get tree shade and CO2 pulled out of the air.  It’s a win win win win win.

[DawnM]

14 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

Oh I hope it works out.  I thinking buying land around your home is such a WONDERFUL idea!  Does this lady still live there? 

She never lived here.   She was an investor and I don't know the history, but that .25 acres was meant to be a road and it was never developed, and the land behind us was never bought by the neighborhood, so it was never connected with a road.   

[DawnM]

14 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

That sounds fantastic!  

My only advice is, see if you can make some of the property into an edible forested area.  That’s much easier upkeep than typical city or suburban land, and fruit and nut trees are some of the lowest maintenance edible gardening around.  Even if you don’t want them now, it’s a fun thing for kids to be able to just pick a snack off of a tree, and often local groups will do your harvest for you and give you a sizable portion of it if you will let them give the rest to a hunger charity locally.  Plus you get tree shade and CO2 pulled out of the air.  It’s a win win win win win.

Most of our backyard is already a forest, not editable, but a lot of very large trees.   My favorites are the magnolia trees, they smell so wonderful in the Spring and Summer.

I don't mind fruit and nut trees, but I don't want other people I don't know in my yard for any reason.   We have a dog that I don't want to get out, and we are rather private people.   Any trees would only be for us to enjoy in our own yard.

[Carrie12345]

19 hours ago, DawnM said:

And any advice?   

I know the property will be added to our existing property and will not be available to put a house on, and the HOA says no 2nd dwelling on the property (unless it is attached to your house and the building approved by the HOA).   This property would just be for added land for us.   We may extend our fence line and put a swing set up, that sort of thing

Automatically? I’ve never heard of that before.  Usually you have to apply (and pay) to join or divide properties. Our township isn’t that much of a stickler for denying applications, but HOAs generally don’t like it because that turns 2 dues properties into 1 dues property.

[Ali in OR]

I just can't get over any land costing just $3k. And I know you understand as you posted about your old CA house. It's the land that's so expensive on the west coast. So definitely go for it. Even $5k is a ridiculous bargain.

[fairfarmhand]

4 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Automatically? I’ve never heard of that before.  Usually you have to apply (and pay) to join or divide properties. Our township isn’t that much of a stickler for denying applications, but HOAs generally don’t like it because that turns 2 dues properties into 1 dues property.

Same. It would need to resurveyed. Or at least that's how it works here. 

[Clemsondana]

19 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

That sounds fantastic!  

My only advice is, see if you can make some of the property into an edible forested area.  That’s much easier upkeep than typical city or suburban land, and fruit and nut trees are some of the lowest maintenance edible gardening around.  Even if you don’t want them now, it’s a fun thing for kids to be able to just pick a snack off of a tree, and often local groups will do your harvest for you and give you a sizable portion of it if you will let them give the rest to a hunger charity locally.  Plus you get tree shade and CO2 pulled out of the air.  It’s a win win win win win.

This depends on where you are.  We have fruit trees  (apple, peach, pear, plum) and they require a surprising amount of upkeep, with antifungal spraying several times a year ok.  One of the local plant nurseries said that they don't carry fruit trees because it's so hard to keep them disease-free here.  There is a rust that infects the apples that cycles through another (non-food, found naturally) tree species, and blights affect some of the other crops.  Apparently it's too wet...it's not too rainy, but the Smoky Mtn area is known for having a lot of fog, which is probably the problem.  But, it's awesome if you can do it.  Here we find that blueberries bushes or the wild raspberries and blackberries that we encourage with weeding are much lower maintenance, but that will vary by location.  

[fairfarmhand]

3 minutes ago, Clemsondana said:

This depends on where you are.  We have fruit trees  (apple, peach, pear, plum) and they require a surprising amount of upkeep, with antifungal spraying several times a year ok.  One of the local plant nurseries said that they don't carry fruit trees because it's so hard to keep them disease-free here.  There is a rust that infects the apples that cycles through another (non-food, found naturally) tree species, and blights affect some of the other crops.  Apparently it's too wet...it's not too rainy, but the Smoky Mtn area is known for having a lot of fog, which is probably the problem.  But, it's awesome if you can do it.  Here we find that blueberries bushes or the wild raspberries and blackberries that we encourage with weeding are much lower maintenance, but that will vary by location.  

Yep. I just bought $65 of fruit moth traps in an effort to actually get some edible apples off my trees. Who knows if the fungus will ruin the fruit?  To keep the fruit free from fungus I have to spray every 7 tp 10 days during the growing season.

[DawnM]

11 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Automatically? I’ve never heard of that before.  Usually you have to apply (and pay) to join or divide properties. Our township isn’t that much of a stickler for denying applications, but HOAs generally don’t like it because that turns 2 dues properties into 1 dues property.

What do you mean automatically?    It is a small strip of land, not a 2nd full piece of property.   There is no way to buy it independently and put a house on it.   All homes have to have a min. of .75 acres in our neighborhood and this is only .25 and a narrow strip that was meant to be a road.  It is unbuildable.

[DawnM]

8 hours ago, Ali in OR said:

I just can't get over any land costing just $3k. And I know you understand as you posted about your old CA house. It's the land that's so expensive on the west coast. So definitely go for it. Even $5k is a ridiculous bargain.

Well, I don't know if that is the cost or not.   But it is a narrow strip, the size of a large road, not buildable land.

I just looked up some buildable land in my area that is .33 of an acre.   It is almost $500,000.   But it is on a golf course and meant for a house to be build on it.   

So, I may be way underestimating.   The county has it taxed as being worth $3K though.

Edited March 2, 2022 by DawnM

[Carrie12345]

15 minutes ago, DawnM said:

What do you mean automatically?    It is a small strip of land, not a 2nd full piece of property.   There is no way to buy it independently and put a house on it.   All homes have to have a min. of .75 acres in our neighborhood and this is only .25 and a narrow strip that was meant to be a road.  It is unbuildable.

But, since someone else owned it, it was not surveyed, recorded, and taxed as part of your property previously.
The way you phrased it, “I know it will be added,” as opposed to, “We’ll need to have it added,” made me think you were referring to an automatic process. If the seller has a deed, it *had to be recorded as its own individual property at some point.

Buildable or not, there are typically steps involved to legally join properties and make them taxable as one.

[DawnM]

7 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

But, since someone else owned it, it was not surveyed, recorded, and taxed as part of your property previously.
The way you phrased it, “I know it will be added,” as opposed to, “We’ll need to have it added,” made me think you were referring to an automatic process. If the seller has a deed, it *had to be recorded as its own individual property at some point.

Buildable or not, there are typically steps involved to legally join properties and make them taxable as one.

Oh, ok, I didn't know what you meant but automatically.....yes, it will be surveyed and recorded and taxed.   I just meant that it will be added rather than us owning 2 properties when it is all said and done.

[Annie G]

57 minutes ago, DawnM said:

Oh, ok, I didn't know what you meant but automatically.....yes, it will be surveyed and recorded and taxed.   I just meant that it will be added rather than us owning 2 properties when it is all said and done.

Do you have a mortgage? If so, combining the properties might be a tad complicated. It makes sense that it adds value to your property, so why would the mortgage company care, right? But your property would have a different legal description than when the mortgage was placed. In our area you have to deed the added property to your original lot and have it added to your mortgage.  There are costs involved. Hopefully your area is simpler, and maybe no cost.