Quote:
Originally Posted by M_Six
So my questions is, how do you value something like that?
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Did you check the assessed value of the lot with whatever government department handles property taxes? In our town (NY State), it seems to run about 1/3 of the market rate and would be the low-ball offer.
Did you pull "comps" out of Zillow for similar lots in town? Around here, those would be the high-ball offer.
My $0.02 is to deal with the owner while he/she is still alive, if at all possible. Tell them that you wish to honor their intent to keep that lot vacant. Once the owner dies, many estate executors only see dollar signs from liquidating the assets assuming none of the relatives want the house. Even then, the estate might sell the lot out of spite (or as a settlement) if one party wants the house.
Crazy idea #1 - Can the lot be sub-divided into two non-buildable pieces? Buying the half closest to you is your insurance, and keeping the other half is the neighbor's insurance.
Crazy idea #2 - I'm on a town committee here that's re-writing our master plan. A popular thing here is the purchase of development rights (PDR) on vacant land, mostly farms. The owner gets paid for the development rights, but retains ownership and can keep on using (or even sell) the land...as long as it is only used for the current use and not developed. This is mostly used by non-profit land banks and other "green space" groups, but seems to be an option in your case.
Speaking of insurance, my parents had a wooded buffer lot next to their last house. When my mother sold the house, she kept the lot. The cityiot who bought the house installed a monster wood stove to heat the place, with no spark arrestor. Long story short, a spark from the chimney started a small forest fire on my mother's lot in the middle of the night. The local fire department and state forest rangers squashed it in a few hours, with no property damage besides trees. Guess who received the fire-fighting bill from the state...for many time more than the lot was worth? Long story short, don't forget to factor insurance into your purchase!
My favorite crazy idea for protecting a buffer lot came from a local lawyer. His grandmother lived in a house in a popular beach resort town. Her house had a wooded buffer lot, and his aged grandmother used to like sitting by the windows watching the squirrels run around the lot. The vulture relatives were circling grandma trying to force her to sell the lot to a builder. The grandson lawyer stepped in, having the lot declared a state squirrel sanctuary so that it couldn't be built on and grandma could continue to watch the squirrels for the rest of her life.....