Thinking of buying house/property. OPINIONS? UPDATE!

[mrbstephens]

I currently live on a .43 acre lot with a 3 bedroom house. I'm totally surrounded by neighbors with the same sized lot. Both sides, in front and in back. Fencing all around. I have no privacy and someone is constantly having their lawn mowed or weed wacked or leaf blown and dogs are constantly barking. Some evenings one neighbor likes to party until real late with their music blasting. I have lots of shade and can't get a nice vegetable garden to grow. Even if I cut down every tree in the yard, the neighbor's trees would still cast a huge amount of shade.

So, we're looking to move. We've found a house on 1.7 acres. The property is on a bumpy dirt private road. All the neighbors have at least an acre. The house is the very last on the road. On one side is about an acre of woods and the other side is several acres of woods owned by the town. There are hiking trails throughout the town owned land that lead to small ponds. It's within walking distance to the beach. It's super QUIET! The only thing I hear there are the birds singing!

The house is built on an aquifier which means we're only aloud to clear 35% of the land which would be .58 acres. The house needs some work. It's livable, but we'd need another bedroom and bathroom added to the upstairs plus a larger garage or shop built for my husband's woodworking.

I'd like a large vegetable garden and small orchard. Enough where I'd be able to preserve some of it. I'd also like a couple of goats, sheep, and lots of chickens of course.

Just trying to figure out if this would work. Could I get all of what we need on .58? I'd love to here all your opinions and suggestions! Thank you!

 

[robin416]

I doubt you could have the sheep and goats, they'll have that small amount of land grazed down to nothing in very short order. Then if you have a drought you'll really be in it deep.

More of a definition of orchard is needed. Are you planning one tree of several species or multiples? You can plant dwarf trees and still have open space for coops and a shop.

Have you checked for livestock restrictions yet? How about it having an HOA?

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
What's an HOA? There are no restrictions on having a few "pet" sheep, goats, chickens. I was thinking up to 2 sheep and 2 goats. I have a friend who keeps her goats and sheep in a wooded area and feeds them alfalfa(?).
I was thinking maybe 6-8 fruit trees.

 

[Tala]

If you are planning on getting more animals, always go with more land, because like chickens they are addicting!!!!!!

I won't look at anything less than 10 acres when we move out of here.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

The goats/sheep will live happily in the wooded area. I am on 1.488 acres here in Tennessee. We have 5 goats on the back half and they love it. We do have to supplement them with feed, but they keep the wooded area cleaned out of brush and smaller trees, which means less snakes, and other critters you don't really want around your chickens. We also have eleventy-nine chickens and turkeys and ducks. We have plenty of room for everything including the garden. It's totally doable!!! Great for homeschool too

We do hikes and picnics and such even into the neighbors wooded property sometimes and the kids have always loved it. Nature is a great teacher! Go for it!

ETA: An acre is 43,560 square feet. .58 acres would be 25,264.8 square feet. Get you some graph paper and count each square as one square foot, and see if you can set it up the way you want it. That gives you a great scaled visual of what the property will hold. Check the square footage required per animal to see how many you could contain.

 

[Me & My Peeps]

I would look at the zoning laws there. If your looking to add a garage, you may have some restrictions. Setbacks and distance from lot lines are a few potential problems.

Obviously the price has to be relative to the amount of work you have to put into it, to make it livable.

Get with a Realtor and tell them where you work and give them a max distance/time your willing to travel each day to/from work. (I worked out on Staten Island for 4 months after 9/11 at the "Fresh Kills Landfill" (real name, Google it) where everything was processed from the towers. So I understand that distance is not equal to time with travel) They will look at that and find you other property's within that commute distance/time. You will be surprised what they come up with. The amount of people that are in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, top heavy, looking to "short sale", take over payments - is just staggering. I think you will find that you wont have to "settle" on this house just because of the land.

Take your time, buy with your wallet - NOT your heart. Make a list of "must haves" for the property and if a certain place does not meet all of them, move on to the next. The longer you stay looking at a place, the more you start to say "well, I could do this or that and make it work". Dont settle!

Also, any property you are serious about, drive by there at night as well as during the day. Go by on weekends, early mornings.......sometimes you pick up on something that you would not have known about till after you moved in. Like maybe the neighbor is an inhibition free nudist and they walk around outside doing chores openly. (true story) Maybe the guy has a race car and he tunes it up on saturday afternoons......LOUDLY! (true story) Maybe the house next door has a wife that takes in 12 kids as a daycare during the day and they are all turned loose out in the yard from 7am - 5pm to burn off their energy. (true story). Realtor's will NOT tell you everything even if you ask. This is called "lying by omission" but thats another thread.

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
According to the conservation department, clearing means the disturbance of any vegetation. She realizes that goats and sheep will eat everything. I had figured I'd let them live in the wooded part too, but I'm not sure if I'd get caught and fined. I've heard of people applying for a variance and were approved for gardening.

I like our idea with the graph paper. Just so happens I have some!

 

[mrbstephens]

Me & My Peeps :

I would look at the zoning laws there. If your looking to add a garage, you may have some restrictions. Setbacks and distance from lot lines are a few potential problems.

Obviously the price has to be relative to the amount of work you have to put into it, to make it livable.

Get with a Realtor and tell them where you work and give them a max distance/time your willing to travel each day to/from work. (I worked out on Staten Island for 4 months after 9/11 at the "Fresh Kills Landfill" (real name, Google it) where everything was processed from the towers. So I understand that distance is not equal to time with travel) They will look at that and find you other property's within that commute distance/time. You will be surprised what they come up with. The amount of people that are in pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, top heavy, looking to "short sale", take over payments - is just staggering. I think you will find that you wont have to "settle" on this house just because of the land.

Take your time, buy with your wallet - NOT your heart. Make a list of "must haves" for the property and if a certain place does not meet all of them, move on to the next. The longer you stay looking at a place, the more you start to say "well, I could do this or that and make it work". Dont settle!

Also, any property you are serious about, drive by there at night as well as during the day. Go by on weekends, early mornings.......sometimes you pick up on something that you would not have known about till after you moved in. Like maybe the neighbor is an inhibition free nudist and they walk around outside doing chores openly. (true story) Maybe the guy has a race car and he tunes it up on saturday afternoons......LOUDLY! (true story) Maybe the house next door has a wife that takes in 12 kids as a daycare during the day and they are all turned loose out in the yard from 7am - 5pm to burn off their energy. (true story). Realtor's will NOT tell you everything even if you ask. This is called "lying by omission" but thats another thread.

I've looked at the zoning and building a garage is not restricted. It's not wetlands either so I believe there are no other restrictions as far as building. I'll be meeting with a builder on Thursday and he could tell me all of that.

I live on Long Island which is very expensive. It's close to impossible to get anything over 3 acres around here for less than 1,000,000. The asking price on this house is $379,000. So there's a reason it's this price. The house could use some work and not all of the land is usable. BUT, I love the location, the seclusion and privacy. Even if I only get to clear .58 I'd still have lots of privacy and nature surrounding us.

My mother is my real estate agent which makes things a little easier. My FIL used to live on this road with his girlfriend for several years as well as an old high school friend. They both said the same thing: Prps: "QUIET, PRIVATE, BEAUTIFUL" Cons: "Deer eating everything and ticks."​

 

[robin416]

Sheep are grass grazers, not scrub so they will not do well in the woods.

 

[mrbstephens]

Quote:
My friend raises sheep in the woods and feeds them alfalfa.