The land

While this property was smaller than the 10-20 acres I had hoped for, it was well wooded that provided more than ample privacy and not only hit the items on my list of 'must haves', it also had a number of the 'it would be nice to haves' as well.

Had I found this property before laying money down on the new cabin, I could have easily fixed up the existing cabin well enough to use as temporary or permanent residence, but being that the wheels were already in motion it just came along as a bonus.

In fact, the realtor suggested I just have the fire dept. come in and burn it down.  Cosmetically it did appear to be more of a hindrance than an asset.  Styrofoam sheets on the ceiling that gave the impression that the roof was caving in, more than half the panes of glass broken out, junk strewn throughout, ancient torn linoleum on the floor, and evidence that at some time or other an animal (or animals) had gotten trapped inside and desperately scratched around openings trying to find a way out.  I saw it in a much different light, and getting rid of it was not something I considered.

The listing on the land was in error for the size, and overpriced, but to tell the truth, there isn't much in the way of cheap land in Alaska as less than 1% of it is in private hands, and easy access is something that speaks volumes.  It had been owned by a well driller that lived in another community that used this as a local base of operations when he was in the area, and he had trucked the cabin in from elsewhere to have a roof over his head with the idea of renovating it (from what I could gather from the notes scribbled on the wall).  As by this time he had passed away some time ago, it was one of a few loose ends remaining to wrap up the estate, which had the advantages of them wanting to get this property sold, but the disadvantage of dealing with parties in another location that would have to run it by others with a stake in it.  Based on what I thought was the size of the property, I lowballed it and offered a little less than 3/4 of the asking price, but as I had some funds coming in at a yet to be determined date, I also put 3 year terms on paying it off.  Being that they wanted this done, they came back with an unexpected response... drop the terms and offer less.  I then resubmitted the offer for 2/3 of the listed price and it was a done deal.

The actual size of the lot turned out to be 7.09 acres, so I did wind up paying more per acre than what I thought my initial offer would calculate out to, but in all, just over $2,500 an acre with highway frontage, road frontage on the back side, power and telephone accessible at both ends, and only a mile and a half to the grocery store (more or less to other businesses and services) I feel it was reasonable and since I had very little time to dinkle around I sure couldn't afford to be playing the deal of the century game or risking offending the executrix and the heirs. 

Through it all, the realtor really put some effort in making this deal happen, many times she met me at my shop or in town to get papers signed or offers submitted, all things that would have eaten up so much of the precious time I had to get this accomplished and was like the difference between night and day from the interest I got out of the realtors in Fairbanks or Delta.