I feel like i'm beating a dead horse here with these land questions, but i found a 40 acre patch that is next to a family members farm, that i'm interested in buying. i asked if they've ever tried to buy it and his response was he was never able to locate the owners of the land. they are one of the original settlers and have not been seen on the property in a long time.

my question - what is the best way to locate owner / owners in a situation like this? my understanding is its a big family and it could be a pain to locate an individual in attempt to purchase the land outright. are there any other strategies to go about acquiring the property? i read something about misplaced property / abandoned property, but I dont quite understand it and I dont think its applicable here.


Any advice is appreciated. Would love to acquire this piece to be close to the family farm and eventually build my house on it.

Thanks!

Have you looked up the owners on the County Appraisal District website? Almost every county in Texas has the owners name/address available online.

lexofer said:

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Have you looked up the owners on the County Appraisal District website? Almost every county in Texas has the owners name/address available online.

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If you went to A&M you likely have a landman in your immediate group of friends / extended friends who can help. It shouldn't be difficult. Someone is paying taxes every year.

I know that the GoHunt hunting app has owner name info that you can zoom in on.

I'd be happy to look it up for you if you want to share the coordinates.

No name on OnX? I'd start there and then find contact information from the county

i have the info from the CAD and looks like their addresses are available, but dont see any other contact info.

there are two pieces - the bigger part has a deed record date of 1/24/22 - does this mean it was sold earlier this year?




what is the best way to contact someone like this in an attempt to buy? i've heard stories of other people i know trying this and they had the door slammed in their face.

highvelocity said:

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i have the info from the CAD and looks like their addresses are available, but dont see any other contact info.

there are two pieces - the bigger part has a deed record date of 1/24/22 - does this mean it was sold earlier this year?




what is the best way to contact someone like this in an attempt to buy? i've heard stories of other people i know trying this and they had the door slammed in their face.

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like someone said earlier...if you know a landman, start there. What do you know about the deed record? Was it out of probate, like an executor's deed? If so, may have the opportunity to buy. If someone just bought it from outside the family, less likely to sell

Depending on the county, you can possibly go to the court house and look up property records for this piece of land and it will have their contact information. Unfortunately, most times it is just their mailing address. So you will have to reach out via snail mail and hope they contact you back. Google search for their name and address sometimes lends you their phone number. Also, finding them on social media and contacting them there could work. The county cannot legally give you their phone number, you will have to do some digging to find it. Like others have said, landman friend is your best bet

In my job I have to find a lot of these. (Landman/ROW agent)

County Tax office can tell you who is paying the taxes...BUT that does not equal the actual owner. Could be the kids or grandkids of the owners. If the taxes are behind you can try the adverse possession route but that doesn't always work the way people think that it does. A judge still has to sign off on it.

If they are legit absentee and haven't been there in years, they may be more willing to sell, although they may get dollars signs in their eyes, so be careful.

I have to subscribe to a few sites to find people on (BeenVerified) and it can be tricky getting to the right person. Problems on "abandoned" land include:
Original owner died & had no heirs.

2nd/3rd generation never probated the original owners death etc, & their name isn't on a deed anywhere. This is where you will hear, "but I pay the taxes" a lot. See comment above about tax payer.

Owner died with a lot of liens/debt.

Other than that, should be a cake walk.....

highvelocity said:

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there are two pieces - the bigger part has a deed record date of 1/24/22 - does this mean it was sold earlier this year?

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Yes, that is a distinct possibility. It might even be an indication of a tax delinquency sale.

Rather than use the CAD data, go to the county public records website and download a copy of the actual deed. They'll probably make you set up an account and pay a small fee, but it's not much.

If for some reason your county doesn't offer that online, sites like texasfile.com will have that info. It will cost you a few bucks, but it's really pretty reasonable.

Or, you could trek down to the county clerk's office and look it up in the books.

Good luck. I've been trying to buy a parcel for 17 years now that is owned by three heirs, all of whom live in different cities and who don't seem fond of each other. Persistence has paid off for me in the past, but hell, I won't live forever.

Ribeye-Rare said:

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Good luck. I've been trying to buy a parcel for 17 years now that is owned by three heirs, all of whom live in different cities and who don't seem fond of each other. Persistence has paid off for me in the past, but hell, I won't live forever.

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I have this on several tracts I'm working. One family is a bunch of siblings, all of whom have actually been pleasant to deal with one on one.....but, the two brothers haven't spoken in over 10 years and you can see one's house from the other.

I have another family that is in a perpetual state of civil war as well. Makes it fun....

Just sent you a PM.

Easiest way is the write a letter to the person and address on the county appraisal info.

You can take it a step further and try to find that person, or their kids, on Facebook and send them a message that way.

I went that route for a couple of properties. Got one nasty letter in response.
Got no reply to letters on another, and tracked down the owners kid (was an adult so nothing too creepy), and they gave me some background info, basically that dad was happy paying taxes on a place that no one had stepped foot on in 20 years.

If nothing else, they both have my name and info and if they ever need to sell, just maybe I'll be on their list.

You will need to read the 3, 5, 10 & 25 year statutes before you try any adverse possession. From what I've read on this thread, you don't qualify for any of the four and would just be throwing good money down the toilet. If it turns out to be a foreclosure and going the route of Courthouse steps sale, then you will be bidding against a lot of people.
I wish you the best in this endeavor.

after a days research and some helpful ags reaching out - i have learned that the mother who owned the property passed way in late 2021 and deeded the property to her 4 children. i have contact info for everyone and I'm going to start reaching out to them to see if i can get any traction on buying the property.

This is probably your best case scenario except:

One kid will be greedy.
One kid will won't communicate.
One kid will be even more greedy.
One kid will be thinking that the others will all deed to him*
*Even worse if it's a she and her husband wants it. Worse than that if any of the above have adult children.

Or none may care about it at all and would be happy to sell. Hopefully this isn't deer hunting property...

it may be deer hunting property, but its east texas. biggest buck i saw last year was a 10 point that was about 14 inches wide and weighed about 120 pounds. nothing to be too excited about, i would think

Hopefully no one's been hunting or otherwise using it. That's where your pushback is going to be.

It's east Texas, you can rest assured someone's been hunting it! Probably not with permission though

O.G. said:

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Ribeye-Rare said:

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Good luck. I've been trying to buy a parcel for 17 years now that is owned by three heirs, all of whom live in different cities and who don't seem fond of each other. Persistence has paid off for me in the past, but hell, I won't live forever.

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I have this on several tracts I'm working. One family is a bunch of siblings, all of whom have actually been pleasant to deal with one on one.....but, the two brothers haven't spoken in over 10 years and you can see one's house from the other.

I have another family that is in a perpetual state of civil war as well. Makes it fun....

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O.G.

Is it ever a viable strategy to attempt to purchase one of the heir's undivided interest in the hopes of eventually swaying the rest to sell, or to at least keeping another buyer from buying the parcel outright?

I know Texas has some relatively new laws restricting that type of thing if all you're trying to do is force a partition on inherited property, so that would not be the route I'd take.

Or, is it a fool's errand even to consider such a thing?

Two Gun Corcoran said:

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This is probably your best case scenario except:

One kid will be greedy.
One kid will won't communicate.
One kid will be even more greedy.
One kid will be thinking that the others will all deed to him*
*Even worse if it's a she and her husband wants it. Worse than that if any of the above have adult children.

Or none may care about it at all and would be happy to sell. Hopefully this isn't deer hunting property...

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Ding Ding Ding!!
We have a winner here. This is spot on accurate. Especially the last one. Some one that married in, or a son-in-law will can screw up a one car parade.

Watch for "we have plans for that Someday"....... "someday" will never actually happen but they will talk about it forever.

Also, one family member will swear that he's being screwed by everyone else.

Ribeye-Rare said:

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O.G. said:

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Ribeye-Rare said:

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Good luck. I've been trying to buy a parcel for 17 years now that is owned by three heirs, all of whom live in different cities and who don't seem fond of each other. Persistence has paid off for me in the past, but hell, I won't live forever.

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I have this on several tracts I'm working. One family is a bunch of siblings, all of whom have actually been pleasant to deal with one on one.....but, the two brothers haven't spoken in over 10 years and you can see one's house from the other.

I have another family that is in a perpetual state of civil war as well. Makes it fun....

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O.G.

Is it ever a viable strategy to attempt to purchase one of the heir's undivided interest in the hopes of eventually swaying the rest to sell, or to at least keeping another buyer from buying the parcel outright?

I know Texas has some relatively new laws restricting that type of thing if all you're trying to do is force a partition on inherited property, so that would not be the route I'd take.

Or, is it a fool's errand even to consider such a thing?

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You can try that but if there are a lot of other problems that might screw you up later. Not sure I would try it.

1. write the letter
2. make a proposal
3. treat them how you would want to be treated in their case
4. negotiate
5. hope for the best

good luck!