Advice for buying hunting/camping land

[DouglasSpear]

I'm looking into buying some land in south west or south central Ohio and wanted to know if anyone has any tips for puchasing land such as how long of a loan is typically used for purchasing land, good Web sites for finding land, advice, etc. I have never purchased land before and it will be used for hunting and camping and my brother-in-law will be splitting the cost 50/50 with me.

I am currently already searching for land on a site called CountryTyme but the available plots are limited.

I am looking for about 25-40 acres in a price range of $25K-$45K.

Thanks.

[Bowhunters]

I would suggest you get a Realtor that specialises in Rural or farm/ranch land and make sure to have all the usual property information searches done, they are almost always money well spent provided the realtor works for you and not the land owner. The information searches check to ensure the property lines that the owner showed you are correct, there are no back taxes owed that you may have to assume, that the mineral rites willl be yours, etc.

On the loan make sure you get a low (fixed) interest rate mortgage and don't get sucked into a variable rate one so the monthly payments stay stable and don't go way up if interest rates climb, you should be able to get a mortgage from 10yrs up to 40yr range just like buying a house for the monthly amount that you both know you can afford.

Its important that both of you keep track of exactly how much each of you pay's each month, if you both are supposed to send in half but one pays extra to try to pay the loan off sooner the other person may not be able to do that and that can cause arguements at some point, etc.

Its important that both of you put in the same amount of labor on the land putting in food plots, hanging stands, fixing fence if needed to keep the neighbors cows out, etc., a real nice person may put up with doing it all for a few years but at some point doing most or all the labor he will likely feel like he's being taken advantage of if the other person mostly only shows up when its time to hunt.

Good Luck !

[DouglasSpear]

Thanks, Bowhunters. I have a home mortgage so it sounds as if most of the same things need done, except for the land instead of the house + land. I will probably be using the land more than my brother-in-law unless he gets into hunting. He more or less wants it for the camping and taking the family to for the weekend (when it's warm enough - they have two small kids) while myself and a friend are avid hunters and would be there almost every weekend during hunting season plus any time we decide to go shoot guns or camp for the weekend. I would ask my friend to split it 3 ways with myself and brother-in-law but he still has some school loans that are restricting his spending money. I want woods not ranch or field but I will pick a clearing to put a small plot on and I will probably be managing/maintaining the land/property more. We also discussed buying one plot of land but then splitting the land in half so we each have our own space. This probably won't happen for a few years but I wanted to get started now to be prepared. If you have any Web sites or places to look for land, keep me posted or PM me. Thanks again.