There are many forms of purchasing land.
For instance, I purchased my land from an option online. The good thing was that there were not too many participants. I won several bets.
Nevertheless; even thought what you see might not be what you get, it's an interesting experience to purchase any land for the first time.
The more you know and the more money you have, gives you the luxury of being picky. Being picky is a wonderful attitude when you are purchasing land. Try not to play "desperado" when purchasing land. Be patient and focus.
Where to find property?
The most common way to buy property is by visiting a real state office or by searching on line.
However; there are also options that offer land. The best options for land are those organized by the local township where you want to purchase.
The most common one is by visiting the real state office or searching on line and calling the real state agent responsible for selling land. They are the ones responsible to distribute land that has been tax delinquent, confiscated or released by the government. They keep all the records and you know for sure, all transactions are by the rules.
There are also websites dedicated to sell land. They can direct you to nice pieces of land all over the country. They also often inform you of all the ups and down of purchasing land and what kind of land is better for you. They might or might not have very good offers and the best value for your money.
In rural areas, you might reach to see sell signs. Some people go to the extreme of finding abandoned areas and searching for the owners, others do their research of tax delinquent properties in order to find desperate sellers.
Another way to find properties is by purchasing wholesale. This is mainly for those who are professional investors or professional real state agents. They save mega money; but they also have to pay large amounts of cash for the entire package. It's one of the fast ways to wealth.
What to buy?
Like everything; it all depends.
When you purchase bare land; the most important things are access, access to the land, access to utilities, access to roads, access to services, in few words, access to civilization.
Easements or legal entrance to your properties are vital; especially on places where everyone loves to protect their properties with firearms against intruders. Without legal access to your property and the roads leading to your property; you could be taken as a trespasser in the way to your newly acquired piece of land.
Roads also need to be public or if they are private you might need a permit to access those roads.
City owned utilities could not be available. If they are not; you must build your own. Your necessary utilities are basically, water, electricity, garbage disposal, internet service, and waste water drainage. If you are responsible to build your own road; you will have to clear, flatten the area and its maintaining it, including the water retainers.
Another thing to consider is the quality of the soil even if you are not into agriculture. To build anything, you need to make sure it's going to be supported by the terrain underneath.
Another town requirement is a proper survey of the land; especially if the land you purchased has been previously subdivided without an individual survey. This is important for tax purpose and for claims over the property. However; if your land is not surveyed; nobody can't take it away from you to build anything.
While remote places grant you with lots of freedom and cheap land, places closed to the city grant you with services, jobs, neighbors, fun things to do, and many regulations.
Regulations could limit your zoning, the type of home you can build, the size, even the material to use to build, the size of the windows, etc. Yet, these regulations will make you safer, prohibit others to invade your privacy, your peace and your rights.
H.O.A. are another very important detail to look at when you purchase a property. H.O.A. tend to have too much power over the property to the point of being able to take you off from your own property if you miss the payments. However; they can also be beneficial, especially when they only exist for the purpose of developing roads and bringing up utilities. That type of HOA can save you thousands and make life much easier when you purchase land in remote areas.
H.O.A in general tend to make your neighborhood safe, stop home prices and taxes from increasing with dangerous numbers. They also keep the peace of mind of their members, healthy families and neighborhoods.
How to purchase?
There are many forms of paying for your land.
It depends on how much you can afford. One way to pay is cash. It might give you the chance to save some dollars and some hassle with banks and financing issues.
However; to have cash is usually not a common thing among most of us. Financing through bank or through the seller are other forms of purchasing. Probably the most common forms of purchasing.
Another way of purchasing is through contracts. You promise to purchase within certain amount of time and your contract form functions as a temporary title. It's like lay away. Once you finish your payments; you receive your real title.
The negative side of this one, is that you have nothing but a title, until you pay over the 40%, you can't sale your rights or anything. If you can't pay, you loose.
If you had paid over 40%, you can sale to pay back and to recover your money.
You also could have the option to turn your contract into a mortgage or to sale your contract to a bank.
Another option could be to add amendments to your contract. But, the other party has to agree to changes.