Hello all!
I had a post about a month ago on this subreddit:
That a few people have expressed an interest in an update to.
I did all the legwork required to go through with the purchase (talked to a banker and pre-approved a loan, etc) and then had my realtor reach out to the owner of the property to discuss.
As I somewhat expected, he was tough to get ahold of. Realtor ended up going to his house in a town about 40 minutes from here to get ahold of him as the number we had didn't seem to be any good. Long and short of it: He's not interested in selling unless it's "For the right price" which he wouldn't say what that was, kept saying "Give me a number and I'll give you an answer". Prior to this I had established my ground rules - I wasn't willing to pay more than 30k for the lot, though I'd prefer to be closer to 20-25. I said "25k" and he said double it, and we agreed we were too far apart.
He was reasonable, and understood my reasoning behind wanting to buy it to keep it empty, and knew it was not currently worth what he wanted but since he owned it outright he'd just hold onto it and wait for it to mature.
In the end, he agreed to sign a lease for $1 a month so that I can have use of the lot - with the understanding that I don't make any changes, I'm just responsible for mowing the grass, and I can put a play structure on it if I like. I also have right of first refusal when he does decide to sell - we signed a 3-year lease that's got a 2-month notice and no penalty for ending early.
I talked to my agent and the property is included in my umbrella policy, so I'm covered there.
So, in the end, I have the peace of mind that I want that it'll stay empty for the foreseeable future, and I don't have to spend a bunch of money. All-in-all, I think it worked out well.
Thanks for all the answers and insights on the original post!
Quick edit: I did in also speak with my city administrator about the park situation/option - the lot is too small for what the city considers reasonable for a park, and they have future expansion plans in the current cornfields/future development area behind my house to include a park there as one of the cities goals is to have a park within 1/4 mile of everyone, and my closest one is almost 3/4 of a mile away now.
Submitted May 31, 2017 at 04:14PM by SunnyinMN http://ift.tt/2so9VSw
