People don’t want to sell small parcels because they’d have to legally separate them and deal with the legal access to the remainder. That’s a giant headache. It costs them time and money.

If you want a small little homestead, buy the 10 acres and do the surveying and separating into lots yourself. And the land development to get all of the needed services in. You might find that 2 acre lot is tiny. Because it is. That’s no separation from neighbors at all. 10 acres isn’t even that big in the country. 40 is more like it.

I’m a commercial agent and my advice is go for it and the request wouldn’t be considered rude whatsoever. Many people don’t know that they can hire a buyer’s agent for land or commercial property just like you would for residential. The seller is already expecting to pay a commission in most cases, so having someone representing you that knows the market could be a great benefit when it comes to determining what you should pay.
If you find land that you’re interested in that doesn’t have a sign, you can look up the owner on the county appraiser’s office website. Sometimes they even have the price that was paid for the property if it’s an open records county. Most counties have maps that you can use to look up the parcel. The property record should have their name and mailing address which you can google and most times find their phone number. If the property is owned by a company or LLC, you can go to the Secretary of State website and lookup the registered agent’s name and track them down.
Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. I love to help!

Here’s a screenshot of the maps that most counties have online...

There no harm in asking, is there?

In my area (rural Missouri), it's difficult to find a small acreage - 10 acre parcels are rare, smaller parcels even rarer still. We are in farming country with lots of land in use by active farming, either for livestock grazing or for row crop production. Farmers typically are not interested in selling off any land.

Another consideration around here is that there are lots of people who can't afford much so they want to buy a small piece, perhaps to set a mobile home on or build a small inexpensive home on. Owners of large pieces of land aren't interested in selling off a piece so a mobile home can be set on it. They'd rather see the land empty than have an inexpensive dwelling on it. (I'm not saying that's what you are going to do. I'm just saying that's what large landowners think.)

You might be interested in the recent tail-end of this thread (scroll down most of the way),

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5715601/finally-bit-the-bullet-and-contacted-5-architects#24601819

@live_wire_oak, We have 4.5 acres now and only use about half of it. Of course we like having the extra breathing room, so depending on the layout and vegetation on the lot, and position in relation to other homes, we could easily get away with 2-2.5 acres. Land in this particular region of the country is pretty expensive. It would be a miracle to find 5+ acres we can afford. 10 acres is totally out the question, but I don’t desire to maintain that much land anyway.

@Flipping Crazy Thanks for the info and tips! I will most definitely reach out If I have any other questions. I have already thought about writing letters to owners of some of my favorite spots. I just figured it might be easier to start with active listings and then go from there. Thanks again!!! :)

@littlebug zone 5 Missouri

Good points! Yeah, I figured nobody actively farming the land would sell. Can’t imagine it would make financial sense for them.

And we would most definitely build a nice home. I’ve even thought about sending a sketch of the house we want to build along with our inquiry so they can get an idea of our plans and intentions. We also want to get into beekeeping (been doing years of research, just waiting to settle down into the right place) so maybe to the right neighbor, the free honey and pollination might be a nice benefit?

We are building on 3 acres and I wish it was bigger. LOL. Half of it is woods though so it feels smaller. Best of luck.

You'll probably do better just buying a large piece and subdividing it yourself. You don't have another party's interest (like the current owner) to deal with. We did that once. Bought 50 acres and made 2 20 acre parcels and a 10 acre, taking one of the 20's. Worked very well both from getting a parcel we wanted and financially. Smaller parcels are generally worth more per acre.

@Trish Walter, I could imagine! Our 4.5 acres is all mowed except for a few yards of tree line around the perimeter of the property. The treeline is great for privacy but if I’m honest, I’m tired of mowing 4.5 acres every week (minimum of 4 hours) especially when we only really use half of the area.

@Architectrunnerguy, That is a great idea, only that we can’t afford to do that. 50 acres in this area is easily $600-$1mil :/

kristen...there's the positive for us. we only have to mow about 1 acre of the 3. woo hoo.

@Trish Walter I‘m jealous!

Never say you are offering a fair price. It takes thousands of dollars to survey two properties, especially If another property is 100 acres. And after all this mess you still have to get an approval. There is also chance of been denied or buyer backing out. And then there are some wacky buyers. "Oh your farmland taxed at $5000/acre so we are offering you $15k for 2 acres." Sounds really fair to us where no where in the county you can buy a buildable land for less than 100k.

All the costs involved in sub deviding would also be yours to deal with IMO but it never hurts to ask. We had people coming to our door and asking us to sell our house in Vancouver we took a couple of names and when we were ready to seel we called them first and avoided realtor fees.. There is no way for us to know what the outcome can be. BTW where I live now to subdevide is so eaxpensive no one is doing it.

BTW where I live now to subdivide is so expensive no one is doing it.

Exactly ... I had a crook that offered me after a months of talking 40k for 12 acres with 3 structures, on the creek with a private pond and the nice forest ... because it was a 10k less than the taxable value and in his head we were motivated seller. And it was "all cash". (It really doesn't matter for a seller if all cash offer, or finance .. you get paid no matter what. )

We paid the assessed value for the parcel we bought.

The link to the other thread Becky shared has a description of my process. What I would say is that, before you go door knocking or letter writing, go find out what the local zoning rules are for splits. How much frontage does each parcel have to have? How many splits can be made? Etc. It varies locally. Here, 250 ft of frontage is required, and when you split a parcel, you can't do it again for 10 years. Another township requires 500 ft of frontage, which is a lot for a couple acres. All of that will weigh into how "splitable" a parcel is.

I will reiterate one thing I said on the other thread: at least locally, almost all of those sorts of parcels change hands without ever coming on the open market. They get sold to friends, relatives, contacts - or the person who asks.

Don't forget to hit your local building inspector/land ordinance office. And take your home sketch with you to make sure it can fly. Some places have rules like a requirement of a certain amount of road frontage for building, or sometimes a certain amount of land required for building. Depending on you bee-keeping action, there might be rules about that kind of animal husbandry as well. Depending on the land placement, you will have to make sure of the availability of electrical service, if easement needs to be created there along with the rest of the property. What you need for water and septic- does the area node in from public works, or will you have to do your own?

Having surveying done can cost thousands of dollars in surveying, as well as a bunch of time if you have a lawyer (and you should include a lawyer) in on making it legally correct for the assessors and land offices. When you split off a property, you are creating a whole new tax record for the area to deal with, and it costs money and time for all that work and filing.

Splitting properties can be done. It just takes some time and money to do it before it becomes a parcel with it's own price tag.

Ask. People have all sorts of thoughts on sales. Ask nicely, and be ready to hear a possible no.

Specific thoughts:

- Obviously, you're asking for a piece on the edge ... no one's going to sell a spot out of the middle. Similarly, look at the overall road frontage ... no one's going to sell a piece of land that will landlock him or reduce the overall value later.

- A big chunk of land is hard to sell, and the owner might be very interested in getting a bit of money now ... knowing he may wait years for the whole thing to sell.

- Consider that big parcels are often bought by developers, so it's quite likely that you'd one day be neighbor to a new-development property, which could mean construction for years.

- Some areas have complicated rules for dividing; for example, rules on how many times /into how many pieces a lot may be divided. My family farm is subject to such rules.

Thank you everyone for the input!

I'm expecting to hear a lot "no's" and I will take everything into consideration and see I have a LOT more homework to do. It only takes one "yes!"

We are not interested in subdividing (for many reasons) and honestly that sounds less appealing to me if I were the owner of the land who I'd be approaching. If I were the land owner being approached, I'd be way more inclined to sell to a solitary new neighbor VS the potential to have no control over future neighbors resulting from further splits of the land. In fact I'd be the land owner that would say, "Yes I will sell you the land WITH certain conditions!" lol

From what I've gathered so far here is the list of things to look into:

• County Regulations; what approvals are needed for splitting land
• Research zoning rules for that area for things like minimum frontage required to build, minimum amount of land required to build, etc.
• Survey Costs
• Perc Test & average well depth
• Access to utilities
• Future Land Development plans for the area
• Provide sketch of house we want to build, etc. and give the land owner an idea of who their new neighbors would be
• Check ordinances regarding beekeeping and backyard chickens
• Study comp. prices of land in the area

Are there any major items that I'm missing?

Thanks all! This has been really helpful!

What is this 'mowing', of which you speak?

Be prepared to offer to 100% foot the costs of all of the above to any land owner. Have a lawyer on retainer who can handle all of the legal stuff already worked out, and you be the feet on the ground for any of the rest. The only way to make a PIA transaction happen is to remove the pain and offer more money than they’d get by waiting and selling the whole.

If someone wants 500K for 10 acres, and you only want 2? That’s not a 100K part. That’s a 200K-250K, plus all of the splitting costs. Then all of the setting up of services and septic and wells, etc.

Our 4.5 acres is all mowed except for a few yards of tree line around
the perimeter of the property. The treeline is great for privacy but if
I’m honest, I’m tired of mowing 4.5 acres every week (minimum of 4
hours) especially when we only really use half of the area. Surely you are not mowing that with a zero-turnmower.

Why yes I am. And don’t call me Shirley. ;D lol - it takes me about 4-5 hours with a 54” deck.

Another option; after performing the necessary "due diligence" re: cost of infrastructure, weigh that cost against buying an existing property with a "tear down" home. Whichever way you obtain the land keep this in mind; the size of septic tank and field required by law is determined by number of bedrooms (as shown on original building permit). A 3 bedroom, 1000 square foot home requires a bigger set-up than a 2 bedroom, 2000 square foot home. When rural, adding another (legal) bedroom can require a whole new tank and field which is sometimes impossible.

From what I've gathered so far here is the list of things to look into:

Soil maps and flood zone maps.