Prospects

Sometimes you think you know exactly what you are looking for in a property until you come across what you didn’t know you wanted. This has been true in both of our home purchases where we have a list of what we want but are turned sideways when the unexpected fits perfectly into what we need. I thought it would be different purchasing land rather than a house.  After all, a house has some fundamentals needed like bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens that help give you a basic foundation to work from; whereas purchasing land would be looking at trees, grass and dirt. I was naive for sure.

To begin, we needed local help and knowledge to make sure we knew the lay of the land – literally. We contacted a realtor who had at least one of the listings we were interested in and happened to also have a solid portfolio focused on raw land. She was able to send more details on a few properties we highlighted, including additional listings in the surrounding area that she thought might be a good fit for our initial requests.  

After reviewing options we decided it was time for a drive upstate; partly to enjoy the early summer warmth and fresh country air after lock down, but also a non-virtual look at our ‘land for sale’ contenders. We plotted our course to meet with the realtor, but only after an important pit stop – the best donuts ever, Kings Donut Cart.  Trust us it’s worth the stop, and make sure to grab your coffee before hand. Donuts in tow, we met the realtor at our first location giving her an opportunity to provide more detail about the properties and the listings before we started our day of land searches. 

This outing was very exploratory, an opportunity for us as a family to see some of the properties I had visited on the earlier trip, as well as suggestions from the realtor. We quickly realized our flip flops and shorts were going to be no match for densely wooded lots in the middle of summer, but either way we were excited cruising the country side after lock down. 

My better half knows exactly what she wants and we were quickly able to narrow down the list to one key property. Before we talk about what we liked, it is equally important to understand what we didn’t. 

Neighbors. When you live in a suburb or city it’s hard to think about neighbors as being a consideration on large acreage properties, but it still can be. It’s less about the people and more about the intent and use of the neighboring property. Some of the land we viewed were actively being farmed, mined, and timbered. In rural areas land can be zoned and used far differently than in a suburb where there can be stronger zoning laws; and even though we wanted privacy we also wanted our potential neighbors using their land for a home.

Location. The landscape is made up of rolling hills, valleys and converging rivers. Having previously lived in the area through heavy flooding and snow melt, we knew we didn’t want low lying property where it can be difficult to dry out. The weather can make for an extended muddy season and being in low lying areas makes living more challenging. 

Lot size. Our previous country home was on six acres and one would typically think that’s more than enough. But there was quite a bit of activity on one end of the road to our house – including an abandoned mobile home, a dilapidated barn, a stone quarry and the neighbors, though acres away from us, that liked to throw dynamite sticks after midnight.  Again, these distractions were far enough away, but towards the end of our tenure in the area, a house was built just below our sunset view. Keeping all this in mind, we wanted enough acres to provide space all around us if we were building a forever home. You can’t always plan what happens on your neighboring properties but careful planning and enough acreage can certainly maintain the value and integrity of your purchase. 

We saw about a half dozen properties that day and reviewed the remaining listings provided on our drive home. By the time we made it back, we essentially ended where we started during the drive that morning – we chose the first property we visited and the first one I chose earlier in the summer.  I was surprised because it was more of everything that we planned for, but in actuality, the best option for our family.