In 1996 I decided to buy some rural land in south-east Tennessee, for the purpose of homesteading and living healthy.
I wanted more than 5 acres, my own springs, and it had to be cheap; I only had $35,000 in lawful money and no desire to go into debt.
The price constraint ruled out farm land, existing buildings, and other improvements such as utilities.
I placed wanted ads in some small local papers and got quite a few responses.
I narrowed down the choices and started looking at the offers, even camping out over night on some land to get a feel for it and meet the neighbors.
After some searching I found the right plot of ground.
Because I was young, ignorant, and not at all fluent in the local language, I hired a lawyer to help me close the deal.
There was only one law office in the entire area, which only had one lawyer who was the owner.
He also dealt in real estate.
He already knew I wanted to buy land, because he was one of the respondents to my wanted ad. We found out that he did not have the land that I was looking for, but he offered his legal services, which I took him up on.
He explained to me that the paperwork had to be written up a certain way and told me horror stories of people who got screwed because their paperwork was not just right.
Other locals I met on my search for land told me that this lawyer/real estate seller was a no-good crook, and I should not trust him or buy land from him.
The people who told me this seemed no more confidence inspiring than that lawyer though, who had a calm and polite bearing.
After I had found the land I wanted to buy I went to his very small and modest looking law office in the tiny nearby town and hired him for the closing and the title work.
All I knew about "land purchase" at the time was from my parents who had bought "real estate" three times in the US of A, but always with a mortgage.
He drew up the following Real Estate Purchase Agreement for me to use.
See attachments.
Notice the mention of lawful money on the first page.
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