How did you find...

[KatieMae]

Your "diamond in the rough?"

See, here's the story.
My boyfriend and I, who are bound to get married, are starting to look into houses with property for a horse or 2 (more than likely 2) while he is still eligible for a VA loan...
Since the Real Estate market is so bad right now, I figured, what better time to start looking into this stuff?? Especially because I've been longing for a horse again...

I've come across 2 so far that could make nice homes..
But so far, that's all I've come across...
But I know for a fact that there are SEVERAL homes for sale in the area I'd like to live...
So tell me, guys.. How did you find your properties?

[tlcasel]

My husband and I just drove and drove and drove. We tried to drive around all the areas we were interested in and some that we thought were going to be a little to far out. It seems that a lot of folks in the country sell their houses themselves. We ended up finding a lot of "house for sale" signs, no realtors (save money that way, no realtor fees). I think the market is starting to pick up a bit. I would think you wouldn't have a problem finding anything now... especially with all the foreclosures. I've got 3 just in my neighborhood.

BTW: We ended getting land that I thought was going to be to far out.... now I want farther.

Good luck!!

[texas sassy]

Ha!! Katie, if you and your boyfriend can survive house-shopping you are truly compatible and should get married. This is one of those things that is fun at first, but....... You just have to be persistant. Our first house was horse property, and we found it through a flyer at the local feed store. Our house we live in now I scoured the internet. Find several websites, keep in touch w/ a realtor--although ours did not help us find our recent house, or sell our old house--, look in the classified ads. This is my firm rule on any home improvements though "Twice as much, twice as long as you expect." Make sure you can afford your "diamond in the rough" because w/ an older house especially, you start to fix one thing, and uncover a whole mess of other problems!! Good luck and just keep trying, you will find one.

[KatieMae]

Originally Posted by tlcasel

My husband and I just drove and drove and drove. We tried to drive around all the areas we were interested in and some that we thought were going to be a little to far out. It seems that a lot of folks in the country sell their houses themselves. We ended up finding a lot of "house for sale" signs, no realtors (save money that way, no realtor fees). I think the market is starting to pick up a bit. I would think you wouldn't have a problem finding anything now... especially with all the foreclosures. I've got 3 just in my neighborhood.

BTW: We ended getting land that I thought was going to be to far out.... now I want farther.

Good luck!!

Oh I'd love to avoid dealing with a realtor... Just trying to RENT a house was bad enough with the realtors... 100's of houses for Rent, and every single realtor we went to we had walked away from due to lack of communication, horrible people skills, etc... So I'm definitely hoping to stumble across a "For sale by owner" type of deal... But just driving through the areas we'd like to live in, there are hundreds of houses for sale... It's just a matter of finding what we really want, with the land to go with it... And, I figure if I limit the land I buy, I'll have to limit the horses I buy But we've already decided on 2-3.. 1 show horse for myself, 1 trail horse for my boyfriend, and 1 open stall for what may come our way.

Originally Posted by texas sassy

Ha!! Katie, if you and your boyfriend can survive house-shopping you are truly compatible and should get married. This is one of those things that is fun at first, but....... You just have to be persistant. Our first house was horse property, and we found it through a flyer at the local feed store. Our house we live in now I scoured the internet. Find several websites, keep in touch w/ a realtor--although ours did not help us find our recent house, or sell our old house--, look in the classified ads. This is my firm rule on any home improvements though "Twice as much, twice as long as you expect." Make sure you can afford your "diamond in the rough" because w/ an older house especially, you start to fix one thing, and uncover a whole mess of other problems!! Good luck and just keep trying, you will find one.

LOL.. Heck, just making it through RENTING a house was bad enough... At the time we were looking to rent, everybody must have figured out the same thing we did: Renting a house is cheaper than renting an apartment in most cases... We had 2 houses we adored slipped right out from under us... Trust me, I pulled some hair out after that one... Once we found a house we liked, I took the papers home and filled them out within 20 minutes... Once we moved in, I jumped into my boyfriend's arms with joy... So I can't wait to see how house buying turns out! But yes, I'm keeping the repairs and remodels in my thoughts, as well as the future fencing needs, etc. Trying not to find a terribly older house, either.. of the 2 I've found thus far, one was built in 1973, one built in 2002... It's just a matter of actually looking at them, and seeing what's been kept up, what hasn't, what needs fixing, what doesn't... And I must say, the 1973 house looks like it's been kept in immaculate condition... But the 2002 house already has 3 stalls and fencing on the property... Oh, the decisions!!!

[tlcasel]

I think this is when you learn the meaning of "patience" But when you wait for that perfect "diamond in the rough" you'll know it and it will be worth it. I see potential in everything... some more than others but there's always potential. My husband and I planned on buying land and then building 3 years later.... we bought land in 3 months and moved into our house we built 10 months later.

[texas sassy]

We lost a few also--but it all turned out OK in the end. Just stay flexible!!!

[KatieMae]

Originally Posted by texas sassy

We lost a few also--but it all turned out OK in the end. Just stay flexible!!!

Oh don't worry... I'm not as picky about houses as I am horses... At least you can change the color of the carpet in a house... You can't, however, change the color of your horse

Originally Posted by tlcasel

I think this is when you learn the meaning of "patience" But when you wait for that perfect "diamond in the rough" you'll know it and it will be worth it. I see potential in everything... some more than others but there's always potential.

LOL I must see potential in everything, too...
The first good listing I found, I sat here and imagined the potential set up..
"Okay, well, since the house can't be moved... The drive way goes here, an arena goes here, barn here, and the rest is 2 paddocks!" Is that a bad thing?!!

[texas sassy]

Nope it is always good to plan ahead. My husband nixed several houses because they didn't have a TV wall

[SunnyKS]

My hubby found our current house while serving warrants to the lady renting the house. Did his first walk-through several months later on drug bust. He kept in touch in with the owner (who happened to be the suspects family member). He told her that we didn't want to rent but if she was ever ready to sale give us a call. Not sure that would work for you though.

[KatieMae]

Originally Posted by texas sassy

Nope it is always good to plan ahead. My husband nixed several houses because they didn't have a TV wall

Shhhhh!!! Don't give the boyfriend ideas!! LOL

Originally Posted by SunnyKS

My hubby found our current house while serving warrants to the lady renting the house. Did his first walk-through several months later on drug bust. He kept in touch in with the owner (who happened to be the suspects family member). He told her that we didn't want to rent but if she was ever ready to sale give us a call. Not sure that would work for you though.

Oh wow! Now THATS an interesting story!! haha... No, Don't think that'd ever work for us... I mean, sure. If I wasn't horse crazy I could probably do rent-to-own deal with my current house... But my boyfriend says the living room isn't big enough for his 56" tv.... Sheesh..

[pippy]

My husband bought the land we live on 14 years ago to farm, because it butted up against his dad's which they both farm together. In 2006 we built our site on it and we've been working to create our home ever since

[soft rider]

Drive through the locations you are interested, I have also found many people in the country try to sale the house themselves, rather than pay a realator.

I found mine on FSBO (forsalebuyowner.com)

[lbequ4002]

I'm still working on my rough diamond. It's been an interesting experience that's for sure.
First of all I'd start with your state tax sale. Call the county courthouse of wherever it is you want to live or several of them and ask for a list. You can get information on the property and what the state will sell it for. Not a really good hit often but every once in awhile you'll be the first to find something. Most sales are in may but you can buy sometimes at a "private sale" type of thing. Your individual state and county can give you more info on how to buy.

Next I'd check out foreclosures in your area. I know the website for my state but not yours but i'm sure if you do some web searching you can find the list (don't pay for it those sites are not the state site.) Lots of homes are given priority to someone who is going to be living in the home as their primary residence to give people like you a chance instead of a flipper. they love VA loans too.

then i'd put an ad out in craigslist and your local newspaper for what you want. Don't put a price range. Lots of people will sell for what they have left on their mortgage instead of go through foreclosure. make sure you use a real estate lawyer if you're paying off a mortgage or doing a transaction like this.

next contact a real estate agent and tell them what you are looking for. Most don't charge the buyer anything it usually comes out of the seller's pocket and the buying agent and selling agent split it. Also many times a real estate agent will know what's about to hit the market and although they aren't suppossed to might know about how much price play the seller has. In this market they should try to wine and dine you since a sale is few a far between.
check out the mls (multiple listing website) for your area. anything that's listed with a real estate agent has to be on there. Look at just land too. That's how I found mine. Vacant land is usually more expensive per acre than if you buy a house/land combo. Mine said just land and there were 3 half finished houses on it. It was a developer who was going bankrupt and we got a steal.
Of course look at all those want ad things, newspapers, craigslist etc.

good luck. there's always a deal out there if you know where to look.

[barrelracer94]

We searched and searhed for a place, but never found one we "really" liked. We boarded our horses at a stable and always rode down the street to their other property. We always went right by this practicaly abandoned property. Well, we found out the owner had died a few years back, & his family didn't want it. So we bought it, cleaned it up, (used to be a car junkyard ), and built our dream house. The barn was there, we put in stalls & some fences, then turned out great!

[Texas Paints N Arabs]

We found ours by boarding with the people that owned it. They got ready to retire and we told them we were interested in purchasing the place. Never even went on the market. Of course the first week of being here I cried everyday and wanted to sell it! Turns out the older couple that we bought it from didn't believe in pest control so we had rats in the attic!!! One of my first calls was a pest control company! The house still needs updates but we lucked into what we have that is for sure!

[jtfer1968]

Yes, we drove and drove around the areas we were interested in and finally found our property and built our house. Good luck with your search.

[equine.trailrider]

We looked at the farm we currently have while it was on the market. The owner was not willing to negotiate on anything so we moved on to look further. She took the farm off the market.
We made an offer that was accepted on anther farm and proceeded to go through the lending process. We got a call in the mean time that the house we originally wanted was being offered to us at our original terms. We declined. We chose a bad mortgage lender who we didn't know at the time the bottom was falling out on! We were officially approved but they couldn't get us to closing for some stupid reason after stupid reason. We took it as a sign that it wasn't meant to be and went looking again.
We went back to original farm and ended up buying it at reasonable terms. She also left us a lot of stuff we could use.

[crittermom]

I like looking on realtor.com

[KatieMae]

Thanks for all the imput you guys...
We've found a few houses we like that have land attached...
But one has officially stuck out to me, and I can NOT, for the life of me, get it out of my head....

It's an ADOREABLE 2 story house, at the end of a dead end street...
It's placed off of the road a little, so you can't quite see it from the road, WHICH, I love.
The house has a metal roof, red in color with red shutters to match.
It sits on close to 2 acres of land, which most of the land is behind the house... Another plus to me.
Did I mention the ENORMOUS oak trees? OHH My goodness!! They're LOVELY.

Now, the down side is that it IS a fixer-upper...
But, looking through the windows of the house, fixer upper to me says the previous owners didn't feel like cleaning the house before they left..
It's dirty inside, there are some things on the floor (Looks like shelving pieces to me) and the kitchen sink needed to be replaced...
But I've ALWAYS wanted a fixer-upper. I love doing things like that!

Another down side is that it had a black lagoon--- I mean, a pool in the back yard...
I say "black lagoon" because it was left uncovered, and is.. Well, black... The good lord only knows what's living in there, besides the left over beer bottles from the local heathens partying at the vacant house...
However, it's a "pre-form" pool, which means we can tear it out easily enough..

The best part is.. The price.
It's about $100K less than the first house we fell in love with...
Slightly less land, but the bigger house kind of explains that.

So tell me, ladies. How does one convince their significant other that this is THE house, and that the repairs aren't as bad as he is anticipating?

Hmmmm.... Maybe I should just beat him into submission

Oh, and before you guys beat me into a pulp, here's a (horrible) picture of the house from the driveway, which, might I add, is nice and loooong:

[horselady]

Well it does look like a nice house, sounds like it is in a quiet area.
aHe just need to understand that all it needs is cosmetic work. Unless he see major items that you do not see.
An engineer inspection after negotiated offer will let you both know what major items need fixing.
Is that enough land for horses, better check if there is a zoning restriction before buying anything.
Good luck