People buy land for many reasons. Have a vision. By understanding your expectations for current use and future disposition, you’ll make your search for the perfect property much easier. Begin with the end in mind (ala Steven Covey and others). When your use of the land is complete, is your vision to resell or pass on to your heirs? Many who purchase land in Northcentral Minnesota are looking for land to hunt/recreate on today and build a retirement home on in the future. Because there are lots of choices, having a vision for the property will help guide your search.

What’s your vision? Homesite, hunting land, recreational use such as ATV or cross-country skiing, investment, development or some combination? Are you tied to a particular geography – county, city, friends or relatives nearby? Is electricity, public road access, high speed internet access or some other factor of paramount importance to you? Knowing the answers will help you set the search criteria.

In our experience at LandRadar.com by Close~Converse, we’ve learned that the huge number of choices can be overwhelming. Expanding search: describe your ideal property, search for it (and, most likely discover it’s not on the market), then expand your criteria by price range, size range, geography. That way you don’t have to wade through hundreds of choices. Contracting search: start broad – everything on the site, narrow the choices by price, size or geography. Don’t look at individual properties until you have a manageable number (10-20) to review. If none of those properties are a good fit, then expand your search one criteria at a time.

For other tips, click here……

Winter financing specials with 3 & 5 year rate locks available and a 15 year, fixed rate, fully amortized loan available, too. Rates are quoted at 5.9% to 6.9%.

Call Paul Troskey, loan officer, at 1-800-450-7575 directly or contact LandRadar.com at 1-866-403-LAND (5263) if you have financing questions.

Land for new park secured at Nisswa Lake

Land along Nisswa Lake has been protected for a new Nisswa, Minn. regional park, The Trust for Public Land and the City of Nisswa announced today.

The purchase of the 2.1-acre property completes the second of two conservation efforts in 2010 to conserve land along the city’s namesake lake. Both properties were purchased from Mr. Arnold Johnson, president of Arnold S. Johnson Properties, LLC. Johnson had purchased 15 acres along Nisswa Lake from the Thurlow Estate at the appeal of the City of Nisswa and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) so that they would be able to acquire portions of the property for public use and enjoyment. The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national conservation organization, facilitated both acquisition efforts.

The property purchased last week will become A. and J. Johnson Nisswa Park and is now owned by the City of Nisswa. Mr. Johnson donated $300,000 of the land’s value to help complete the conservation sale for the park.
]]> http://landradar.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/land-for-new-park-secured-at-nisswa-lake/feed/ 0 46.356099 -94.217221 46.356099 -94.217221 LandRadar http://landradar.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/are-we-nearing-the-end-of-big-price-reductions/ http://landradar.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/are-we-nearing-the-end-of-big-price-reductions/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:35:04 +0000 LandRadar.com by Close~Converse http://landradar.wordpress.com/?p=42 ]]> Improved land market – the end of big price reductions? Sales of land in 2010 held up well because of lower prices. After evaluating 2010 sales, it appears the market values have leveled off. We expect that demand for land will increase in 2011, making now the right time to make the investment in quality land. Today, there are 12 properties under contract for closing after the first of the year.

Potlatch in MN has been FSC certified since 2005 (2004 in Idaho and 2005 in AR). We had also been certified since 2002 under another sustainable forestry certification (Sustainable Forestry Initiative – SFI), but made a decision in early 2007 to forego SFI and go only with FSC given customer demand for FSC and credibility with outside stakeholders. FSC is considered to be the most credible sustainable forestry standard among the environmental community. Potlatch is the largest publicly traded company in the United States to be FSC certified (about 1.7 million acres in 4 states). As we grow, we plan to bring new ownerships into the FSC certification system. Our Wisconsin lands became FSC certified after our October, 2007, audit, and our Payette lands will be during our 2008 audit.

Independent certification organizations are accredited by FSC to carry out assessments of forest management to determine if standards have been met. For Potlatch, Smartwood does this assessment in MN and AR and SCS does it in ID. These certifiers review not only the principles, criteria and indicators, but also contact stakeholders from the communities we operate in to verify our conformance to the standard. Landowners and companies that sell timber or forest products seek certification as a way to verify to consumers that they have practiced forestry consistent with FSC standards. Potlatch is certified to the FSC standard in all timberland regions. A number of our wood products mills are also FSC chain of custody certified (see below).For mill environments, these certifiers also verify that companies claiming to sell FSC certified products have tracked their supply back to FSC certified sources. This chain of custody certification assures that consumers can trust the FSC label. Environmental organizations including Greenpeace, National Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund all support and encourage FSC certification. FSC-US, based in Washington, DC, is the U.S. “chapter” of FSC International, based in Bonn Germany.

For more information about FSC at U.S. level, please visit www.fscus.org and at the International level, please visit www.fsc.org.Our sustainable forestry efforts prompted the Rainforest Alliance to award us at their 20th anniversary gala on May 16, 2007, in New York City. The award was to recognize that Potlatch has “…significantly advanced the goals set forth by the Rainforest Alliance and have integrated environmental and social sustainability into their work.”

It works like this: 1) The buyer makes a down payment to the seller, 2) Buyer and Seller enter into a contract for the deed to the property (thus, the name Contract for Deed) on terms agreeable to the parties and, 3) when the terms of the Contract are fulfilled, the Seller then executes a Deed for the property to the Buyer.

Since we’ve been doing real estate marketing for over 30 years, we’re familiar with Contracts for Deed and other forms of Seller financing. Have questions, get in touch and we’ll answer your questions or point you in the right direction. Osterloh@CloseConverse.com.