Don’t make these mistakes when buying land!
My husband and I have been married for over 10 years. About every 2 (or less) years we have moved while taking advantage of new opportunities. One of the newest changes includes buying 5 acres of property with my in-laws in hopes of building a multi-generational home together. We’ve owned our 5 acres for three years and are actively selling it. Don’t make the same mistakes we did while choosing land!
Mistake #1: Timing, don’t jump the gun on big changes
We bought our 5-acre property with my in-laws in June 2020. With the housing market increasing, my husband and I sold our house in November of 2020. We thought we might as well sell while the market is high since we have a lot to build on. Our plan was to live in an apartment (that was half the size of our house) with our two kiddos for about a year then we would move into my in-laws’ guest house. As it turned out the housing market continued to increase and plans shifted keeping us in our apartment. We have been in our apartment for about 3 years and are expected to stay for at least 1 ½ more years.
When we sold our house, we knew the traditional apartment setting was not for us, so we felt fortunate to find a triplex that met our needs. It came with an attached single garage and a shared yard with some raised flower beds. We are grateful for the yard space we do have, however staying in our larger house with a private yard (without picking up the neighbor’s dogs’ poop) would have been more pleasant. While there are benefits of selling our house when we did (see below), we could have easily sold it for $100k more if we had sat on it even six months longer…hopefully we won’t make that mistake again.
Mistake #2: How difficult and time-consuming it is to tame the land
Our land is just beautiful and that is why we bought it, plus the location is great. We are in a mini valley surrounded by minor hills with some larger ones in the distance. All of the surrounding properties are also 5 acres so there are no close neighbors. Our parcel backs up to 100 +/- acres of wilderness that is owned by one of our neighbors. There are deer, quail, foxes, turkeys, and even a family of bears roaming the area. While lovely to look at, it has been a labor of love (for my husband and his dad).
When we purchased the parcel, it easily had over a hundred early, woody brush/shrub/tree starts in the middle of the flat section. About half our acreage is flat and about ¾ of the hill has poison oak tangled throughout overgrown brush, oaks, and firs. We also discovered the surrounding hills’ water runoff goes right through our property creating standing water in multiple sections- an easy mistake to miss when you buy in the summer.
The men cut down a handful of scraggly oaks on the right and tamed the valley that was starting to become a bushy forest. They also created multiple, long trenches filled with rocks to direct the water which has been successful!
My husband and his parents are all very sensitive to poison oak. My father-in-law has received the brunt of the poison oak because he’s been the main one working on the tractor using the brush hog. The poison oak has lessened up, but every time my poor father-in-law goes, he gets it. We have thought if we end up keeping the land, we will hire a company to professionally remove it.
Mistake #3: Compromising on HOAs/praying to see if the rules are deal breakers
When we first purchased the land, I did not think I’d be too bothered by the HOA’s rules. It mostly seems like they don’t want to have hobby farms. It means no cows, pigs or donkeys, and fowl. Even though keeping chickens is a dream of mine, I figured I could be a flower farmer instead. Plus the amount of space our kids could play would make up for the lack of animals.
Along with the animal restrictions, there are also restrictions on the house itself and we are not able to temporarily live on the property while we build our future home. A part of the HOA rules includes you have to finish your home within 2 years of breaking ground so that means that we would not be able to do very much of the work ourselves and we have to be very careful about what we work on so that way it’s not considered “breaking ground”.
It didn’t seem like a big compromise with the CCRs, but I had a shift in lifestyle desire to raise our own meat. I’d also like the kids to participate in 4H or be able to foster animals for the local shelters.
Now that we covered the mistakes, there have been some blessings we have discovered along the way.
Blessing #1
Our land loan is great for our situation. It starts as a land loan, can transform into a construction loan, and then eventually a mortgage. The reason why we chose this particular type of loan was because it had a lower percent down and it was a local community bank. The downside of this loan though was that after 5 years the interest rate would become variable instead of fixed. Even with the eventual variable interest rate, the initial rate was so much lower than the local competitors.
Blessing #2
In the process of figuring out life, we decided I would stay home with our children instead of working. This is no mistake. I had been working as a licensed practical nurse for 7 years and childcare became expensive and difficult to find. I was only working part-time, it felt stressful and our children are only going to be little for so long. I’m so grateful to have my husband support me as I have transitioned to staying at home. If we did not sell our house, financially this would not have been able to happen. However, if I had continued working full time we could already be halfway done building our house…oof! This is where prayer and discernment come into play, do what is best for your family in your situation!
We could be content (and very happy) where our land is and that was what the plan was going to be, mistakes and all. But then we saw a beautiful 1930s house on 3 acres in a neighboring community with no HOA! Technically two lots are being sold together and also have a manufactured house… and we are expected to close on it in about a month! PRAISE THE LORD! The current plan is to have my in-laws live in the main house with us and have my father-in-law’s mother from Tennessee live in the manufactured house- 4 generations on one property! The 1930s house is closer to a few of my family’s houses and it won’t really make a difference on my husband’s commute to work. The original mistake of 5 acres is still for sale and we are praying it sells soon.
Our plan sounded and looked wonderful, BUT God’s plan is always better. Whatever mistakes you make, God can always redeem them. Have you made land-buying mistakes?? What is something you had considered when purchasing?
Blessings,
Heather
