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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Just curious how everyone got their place they got now?

I will tell you my story in a minute but its pretty boring. I am thinking there are some good stories out there like the wife was doing home nurse care and the guy she took care of gave us a deal on the place. Or I got 20 acres and a house for 2000 dollars in back taxes. Heck maybe you were just driving around in the country and saw a for sale sign on a back forty lot or something. Maybe you got a friend in the real estate business or something. Heck maybe your traditional sale made a new friend in the real estate business. I really don't know but I would be interested in hearing how you obtained your place, and maybe even why. What was the "thing" that made you decide to get it?

As for my story, well its pretty dull. I have lived here all my life and Johnson's and Amsden's have lived here long before that. After my Grandfather died in 1992 the farm was too much for my Grandmother to handle, and my Dad had all the taxes he wanted to pay. Since no one else in the family was doing any farming, and I was (farm hand on another farm and had cows of my own on our farm), it made sense that I would carry on the farming legacy. So that is how I got what I got and I have been trying to farm and log it as best I can these past 15 years.

So what's the story of your place, how did you get it?

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#3 ·
The previous owner of our place was good friends of my father in law.He and his wife began having some serious health issues which led to bad financial problems,knowing they were about to be foreclosed upon he gave my father in law a heads up on what was going to happen and he in turn told my wife.My wife tried to get the bank to sell the place for what was owed,roughly $70,000 and they refused saying it had to go through the foreclosure process and she could bid on it at the foreclosure auction.The day of the sale only one other person showed up and they didn't bid so she wound up buying our place for the opening bid of $43,000!! Not bad for an unfinished on the inside log home and 5 acres,we've since finished the place out and really enjoy our bargain home!!As to why we bought it,we were living right on the outskirts of town and things were just getting to close,now we are the first house on a dead end road with the nearest neighbors being close to a half mile away.Great folks as well as it's a regular thing to be out in the yard and have a passing neighbor stop just to talk for a few minutes.To me it's the way life should be!!
 
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#4 ·
We lived in the city since we moved out here to Saskatchewan and one day after 13 years living in the same place our one son was working on a farm and inadvertanly ran over a mother Racoon. The farmer told him were the week old babies were and told him he would have to kill them as he was the one who killed their mother. Well he couldn't and brought them home to our place. We nursed them till they could eat on their own and of course got attached to them. We managed to give one away but kept the other 2. Then one day we were sitting on the front deck with the racoons and one of our neighbours saw them (still not sure which one) and called the city (Livestock law of 1984... no animal inside city limits except a cat or dog) Well the humane society came on day and said either get rid of them or we take them and put them down... YA RIGHT NOT ON MY WATCH So we bought the farm for our racoons, which is the the best thing that could have ever happened to us. I can't ever imagine living in a city ever again. Soo thank you anonomous neighbour. We have had the racoons 5 years and the farm 4. Did I say we love our Racoons. (Sorry I know some of you guys hate racoons, but unless you have ever had the opportunity to get close to one you have no idea how affecionate they are) oh they do get lage when they live the good life, ours are on a diet as one weighs 65lbs and the other 55.
 
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#5 ·
Went to visit a friend up in Northern Minnesota.
Had passed through before and stopped there on a number of occasions sailing to some place else.
Was stranded there by weather a couple times because Lake Superior was too rough to return to home port.
After spending the day at my friends I said this could be home.
Spent the summer with a couple realators shopping.
This place wasn't even on my list.
They took me bye and the rest is history.
Drove up saw the "Garagemahal" and "said this is it". They threw in a house, shed, and 6 acres too:bananapow :bananapow :bananapow
128 more days till it's full time.http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=40782
 
#6 ·
Having been raised & grown up in northern NJ, we wanted to stay in area. Looked at property and was way more than we could afford... 1985 when property was starting to rise right before the 1st big housing bubble burst. Went 3 miles across border in NY and looked at 3 acre parcel for $8K.
Owner kept balking on signing the binder. Real Estate agent said she had another 3 acre parcel about 2 miles away for same price and although she really shouldn't be showing us, but she was also getting P.Oed at the other owner. Fairly level, cleared lot with a group of ash & elm trees in the middle. The piece was being sold by a retired doctor who had been left the property by a patient that had passed on. Took one look & told her to switch the binder. Been there 24 years and only regrets... I didn't by the 13 acre piece on one side of us which was also for sale at the same time and the neighbors on the other side that moved in 10 years after we built.
 
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#8 ·
We moved down here for my job, after I left the Marine Corps (I tried a brief stint in my original hometown, in Southern Illinois, but... employment opportunities... well, they just weren't there).

We lived in an apartment for the first couple of years, but wanted something a bit further out, so we went shopping. Contacted a realtor and told her our price range and that we wanted acreage. >3 acres.
There was a 5 acre piece that she took us to look at... had a stock tank about the middle of it. It was long and kinda narrow (about 200' x 1300') and there was a cleared area ready for a house pad to be poured... right between the 2 neighbors' houses... not for me. Didn't want to be that close, so...
On our way out of that 'area' (a defunct subdivision of 5 acre lots) we passed another heavily wooded lot with a disheveled 'For Sale' sign on it... and stopped. We walked up it (that was fun... the realtor was in heels :ROF ), through the brush and creeks. There was a clearing where my front yard is now. This lot was a little wider than the others, since the back of the lot contained the utilities easement... and the lot was not rectangular (the west side is ~1100' long, and the east side is ~800' long... the lot is ~230' wide). We bought it. I cleared it. We built a house and barn on it. Then the 5 acre tract next to it (to the east) came up for silent auction through the Texas Veterans Land Board... and I placed the winning bid. This completed our triangular 10 acre place... The west side (perpendicular to the road) is ~1100' long... there's ~840' of road frontage and the "hypotenuse" of the triangle is ~1300' long. There's still a good amount of brush on it that I'd like to get cleared into pasture, but... it's mine (and the banks)... but... hopefully it'll be paid off in about 7 or 8 more years...
 
#9 ·
We where out looking for a 5 acre place that we read about.. got lost on the back roads and found this place.. We like the lot and love our house but the neibours are city folks that should have stayed in town. The 50 year old beside us argued with me the other day about "coyotes" have horns and him and his son where going to shoot it if it came closer. I was out on my deck that night. The coyote with horns was a white tailed deer...
 
#11 ·
Nothing real exciting- just a dream and a lot of leg work. We looked at rural property all over the south east for years, and it seems like every time we found an area we liked, it would get priced out of reach before we could get in a position to buy it. About a year ago, we decided on the Greenville SC area, and went armed with a stack of real estate print-outs and map-quests. The very first property (out of 2 dozen) that we looked at turned out to be the right one for us- 7 acres of hardwoods with a mountain view. This time, we were prepared to buy, and we closed on it in December. We're having a little clearing done, and a gravel driveway. We hope to build and move there in about two years. Finally- a place to tinker on projects! I told my wife that I wanted enough acreage that we would HAVE to have a tractor!
 
#12 ·
Found this piece of property in the dead of winter. It was buried under 3+ feet of snow when the wife and I walked it. Something about it whispered "buy me"...we went to the realtors the next day and made an offer...the seller countered and I countered again and got it. Wasn't until spring that I got a good look at it and started selecting where I was going to build. Have never regretted buying it. Turns out that it was once owned by my grandfathers brother...so now I have it back in the family.
 
#13 ·
When me and the ex-missus started living together again one night we were jarred out of bed by another grinding car wreck at the traffic light under the bedroom window... Since I had previously been living in the quiet South of Utah desert it was the last straw. The only noise there at night was scorpions bumping into each other...

I remembered this area when I used to ride M/C and came up here to look around. My buddy bought a house here and less than a year later I found a perfect sized house on a perfect sized lot which I could maintain with my not so perfect eyesight... AND IT HAS A DETACHED "WUZZA" 1.75 CAR GARAGE W/CARPORT! :ROF (You KNOW what it is now!)

Here we beeze! Quiet nights... still have my coyotes and hoot owls to keep dreams of that "someday" massive land holding under control... A nice 300 bazillion Kva power line and substation hidden a quarter mile East for entertainment... We're walking distance to town and I don't need to whine for a ride to get a haircut or hardware store visits... Gas station/store on the corner ("Ben Gazi's Pakistani Cuisine Quick Stop") (New owner, it used to be "Ali Ben Himmler's Arab-German Deli-An'-Diesel")...

I really hit the "Happy Medium Jackpot" with this place!!! :D
 
#14 ·
I was living in Seattle WA. I quit my job and looked at the map of the USA and picked out a street name in Texas. I then drew a 5 mile radius circle around it and contacted a real estate broker in the area. He showed me 2 properties. I took a loan on line with a bank and was preapproved. We moved in 20 days later. ...That was easy. Nothing Special.
 
#15 ·
We were getting tired of living in the city and all of the "politics". We weren't sure which direction out of town we wanted to go, we just wanted out. Well, our house sold before we could decide, so we had to take the first place we could find. It was decent, but wasn't ours. We started looking for places again when our lease was coming up and found a place I liked for myself but wasn't really right for my family. It was a lease also but there was a possible option to buy. The house was run down but that could be overlooked if we could just buy it. The area is just like going back in time to some degree. We actually got to meet our neighbors. Not just to see each other, but actually get to know one another. The little community rolls the doors up by 8:00. We fell in love with the area so when it started becoming apparent that we weren't going to buy, my wife started looking. My only request is that I wanted at least 10 ac. She would show me places she found and we would travel the county roads on my days off looking for the right place. Everything we found was outside our budget or not what we could use. One day after work I was presented with that days find of homes on the market. She had several of them up on the computer. Some we had looked at and were waiting for the price to drop and a couple new. One said "Cozy cabin on 18 acres." On a hunch, we came to look at it and knew we had found our new home as we came up the drive. Looking at the inside was icing because we were sold. I got more than 10 acres, she got a brick home with central heat and air. And we are still in one of the most sought after school districts in the county. Add in the friendly people we meet every day and the friends we are making, I think we found our spot to grow roots.
 
#16 ·
Dad bought the place when he got out of WW II. Raised us kids living on it. He passed away couple years ago, I'm the only one seamed to have time to help him do anything around here. Rest of siblings "don't have time" to stop by & see Mom in assisted living, even tho they live within a very few miles. She willingly did the paper work...Yes, there will be **** to pay when something happens to Mom, but its already too late, the papers are final! I don't know how my dear Dad did it...I wish I had paid more attention to how he did things.
 
#17 ·
OK, wel... this is a long one.....

Start out saying I grew up in the town I live in. My Mom's house, and where I lived for part of my childhood is less then a mile up the road....

Now lets rewind to the 80's.......

Met my now wife in the winter of 1984. At that time I was still living at home[19 years old] and she was just starting college. Well a few years after we met, he dad passed away. My wife[girlfrend at the time] got a chunk of cash from the enharence and wantd to do something smart with it. Not just **** it away. So her and her boyfrend [me :D] figure it was time to move in together, and she decided to by a house. Looking around we found it was hard to find a nice place, for the price a copel in there early 20's could pay for.[it was the late 80's. a big housing boom around here] We finly bought a nice victoren era two famly house in Schenectady NY.[home to Alco locomotive, and GE] It was a nice place, but had a tiny lot. 45x150 if I remember right. Well fast foward to the late 90's. We are getting older, and finly got hitched, and were thinking of having a little space. Been some talk of babys, and I put my foot down that there was NO WAY I was going to send my kids to the inner city schools!!! My Dad had also sold a bit of famly land that had been dived up generations ago, and was going to be our enharadence. He devided the money up between us kids, so I had some cash.Also my Moms helth had[has] been fading fast. So we start looking. Lots of stuff out there, but nothing was right. Finly saw a forsale sign on a chunk of land down the road from my mom. We talked to the realter and went for a walkabout. We fell for it HARD!!!!! Thought about it a week[had been on the market for years!] and decided we wanted it. Well we call the realtor and guess what? It was going to contract!!!! Some one had bought OUR land!!!!!:eek:mg: :duh:

So we are back on the hunt. Looked at a few houses, and a few lots, and nothing was right. We kept comparing it to the land we lost. So about 3 weeks later we get a call. the deal fell through!! The other people could not get financeing !:bannana:

We had our land!!!!!! Sept 2000 I pulled up to the gate with a chain saw, and a old JD112 and started clearing it out!!![a month before the closing BTW:D Hey it was a long weekend, and the owners did not care. Worst case they had some one clear some of the land for free]

After this came the serch for a house to put on it. THAT is a TOTALY diferent story, and NOT a good one!!!!!!!!!
 
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