Lorrie Adams - Realtor Learn about what's involved in buying acreage

A Tiny Homestead

Today I'm talking with Lorrie about the real estate market and things you may not have considered when thinking about buying a property for your homestead. You can reach her on Facebook as well.

https://buymeacoffee.com/lewismaryes

00:00
This is Mary Lewis at A Tiny Homestead. The podcast comprised entirely of conversations with homesteaders, cottage food producers, and crafters. If you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe, share it with a friend, or leave a comment. Thank you. Today I'm talking with Lorrie Adams, a Realtor extraordinaire and good friend of mine. Good morning, Lorrie, how are you? Good morning, I'm great. Good. So it may seem weird that I asked a Realtor to be a guest on my podcast.

00:27
But it's not weird because Lorrie is brilliant at her job and she knows things that people looking for land might wanna know. So Lorrie, tell me a little bit about yourself first. Well, years ago, before I was a realtor, I was a paramedic for a number of years for 911. So I know the area inside and out and subsequently became a realtor in 2007 during the crash, figured why not. I always do things the hard way.

00:57
So I've been a realtor for 17 years, absolutely love it. And don't specialize in one niche area. I like to be robust and be able to do multiple things. So I just stay on top of all aspects of real estate with the exception of I do not dabble in the business side. So just residential real estate, farm real estate, that kind of thing. Okay. And this is exactly why I wanted to talk to you because I have lots of questions.

01:26
First first question is the housing market bad right now and is it bad all over the United States? Bad is a Term that is kind of means different things to different people. Is it a challenging market? Absolutely The challenge is because we have very little inventory we have a lot of buyers sitting on the fence and Many of which have never even seen an interest rate over five percent. So

01:56
When they jumped up to around seven, people were a little bit flabbergasted as to what they could suddenly afford changes your buying power when you jack up interest rates. So, excuse me, with the interest rates up a little bit, historically though, 7% is an average interest rate. It's really not that outrageous. It's not impossible.

02:25
There is inventory out there. You just have to have eyes on it. You have to have somebody with their ears to the ground and nose to the grind, Stella Perse, and make sure that you know how to negotiate a good deal for your clients. As well as having an excellent lender that is good at communication, that is available, just like a realtor is 24-7 basically on weekends as well. And there's a lot of creative financing out there right now with some of the lenders coming up with a...

02:54
programs for helping buyers put in quote unquote cash offers and then financing after The transaction so there's a lot of things out there that can be done You just have to have somebody who knows what's out there and can find it and can negotiate for you I have to say I have never used Every tool in my toolbox as well as come up with new ones in the last few years to get my clients under contract But thank goodness, it's work

03:23
Yeah. So is the reason that inventory is down, does it have anything to do with the fact that people ran like there was fire under their feet back in 2020 and 2021 to get out of the places they were in and now they're happy in the places they're in and they don't want to sell? Well, some are happy, some are not happy, but they're staying in them because of the interest rates they got when they refinanced at historic lows of 2.5 and 3.5 interest rates.

03:54
To be honest with you, I wouldn't ever anticipate seeing those kind of interest rates again. But that's where people are in their mortgages. And then if they're not uncomfortable enough, they'll just stay where they're at. So there's a lot of restrictions as well on buildings. So new construction, the restrictions that have been placed on new construction by different government entities has added approximately $30,000 to each home.

04:24
and cost of building it. So building is restrictive with pricing, but there are builders out there. They're doing their best to get houses out there, especially for the baby boomers that want to downsize into homes that are just slab homes or smaller homes, one level, those kinds of things. Okay, I was just curious about your take.

04:48
on all this. Okay, so I'm going to talk a little bit about what you did for us. And then I have other questions regarding if people are looking for the kind of thing that we were looking for four and a half years ago. What you would suggest at this point because like you said, inventory is really limited. So the story is, Lori, we met Lori back in 2015, because we were trying to find a place back then.

05:17
And we looked at four or five places and there was just nothing within our price range. And we just decided that we were going to stay where we were back then. And then back in 2020, we had a thing happen where we were not going to be able to continue to grow a big garden at a friend's place because they put up a pole barn. And that was the last straw for us on jumping into really looking again. And we're not upset with our friends. They, they are awesome. We love them.

05:46
but it was just the thing that that kicked us to actually start looking again. And so I messaged my good friend, Lorrie, and said, we really want to look for a new place. And she said, call me. And so we did. And we looked at four places before we looked at the place that we now own and they were all not great. And then she called me and said, I found your house. And I said, uh-huh.

06:13
That's too bad because we were up all night because there was a bad storm that night and the weather radio kept going off and my husband and I were both exhausted and she said you have to meet me in Le Sueur, Minnesota at 630 tonight because I found your house. And so we did and the rest is history. However, the backstory on all of this is that Lorrie is an incredible negotiator and got us a really reasonable price on a really nice 3.1.

06:42
acre property with a remodeled home on it and a huge pole barn. So Lorrie is brilliant at her job. This is why we wanted to have her on the show. So my questions for Lorrie are these. Number one, if people are looking to get out of their smaller place and onto one to five acres of land, what would you suggest? Because inventory is limited, as we've said twice already.

07:12
Aside from the inventory side of it, I would highly recommend that they do a lot of research in understanding what it takes to take care of acreage property. Whether you're just going to sit there and enjoy the privacy or if you're literally going to start working it like you and Kyle do. There's a lot involved. It's a lot of work. It's not just hanging out in the house, drinking coffee all morning and waiting for everything to happen outside. It's not.

07:41
Really? No, I know. Isn't that a surprise? Yeah. And there's also a lot of other things, aside from the crops or animals or whatever it is that you're looking at having on your acreage, just having acreage property. So you're not going to be on city water and sewer. You're generally going to have a little bit more difficulty with your electrical systems because you're a little bit further out. So you want to make sure you have a backup system, especially in Minnesota. We have storms this year.

08:11
Unlike last year where we had no storms and no rain, but this year we've got our typical storm season. So you're going to have a lot of electrical storms that come through, might knock out your power. You also have a septic and well system, which is for your sewer and water. You got to make sure that you understand those systems, how to take care of them. The fact that if something goes wrong, the city's not going to fix it, you're going to fix it. So an average septic system.

08:40
is about $30,000 for a new septic system. And a well is anywhere from about 20 grand, 15 to 20 grand, depending on how deep they need to go. So as long as those are already existing, it's a little bit less expensive, but you need to make sure that they're all in compliance with the entities. So wells are governed by the Department of Health in Minnesota, and septic and sewers are regulated by the counties.

09:10
So you have to have somebody who understands where to go to make sure that those systems are compliant and registered with the corresponding agencies, as well as just the acreage itself. It's got to be amenable to what you want to have on it. If you're growing crops like you guys, you want to have a fairly flat level with sun, not an orchard grove sitting on your property covering it up with shade or pole barns like your friend put up.

09:40
where you suddenly don't have anywhere to put plants. So there's a lot of moving pieces and bringing what a client is thinking and what they really need to look at in reality and bring those into alignment with what their budget and their goals are is kind of my job.

10:07
Yeah, and also on the client side, the client really needs to know what they're looking for. The first time we looked with you, we weren't quite sure what we were actually looking for. We were just looking to get the hell out of the house we were in. Right. And the second time, we really had a much better idea of what we were looking for and what we wanted to do with it. And we basically gave you a cut sheet. A unicorn. You told me to find a unicorn.

10:37
Well, yes, but we told you the details of the unicorn. Right, right. And that's what I'm talking about. You have to come, you know, speak with people, determine exactly what it is that you're looking for so that we can come into alignment with everything. If possible, yeah. And we lucked out that this place has a generator that kicks on on its own and directs electricity to the house immediately.

11:05
We didn't even know that that was going to be possible for us to have. And so that was the one thing that wasn't actually on our cut list, but we were pleasantly surprised by, and it works great by the way. Right. Now, didn't you need, but that needed to be repaired because it had sat there for so long not being used. It may, you guys did have to do a little bit of work on it. Yeah. It ended up needing.

11:31
the circuit board replaced and then something else, I don't remember what, and I think it ended up costing us about $6,000 to get it to where it works. Which isn't bad considering the generator system can cost you upwards of $30,000, $40,000 depending on the size of it and what it's got to run. Yes, and we absolutely did not, I mean we kind of, kind of cringed at the price because that's a lot of money.

11:58
but we were not at all bothered at having the repairs done because it's really important. Right, right. And in actuality, the fact that it was there and repairable saved you a fortune. It sure did. And then the other thing that I would say, having lived here for almost four years now, is if you're gonna buy a property and you're not, you're moving from the city to quote unquote the country,

12:26
There are things that you're not necessarily going to realize you need. Like we ended up having to buy a small utility tractor to be able to move wood for the wood burning boiler system that we have, and we ended up picking up a pickup truck because kind of needed one and things like that. So it's not only that first mortgage payment and the rest of them that follow that you have to consider. It's all the things that you need to add to the property. Correct.

12:55
So that you can run it and do what it is that you want to do on that property. Yep. And when we moved here, if you recall, the only plants that were here were hostas. Yeah, my favorite. And the stuff in the tree line, like the wild black raspberries, which is awesome, and the wild elderberry trees that are here, and the yarrow that was coming up in the pasture, as it were.

13:25
having to, number one, dig up a bunch of plants from the old house before it was sold and bring them down and get them in the ground. And then anytime somebody had free rhizomes or roots for lilies or irises or peonies or whatever, we were like, yes, please, we'll take them because we needed to make it ours. So there are just little things that you won't know until you actually move in to the new place.

13:54
Right, and no one can anticipate everything. No. So regardless of how prepared you feel you are for your move or for your new dream home and dream life, because it is a totally different lifestyle, you're never gonna be 100% prepared. If you haven't done it before, you're not gonna be ready. You can just prepare as much as you possibly can, but just know things are gonna come out of the side. And...

14:23
knock you on your boots. Uh huh. You just have to brush off and get up and keep going. Yep. And the one thing I would not suggest is getting a brand new puppy a month after you move into a new house. Right. I couldn't believe you did that. We did because it was the right puppy and the right family that had her. So we did and she's fantastic. We adore her. She's amazing. She's almost four. And I'm not sorry we did it, but- Of course not.

14:53
Having a puppy eat the floorboard corner in your kitchen because she's teething, just after you have a brand new remodeled house in your possession is a very sad moment. Oh, definitely. So puppies are just as much work if not more than kids. Although once they do grow up, they listen better than your kids do. So that's, you know, catch 22 there. Yeah, and they don't really talk back. I mean, they yip at you, but they don't talk back. They're not snotty, so.

15:22
It's good. But either way, yeah, we got a new puppy a month after we moved in here and not sorry. Sorry, not sorry. Right. And then COVID happened as well. So you guys really got slammed when you moved in. COVID was going on before we even called you. So we knew that was a thing. I know, but I can't remember what year you bought it. 2020. 2020. Okay. So yeah, so COVID was, yeah, you guys are right in the midst of it.

15:51
Yes, and we basically did all the moving ourselves because we didn't feel like it was fair to ask people to help and expose them to germs or us get exposed to germs. So that was a lot of work with a lot of trips back and forth. Yeah, you guys did it in the midst of all the unknowns, you know. Yep, and I think it was the best time to do it because we were like, why the hell not? Let's just go. So it worked. It was fine.

16:16
And it was also in August and it was super hot the weekend we moved all the heavy furniture in so that was fun too. Yeah, yeah. People always say, oh, is real estate in Minnesota a seasonal job? Well, sweetheart, if it was a seasonal job, I would not be doing it. No. I need a full-time year-round job. And there are benefits to moving in the winter. If it's snowing, you're not getting soaking wet like you are in the rain. It can be colder, but you're not sweating to death.

16:45
So yeah, so there's pluses and minuses about moving regardless of what time of year it is. Yeah. And somebody told me a long time ago, but this was like in the 80s, that people like to move in July and August because they can get in and get settled, especially if they have kids because then school starts and the kids are off to school. Yes. Yeah. So and then it is cyclical. It's not seasonal, but it is cyclical. So everybody wants to get in.

17:15
excuse me, before the school season starts. But they don't wanna start looking until after school's out. So that really crams it in when they have kids. And then they wanna get in before Thanksgiving, then they wanna get in before the holidays, before Christmas or what have you. And then it's usually quiet for a couple of weeks till, cause people are like, no, we're entertaining, we're having our celebrations, we're not gonna show, we're not gonna look.

17:43
Uh, and then after the first of the year, it's a little bit quieter. For some reason, Superbowl is like a key to the world. And as soon as that's over the spring market in Minnesota, just goes gangbusters. So like literally I have had clients message me or call me the day after the Superbowl is over. It's like, so yeah. That's interesting. Those are pretty much our cycles in Minnesota. Now, whether or not they're like that all over the States.

18:12
You know, in the country, I don't know, I doubt it, but there would definitely be some similarities. Yeah. So, speaking of AC, because we, being hot when you move in. Yes. This place has central air, thank God, and we cranked it as cold as we could get it the day we moved in because it was just miserably hot outside. And so, it's now June and we've been using the AC, obviously, it's been hot and muggy when it's not been cold and rainy.

18:42
And last night I had made a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and then Cameron put his together and made his and after he went upstairs, I could smell something hot. And I was like, did he get the spatula in the flame by accident? Because that happens. And then it went away. And I was like, okay, well, nothing's on fire that I know of, so we're good. And when I got up this morning, Kyle says, I got to tell you something and you're going to hate it. And I thought somebody died. And I was like, what?

19:12
the blower on the furnace isn't working. And I said, oh, and he said, the compressor for the air conditioner is fine. It's working, but the blower's not working. He said, so, he said, do you want to call the place that came out and did the ones over on the furnace last year and see if they come out and see what's going on? And I was like, yep. So right now we have no central air working. It has turned off completely. We have...

19:40
We have two portable AC units in our bedrooms because as you remember, the vents for the furnace don't come into our bedrooms. They come out in that landing. So we each have portable air conditioners in our bedrooms because otherwise we would sweat to death at night. So right now mine is off so that it's not making noises on the recording of this. But as soon as I'm done talking to you, it'll get turned back on and the fan is blowing that cold air out into the stairwell and dropping down the staircase and we'll be fine until

20:08
The tech gets here at noon to tell us what's going on. So that's another thing that happens is things break. Right, and that's just home ownership period. So a lot of, you know, the good news is if you're renting and you move into a home, you're no longer paying somebody else's mortgage. You're actually gaining equity in your home. You can do whatever you want with your home. But you do have to pay for the upkeep. Yeah.

20:36
Yeah, and it's not inexpensive people. It's not every, every repair that we have had done over the last couple of years has been at least a thousand dollars. Luckily we haven't had that many to have done. Right. Well, and you are in an older home, albeit it was remodeled. Your home was built like, I want to say early, early 1900s, before 50 for sure. Yes.

21:02
Yes, it is an old farmhouse and it looks beautiful, but I'm sure the bones are definitely a hundred years old, right? And we love it. We absolutely love it except when things break then we're like, yeah But it's fine because if we had bought a new home in a development Things break there too. So absolutely and that's what I tell clients all the time They want to do new construction and new construction is great

21:31
Um, but it also comes with its own headaches. So you can build a home and you can say it's perfect. And even if you find a house that's 85% checks all your boxes, that's the perfect house, um, because even if you build new construction, custom build all out, the minute you move in, I wish I would have done this, we should have done this. You know, we should have changed that. There's always something. So 85% is a pretty good mark.

22:00
Yeah. And if you're partnered up, your partner has a say in the decisions on the new build. And Kyle desperately wanted to do, he wanted to buy land and then build a house on it. And I flat out told him no many times. And he was like, well, why we can have everything we want? And I said, no, because we are different people and we're not going to want the same things. Yes.

22:28
And they don't want to argue with you for months about a house build. That would not be great for us. And he was like, yeah, you're probably right. And like I said, it's exponentially ridiculously expensive. Yes. Um, so you can get much more bang for your money if you buy an existing home. Um, but if you have the budget and you want to build, there's no problem with that, but your budget will definitely have to be higher if you want to buy land and then build on top of it. Yes, exactly.

22:58
Not only are you building a house, you're going to be putting in a septic and a well and a generator and everything else. Yes, all the extras that go with it. Right. Which aren't actually. And LP, like you're not on natural gas out there either in most places. No. Occasionally you'll find one that does have natural gas, but generally you're going to be heating with wood or LP, which is liquid propane. So you'll have to have a tank and fill that up.

23:26
Yes, an important hint for people who don't know. In our area, they have summer prices for propane gas. And it's marked down from what it normally costs the rest of the year. And so we always get our propane tank filled in like July or August while we're still on summer prices because it saves us a lot of money. Right. But you do have some boil off as well because of the heat.

23:55
albeit the tank is insulated, you do still have some boil off. Yeah. So. Yep. But we didn't know about the summer prices when we first had it filled. The guy was like, it's a good thing you called now, because it was in August, I think. Right. And he said, you're saving yourselves like 20 or 30 cents a gallon by doing this in the summer. So, good to know. Yeah. Especially if you can do it like late in the season, because it's not going to, it's going to start to cool off, then you don't have as much burn off either. Right.

24:25
And the other thing that we learned when we moved here is our house was set up for an electric stove, not gas stove. They didn't have it so that you could use the LP for a gas stove. And I hate electric stoves. I hate cooking on them. I can't control them the way I want to and I love to cook. So I put up with an electric glass top stove for a year and finally said, I can't do this anymore.

24:55
And so we had a, I don't know what they're called. I don't know if someone who works with LP is a plumber or what their term is. We had a guy come out and get it so that we could have an LP gas cook stove. Yeah. So you, yeah, the plumbers come out and do the plumbing for the gas. Um, the plumbing for the gas. And then, uh, the nice thing is. Well, the good.

25:21
there is niceties, but you need to know about them, is your appliances you can buy with conversion kits for LP. Yes. So it can be either LP or natural gas, whether it's your air conditioner or your furnace or your stove, what have you, you just make sure that you are purchasing one that has the LP conversion kit with it. Yep, and that's what we did. We bought a really nice, really nice gas range thing.

25:51
from Lowe's, I think it was, and made sure that it had the converter kit with it. And then we called the guy and said, we have the stove, when can you come hook it up? And he said, how's tomorrow? I was like, that's better than a week from now, please come. And he did. Yeah. And he was great. He was great. He walked in and I was like, I'm so happy to see you. And I had a huge smile on my face. And he said, why are you so smiling? And I said, because I've been working with the glass top electric stove for a year. I hate it.

26:21
My wishes come true in being here and putting this in. He was like, well, let's get it done. I was like, yes, please, let's get it done. So, and best gas stove I've ever had. I love this thing, it's wonderful. So anyway, wow, this has gone really fast. We're almost at 30 minutes. What can help the realtor the most?

26:48
when a client is looking for a new place? We sort of touched on it, but is there anything we missed? Well, I think, you know, to round it off, when a client is looking for a realtor, you want to make sure that you find somebody who is experienced and well-rounded so that they can inform you and help you off in the right direction or away from properties that aren't going to be a good fit for you. Not that you shouldn't go look at them. I would never steer anybody away from a property.

27:18
but educating them on the pluses and minuses of each one is huge. And then just communicate, excuse me, communication with your realtor is key. So be honest, be forthright, you know, and if you're not always going to get the answer you want to hear. I tell, and I told you in Kyle this, you're not always going to like what I tell you, but you will always know the truth and you'll always know where you stand. Absolutely.

27:46
you know, just communicate with your Realtor, find somebody that you mesh with and somebody who can actually guide you and has the experience and the knowledge to make sure that you don't get in over your head. Okay, I want to add something to that. Also find someone as talented and skilled and bubbly personality as Ms. Lori is here because that really, really helped. Okay, this is the hardest part of this whole thing is listening to you rave. Oh, why? The fact that my voice is disappearing.

28:15
Well, but yeah, listening to you compliment me is very nice. But yes, I'm very humble. Thank you. Well, we love you. You're now part of the family. Well, that's the nice part. When you do get a good realtor and you do get that relationship going, I would say pretty much most of all my clients, we become friends afterwards. Yeah, I refer to you as my sister from another mister a lot of the time. Oh, yeah, there you go. That works.

28:43
Another one too, yeah, another mister and another mom. Yeah, that too, yep, exactly. But I think what I was actually trying to get at is what the person who's looking for a new place can do to help the search, help the realtor with the search. Narrow down exactly what you must have. I always tell my clients make two lists, makes a must have and a nice to have. Well, three, and then a deal breaker.

29:12
So if you can come down to a few points that are absolutely necessities in that property, get those down on paper and get those to your agent. And then if there's deal breakers, like absolutely no way and heck are we going to buy those if it has this or that or doesn't have this or that, put those deal breakers down as well because that'll help narrow down the search. I find a whole lot of property, but most of it's nothing that you're going to be interested in if I don't know what you're looking for.

29:41
Yeah, you've got to be able to narrow it down somehow. You can't, you can't just be like, I'm going to take you to see a hundred houses. That's not going to work. Right. But yeah, I mean, don't just tell me you want a kitchen. Yeah. The house comes with a kitchen that's guaranteed, uh, functionality. Can't always guarantee that, you know, things like that. Gas stove. I know you had to give up your gas stove for a year, but you've got a lot of your other things that you needed in that house. So you have to be flexible as well.

30:09
It's a little bit of give and take with your must haves and deal breakers. Yeah. Well, the must have for us was not to live in the house in Jordan anymore. And we got that. So we're very happy. Yes. That was a big task because I did not think after, after the first couple of years that you guys were ever going to just pull the trigger. Well, we weren't really in a position to pull the trigger.

30:38
things happen, life happens, and then it's the right timing. Yep, and then once we were, we were like, let's call Lori and get the heck out here now. And we did, and we're so happy we did. So it all worked out great. Yeah, and as far as clients go too, don't ever feel like you're putting your agent or your friend out if you call them or ask them a question, even if you're not ready to buy. I've known Mary and Kyle for years, they weren't ready to buy. I've known a lot of clients,

31:08
Mary and Kyle are probably the law close to the longest before when they started searching to when they were actually ready to buy. So I've had clients, you know, two, three years and I just consult with them. That's what I'm here. I love real estate. I love helping people. If you have a question, let me know. If you're under contract with another agent, let me know that too because then there's a little bit of an ethical dilemma. But get to know your agent before you're ready to pull the trigger. If you're even thinking about making a move in the future.

31:37
find an agent that you like now before the pressure's on. Yes. Then you can get that relationship going, you can get to know each other, and you can actually have a much more successful transaction when it comes time to actually do it. And far more enjoyable too. Right, less stressful for sure, yes. Yeah, because it really helps when the person who's trying to find what you want is someone you like and they like you. Right, oh yeah.

32:05
I mean, my clients, I get totally invested in my clients, in what they want and their happiness and their goals. And any good agent will do the same. We're the second tier. You guys are first and foremost, always. So what you want, what you need, and then my job or any good agent's job is to guide you and to get you what you want for the best possible price, the best location.

32:36
All right, I think maybe this will help some people. This particular episode, I hope it will. I hope so. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. I really wanted to do this with you. You are welcome. And again, you can share my contact information if anybody has questions in the future or questions that we didn't hit on in this podcast, feel free to contact me. All right, awesome. Thank you so much. Okay, thanks Mary. Bye. Bye-bye.