tyler524 Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 Warning this is a long one but I appreciate any thoughts or advice.Not sure of exactly where to put this so I stuck it here.I am stuck in hard spot right now and am trying to make some decisions. I still want to race and continue to be on the track. I need to rebuild the head of the bike or just buy another head to throw on there to take care of the bent valves. Fixing the bike itself is not an issue and I could be ready to be back on the track sometime this month. I have been considering possibly selling my house or refinancing to a 15 year mortgage but it was just an idea I have been kicking around. I have no land where I live and would like at least a few acres. I live on a dead end road with only two houses and empty lots down to the woods on both sides of the street. At one point I tried to track down the owner of the lots because I was interested in buying at least the lots on my side of the road. I was never able to track the guy down even though I had his name and address (turns out the guy had died). I get on the auditors website one day and find that another guy bought the all of the property through a sheriffs auction. That was a little over a year ago and the lots have just sat empty still.I seen some guys out walking through the lots the other day and walked out to talk to them after awhile. It turns out that it was the guy that bought the lots. The part that pisses me off is that apparently the sheriff personally got a hold of this guy and asked if he wanted to buy the property. This guy owns some duplexes on a road behind me. This guy tells me he bought all of the lots for the just the back taxes owed on them. From the tax payments that were made on the lots, the best I can come up with is that he paid about $600 for 17 lots. This really pissed me off considering I had wanted to buy 5 of these myself previously and couldn't track down the owner. These lots butt up to my property but I was never contacted by the sheriff asking if I was interested.Well this guy tells me he is trying to decide whether he is going to sell the property or build more duplexes. The last thing I want is for my house to be surrounded by duplexes, my property value would sink. He told me that he almost has enough cash to build two duplexes right now and if he decides to build, it will be next to me first since the utility connections already exist.Now I am in the position that I either try and come up with an offer and buy the land from him or sell my house before duplexes start popping up. I only really want the lots next to me but I would have to buy everything across the street too if I wanted to stop him from putting up duplexes. I know they guy paid less than a $1000 for all this land but he sure as hell isn't going to sell it that cheap. Auditors site values the land at $900 a lot but who knows what true value for it actually is. I tried looking for comparables but there is nothing around here that has sold that you could really make a comparison with.If I were to refinance, I would like to somehow wrap buying the land and enough for a nice garage/ Morton building in to the loan. I am somewhat leaning more towards selling but my only concern is not ending up with the cash for a down payment on a new place. I owe 90k on my house and looking at what other houses are on the market for/sold for, I think I could ask about 120-125 for my place and get pretty close to that. I just don't know how much you have to pay a realtor and closing costs and what not.The track and bike starts to come into play due to me considering selling it to pay off my credit cards and not going to the track will help me finish the work that I started on my house two years ago. I put in new counter tops, about 1,000 sqft of high end laminate (which I wish I would have went with hard wood), and bought new tile for the bathrooms. I still need to finish the work and put some new carpet down in my two spare bedrooms.This is work that I really need to get done regardless so that I can get the best appraisal for the house to sell or refinance. I really do not want to sell the track bike and have spent a ton of money getting everything ready to race this season but I may need the money to help get this moving along faster. I don't know if I should just let things be as they are now and keep going to the track and not refinance or sell. Should I do the what is smart (is it really?) and sell the house or refinance and buy the extra lots around me? Here is the layout of my road and the land that is in question. The blue is what I wanted to buy originally but the blue and red together is what I would have to buy to prevent duplexes going in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheech Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 It sounds to me like you've already made your mind up, you want to move. At the price he bought it for, I don't imagine he's going to sell the land for less than 900 a lot, so that means you're going to have to come up with $15,300 in order to ensure that duplexes will never be built onsite, and then you'll have to pay the taxes on all that land as long as you hold it. Not to mention at some point you're going to want to sell the house and the land, and who's going to want to buy a single family house with 17 lots?As far as closing costs go, tack on 6% of the home price, and another 3K on top just for bank fees. I'm probably overestimating, but better to have it budgeted than get caught with your pants down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moto-Brian Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 Good luck buying that much land around you. Who's to say that the lots to the right in that pic do not get duplexes built? I would say you will have a pretty hefty bill in buying those lots. Especially if the guy is a typical land buyer who will either sell the whole to a guy that puts up spec homes or duplexes. If you wanna buy, best find out how much as he certainly isn't (I would never expect him to, either) going to sell them to you at anywhere near $600 even per lot... I'd suspect that if I counted correctly, there are 17-18 lots. Best to expect he will sell them at 2-3 lots per sale to accommodate a home similar to what you have. If that's the case, I'd suspect that he'd sell the 2-3 sections as a whole for about $20-$30k-ish. All depends on the area, how much is going up around you and by the pics, looks to be a good bit. I'd say you better think in the realm of $120-$200k plus...That head of your CBR isn't going to cost much to repair... I'd say sell your house and find a place out in the country and try that. Or, at least buy that small section beside you to prevent another house to be built right on top of you like the one currently is...The area beside you isn't even a 1/2 acre so, it is really small. But attractive for smaller homes and duplexes. I'd say he could get that into two sections at $20k each... So, $40k for what is beside you and really, $80k ish for what is across from you...Get on Ebay and find a good used motor. Take the head off, send to Reuben to get done and slap it together. Or, get the whole thing done by Reuben and be done with it. Take that money you'd get from selling your joy and don't worry about it. It is chicken feed for what you'd have to pay for that series of lots... Then again, you may be in an area where it is not really growing and suitable for building right now. If so, you probably could bargain a bit, but I'd be amazed if you got all of it under $100k... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moto-Brian Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 It sounds to me like you've already made your mind up, you want to move. At the price he bought it for, I don't imagine he's going to sell the land for less than 900 a lot, so that means you're going to have to come up with $15,300 in order to ensure that duplexes will never be built onsite, and then you'll have to pay the taxes on all that land as long as you hold it. Not to mention at some point you're going to want to sell the house and the land, and who's going to want to buy a single family house with 17 lots?As far as closing costs go, tack on 6% of the home price, and another 3K on top just for bank fees. I'm probably overestimating, but better to have it budgeted than get caught with your pants down.You really think it would be that low in a groomed and prepped to build area? 1 Acre lots are about $20-$30k+ without being cut up... I'd say smaller to where a spec house could be built would pull $15k per area (2 lots for example)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyler524 Posted June 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 You really think it would be that low in a groomed and prepped to build area? 1 Acre lots are about $20-$30k+ without being cut up... I'd say smaller to where a spec house could be built would pull $15k per area (2 lots for example)...The guy already told me he isn't interested in selling out parcels. It will either be everything next to me possibly or all of it. He is the samw guy that owns all of the duplexes behind me. This is a small town of only about 3500 people and this is about the nicest part of the town. The neighborhood is a mix of old and new houses. It is a pretty cheap area as far as home prices. I am not real close to any large cities except Findlay and Bowling Geen which are still smaller. All the lots are grown ans look like fields. Three lota are all trees. There are no utilities across the street either. 10k ia about what I would offer. I would parcel them out myself at 2-3 parcels at a rime Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jporter12 Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 No idea until you know how much he wants to get for the land. I say move, ASAP... To somewhere with some squiggly lines on the map! Wow! That area looks like it would be boring for motorcycles! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monstrosity Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 Sell while you can! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APCh8r Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 I say sell and take care of your life priorities, you can always get back to riding when finances are appropriate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheech Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 You really think it would be that low in a groomed and prepped to build area? 1 Acre lots are about $20-$30k+ without being cut up... I'd say smaller to where a spec house could be built would pull $15k per area (2 lots for example)...I've got no frame of reference for this kinda thing, I was just going off what he said the county appraisal was: $900/lot. You're probably right though, something that's already been cut down and has utilities already ran to it will probably fetch more money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madcat6183 Posted June 2, 2012 Report Share Posted June 2, 2012 I say sell and take care of your life priorities, you can always get back to riding when finances are appropriate.Thread closed. Life is first dude, track is second. KTMBrian had a great writeup in your "How do you pay for trackdays and racing" thread with the same info. If you have some CCD bills, and your house isn't finished, you need to get that shit in line first, then worry about moving/refinancing. I can tell you lending has gotten a shit ton more strict these days, finding a buyer, buying, selling, refinancing etc. ain't what it used to be. I know because I do this daily and have for almost 10 years. I've been there for both market situations, sellers and buyers market.It sounds like you know what you want, and how you have to get there. We are in the same boat somewhat, but luckily I have 2 lots that my house is on, and was able to put a huge pulloff for my enclosed and truck to park on this year.At the same time, we will be moving in the next 5 years and want a min. of 5 acres, maybe more. Building on it or built on it, and a ranch. We know what we want, so we are making the decisions and upgrades to our house now in order to get there in 5 years.Like Nick said, take care of life, the track will be there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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