Pros and Cons of owning large acreage.

[Jimbrown]

Well I would check the tax situation and if bearable i would trade. I have 80 ac and wish I had 800. You do not have to maintain it all. Let it grow. I do not mow trim or do anything to most of mine I just let it grow. Does not bother me or any one else.

 

[40Kchicks]

If you like the property do it. Over time it will be a great investment.

Having land opens up a world of opportunities. You could lease it out to a farmer and do nothing with it but collect the checks or try raising different types of animals and see if you enjoy that or hay it or plant a forest or let it go natural. The list goes on and on. The property is only as much work as you want it to be. Maintaining 60 acres of pasture is less work than mowing and landscaping 6.5 acres. I would set aside about 1/3 of an acre for the house and landscape it nicely that way I don’t have to spend all my time mowing a monster yard.

The other thing you have to consider is that this can be a new business for you which gives you the ability to depreciate many things for the farm and write off supplies used for the farm. I don’t know about you but many of the things I wanted anyways can be wrote off my taxes because they are used on the farm, for example my tractor and implements, ATV’s, welder, shop tools, ect.

I have 40 acres and really enjoy it and my family enjoys it also. My wife and I just got our first horses and are enjoying the trails I made with the tractor. The kids don’t have friends that close so we run them around a lot but we also have a constant flow of friends bringing their kids out to visit and play on the farm.

As far as taxes go my property taxes are less that a lot in town. The land is in farm deferral which means I don’t pay taxes on it until it is taken out of deferral which will never happen and so just the house is taxed. I paid about $1500 for my property taxes last year. When I was living out in the country with 3 acres I paid about $2400. Check out your local taxes because they may be totally different.

I would carefully consider it and as long as there isn’t to be some problem with the property go for it.

Eric

 

[dmccarty]

crown,

I have done what you are asking. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif We have 54 acres. The land is divided into 10 lots and is part of a subdivision. The catch is that the land does not perc on most of the acerage.

The land is a lot of work. I have worked almost every Saturday for the last four years doing one thing or another. Once we get our house built alot of this work will go away. When we bought the land I figured it would take five years to get most of the work done that we wanted. This has pretty much worked out as planned. I have 1600 feet of road that I maintain and mow. I am slowing clearing a trail all around the property boundries for our use as well as making it easier to post. We have one five acre lot up for sale to generate some cash and will sell another lot to family so the plan is to end up with 45 acres or there abouts.

In NC to get an agriculture or timber tax valuation you have to live on the land or own it for four years. In January of 2005 we will qualify for the lower taxes. Even at the current tax rate its still not alot of money but we want to get the tax reduced to set a line in the sand for the future tax values.

Most of the work load on the property will decrease over time. There are only some many spetic fields to find/clear, driveways to build, trails to open and house sites to find/clear. I will have to continue to mow here and there but I figure that most of my work/tractor hours will be in the first 5-10 years. After that I just don't see putting that many hours into the land. I'll be able to enjoy it more. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

My two cents, look into the tax issue, make sure there are no other issues with the land, and if everything is ok, buy it. My nearest neighbors on our land are at least 1,000 feet away. Which it was farther but I its much better than what we have now. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Good Luck.
Dan McCarty

 

[California]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( does not perk well and 4 lots had to be combined to get a good perc )</font>

Like the others, if you can afford the future taxes then I would go for it.

The bad perc result should be researched carefully. Soil *that* bad might be so rocky that trees can't penetrate, or it might indicate a potential for flooding. Or some other unimagined problem.

Aside from this, I can't think of any other reason to decline this opportunity.

 

[Poppa]

Sure the taxes need to be checked out but lets get back to the 'Bad Perc". Those two items are actually pretty well tied togather. Having more land seems great unless you have more "Bad land". Some here have talked about splitting parts off for cash later on. Doesn't sound like you would be able to do this. I guess I would check into the Perc results very closely along with the Tax consequences to make sure you aren't buying one of those pieces of land that nobody wants.

I have never known a developer who wasn't trying to make money. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Mike

 

[riptides]

Ya but on the perc...... all that is is money. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Seriously. A lot up the corner, well a few miles away, "doesn't perk". This was market speak. Some guy get a good deal. Hey doesn't perk, right?
Brings in loaders and dirt. Lots of equipment. Lots of earth moving. Guess what?
Yup... perks.... on that lot now sits a million dollar +++ home.

Make mental note....

Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Ricky_TX]

They say there are no stupid questions, so here goes... What is a perc? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What is a perc? )</font>

Short for percolate, but this time instead of coffee, we're talking about how fast water will soak into the ground; i.e, how porous the soil is. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Bird]

I don't understand the problem with ground that doesn't perc well. If it doesn't perc, you just install an aerobic system instead of the old septic system, and I'd much rather have the aerobic system anyway. In fact, that's what I would want even if I were building on land that had the best perc tests you can get.

 

[BillyP]

Maybe this land falls under 'wetlands'. If it does, this could determine what the land could be used for and bring it's value way down.