jonathanwh

Here is a short summary.

I live in North Carolina. We bought a new home in a brand new neighborhood in April. The nieghborhood ranges from the low 300's to high 400's. For our area, these are very nice homes. Avg Sq. ft between 2800-4200. Our home is on .36 acre lot.

Now my question. An adjacent lot was purchased by a builder who has a lot of new home inventory. We approached him in April about purchasing the lot next to ours to expand ours to .7 acres. (more room for the kids to play and will avoid having a neighbor right next to us). He initially denied, but after 5 months has come knocking on our door asking us if we are still interested. I have never bought land without a home. I would like to purchase this land without tying it to our house, because we only have about 30000 worth of equity in our home. Does anyone have any suggestions about financing options that we can take? Will banks loan money on land alone without tying it to our home?

In the future, we have the right to either build on this lot or sell it to a builder of our choice, so it's an investment. If we decide to sell our home, I would most likely sell the lot separate from our home. I am planning to stay here a minimum of 10-15 years, but I can't predict what the future holds. My wife and I both would like to buy the land, but I like to be informative when speaking to the bank so I don't appear 'green'.

Any suggestions?