Ottakee Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 We talked to our neighbor behind us today. He is willing to sell us 4 acres which when combined with our 2 acres would allow us to have our horses here at home. He has a 47 acre piece complete with creek, a few sand dunes (might be valuable for mineral rights), an open area and he just logged about 20 acres of it. He has an old old barn on it and a house that is about 120 years old. The 4 acres we are buying from him are ones that he just logged so they are clear cut (we will have to remove the stumps) and it is on the corner of his property--far end from the creek, sand dune, etc. It will NOT be a buildable lot. There is no road frontage to it so even combined with ours, we could not build another additional house back there. How much will his property value decrease going from a 47 acres piece to a 43 acre piece? We are just trying to figure out what is a fair price--to us and him--for the 4 acres. We are in West Michigan in a very depressed economy right now---our home lost about $40,000 of equity in the past 2 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CookieMonster Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 There is no easy way to tell you what that 4 acres is worth exactly. Out where I currently live, that land would be worth over $40,000 an acre. Out where I plan to retire (rural Missouri) that land would be worth $500 an acre. You need to find out what price range acreage is selling in, or has been selling for, in your greater geographic area. Then, shoot for the low end when pricing these four acres. The reason I would say this land is worth much less than other land is for the reasons you mentioned: logged off, no road access, not buildable, no features (creek, pond), and in need of work (stump removal). In rural Missouri right now, you could purchase such land for $500 an acre. Buildable, wooded land with features would fetch $800-$1000 per acre. Whatever the four acres is worth is what his now 43 acre homesite will decrease in value by. Does that help you? Or did I make it worse? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsMe Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 (edited) Pull up some acreage listings on line and see what they are going for by you. Different parts of the country have different values. Here, you can't find anything for under $30,000 an acre and that's even low and usually without water/utilities even to the lot line. You can't really take 47 acres and divide what it's worth by what you'll buy because you usually get more or less for parts of it. So let's say here for example you can sell a 10 acre plot worth $100,000, but if you sell off 5, you can get almost 70-80,000 for 5. Sell one, you get about 40,000. Sell the entire 10 and you get $100,000. So look online in your area and take into consideration what it has. Sewer, water, power and whether or not you'll need it, or have access. Edited January 19, 2009 by alilac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ottakee Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Thanks. We are waiting to hear what he comes up with for a number. He can't sell any of his property into other lots for development, etc. He can sell to us to increase our lot size but no one can build anything else on that property as it doesn't have road frontage and the township will not allow any more splits on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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