A different land buying question

VortecJeep

VortecJeep

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Aug 24, 2005
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Concord, NC
The lot beside us empty. We want to buy it. The current owner and I have agreed on a price.
I plan to pay cash. No realtor involved.
I’ve never bought real estate with cash before. Do I just contact a real estate attorney and have the attorney do all the paperwork? What closing costs would be involved?
 
We sold our old house without any realtors from either side. You just need an attorney who does real estate law. I think it cost a few hundred bucks. ZERO realtor fees!!!!
 
I would also suggest getting a survey if your neighbor does not have a fairly recent certified copy of one. It may be a couple hundred bucks but worth it if there is ever a dispute over boundaries with adjacent landowners. But otherwise, good for you.
 
VortecJeep said:
The lot beside us empty. We want to buy it. The current owner and I have agreed on a price.
I plan to pay cash. No realtor involved.
I’ve never bought real estate with cash before. Do I just contact a real estate attorney and have the attorney do all the paperwork? What closing costs would be involved?
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Closing cost will be your attorney fees--between $300-600 most likely being a cash sale, title insurance--maybe 200 and possibly survey. The lawyer and title company should tell you if they think a survey is really needed, its not a bad idea either way.
 
If there's no bank involved, and you really know the history of the land, technically you can even skip the title insurance. IMO that's the biggest racket ever. It's just insurance against somebody else laying claim to the property. So if for instance the seller is the original owner or its been in the family for 100 years, it's kind of a moot point.

Get a survey unless one has been done recently. It will be useful if you decide to join the lots together.
 
Get title insurance.


If there is an old lien on the property the owner hasn’t told you about (whether he knows it or not), it’s now your responsibility. At least also consider an environmental assessment. You sure as hell unknowingly don’t want to buy some really old hazardous waste dump site. Looks can be deceiving. I come across 2-4’ diameter trees in a heavily wooded forest daily and unless you knew, you would have no idea it was a waste disposal site in the past.

A couple hundred $ can save your ass one hell of a headache.
 
RatLabGuy said:
If there's no bank involved, and you really know the history of the land, technically you can even skip the title insurance. IMO that's the biggest racket ever. It's just insurance against somebody else laying claim to the property. So if for instance the seller is the original owner or its been in the family for 100 years, it's kind of a moot point.

Get a survey unless one has been done recently. It will be useful if you decide to join the lots together.
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You know I probably disagree with this post 180 degrees.
Title insurance is a damn must to me. Then again I live and invest in a county that the Catawba Indians have on going federal law suits claiming ownership rights back to pre-Columbus days. Know your area.The other thing is, you can run into some funky old claim deeds. Ive got a piece of property I own that has been in court for 18 months because the son-in-law of the former adjacent parcel owner has a written note from 1972 that was filed with a magistrate (allegedly) that prior to sale he had right of first refusal and that since that didnt happen he wants his property back at what I paid for it. Thankfully he didnt call claim to any income during the probate period so I keep on renting it and collecting my money. But what if you wanted to live there and had built a structure there.

Survey, meh - who cares. Unless there is a special significant milestone I really dont care if my line is 2 feet on your property or vice versa. Worst case scenario adverse possesion is going to win the day anyway.
 
A bank won’t lend $ without title insurance, why would you want to take that risk to save a couple hundred $?

On second thought, I have some land I’ll sell you, it may or may not have a lien on it worth twice the land value from a random construction company, which is owned by my wife... :D

But by all means, skip the title insurance because it will save you $300. :D
 
I said only if you really know the history.
I happily paid for it when I bought my house, even though it was from the original builder who was the subdivider who bought the land in '67, before that it was unused open land in the middle of nowhere for... who knows how long. County had no records before that. Not much opportunity for error there. Remember, you pay a different fee for the lawyer to do the title search and first ensure that it's clean.
Then when I re-financed I was forced to buy title insurance again. THAT is frustrating. It's the same house, title, everything, nothing had changed, including the owner (ME) in the 3 prior years. That's where the racket is.
But I get it. It's the bank's investment, they want to ensure there's no chance of a problem with it.
 
I’m doing title insurance, but not a new survey. It adjoins my property, so I’ve found 2 of the stakes already. It won’t be hard to find the other two.
 
A proper survey is more than locating lines and stakes. It involves checking all the adjacent properties to make sure there aren't adverse claims. Not uncommon to find that the property next door has a deed that says half your land belongs to them. I see it all the time.
 
Getting the land surveyed normally costs $85, get it done.
 
We get about 10 a week, but I’ve got the plot plans already.
 
shawn said:
A proper survey is more than locating lines and stakes. It involves checking all the adjacent properties to make sure there aren't adverse claims. Not uncommon to find that the property next door has a deed that says half your land belongs to them. I see it all the time.
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Do you see that in subdivisions? I’ll admit I’m ignorant on the subject, but isn’t that what title insurance is for?
 
I had to haul off from a Farm that was up for sale once. Neighbor got mad that He couldn't but the place, & told EPA the owner had buried asbestos there. All the white haz-mat suits came out, dug around & Yes, found where and old wood building had been buried. Found a few Minor traces of asbestos. So, basically to Please the neighbor, some had to be hauled off. Dump trailers, lined with poly, loaded, covered with poly & taped closed, water truck to keep any dust down, & a lot of BS. We hauled 6 loads to a Certified landfill, & dumped it on Their ground, with the poly splitting open, spilling out & No body Cared! It's BS. EPA Engineer at the Farm site said there wasn't enough there nor Prof, but he was Required to take Some action, just to make a good scene. He Had to answer the neighbors complaint! Of course the old Farmer Didn't note a dump or burial site, on the property. Just shit that can happen.
 
Ron said:
Survey, meh - who cares. Unless there is a special significant milestone I really dont care if my line is 2 feet on your property or vice versa. Worst case scenario adverse possesion is going to win the day anyway.
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I hope my local county thinks the same
Thing about the property that is beside mine that they got after the flood. Part of My driveway is at least 2 feet over and the shotty railroad tie retaining wall is falling and when I replace it I’m putting the new wall right where the railroad ties were. It’s a gamble I guess but they gotta pay someone to mow it so what’s 2 less feet that have to mow and they can’t do anything with it for x amount of years and I plan to have sold by then



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VortecJeep said:
Do you see that in subdivisions? I’ll admit I’m ignorant on the subject, but isn’t that what title insurance is for?
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As said, title insurance won't help you here. All TI does is get you out of an unexpected debt from a lien by having somebody else foot the bill and/or fight it. The insurance doesn't prevent or block issues... it only pays for somebody else to deal with it (pretty much like auto collision insurance)
Keep in mind in boundary disputes like this, both people likely have title insurance and are going to argue that theirs is the correct one ;-)
 
Matt just call an attorney they will walk you through it.
Since y'all are talking about title insurance I've got a question. I've kinda stepped up my game a little and have my largest investment ever under contract which is set to close in about two weeks. There is no question I will get title insurance but the question is how much do I purchase?
Do I just purchase enough for the amount I've invested or do I buy enough to cover my final projected sale price? Keep in mind I'm hoping to own the property only 3-4 months.
 
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