Okay, so now we've zeroed in on where we want to live. Now what? The real estate market is insanity, so competitive, and oh yeah - land in our area is either: 1. Already built on 2. Not for sale 3. Too expensive, and last but not least, 4. Low / wetlands. But we aren't taking no for an answer!
You can read about our land wishlist here. As my Dad said to me when I had this approach, "when you want something so specific, make your own fate." In other words, make that shit happen. Don't be someone that just waits and sees what comes up on the market.
Here was my plan of attack:
Set up an auto search for that exact area and our criteria, to notify us instantly. *Tip: If you've narrowed down your area well enough, I highly suggest the instant alerts, especially in a competitive real estate market. Discuss this with your agent. Many agents just have the emails come to you once a day at a certain time, not instant.
Drive the back roads - I spent maybe 4 days doing this, roughly 5 hours at a time. Pretty much going 5mph down dirt roads lol. It's best to do this with a partner, if you'll be marking properties on your phone
Drop a pin - mark down whatever looks like vacant land or a (cheaper) house on it, that seemed to have privacy and a good view/hills. I didn't bother with the really nice houses because my goal is to build and that would be a shame and too expensive to teardown a nice house lol
While driving around and seeing people out and about, stop to ask neighbors about the area, if they know anyone considering selling, and provide my contact info
Keep eyes peeled for 'For Sale By Owner' properties
When returning home, use Apple Maps to tell me what the address was at that location
Check public records (I used my MLS system. You could use Zillow, county databases, or ask your agent) to understand the size of the lot. We decided we wanted roughly 10 acres
Check those addresses against any other factors important (nearby power lines, cell towers, farms, etc.)
With that list, send letters to the property owners. (More on that below)
Depending on responses, start back at #2 and repeat! Maybe there were some back roads I may have missed the first time, or I can increase the search radius
In doing this method, I was able to rule out really 'pretty' parcels that were just way too small for us (1-2 acres). They were gorgeous, but helped narrow down the list.
I also had the opportunity to talk to several kind neighbors while they were outside, which whom I passed my card along. I did not, however, get any calls of people wanting to sell as a result of this.
There was only one For Sale By Owner, and upon calling, I realized the property was again too small for us, and actually near power lines.
So I narrowed down my list to 18 properties. Not all perfect, though. They were all off-market properties. Some had houses on them (higher investment cost for us as it would be a tear-down). Some needed us to buy a neighboring parcel to get to the goal of 10 acres, while other parcels were nearly 60 acres, thus requiring a split.
I was not about to send 18 letters, though lol. So I picked my top 6 and started with that. I have the list in my phone with the remaining 12 addresses. The letters read the message below:
Dear owner(s) of the property [address],
My name is Katy, and my husband is Kody. We have been married for three years and grew up in [nearby location]. We work at [company] - my husband as a Technician, studying to be an Engineer, and I am an Engineer. We’ve been doing a lot of soul searching where we want to put down roots, build our forever home amongst nature, and start a family. We briefly lived in [location], and currently reside in [location] saving money to build our dream home.
With all of that said! We have been looking for years which area we want to build and fell in love with the hills, trees, and location of [location] area. We’ve been driving all of the backroads in an attempt to find land, even off-market ones that people still have in their possession. I’m reaching out in an attempt to see if you’d consider selling a portion of your property [or all of property - dependent on address' acreage]. It would be well taken care of, with the intent to build our forever home while maintaining and preserving all the nature and trees that we can. What’s more, I earned my real estate license this year so I’d be happy to say this could help you avoid paying full commission to two realtors.
We’d love to talk more if you are interested. I know this came out of the blue so you may not be interested at all. Our personal email and my phone number is below if you would ever be interested to sell or even let us walk the property. Or even if you can point us to someone else who has land that may consider selling! Even if it’s a year or so down the road, I hope you keep us in mind.
Sincerely,
[Signed]
Katy & Kody
[Phone & Email]
So there you have it! The outcome of that was one of the property owners said we could go look at his property that was 58 acres! He was interested in selling so we were able to see it before it hit the market.
In addition to the 18 properties, upon my trips to the area, I found lots of state land with random houses amongst it. This made no sense to me. Did these people buy their lot before the state did? I did do some research to see if there was any way to make an offer on a portion of state land. We could even do less than 10 acres in that case, given all the woods we'd have around us. Here's what I found out after talking to the DNR Real Estate Services team:
Here is the application to purchase state land in Michigan, with a $300 non-refundable fee (ouch!). I called the DNR region supervisor where the land resides, to get an understanding if i's worth a try. He said given the state land in that region is not an outlier or landlocked portion that the state wouldn't mind getting rid of, the chances are extremely low they'd sell it. They have, however, done some trading incentives from our conversation, but obviously we have no land to trade lol.
Another option is to attend one of the state land auctions, and can also search their database for current listings. For Michigan, you can find this information on their state website here.
*TIP: Instead of including your criteria in a search over general areas, zero in on your ideal area and really get to know it. Drive the back roads and subdivisions. Talk to people out and about if anyone is interested to sell. Hand out your card. Write letters to people whose houses are not up for sale. Dig deep into that specific area, instead of the "wait and see" method of what comes on the market in your broader region.
With all of that said, we are continuing to push forward despite few listings on the market. I hope this helps you find land or a home if you are in a similar low inventory situation!
You can watch our land search on YouTube here:
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