So, this latest lender - of whom I filled out all kinds of paperwork for and sent it in - called and asked for a half dozen more documents.  

OKKKKKKKK.

But I was out and about, didn't rush home for that.  I originally went out to get breakfast, I ended up driving up and down the street where I bought one of the properties at tax sale and looking at square footage.  They told me at the city I would have to build a house that is at least 1,100 square feet.

Yes, that's small, but I was going even smaller.  600-800 square feet. Like a mini home.  I took pictures and wrote down street numbers to look up square footage, but from guesstimation, I'd say more than half the homes on that street are 900 square feet and less - a few much less.  

Take the mobile, manufactured or modular home equation out of it, simply look at the square footage.  But, there was a newer looking modular home that couldn't have been 800 square feet - and that is a generous guesstimate.  This guy from the city made his decision from the house across the street from my property.  He said it's 1,150 square feet. Oh? And the house next to it?  Around 700 square feet.  

I'm going to look up the square footage of at least half the homes on that street - big and small and in between.  Then, if I am right about my guesses at square footage - I should be pretty close on a lot of them - I am going back to this city dude and show him the facts of what this street consists of.  There are 2 mansions on the street - it's an odd mix.  Those houses must be 6,000 square feet each - and that's a conservative estimate.  They are absolutely huge and beautiful properties.  And next door to them? Old houses, falling apart, or old houses not falling apart, but old and small.  

There isn't any reason on earth the city should deny my request to put in whatever I want, really, ,as long as it meets city code requirements for being a habitable structure. My goal was to put on a small structure and put up a rent to own ad.  $2,500 down, $600 per month and figure out how long the loan should last by the amount of money spent on the structure and profit.  I did buy these properties for profit and I don't feel bad about that at all as long as I'm not taking advantage of people.  It's a small property to begin with.  

After going to the store for dinner stuff, I came home, took photos of signed papers I had to print out yet again, dug up other files and sent them off.

Now awaits the period where they do their research and determine whether they want to loan me money or not.  

I kind of think I can take it as a good indicator if they refuse me credit that probably all of the credit unions will do that as well.  I'll try a regular bank after that and see what they say and then - we are back to square one.  I might have to consider at that point if this is really meant to be, or if there is a pot of gold at the other end of this rainbow, I just have to go through the effort to find it.  Because honey, I have given a lot of time, travel and energy to just finding property.

There have been no new listings in the last week I think it is.  The house with 20 acres is already under contract.  Lol.  It was listed too high anyway, I don't want that high of payments, but it was intriguing.  

Well enough of this, time to do house chores. 

 Endless forms and information to dig up.

Contacting the wrong lender.  Out of sheer ignorance for I have never applied for a land loan before.

Endless phone calls and emails.

More digging up of more information.

Total assets and total liabilities. 

I was amazed at my total assets tho, didn't realize I was worth that much money lol.  Mostly due to 401ks and my house in Arizona. 

One lender in Houston area said I could sign up, then couldn't, then could.  But the online application won't allow me to do so without either knowing someone already in their credit union, living in  certain zip codes near them or working for a list of companies they give.  None of those apply.  The loan officer is probably getting tired of my constant emails lol.  I think I'll just put my name in the related field and see if it will work.  

Meanwhile, another lender in a town about 60 miles away called and said that these types of loans are based on regions and that I was out of their region, but that he could give me the number of the lender whose region I am in.  Note that this bank asked for all kinds of information including 2020 tax return.  

I mean, I needed to do it anyway so no big deal but dang.  It took me hours of digging up info to find out - I am not even qualified to apply with them.  

I really should have started this process long ago, I had no idea land loans were so complicated and involved, they are more difficult to obtain than a house loan. 

Regardless, I called this local lender and they said okay, sent me an application.  I have all of that information now, so I just filled that in easy peasy.  

In the end, I don't even know if they'll grant me a loan, tho the amount isn't that much, at least not by lender's standards and they will see that I will easily be able to afford a less than $300 per month payment.  

So, until I exhaust all lending options that do land loans, I will keep trying.  If it all ends up in a dead end, then I will be forced to try and buy a much smaller property for cash or go to the tax lien sale and see if I can score something there in the next auction they do.  

What I am not going to do is agree to the land owner's outrageous terms having me pay close to triple monthly payments than what I can get through a bank. He can keep that land.  

I am not giving up hope, but this process is getting rather exasperating. I only have so much free time and I really don't want to have to use it all up dealing with lenders.  I guess it's the price one must pay, and I'm getting educated at least on how the process works, but another thing I have never had any experience with is credit unions.  

They give better rates but dang, they make it hard to join up with them.  

Anyway, I'm taking a break from that for I have sent in that latest application and I'll see how that goes.  I really wanted to get the pond set up today, but I also really want to find out one way or another if I can get financed for this project or switch gears and focus on other ways to get land.  

Well, the money mom sent is now in the other account.  It's an account she set up and then added me to it so she can just send me money versus sending me checks. This is yet another process, I just found out, to be able to transfer money from that account to my checking account.  That apparently will take a couple of days to set up, lol.  

I don't need that money for a down payment. It will come handy to start doing the things it will take to set up the park.  She is okay with that, in fact she said she thought it might help. Yes, yes indeed it will if I can ever get to that point in this process.  

And, if I can qualify for a loan, perhaps I can look at other properties I put on the shelf.  Higher dollar amount for the land, but a lot more property, one of them specifically comes to mind.  They want a lot more money but the ad lists it as a "motivated seller" - which usually means they are willing to take less money to unload the property.  

I thought I was taking a break but I keep getting emails. So I set up the credit union account in my name, it was the only thing I knew to do to try and open an account there. They have 10% down payment and better terms. The loan officer from that company is the one that told me I could open an account and make a donation to some charity - so that's fine as long as the minimum donation isn't terribly much and the charity is something I can actually agree with.  

Now?  I probably should get away from the desk, my goal today was to try and get the pond set up. So far, I have done nothing with it for I am here, at my desk, attempting to answer all of these questions and fill out all of these  forms, lol.  And I'm hungry, so time to eat. The day is wasting away and I suspect I will not get to the pond after all is said and done.

I also suspect I will be sent out tomorrow somewhere, I was a bit amazed they didn't send me anywhere today.  I mean, I'm glad they didn't, gives me a chance to do all of this paperwork.  I wouldn't have been able to do it on the road with my laptop, I had to print out a lot of stuff and then scan it and send it back to the lenders.  

This whole thing isn't likely to end anytime soon, lol.  Grin and bear it, there is no use getting frustrated.  

Okay I'm offa here - for now.