Back in 1928, a man bought a comparatively new house and eight acres of land for a sum far below the prevailing prices in the vicinity.  The grounds were attractive and the lawn well shaded with fine old maples.  He acquired this “bargain” in the late fall without benefit of real estate dealer.  In fact, he boasted of his acumen to a broker who had originally shown him several other pieces of property in the section.

“I told you there were cheaper places,” he chortled, “and the owner gave me the advantage of the broker’s commission, too.  Come out next spring and see what a bargain I found.”  In late May there came a wail for help from the cocksure buyer.  A few days of unseasonably warm weather and a strong east wind had revealed the reason for the bargain.  Back of a wooded area to the rear of his holding, was a combination hog farm and refuse dump.  The owner of it got little or no rental from the tenant farmer who carried on his noisome business but he was well aware of its nuisance value to his new neighbor.  Here indeed was a situation requiring the services of that middle man, the real estate broker.  The latter was a good business man and by using all his guile, he eventually acquired the hog farm for his client at a fair price.  But even at that, the man now had ten additional acres that he didn’t want and couldn’t use.  When the cost of the added land and clearing it of refuse had been met, his place was not the bargain it had seemed originally.

This does not mean that there are never any country places to be had at real bargains.  It is a case of being keen enough or lucky enough to locate one.  There can be a number of legitimate reasons why a piece of property is on the market at a price below its general worth.  There may be urgent financial reasons why the owner must sell.  In this unhappy situation he cannot be too firm as to price and will usually accept a sum actually below the market value in order to salvage a fair proportion of what he may have invested.

Another type of bargain is that of property that has only recently become available for country homes through the construction of a new motor highway or some other major development.  For example, the electrification of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a concrete automobile road from Trenton, New Jersey, into Bucks County, Pennsylvania, have brought old farms in and around Doylestown, Pennsylvania, within an hour and a half of New York City.  This condition has not existed long and Bucks County farms on an acreage basis may still be bought distinctly cheaper than in practically any other section equi-distant in travel time from New York.

Again, some particular place may be owned by an estate with a number of heirs who want their money.  None of them feels inclined to take over the property and pay off the others.  All are in a hurry to get their share of what Uncle Henry left.  Eventually the property goes at a partition sale which is the bargain basement of real estate.  Partition sales and heirs hungry for ready money are keenly watched by those who buy purely for investment and with the expectation of resale to some one wanting a country home.  Hence the ultimate consumer rarely benefits.  But occasionally the regular investor finds the matter of resale neither as simple nor as rapid as he had expected.