# The Deal Is Almost Complete



## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

So my wife and I put in an offer on 10 acres of property in southern Mississippi. We were able to come to an agreement with the land owner, terms have been set, contract has been signed. We're just waiting on the title search and the deal is done. Our plan is to move there in 12-15 years when our little one is done with school. Might serve as a good bug out location if need be between now and then. Pretty excited that when we head down that way to visit family, we'll be able to use the land for recreational reasons.


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## alterego (Jan 27, 2013)

Congradulations. Not trying to be disrespectfully commenting by no means. Your avatar says trying to get away from Chicago. And you are saying you would move there after your kids are grown. What diminished value do you see in taking your children to a perceived safe place now?


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## Beach Kowboy (Feb 13, 2014)

Mississippi is a great state. Especially near the gulf coast. It has some of the best food you can imagine.. That said, it is very populated and if somethin were to happen. I would say it is not one of the best places to be. If SHTF is NOT to happen. You just might have a very nice place to retire to. I am a several generation Floridian and love the gulf coast. It has some of the best food available IMO.. I truly wish you the best!!!


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Good luck and say hello to Brett Favre from Slippy! You'll love giggin' flounders at night if you are close to the coast. All you need is a good ******* friend, some cheap beer, a coupe of old Coleman lanterns (of course now you got tons of battery powered lights but the Coleman brings back old memories) and some home made gigs to spear them big ole flat flounders. Enjoy!


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## Beach Kowboy (Feb 13, 2014)

Good ole homemade gigs are some of the best things EVER!!


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Beach Kowboy said:


> Good ole homemade gigs are some of the best things EVER!!


I knew of all the people on the forum, that you would know what I was talking about! Hats off to Flat Bottom Boats and a good moon!


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Beach Kowboy said:


> Mississippi is a great state. Especially near the gulf coast. It has some of the best food you can imagine.. That said, it is very populated and if somethin were to happen. I would say it is not one of the best places to be. If SHTF is NOT to happen. You just might have a very nice place to retire to. I am a several generation Floridian and love the gulf coast. It has some of the best food available IMO.. I truly wish you the best!!!


Financially making the move now is not feasible. We both have good jobs, the schools in our area are pretty good. It's not a bad place to raise him. I'm not a fan of Illinois corruption. My wife was born and raised on the MS gulf coast, so it's only natural that we consider living there when we decide to make the move. If money weren't an issue, we'd be breaking ground tomorrow.


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## Oddcaliber (Feb 17, 2014)

Good move, from New Orleans I could be on the GC in about 90 minutes. Some of the best weekend getaways I've had were on the coast.


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## Chipper (Dec 22, 2012)

Hopefully you will learn one day that there are somethings more important then money. I'd move out of the murder capital of the world "NOW". They do have those things called jobs down south. Quality of life traded for a few bucks??


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Chipper said:


> Hopefully you will learn one day that there are somethings more important then money. I'd move out of the murder capital of the world "NOW". They do have those things called jobs down south. Quality of life traded for a few bucks??


Good point Chipper.

Also consider the difference in taxes between IL and MS. Lower Property Tax, State Income tax Lower sales tax may actually put you in a net positive income situation. No time like the present!


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Chipper said:


> Hopefully you will learn one day that there are somethings more important then money. I'd move out of the murder capital of the world "NOW". They do have those things called jobs down south. Quality of life traded for a few bucks??


While I appreciate your criticism and critique of my living situation, I respectfully request that you refrain from judgment until you know all of the facts.

I choose not to share every detail of my life with a the world to know, but here are a few things about me...

My location reads "Trying to get away from Chicagoland"... *Chicagoland* being the operative word here. I simply put that because I do live in the Chicago suburbs, but we're about 50 miles away. My town is so little, the general public would never know where the heck I'm at if I put it in my profile. We have additional small town "suburbs" between us and the city, but to our west and north there's nothing but corn and soy fields.

Financially, making the move would be extremely difficult. We purchased our current home in 2002, as the housing market was booming. The same model in my neighborhood is currently selling for $60,000 less. I can't even sell for what I currently owe. In order to move south I'd have to build a house, or buy a house off the property that Im buying.

As far as a job goes. I work construction. Doing what I do here, the wage scale in MS is 50-60% lower than what I currently make.
I agree with Slippy. The taxes are far less in MS than in IL. But I don't think that difference will make up for the drastic decrease in income.

The school system that we are in is superior to what we would be moving into there. We want our son to have the best education possible.

Hopefully these few things might change your views about me and the safety of my family. If not, I'll get over it.

Dennis


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## Old Man (Dec 10, 2012)

Glad to have you in Mississippi.


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Thanks. We'll be there eventually. Sooner if it becomes necessary or we have the ability


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Congrats, hope everything goes well.


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## Beach Kowboy (Feb 13, 2014)

It is a very hard decision to make. I know I left a very nice income in Florida and a place on the beach to move to BFE Montana. But we are much happier here. You have to be willing to leave your comfort zone which is VERY hard. Money is important but if if you truly wanted to leave, you could find a way. Maybe find a different line of work or even start your own small business. My fiance and I talked about it and we wanted to enjoy life while we were still young and not wait till we 'retired" and were older. Hell, I feel like I am retired now. I work my as off but it is doing what I enjoy so I don't consider it work. At least most of the time anyway..lol


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## Moonshinedave (Mar 28, 2013)

Great deal Dennis, hope things work out well for you, sounds like they are. 10 acres sounds about perfect.


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

I agree Kowboy. It is a hard decision to make. We've been weighing the pros and cons, hence the reason we bought the property. STEP 1. We have family that lives in the same area. My wife grew up near there. 

As far as enjoying life, we do. Living and working in IL gives us the opportunity to live a comfortable life, do the extra curricular things we like and want to do. It really does suck that almost everything we all do revolves around money. I suppose I could start building a house right away, if I had the money to do so. I could buy a trailer and move right away, take a job for $12/HR and live near the poverty level like so many already do. But to me that's not living. We're well on our way towards leaving, it's just going to take a while.


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Moonshinedave said:


> Great deal Dennis, hope things work out well for you, sounds like they are. 10 acres sounds about perfect.


We're getting there. The 10 acres isn't a bad start. There are a couple of adjacent 10 acre plots that might be an option to purchase in the future. I'd prefer 100 but 10 will do.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Dennis;
Tough decision for sure and Beach Kowboy has a great story.

Here is my .02...well maybe 2000 cents since it is rather long but bear with me...
I know the Commercial Construction/Residential Housing Market and Building Materials Industry dynamics very well, its what I do.

The facts are indisputable and I can tell you will do your own research and not listen to some dude on a forum blindly. Having said that;

The US Dept of Commerce started keeping housing records in the late 1950's. From '59 to 2007, we averaged about 1.5 million new houses built per year. There were a number of years that we built over 2 million houses per year. After the crash of 07/08 we saw new housing starts fall to around 500k starts. The number has climbed to nearly 900k last year but still not anywhere close to the average from 1959 to around 2007.

The financial crash happened primarily because of defaults in the home mortgage industry. Government policy and backing of Trillions of dollars of mortgages and political correctness led to millions of loans being made to people who never could pay them back. The inevitable happened and one foreclosure led another and a huge snowball of home values contributed to the fall and loans were not paid back and the bailouts occurred and the rest is history. 

The Patriot Act, Dodd Frank and other BS Law plus outside factors in the banking industry have made getting a mortgage extremely hard for people. Families aren't being formed at the rates that they were from 1959-2007 and first time homebuyers make up approx 40% of the market. Most single people or single parents don't buy houses. Building material prices have experienced inflation as supply has been shut down to meet lowered demand, hence building a new home is more expensive. Less new homes are being built. 

Govt SNAP or Food Stamp participation is increasing, workforce participation is decreasing, SS Disability is increasing and true unemployment remains at critical levels. Inflation is occurring in real goods especially fuel and food. Disposable income is non existent in many young families who used to be one of the primary market to buy homes. You don't buy new homes with food stamps or disability checks! 

Plus, Foreclosures are still on the books in what the industry calls "shadow inventory". Banks own the foreclosed houses but are slowly putting them on the market at reduced levels as not to flood the market and further drive down prices. This may go on for years and deter the potential for your home to ever reach the value that you saw at the peak.

Bottom line is that these and other factors do not lead me to believe that housing values will reach the pre 2008 levels for many years. I may be wrong, anything is possible but the basics are not indicative of a real increase in value relative to inflation and purchasing power. 

So I would look at your monthly Principle/Interest Payment+Taxes and Insurance and if you are underwater by X Dollars and expect your home value to rise to X+Y in say 5 years, then subtract the Total of Principle/Interest/Taxes/Insurance and Maintenance over that time to the equation to make an accurate financial decision of whether or not to stay in your home. There is also the possibility that the value does NOT go up then you are out the money that you sunk into the home over the next number of years and end up selling the home for a loss anyway. 

The last factor is unknown future costs; what will it cost to build a house in 10 or 15 years? Will the EPA or other out of control government entities declare your land a sanctuary for the South Mississippi red ant and prohibit you from building? Will some new Al Gore Green Building Initiative ACT of 2020 cost you an extra $100 per square foot to make up for the trees that you killed? Will another financial crisis occur in the Student Loan Industry that affects ALL Loans? 

Things to think about.


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Slippy. Very informative, thank you. We are crunching the numbers, and have been for a while. That's the reason we decided to get the land now. Any one or all of those things could happen tomorrow or not happen at all. Its a roll of the dice to wait. We're currently just below breaking even if we were to sell now. Until I have some equity or can save a considerable sum of money im kind of hand cuffed. Its a tough but good situation to be in. I know I've got a retirement/BOL/investment property waiting for whenever I get there.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

DennisP said:


> Slippy. Very informative, thank you. We are crunching the numbers, and have been for a while. That's the reason we decided to get the land now. Any one or all of those things could happen tomorrow or not happen at all. Its a roll of the dice to wait. We're currently just below breaking even if we were to sell now. Until I have some equity or can save a considerable sum of money im kind of hand cuffed. Its a tough but good situation to be in. I know I've got a retirement/BOL/investment property waiting for whenever I get there.


My best to you and it sounds like your planning you work and working your plan!


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## BagLady (Feb 3, 2014)

I'm in the NE part of Ms. I made a quick trip to Gulf Port 2 months ago, and wished I'd had the time to do some sight seeing. What I did see was beautiful. Your lucky you have the opportunitys you have.


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

I found a topographic map of the area and the one of the high points in the general vicinity is in the center of our NE quadrant. The property slopes down 30' from the high point to the southwest. Flooding should never be a problem. High elevation is 96' above sea level.

I agree BagLady, the coast is beautiful. I love the views down Hwy 49 from Jackson through Hattisburg and the Desoto Nat. Forrest.


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

This is an image of the property with topo lines. dimensions are 660'x660'


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Well, the deal is done. We're proud property owners.::clapping::


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

DennisP said:


> Well, the deal is done. We're proud property owners.::clapping::


Awesome Possum!!!


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Thought I'd update....

Went down to visit family over Christmas/New Years and spent some time working. Found that the North West corner of the lot had a survey medallion and we were even able to find rebar pins at the other 3 corners. 


I have to give myself a small pat on the back... I used a GIS website, Google Earth, and a hand held GPS to get coordinates without having a survey done. I inputted them all into the gps and after trecking through some very dense underbrush (see below) was within 20-25 feet of the property corners.



My wife, brother in law and I spent some time with the gps, a chain saw and some hedge clippers and cleared the south and west property lines corner to corner to allow for a machine to run through and give us a nice clear 12-16 ft wide path around the whole property to allow for a fire stop barrier and what will be a future fence line.

Heres the manually cleared line


Here's the mechanically cleared lines


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

Once the dozer was done, my brother in law got a permit from the forestry department to burn the underbrush.







He grew a little concerned as the flames got bigger 50-60' but it all went off without a hitch. Here are some after pics.





Wish I had more pictures to share, but much of the work was done the first 2 weeks in FEB and we haven't been back since Jan 3. The lines have all been disked and seeded with rye grass (no pics yet) and we'll be putting in a 4 strand barbed wire fence 5' inside the property lines. We want it to be known that its not public land and hopefully keep the hunters off.


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Great news!


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## DennisP (Mar 3, 2014)

We're going to have to burn 2 or 3 more times over the next few years to try to get rid of all of the invasive brush. Then we'll be able to start clearing for a future homesite and a nice hardwood grove with food plot mixed in.



We're also in talks with the forestry dept to relocate the forestry road that runs through the east portion of the property to the eastern edge. Also, we did find that at the south west corner we have a low area that had slow running water (not sure if it were rain runoff or a small spring) but I think that will lead to a small pond if it is going to be something that stays wet. Nothing huge but we definitely would like to have something to attract additional wildlife. We eventually want to plant some pecan and fruit trees on the edge of the backyard as well as a variety of oaks, maples, chestnut, cypress (if the pond thing works), and catalpa.

Its going to be slow going, but we're planning our work, and working our plan.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Great job DennisP and Congratulations. I'm sure you will have many years of fun on your property.


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