I have been offered a parcel of land (100) acres with a cabin for his first number was 100K. the owners want me to have it and have told me so, they know I was raised on it and know every inch of it. they are open to any suggestions from me to help me afford it. they have offered to allow me to pay down the down payment over the next 16 months with them carrying the note at Zero percent with payments then starting in either 2015 or 2016 depending on my needs for a 5, 7 or 10 year note.

I plan on a counter offer of 90K since they are offering a Zero % note. this will be a total gut check for me to afford this property, but it is a once in a lifetime chance.

any advice from the gallery?

So they are offering to essentially skip the down payment, self finance at zero percent and you want to haggle them down further?  Sounds like the owner is sticking their neck out for you, unless the 100k really is overpriced, if not, then you should be grateful.  Find a true value of the property.  Plus, can you really swing it regardless of how great a deal it is?  Be honest with yourself, if you can't really afford it, doesn't matter how great a deal it might have been.

*Sounds like they are trying to help you out.  100 acres for 100 grand sounds reasonable if not cheap unless it is total crap ground.   Make you own call on a counter offer.  My wife and I were in the same situation years ago.  We sold everything we had of reasonable worth to buy a piece of land.  With sacrifice and some luck we paid it off last year and as of now it was more than worth it.

Buck up and jump on it for 100k. Don't squabble on it.

thanks, I was pondering on whether to just accept it all out or drop down to 90. I knew the 100K and their offer was still saving me thousands in interest.

find out what other land in the area has sold for ask a realtor or the county appraisers office or both.  determine value by compareing to similar properties that have sold in the last year.  If it is contract for sale of a deed then if you pay on it for years and default they just get it back you get nothing.  If its a warranty deed with a lien against it you can re-sell it use sale proceeds to pay off the lien and keep the difference.

interesting on the warranty deed.

the land in the area goes for 800-1000 an acre. they have built some improvements and the cabin. it is high on the retail end of it. I was thinking 800 an acre max for it( more realistic for the property), but they wanted to sell the cabin at another 25K in addition to the 1000 an acre in the original offer to me.

at Zero % even on their high end I think I would still save thousands on the note.

If its in a good location and it's something that you would have bought anyway (were you looking for land to buy?) then do it.

If you weren't planning on buying property in that area then don't even think about it.

Please update this thread I'm subscribing.

I would be  VERY careful on how they structure the loan to you. You want he land in your name with them having a lien on it. Under no circumstances do a land contract. If you don't know what this is basically the property stays in their name until you pay it off and then they transfer it to you. The terms are all spelled out in the  contract so the seller can not really screw you on purpose but it is very risky for you. If the seller goes bankrupt or gets sued for a large amount they could lose the property and you would be shit out of luck because they still own it and you would lose any money you have paid on it.

One story I heard of this was wealthy family sold a house and land to a couple on a land contract. Couple was to pay it off in like twenty years or something and had been paying on it for 10-15 years. Wealthy family's 17yr old son was driving drunk and ran into a car full of people and killed them. Wealthy family was sued for tens of millions and lost everything including the property and the couple that was paying on lost it and got nothing.

Aside from this make sure you can really afford the property and don't stretch yourself to thin. I have been offered some amazing deals in my life but didnt  have the money for them at the time. It doesn't matter how good the deal is if you can't afford it.

Forgot to ask:

Do you plan on living there or are you going to keep another house somewhere else?

You don't have to post the answers to these if you don't want but how much debt do you have and what is your income? How much non retirement savings do you have? If you don't plan on living out there I would want to be on pretty solid financial footing before making a leap like this. 100k over ten years is $830 a month. With property taxes it  probably will total around $1000 a month. If you are not going to live there I would not want to buy it unless you currently have a couple grand left over after you pay all your bills, food, etc.