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picchudog

Buying vacant lot via private sale? Offer and vendor mortgage

picchudog
14 years ago

I am hoping to receive some tips and advice re: buying vacant land. There is a vacant lot available for sale via private owner and we are interested in it. We have identified a builder to construct our house - we just need to finalize the land purchase before committing to the builder.

A few questions:

1) Given that it's a private sale (and we don't know the vendor - have only spoken to him once on the phone), what's the process re: negotiations? Do we do everything verbal first and then once everything has been agreed, put it down on paper?

2) I know when purchasing a house, one would put inclusions in the offer i.e. appliances, light fixtures etc. What type of inclusions would one include for land purchase? I was thinking of a recent legal survey...anything else?

3) The builder suggested that we put in the offer that the vendor is responsible for development charges to the city (approx 10% of the asking price) - thoughts on this?

4) The seller has expressed mild interest in doing a vendor mortgage to us. Our intent would be a short-term mortgage (give seller a small downpayment i.e. 5%) and then once the house was built, re-finance and then pay off the land vendor. Anyone have experience around this to share? What would be standard re: downpayment and interest rate?

5) Any other tips or things we should know?

We're located in the province of Ontario, if that makes any difference.

Much thanks!

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