Re-analyzing our budget

October - Week 2

Alhumdulillah (Thank God) we were able to raise a few hundred dollars but not enough to afford land in the price area of $9,000 to $15,000.

So we have adjusted our budget and priorities. We are now looking at land $5,000 and under. Even at $5,000, we can negotiate paying a lower price and eliminate monthly payments.

Zay did the initial search for properties that were:

• Under $5,000
• Had the availability of electricity
• Not in a flood zone
• Near some form of civilization. It's likely that we would have to haul water and we don't want to drive far.

Zay found 12 properties that appeared to meet these standards and I added 4 others that I came across while doing further research on the 12 properties.

I initially started entering the information in an Excel spreadsheet but found that using index cards were a lot easier to manage and reference to.

Each card contains:

1. Price of land
2. Address, Lot Number or GPS location
3. Acreage 
4. Zoning
5. Flood Zone rating (we only collected land zoned as X or D which is minimal flood areas)
6. Parcel number
7. Owners name and the length of time they owned the property
8. Taxes
9. Distance to freeway or main center
10. Realtors name and number
11. Small map of parcel and nearby streets

 We gathered this information from the listing, County GIS maps, County Assessor online, google maps, and FEMA flood zone website.

I also drew larger maps of each county to show the relationship of properties to each other and any nearby freeways and amenities.