Camp property search

[Eagle1]

When I bought my land, I had spent almost a year looking at different places with a realtor. He was finding them in the MLS, and if the land was interesting, we would check it out.

After awhile, I started looking online for listings that where not in the MLS system. For some reason that I cannot explain, I bought a Sunday Newspaper one day and I found my place listed in the "Land for Sale" classifieds. No MLS, just the size of the land, the address and the price. I drove out there on my own, liked what I saw, but it didn't have a good entrance. I talked to my realtor, he found out who owned the land next to it, and called them. It was a company that wanted to get rid of the land, but hadn't listed it yet. We agreed to a price, and I bought both properties, then a year later, sold off the part with the bad entrance, which paid for what I kept.

If you cannot find what you want in the MLS, look at the local papers, and sometimes, just talking to people in the area might lead to a place that's for sale, but not listed with a Realtor.

True rural land is often not sold through traditional realtors. Around here you'll find way more on Craigslist (or similar) than via MLS. Currently many are being listed (or purchased) by Hunting Realtors (whatever you want to call them) that market to the wealthy deer hunters. Pricing of those listings has gone through the roof and rising.

 

[lsgreg]

When I bought my land, I had spent almost a year looking at different places with a realtor. He was finding them in the MLS, and if the land was interesting, we would check it out.

After awhile, I started looking online for listings that where not in the MLS system. For some reason that I cannot explain, I bought a Sunday Newspaper one day and I found my place listed in the "Land for Sale" classifieds. No MLS, just the size of the land, the address and the price. I drove out there on my own, liked what I saw, but it didn't have a good entrance. I talked to my realtor, he found out who owned the land next to it, and called them. It was a company that wanted to get rid of the land, but hadn't listed it yet. We agreed to a price, and I bought both properties, then a year later, sold off the part with the bad entrance, which paid for what I kept.

If you cannot find what you want in the MLS, look at the local papers, and sometimes, just talking to people in the area might lead to a place that's for sale, but not listed with a Realtor.

Yes, totally agree. We likewise found our place on Craigslist, they had not engaged a Realtor, therefore no MLS listing.

 

[MossRoad]

“Camp” property is pretty popular in our area, almost all for deer hunting. This area also has a lot of high dollar farm ground, which makes the wooded and rougher ground expensive. They also tax a lot of this non farm ground as recreational. It all drives it up to an expensive hobby. This might also explain why the trees were left to die. Around here if you have a forestry expert come through and tell you what trees to kill the taxes are lower.

Yikes!

Does Illinois have anything like Indiana's Classified Forest and Wildlands program?

Classified Forest & Wildlands

Classified Forest & Wildlands from the Indiana DNR Forestry Division

www.in.gov

 

[dodge man]

Yikes!

Does Illinois have anything like Indiana's Classified Forest and Wildlands program?

Classified Forest & Wildlands

Classified Forest & Wildlands from the Indiana DNR Forestry Division

www.in.gov

I don’t know maybe?

 

[ArlyA]

Checked on the local craigs list which had few proprieties on it while FB has many. We will be looking at a few more over the weekend.

 

[ArlyA]

Another property we seen today. Bridge across the creek was horrendous and the spouse didn't want to use it. In the lowest photo you can see where it used to be.

 

[RjCorazza]

I'm surprised that bridge is still standing with the water that must have come through there.

 

[ArlyA]

I'm surprised that bridge is still standing with the water that must have come through there.

As were we. I message the owner asking about that. The bridge ends weren't even attached to Terra firma. In that area, there had been a strong ran a month ago. I should have got better pictures.

 

[newbury]

Well unless they are making more land in your area it's a limited resource.
And WHAT does MLS stand for? Minimum Labor (to make a) Sale?
We started about 2006 looking for a place to retire in Fulton, Mississippi. We went through 3 Realtors. Our "have to have"s were minimal. Every blasted realtor only showed us the absolute top of our price range. Nice houses with a few acres. We were (and still are) living in Northern Virginia in a $300,000 (assessment at the time) house and they all thought we needed a house as big as we had in Va. And would provide them 6% of a $300,000 house.
In 2010 I finally found a slightly smaller house with lot's of shop space, 3.5 acres, for half that price. And the clincher was the chance to buy another ~70 acres (that the 3 acres had been carved out of) at ~$1,000/acre. It was advertised online in the Tupelo paper on a Wednesday. Wife and I drove down that weekend, put a large deposit down, got surveys and legal taken care of quickly. We had been looking for 4 years so we knew it fit our requirements, at half the price of everything else we had been shown.
So OP, set your minimum requirements, get your financing lined up and be ready to pounce on a deal when it shows up.
Good luck.
/edit-consequently since we paid so little for the house and land we've been able to keep our house in Virginia which has gone up an assessed value of $250,000.

 

[jjeff]

So I can contribute to this one having developed and built a pretty nice yr round cabin up there imo. Bought a about three acres with a derelict 50' mobile home and neglected overgrown property. When I started building Used up any and all favors from more knowledgeable friends. Property had a septic and well when I bought it which passed the counties health department, which I needed to get a building permit. It was an enormous amount of time and dedication to build I contracted certain aspects of building cabin and pole barn out that would either be to expensive and or lack of knowledge, and time for me to diy. Property prices have skyrocketed in that area of the U.P. since my purchase I accidentally found this property while looking at a different one, it wasn't listed on MLS etc. if you do a lot of the work yourself 70 miles from a big box home improvement store you will have lots of extra materials especially when doing plumbing and electrical in my diy experience which was still way less expensive than hiring it out. Before breaking ground for cabin had pole barn built first to store stuff (the pole barn is bigger than cabin) and I highly recommend finishing floor in pole arm as soon as it's built instead of a year or so later which is what I did and learned not to do. To this day my place is a enormous sense of pride and accomplishment. Despite being 500 miles from my current residence I'll never sell it my wife on the other hand probably has for sale signs and a Realtor on speed dial if I meet my demise early. I drew up my own plans on graph paper using old school architects/ engineer rulers and a interior design template, I kept it relatively simple it's 24 wide by 30 long with a basic gable roof, using room in attic trusses no elaborate roof systems or (lookouts)Best of luck.