AZ Land

[VanCamper]

I recently ran across some online ads for land for sale in Mohave County AZ. Does anyone have any experience with buying land as a home base in AZ? The ad said mobile homes ok. I wonder if this would include RV or Van. I would use the land in the winter, and move north in the summer. Any info would be appreciated.

 

[akrvbob]

Mohave county has pretty strict rules, no vans or RVs. Mobile homes are okay but anything you put it on has to meet codes and have sewage.

If you have any neighbors, they will probably turn you in.
Bob

 

[buckwilk]

People have been doing this forever in Az. The abandoned properties all over the state are witness. Do your research before you buy anything, check out the county thoroughly, that's where the problems may come from. Try finding a way to live in the area for awhile before you buy. Little things can become big problems if you are locked in and can't find a solution. A big scam that has been running in this state for years are the owner carry land sales. They develop a parcel, throw an old run down single wide on it and get a down payment out of the buyer. Then things start breaking, the roads wash out, there are no jobs. Long drive to town, weather extremes and the buyer walks away and the process starts all over again. Talk to folks living in the area you're interested in and ask a million questions. The banks and lenders won't loan on manufactured housing or undeveloped property, so be careful. Water is a major issue in the southwest, and expensive to drill for. I wish you all the luck in the world.

 

[VanCamper]

I will definitely ask questions. The pictures of the properties look great, but if there are a lot of restrictions, that would explain why so many are available. Thanks for the info.

 

[SoulRaven]

When we were in the rural area in Pima County in the early 90s, drilling a well was going to run $18,000. That was a staggering amount of money to us. We also found that if we had an RV on the property while building a house that would be OK for a year which is why you might see RVs on property but not as a permanent fixture. Also learned that alternative housing would not be allowed unless it was the most expensive of the lot, straw-bale and nothing like yurts, domes, etc. Some of the properties don't have "real" roads and cross on the property of others. It is sort of a whole different world if you are coming in from out-of-state, central or eastern US. Never listen to an owner selling or a real estate agent. You must go to the county and inquire. Often this is covered in online documents also for the county involved. Before I moved forward, I would have it in writing.

 

[blars]

Don't forget to ask about water, mineral, and grazing rights. Do you want a herd of cattle wandering through your yard? (Yes, I've seen it in AZ.)

 

[gcal]

It depends on your age, too. At our age,, we don't want to put years into developing a piece of land, only to die before we get to sit back and enjoy it. At our age, increasing physical limitations are inevitable. We don't want to have to pay premium prices to convince someone to come out to the hinterlands to do repairs or maintenance that we can no longer do. Just 4 years ago, I pressure washed and painted the whole house while DH recovered from surgery. A couple years before that, I planked a 12x20 foot deck, by myself, while DH was recovering from another surgery. I landscaped my entire back yard and I helped reshingle the roof. No way in hell am I going to be able to do any of those things, now. Just working on the kids' small front yard is going to put me in traction.

 

[cyndi]

I lived an an unincorporated settlement in Mohave county for 5 years. You are allowed to park RVs on lots and live there without septic. or any other amenities or permits. There's no time limit.

Any permanent structure must permmited

 

[SillyLilly]

Don't buy land online without physically going to look at it on your own, without the seller escorting you around. The seller does not want you checking with local real estate agents to find out the actual going price for lots in the area. As others have said, that business model depends on "churn" -- people buy, make a few payments, figure out they got screwed, and walk away from the deal and give it back to the seller, who repeats the process over and over.

Get on Google Earth and Zillow sometime and look at satellite views of the area -- you'll probably see vast networks of "tracts" out there with few to no occupants. Zillow will show you the number of days on market for each listing, and some of them have been for sale for years. These land schemes have been going on for generations. If most of the lots are still vacant 50 years later, there's probably a good reason, most likely access to roads and utilities, plus minimum lot size to build because of septic requirements which is often much larger than the parcels these guys are promoting.

Edit: Kingman AZ (Mohave county) gets cold in the winter. My grandparents bought several lots in that area the early 1960s thinking Arizona = warm. They finally went to see their lot years later and were very disappointed to see that it was on a steep hillside, covered in snow. This was sold to them as "commercial property" and "apartment zoned". For all I know, you're looking at one of the lots they abandoned 50 years ago after realizing they got screwed.

Edit 2: Get on the county website and look at the date on the tract map for the area of interest. That will tell you almost all you need to know about the actual value of the land. Old and unoccupied = essentially worthless.

 

[VanCamper]

I'm ultimately looking for a few acres in the middle of nowhere. I'm not planning on building just park van or RV over the winter months. I would have to haul in water, and haul out waste. Possibly install septic. There would have to be some road access. Does anyone know a realtor in this area?

 

[Terry]

one thing you can check into is the ability to opt out of county zoning. There was at one time a way to opt out of zoning laws as long as you had a minimum of 4 acres I think it was. I'm sure it would have only been allowed in unicorperated ares but would allow alternative building methods.

 

[highdesertranger]

my advice to anybody looking to buy is to go to the area and check it out. spend some time there and talk to the locals. then if you like the area talk to a realtor tell them exactly what you want to do with the property, see what they say. then go to the county and ask them. do all of this before you put a dime down on anything. highdesertranger

 

[Rugster]

Also, as a former Realtor, verify anything a Realtor tells you. Most Realtors know their stuff but there are uninformed, dishonest Realtors, too.

 

[masterplumber]

One more thing not mentioned is watch out for special tax districts. In theory all the costs of development get spread out through all of the property owners. The reality may be that there only ends up being a few owners and they get stuck with the entire bill - all perfectly legal and it can be more than the purchase price of the property.

 

[akrvbob]

I lived an an unincorporated settlement in Mohave county for 5 years. You are allowed to park RVs on lots and live there without septic. or any other amenities or permits. There's no time limit.

Any permanent structure must permmited

Cyndi, I'm not an expert and never lived there, but I think that's changed. I had a friend bought 5 acres, put her van on it and the neighbors called her in and the county came out and told her she could not live in her van or RV on the land.

Another friend was going to buy land in Mohave, went to the county and they told him he could not be on the land in an RV.

Based on that I wouldn't consider buying land in Mohave county.
Bob

 

[cyndi]

Cyndi, I'm not an expert and never lived there, but I think that's changed.

My friends are still living there without septic or any other amenities. One of them put a a carport on a slab to park their RV under. Maybe their not in a nosy neighbor reporting kind of neighborhood. I'll ask next time I'm visiting.

 

[SoulRaven]

http://resources.mohavecounty.us/File/PlanningAndZoning/Zoning Ordinance/Section 27.N.pdf I did notice that you must be hooked up to a sewage system among a lot of other criteria. Zoning plays into what is allowed but you can get a renewable temporary permit for a TT.

 

[Canine]

In Montana there are little nuggets of land for sale, but on some you aren't allowed easement into them, so they are worthless unless the surrounding land owner(s) give you permission to cross their land so you can get to your land. You could always helicopter in. If you are high enough above the land, it is legal to cross someone else's property without their permission. If you are on the ground and wave your hand over their property, that is illegal. The checkerboard patterns of land property can be difficult to overcome. Corner crossing is illegal here.

 

[ACagedTraveller]

my advice to anybody looking to buy is to go to the area and check it out.  spend some time there and talk to the locals.  then if you like the area talk to a realtor tell them exactly what you want to do with the property,  see what they say.  then go to the county and ask them.  do all of this before you put a dime down on anything.   highdesertranger

The gist of these posts essentially states that a person should perform research on an area, meet the locals, talk with the county officials, and verify this information with another source before an individual pays any money on a property.

 

[SoulRaven]

Add, see it in writing and make a copy. Whenever land is "inexpensive" there is a reason.