Looking to acquire a bit of land - best approach?

nicol

So I'm looking at buying a house, loads of room internally but I feel that it is a bit lacking in the garden. There is a plot of land behind the house that I would like to buy a piece of. Circa 1/4 of an acre or so. How should I go about this? I live in a small town so don't really want to approach the owner directly. Should I go through an estate agent or my solicitor?

Any advice appreciated.

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

nicol

Not sure why that's relevant but max €10k. That's based on what sites are going for in the area.

draiochtanois wrote: »

What do you think it is worth?

anto9

Its a seperate owner to the house ?Then you can only go to the owner and ask .

Kelly06

nicol wrote: »

How should I go about this? I live in a small town so don't really want to approach the owner directly. Should I go through an estate agent or my solicitor?

Any advice appreciated.

Ok, everyone's different but personally if I owned land I would much prefer a prospective purchaser to contact me first rather than an estate agent or solicitor.

Talk to the land owner if you know who they are unless of course if there is a reason you don't feel you can approach them yourself. If you don't know who they are you can check if the land is registered in land registry.

Ken.

In a small town the owner will know in a second who wants the land and why. If I owned the land I'd be wondering what the guy is up to, why he couldn't come to me himself and would turn it down on principal or stick a stupid price on it. Go talk to him yourself. The worst he can say is no but he'll respect you for it.

nicol

Thanks for all the advice folks. I suppose the reasons I didn't want to approach the owner directly are two fold. Firstly I think that they spend a lot of their time out of the country so I thought it might be simpler to use a third party. Secondly I haven't bought the house yet so chances not too many people would put 2 & 2 together. I simply don't want gossip spread about what I'm planning as that has already contributed to a sale falling through for me.

Given what most people are advising I may try to contact the owner first.

Cheers again.

Ray Palmer

nicol wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice folks. I suppose the reasons I didn't want to approach the owner directly are two fold. Firstly I think that they spend a lot of their time out of the country so I thought it might be simpler to use a third party. Secondly I haven't bought the house yet so chances not too many people would put 2 & 2 together. I simply don't want gossip spread about what I'm planning as that has already contributed to a sale falling through for me.

Given what most people are advising I may try to contact the owner first.

Cheers again.

Weird what are you planning that would make a sale not go through?

El Kabong!

I approached an owner directly to buy a plot behind me. Had never spoken to them before. It worked.

If I wanted to be a bit more secretive about it, I would just get a local solicitor to do it and handle the resultant purchase, but you are of course going to have to pay extra for the privilege I would guess.

If the neighbours are the type to undermine a sale, and if you pull it off anonymously, and people find out afterwards, surely they will realise you pulled a fast one/stroke and make your life miserable?

Mrs OBumble

El Kabong! wrote: »

If the neighbours are the type to undermine a sale, and if you pull it off anonymously, and people find out afterwards, surely they will realise you pulled a fast one/stroke and make your life miserable?

I was thinking this. Even if you don't pull a fast one, isn't the relationship gonna be kind of weird once you move in?

And remember that even once you own the land, you'd still have to get planning for the extension - they could get sticky about that.

Skerries

take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

Victor

Skerries wrote: »

take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure

On-topic, constructive posts only, please.

Moderator

nicol

I'm not planning anything underhand. What I said was that people gossiping contributed to a sale falling through previously.

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Weird what are you planning that would make a sale not go through?

nicol

Thanks for the reply, I don't think anyone would try to undermine the sale, but I know that some people don't like having their business known.@ El kabong - interested to hear how you went about negotiating price.

I think some people here are reading too much into my original post. I am merely wondering what people feel would be the best approach to acquire a bit of land at the rear of a property that I'm interested in. That's all.

El Kabong! wrote: »

I approached an owner directly to buy a plot behind me. Had never spoken to them before. It worked.

If I wanted to be a bit more secretive about it, I would just get a local solicitor to do it and handle the resultant purchase, but you are of course going to have to pay extra for the privilege I would guess.

If the neighbours are the type to undermine a sale, and if you pull it off anonymously, and people find out afterwards, surely they will realise you pulled a fast one/stroke and make your life miserable?