Looking For cheap land in Illinois with a home attached

I find myself typing this for easily the thirtieth time:

I am a caregiver needing at least an acre (or two) of land for my family and myself.  It has been a hard decade.  Both parents are now deceased.  Despite their struggles, they were never able to afford a home for us.  Some reasons were financial, others were bureaucracy.   The loss has hit our family hard.  We want a forever home.  I've put up listings only to have them removed.  I was reported as spam for having a genuine need. Calls, texts, and etc. to home owners are ignored.   Wanting a 2 to 3 year RTO agreement is room for laughter.  Despite the fact that many people pay on a home for 20-30 years on a fixed mortgage.  

I can't give up.  It's not in my blood.  I'm hoping there is someone out there who just has a decent rental property they want to get rid of and will have a little compassion.   The amount of money needed for a starter home these days is more than the average person will ever make in a lifetime.   Being a caregiver, I can't pay in a huge chunk like someone with a 100-200 home portfolio.  The most home I can afford is $15-20,000.  That's why i am appealing to someone who just needs to sell a home and isn't looking to get rich quick.  This is a serious request.  Not spam.

I want to grow my own vegetables again.  I want to open my dream lawn business.  I want to see smiles on my family's face.   I want to give back (food pantry).

Addition:  I'll even throw in some of my vintage and valuable records to sweeten the deal.  I've got Nancy and Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bing Crosby (I believe I still have him), Gerry Rafferty, Styxx, and others.  I'm not kidding.  I'm gonna have to trim some fat off before the big move anyway.  Tell me we've got a deal, show me some detailed pictures, let me have a short visit, the vinyl records can be yours as well.

Kay Strayer wrote:I find myself typing this for easily the thirtieth time:

I am a caregiver needing at least an acre (or two) of land for my family and myself.  It has been a hard decade.  Both parents are now deceased.  Despite their struggles, they were never able to afford a home for us.  Some reasons were financial, others were bureaucracy.   The loss has hit our family hard.  We want a forever home.  I've put up listings only to have them removed.  I was reported as spam for having a genuine need. Calls, texts, and etc. to home owners are ignored.   Wanting a 2 to 3 year RTO agreement is room for laughter.  Despite the fact that many people pay on a home for 20-30 years on a fixed mortgage.  

I can't give up.  It's not in my blood.  I'm hoping there is someone out there who just has a decent rental property they want to get rid of and will have a little compassion.   The amount of money needed for a starter home these days is more than the average person will ever make in a lifetime.   Being a caregiver, I can't pay in a huge chunk like someone with a 100-200 home portfolio.  The most home I can afford is $15-20,000.  That's why i am appealing to someone who just needs to sell a home and isn't looking to get rich quick.  This is a serious request.  Not spam.

I want to grow my own vegetables again.  I want to open my dream lawn business.  I want to see smiles on my family's face.   I want to give back (food pantry).

Addition:  I'll even throw in some of my vintage and valuable records to sweeten the deal.  I've got Nancy and Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bing Crosby (I believe I still have him), Gerry Rafferty, Styxx, and others.  I'm not kidding.  I'm gonna have to trim some fat off before the big move anyway.  Tell me we've got a deal, show me some detailed pictures, let me have a short visit, the vinyl records can be yours as well.

keeping this thread active because the situation is ongoing.  Still looking for a home in Illinois.  Same proposal terms as above.  I know everything is bad right now, but the home we are living in might be sold from underneath us and we need to be closer to family for medical and other reasons.  As a caregiver, I'm pulling out all the stops to get a forever home for my family.  

Hopefully, this makes it to someone who has something to offer.

I'm not sure I understand your ask.  To clarify, you are looking for a house, can put $15-20,000 down and would like the owner to carry the rest of the loan for you?  I bought a trailer house that way when I moved back here.  I didn't even put any money down.  A friend had a trailer house on two acres of land, he sold it to me, he carried the loan for me.  You my be able to find some kind of deal like that.  It was basically a land contract, but with a trailer house and two shops on it.

My suggestion would be to drive around looking for vacant houses.  Ones that look like they have been vacant a very long time.

Write the addresses down, take your list to the County Single Appraisal district to find out who owns those properties.

Write those folks a letter similar to above.

While you are at the County Single Appraisal District ask about when is the Tax Sales.  You would need cash to pay for those though.

This is a crazy selling/buying season.  My Sister In Law house sold for more than the asking price, cash and as is.

Trace Oswald wrote:I'm not sure I understand your ask.  To clarify, you are looking for a house, can put $15-20,000 down and would like the owner to carry the rest of the loan for you?  I bought a trailer house that way when I moved back here.  I didn't even put any money down.  A friend had a trailer house on two acres of land, he sold it to me, he carried the loan for me.  You my be able to find some kind of deal like that.  It was basically a land contract, but with a trailer house and two shops on it.

I'm sorry, I'm just seeing these messages somehow.  I mean to pay $15,000-$20,000 for the home.  Total and with payments over the course of 1-3 years.  With a down payment as incentive to sell to me.  The problem I keep running into is that even if the home is decent, and the owner only wants $15,000-$30,000; they also want all of the money upfront.  It seems odd to me because that's not how most people purchase their homes.  They pay mortgages over the course of 20-30 years.  Basically it seems like a call to investors only.  

I know it's their home.  I simply mean the housing problem only gets worse when families aren't living in them.  Investors scoop up everything and owners hold out.  10 million vacant homes in the US.  It doesn't make sense.

I'm not greedy.  A piece of acreage I can build a couple of tiny homes on is sufficient.  I'd even take a decent mobile home on some land.  For the right price, I only need one (size taken into consideration).  You can't sleep in two houses at once.

Kay Strayer wrote:
I'm sorry, I'm just seeing these messages somehow.  I mean to pay $15,000-$20,000 for the home.  Total and with payments over the course of 1-3 years.  With a down payment as incentive to sell to me.  The problem I keep running into is that even if the home is decent, and the owner only wants $15,000-$30,000; they also want all of the money upfront.  It seems odd to me because that's not how most people purchase their homes.  They pay mortgages over the course of 20-30 years.  Basically it seems like a call to investors only.  

I know it's their home.  I simply mean the housing problem only gets worse when families aren't living in them.  Investors scoop up everything and owners hold out.  10 million vacant homes in the US.  It doesn't make sense.

I'm not greedy.  A piece of acreage I can build a couple of tiny homes on is sufficient.  I'd even take a decent mobile home on some land.  For the right price, I only need one (size taken into consideration).  You can't sleep in two houses at once.

I'm surprised you can find any home at all for $30,000, money up front or otherwise.  Most people pay mortgages over 20-30 years because they are paying $100,000+ for the home.  I'm in a very rural area and here an older trailer house on 2 acres of land sells for $150,000 and up unless the trailer house isn't really livable.  

The "ten million vacant homes" thing is really misleading.  That figure includes homes that are currently for sale or rent, homes that have sold but aren't occupied yet, vacation homes, homes where the person has died but the will hasn't settled yet, homes that are condemned, and on and on.  It isn't a case of a perfectly good home sitting somewhere that the owners just don't want anyone to live in.  

I don't want to dampen your hope, but I think you are asking for something that isn't really realistic unless you did something like complete the PEP 4 on this site find someone that has no one to leave their land to.  Even very cheap houses now sell in the $150,000 range unless you buy a house that needs a lot, really a lot, of work and that is going to cost you a lot of money in materials and a lot of time.  

You said this, but  don't really understand what you mean.  "The most home I can afford is $15-20,000.  That's why i am appealing to someone who just needs to sell a home and isn't looking to get rich quick."  I don't think people are trying to get rich quick, but why would someone sell their home to a stranger for $20,000 when they can sell it to someone else for 10x that?  Just as you don't have $150,000 to throw away, most other people don't either, but that's kind of what you are asking them to do.  Most people have more than a little compassion, but realistically, they can't afford to do that.

If I were in your position, I would try to find an acre of cheap land in a mild climate somewhere that I could dig a well myself.  I would buy the largest shed I could afford and I would live in that while I could take my time and finish the inside myself.  Those things will set you back about $10,000.  With found materials you could do an excellent job of finishing the inside and making it livable.  Construction sites are excellent for finding cutoff lumber, insulation pieces that can be used, etc.  Craigslist and Facebook marketplace have people giving things away every day, so furniture, lamps, wiring, landscaping supplies, things like that can all be had. With your "can't give up" attitude, I'm sure you can make this work.  You didn't say how many in your family, but it sounds as though you may have some help.  The gardening part of this is cheap, or even free, it just takes time.  All the best to you.

Kay Strayer wrote: The problem I keep running into is that even if the home is decent, and the owner only wants $15,000-$30,000; they also want all of the money upfront.  It seems odd to me because that's not how most people purchase their homes.  They pay mortgages over the course of 20-30 years.  Basically it seems like a call to investors only.  

A seller doesn't care where the money comes from and I don't blame them for wanting the money up front.  

If you find a home that someone is willing to accept $15,000-$30,00 then my suggestion would be to scrape up the cash some how.  Get a payday loan.

Most folks pay mortgages like you say though those folks are not buying $15000-$30000 houses.

$15000 divided by 12 equals only $1250 for one month, then that amount is paid in full (in 12 months).  I bet that is about what rent is for older homes.

How much is rent in your area?  How much are average 2 bed 1 bath homes selling for in your area?

Mr google tells me this:

In Illinois, the average rent is approximately $1,800 per month, with significant variation depending on the city and type of unit. Chicago, for example, has an average rent of about $2,215 per month for an apartment, while smaller cities or suburbs like Naperville can be more expensive, and other cities like Springfield and Aurora have lower average rents

I admire your tenacity.

My suggestion would be to start saving as much as you can so that if something in that price range happens to come along you can pay cash.

Have you tried this:

https://permies.com/t/271410/USDA-Home-Loans