Floyd's identical twin Lloyd Smith was the second brother to visit the Albuquerque area a few weeks ago. Lloyd has a dream of one day having a "home on the range" somewhere outside the Albuquerque city limits. It will be a two step process - buy a parcel of land now and build his dream home later when the stock market and his 401k recovers somewhat. While watching his budget, Lloyd plans to buy an old mobile home (one that has already depreciated extensively), or a newer one that is in foreclosure, and live in it during the preparation and construction of his permanent home. Besides running a few cows, Lloyd may also plant agricultural crops or inexpensive, small trees on the land to generate some income to help pay the bills. As we started the process, I wanted to make sure Lloyd understood the importance of due diligence before the final closing in order to "land" the best deal. To help Lloyd along, we sat down and generated a check list to go by as we visited available properties.
1. Always buy land in the direction that growth in the nearest large town or city in headed. That way, if you should ever want to sell for maximum profit, all you have to do is simply wait for the growth to arrive and become established.
2. Land near a river or lake will undoubtedly remain among the most desirable to future purchasers.
3. Raw (unimproved) land is almost always cheaper than improved (cleared) land, but it will cost a great deal of money to clear the parcel. Ideally, if you can find improved land for the same money or less than similar raw land values, the improved land becomes a great deal.
4. Research the history of the area surrounding your land very carefully. You don't want to buy land next to an area that was once a toxic waste dump!
5. Make sure that electricity, phone service, cable, and water and sewer are available to the property. If water and sewer are not available, you will need to make sure that a well can be built and a septic system installed.
6. If you are going to bring water and sewer lines to the property, always have a feasibility study performed. A land feasibility study is done to evaluate and determine the suitability of the soils realtive to the land where an on-site sewage system is to be employed.
7. It is also important to have an appraisal, survey and flood certification done for the property, as part of your pre-closing due diligence.
Lloyd has started negotiations on his green acre dream and I am so happy for him. It is such a rewarding feeling of self satisfaction to watch someone achieve a dream that perhaps they have worked for all their life.
Oh, there's one more Smith brother to come sometime in the next couple of weeks. I understand Boyd to be somewhat of a musician but I have no idea of exactly what genre to expect.
Let me make your realty dreams a reality - Alice C Smith