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A Place of Your Own Part 16: Ask a Landowner

February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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I dreamed for 20 years of owning a little place in the country, but my dreams always seemed a long way away. I was like a kid on the high dive with my toes over the end of the board desperately wanting to jump, but afraid I was going to do something wrong and wind up doing a belly flop instead of a dive. I knew I could do it. I had seen other people do it, but I just couldn’t overcome the uncertainty that came with having never done it before. I was afraid I was going to make a mistake. The problem is that most people will never make … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part 15: Land Characteristics

February 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Meriwether 90

You would never buy something unless you understood what it was would you? You’d want to know what a tool or device was useful for, before you put it in your buggy at the home improvement store…..right? Well, before you spend a penny on land, you need to make sure you know what it IS, what it can be used for, and what its potential is. To do that, you need to understand the characteristics or the physical properties of land. I’m amazed at how many people will go and look at land, having no idea what they are looking at, and buy it, … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part 14: Natural Resources

February 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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In my part of the country (the southeast) timber is a big part of any land buying decision. In fact timber value is often the largest single value component of the landownership process. It is also one of the most misunderstood. To maximize value of land, you must maximize the value of the natural resources of the land. To do that, you need a carefully thought out plan and some guidelines to minimize mistakes and maximize returns. For those of you in other parts of the country, timber may not be the prevalent natural resource. You may have … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part 13: Buyers Agent

January 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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For most folks the land buying experience is probably a once in a lifetime event. The combination of “never done it before” and “a lot of money on the line” is scary. And, here’s the rub; how do you know how to do something that you’ve never done before, and likely will never do again? How can you possibly know all you need to know, when you aren’t sure what you really need to know? Wouldn’t it be great if you could “borrow” the knowledge and experience of someone who buys and sells land everyday? Well you can! All … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part 12: Safety

January 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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You know sometimes it seems like we’re such a safety conscious society that we take all the fun out of everything, but when it comes to looking at land, the reality is that there are potentially dangerous (or at least uncomfortable) situations that can occur. The good news is that a few simple steps can make for a safe and enjoyable outdoor experience. Here are a few safety issues to keep in mind when heading to the woods to look at land. Make sure that somebody knows where you are going and who you are going with. Give them a map with … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part Eleven: Maps Save Gas

January 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Lumpkin 267 area map

Looking for land can be a time consuming process. On an average day of scouting for land, you can spend more time staring at your windshield than you do actually looking at land. After burning countless gallons of gas and wasting untold hours of my life, I was determined to find a way to go look at a piece of property without actually going to look at it. I finally figured it out a few years ago when my wife said, “I don’t know why you spend so much time in your truck, when you have all of these maps laying around. In fact, there has to … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part Ten: Got Water

January 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment
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I have been involved in land sales and purchases for many years now, and the most persistent question from land buyers (me included) is, “Does the tract have water on it?” Good question. As a land investor, water has always been important to me because it always seemed important to the folks I was selling land to. But, why? Well, a few years ago I asked an older gentleman why this was such a big deal to him. “Son, I figure a creek would be hard to add after I buy some land, so I’d much prefer to have it from the start.” Good … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part Nine: Land Buying Mistakes

December 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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A few years ago, I put together a list of the top ten mistakes that I think most first time land buyers make. It was sort of an attempt to provide a “cheat sheet” for first time land buyers to avoid some of the pitfalls of the land buying experience. Here are a few of the more “expensive” land buying mistakes: Buying More Than You Can Afford I have seen folks buy 200 acres they couldn’t afford, because they could borrow the money, when they should have paid cash for 20 acres they could afford. If you are buying property for … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part Eight: Buying Land is a Team Sport

December 15, 2010 By 1 Comment
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Let’s face it. Land can be complicated. There are components of land ownership, and there are characteristics of land that are not intuitively obvious. The truth is that you can study and research all you want, and you still won’t know all that you need to know. If you are serious about owning land, there are times that you are going to need professional help. You may know what a survey is and what a boundary line looks like, but I’m willing to bet that most of you are not qualified to verify a boundary line encroachment. You know … [Read more...]

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A Place of Your Own Part Seven: Access

December 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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What is the access like? This is one of the first questions I ask when evaluating land to buy, and it’s one of the first questions you should ask, as well. Here’s why. For most people, obstacles to access present a problem. I guess it really makes sense. If you are looking to buy land, you want to be able to get to it, get on it, and get around it. Here are some things to consider. Easy access via state highway or interstate can make for a convenient drive, but too much of a good thing is not necessarily a good thing. Too much … [Read more...]

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