I have wanted to build a new home for some time and felt a real need to get out of town to my own little piece of property. I have been living in a small townhouse with less than 1000 square feet for 10 years already. I knew I wasn’t going to be comfortable here much longer, but how much space can 1 guy, his girlfriend and a dog need? I had made a critical mistake though. I told my girlfriend that I was thinking about building a house and she got EXCITED! As soon as she found out I had to get started now and the house needed to be done in a month… not gonna happen, right? I was just thinking about building is all.
The journey has begun without much deliberation or regard for finances. My main considerations for purchasing a building site were first and foremost affordable, followed closely by ease of access and the ability to provide myself some sort of self reliance from the land. I knew I wasn’t going to be operating any kind of a hobby farm so a large piece of land wasn’t necessary. A quick search of one of my favorite websites www.bismanonline.com and the local MLS site showed about 3 pieces of property that would work, but only 1 that was affordable.
I haphazardly sent an email to the listing agent (without representation for myself) at almost 10% less than the listing price; even though I had done a search of the county records which showed that all of the lots but 1 in the development were sold at full price or close to it. What did I have to lose? As expected the seller counter-offered but fortunately still had knocked off 5% from the listing price which I considered a pretty good deal.
A $500 deposit and a few signatures on the purchase agreement later I was waiting on title insurance for the property. To be honest, I should have done a little more research on the area and the property but so far I haven’t seen any glaring problems with it. Two weeks later, I wrote the check for the remainder of the balance and I was a proud “land” owner!
Now what?!?!
The front of the lot looking from West to East
