Buying rural property is different than buying in the suburbs. A lot different :). Not a bad different just different. You have different things to consider. And your dreams/goals should be one of those many things that you think about.
We first had to think about how much property we wanted. Well hubby wanted hundreds of acres... that wasn't going to happen but we settled on 10-20 acres when we started looking. So off we went to the internet to search. What options were already on the property, what isn't on the property, how much is the property, what does that equal per acre? You get the idea.
Hubby wanted trees, I wanted room for the animals, we both wanted water and power. I wanted a good space for my garden and orchard. Hubby wanted room to grow.
So I found 19 acres with a well that "might" work, power, a trailer that needed to be disposed of, no fencing, no trees, lots of great open space with plenty of options for buildings and a home site. But when you want to move it seems like a great option.
Across the road there was another sign. This one had 26 acres, with two barns (both needing work), a small house, needing to be cleaned out and renovated, two sheds, and a stone building. Three sides were fenced. Power and a septic were on the property but no well... Why was there no well?
Both pastures looked good, and the price was the range I was looking for. Downside was a feed lot right next door.
Hubby found a property. It had 39.7 acres, an unfinished house, fully fenced, well, septic, and power already on the property. From the pictures it didn't appear to have many trees and was outside the school district that we are already in. But the hubby wanted to go look. So we went out and looked. The pastures are recovering nicely, still fully fenced, more trees than we expected and a 2 acre stock pond. The price was higher than I wanted to pay, however it was a great price for the amount of property. Great views.
Around here a working well is a huge plus. Wells can cost well over 10K to have dug. Septic systems are about 9K. Having the whole 40 acres fenced is another huge plus. The cost of fencing is much more than people realize. We fenced 1/4 of an acre with 4x4 panels for the goats and it cost $500 (which included the fencing and tposts). The property has 5 strand barbed wire all the way around. We also knew that when we found the right place we would know. This was our homestead/retirement property. As soon as we went out and looked we knew it was where we wanted to be.
The unfinished house has great potential to be finished. As long as the foundation is good we are going to fix it up. There are no other buildings, so everything can be done just the way we have always dreamed. Part of the agreement was to ensure the well was still working, so power was turned on. We also included that a manufactured home had to be allowed on the property. A 2 acre stock pond can cost thousands to build but we already have one and we can use it for shooting practice. Sure we have to do a lot of building and it won't be a fast process. But since it's completely fenced we could potentially put cows on the property within a year. It fits with our dreams and goals.
If you can't tell we made an offer on the 40 acres and should close by August 22 :).
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