Ideas on fair prices for vacant residential lots [[adjacent to homes)?

[redalice734]

First off, sorry for the very long post - just trying to cover my bases here

I purchased a house in Detroit a couple of years ago and have been working on bringing it up to code ever since. The previous owner of the home had fenced in the adjacent empty lot & maintained the yard for years [[we're talking at least a decade here) and at the time of purchase the agent who listed the place stated that the lot was included. When I didn't see it on the plat info, I assumed it was City-owned like so many empty lots and that I could just purchase it later.

My own fault, I didn't do my due diligence & check the owner. Turns out, the bulk of the adjacent lot is privately owned. We've done some touch-up work on the yard to keep it from being a total hazard but have focused mainly on getting the home into shape. Now that we're *finally* a week away from moving in and are removing some of the junk trees/dumped tires/etc., the lot owner has stepped forward and is trying to sell it. I've called him a few times re: the situation & he won't give me a price, just keeps pushing me to reveal my budget.

My budget is zero, since I thought we either owned it or would be able to annex it eventually, & b/c the cost of getting the house up to code has pretty much wiped me out for the foreseeable future. I realize that if we want to keep the lot we'll have to pay for it and I may be able to work with a land contract or something, if he's offering [[don't know, he won't tell me), but I'm not really in a position to spend a bunch of cash on this. The house is a great find and I'd have bought the place even w/a tiny yard, so if I have to move the fence and just maintain my yard I will. However, I doubt that after 10+ years of not having to work on the space the lot owner will properly maintain it and I'd rather not leave an overgrown lot between my place & the abandoned house next door. I mean, he might step up and care for the lot...but I kind of doubt it.

I checked, but there aren't any comps listed in the immediate neighborhood and the empty residential lots I am seeing are all over the place cost-wise: the City sold adjacent lots in Southwest [[which isn't far from my house) for $200 and many of the privately-owned vacant lots of a similar size & in similar neighborhoods are going for $500-$850. One company is trying to sell a bunch of parcels on the other side of town for $2500. No takers on those for quite some time, but whoever's running that company is hoping to get that for run-down lots, which makes me worry that this guy will too.

Anyway, like I said my budget right now is zero. I can't spend a penny on anything but the last of the home repairs [[for example, the radiators were stolen & winter's around the corner) for at least a few months but after that I'd like to make the lot owner an offer that's fair enough to hold firm on.

A bidding war won't be an issue; I doubt anyone else would be interested in this plot. The neighborhood's pretty decent overall, but the vacant house on the other side of the lot is one bad storm from caving in on itself; the ground is horribly contaminated with heavy metals and, of all things, motor oil; the neighborhood isn't in an Enterprise zone or close enough to any new construction to make it attractive to developers for at least another decade, if ever; and there are a couple of guys on the block who will rip off pretty much anything, nailed down or not, which means construction or even gardening without someone being there 24/7 or close to it just isn't feasible.

Given all of those factors, does anyone on the DY forum have some ideas re: a fair price for lots adjacent to homes? Or has anyone here purchased the lot next to their home from a private seller, and if so would you be willing to let me know a ballpark figure? I don't want to play the "Let it go completely to h*ll and bring the City down on him until he's desperate to sell" game. My neighbors actually suggested doing this and even offered to make the calls so I wouldn't have to be involved, but that really isn't my style.

I also don't want to be a doormat, though; that is, I'd hate to put the work into it to make it nice - or even less hazardous, especially if the fence has to be moved - and *then* have the lot owner suddenly decide upon an exorbitant price. I don't know if that would happen, but [[for example) I've had friends who were renters substantially improve their yards with their landlords' permission, only to have the landlords turn around & ramp up the rent based on those improvements that they didn't do or pay for.

Anyway, I don't have any experience with this kind of thing, so any input is welcome...thanks ^_^

[[and yes, if I EVER purchase another home abutting a vacant lot I'll double- or even triple-check the ownership myself *smacks self in head for fiftieth time today*)