property for sale. buy?

[jwetovick]

Hi all. What are your thoughts on what you would be willing to pay for 4.5 acres of ground with a smaller sand pit on it. Pit is about 1 acre and about 10-12ft deep most of the time during the year. Goes down to about 8 in summer when farmers are irrigating. I ice fished it last year and caught a 5lb largemouth and a ton of smaller bluegill. It is located right along a highway which is good and bad depending on how you look at it. Owner said he would also dig the pit out even more for me if I wanted, which I would. Has electrical close and well/septic would not be an issue if someday wanted to build a small cabin on it.
So, what would you be willing to pay for this? By the way, this is in central nebraska.

[jwetovick]

Forgot to mention asking price. $20,000

[lefty2053]

Not all land is created equal. Find out from a realtor what the average acre is worth in that area. If it were in Colorado up on a mountain somewhere I am sure it would be worth much more.

[jwetovick]

I hear you. Yeah it's not really the best location by any means with it being next to a highway. A comparable sold for 22,350 without any pit last year. Basically would not expect a big return on it down the road. Basically boils down to how much is your own private small sand pit worth to possibly put a small cabin on someday.

[Agronomist_at_IA]

I hear you. Yeah it's not really the best location by any means with it being next to a highway. A comparable sold for 22,350 without any pit last year. Basically would not expect a big return on it down the road. Basically boils down to how much is your own private small sand pit worth to possibly put a small cabin on someday.

Well, if you bought it does the guy think he would still use the water in it to irrigate. If so you would be getting hosed. If you owned it and he couldn't use  the water to irrigate then maybe a different story.

[jwetovick]

Well, if you bought it does the guy think he would still use the water in it to irrigate. If so you would be getting hosed. If you owned it and he couldn't use  the water to irrigate then maybe a different story.

Good point. There is no irrigation out of it. The only thing it does see is when all the farmers irrigate the water table goes down. This causes it to go down about 2 foot in summer but typically comes back by august.

[jumbo chaser]

Sounds like a great deal to me if I could find a deal like that here in Iowa I wouldn't be able to write the check fast enough 

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Good point. There is no irrigation out of it. The only thing it does see is when all the farmers irrigate the water table goes down. This causes it to go down about 2 foot in summer but typically comes back by august.

Personally being involved in Ag, $20,000 dollars for ground like that in NE sounds like an absolute screw job. If I was you I would find out what the average price of pasture farm ground is going for in the area. Then work off of that at around 75%. A pond is of no use to him, and it sounds like he's willing to sell you ground that he finds useless for a very high price. If it is just a sand pit, it is next to useless. Here in iowa pasture ground sells for around $3500 an acre in areas where crop ground brings  $20,000 an acre. So just using that the pit should be worth no more than  $15,500. I have a feeling that the pit is really worth maybe $1,000 and acre true value, and u should buy the whole thing for around $5,000 or less.

Now the question is do you really even want it. You need to do some research, but a 1 acre pit isn't going to support many fish, and the size of the fish won't be anything to great. We have a few ponds on our farms, and they can get out of wack very easily. The old blue gill, bass, catfish would be the mix you'd find condusive. Perch crappie walleye, pike  wouldn't work with that size a pond. Most your blue gill would be about 6-7in, and you could never take a bass out of the pond if you wanted it remain somewhat decent for a fishery for blue gills. If u want bigger bluegills u add more bass, but it cuts way down on the number of fish in the pond.If something got out of wack 6in and under blue gills would become the norm, and the pond would have cycles of ok to crap fishing every few years if managed somewhat well.