We are SO happy to share that our offer got accepted!!!
This comes after weeks of thoughtful discussions as a couple, persistence with the selling agent, and careful negotiation.
Some things we did before making an offer included:
Visiting the land the same day it hit the market; developing immediate communication with listing agent
Thorough discussions as a couple - asking each other "if I wasn't in the picture, what would you do?" to make sure we're on the right track
Wrote down exact finances on a timeline (down payment on the property, monthly property payments, making income at the same time and what's left for the house and pole barn budget. Comparing that to what local builders provide for rough price per square foot calculation) ---- this was critical in knowing what we were comfortable spending for the land. *TIP: Don't lose sight of the end goal!! MAKE SURE you are doing these long term calculations over a timeline to see the whole picture. Include monthly expenses, income, and even consider separate costs like the home landscaping, architect, etc. surrounding your build
Visited property (again) with a trusted family member and local building professionals
Notify our lender of offer amount to obtain pre-approval letter *TIP: As ALWAYS, make sure you are pre-approved prior to looking at properties so you are not scrambling, and know what you can afford!
State of Michigan has an online tool to help calculate what your property taxes would be, which we evaluated as well. This is based off taxable home value. I was so confused asking my lender "but this value isn't the same thing as the construction budget? Why would we pay taxes on the costs to dig a hole for the basement?" *TIP: If you are planning to build and wondering what taxes would be post-construction, my lender provided a rule of thumb that you'd use roughly half the cost of the construction budget for this property tax calculation.
We were decisive, went with our gut, and are SO grateful this is ours. We were also so grateful the sellers were convinced enough by our letter to split the properties and sell it to us. In a seller's market!!! They totally could have found someone else if they waited, but they chose to sell to us and we are so grateful. After months of seeing signs like 11:11, we heard back the sellers wanted to do our deal on January 11!!! It was wild lol and Kody had a hunch we'd hear back that day after days of waiting.
You can read more about our contingencies here, but basically the main negotiation was surrounding my commission as a realtor. I was happy to still end up with some commission instead of waiving it, and are putting the funds toward the survey and split process we decided to pay for.
Now it is time to really study the property in this due diligence period (we have 45 days!). You can watch our video below. Woohoo!!!
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