Buying Land in North Country

[cynergy]

Hi All,

I live in Southern, NH and am thinking about buying some land up north that my family could use for camping, hunting and fishing. I was thinking about somewhere in NH or ME. I'm just starting to research this and was wondering if anyone here could offer advice on the process of finding and purchasing a tract of land.

Ideally, I'd like to find something around 25 acres. At the moment, I'm just looking for land and don't need a camp house on the property.

Where should I start my search for properties? Are there any good online listings of land? Should I work through a realtor? Also, what should I be wary about when looking at properties? I'd just like to find something that has reasonable access from a road, is near to a lake or stream (but I don't need waterfront access), and someplace where I could eventually dig a well and build a camp.

Your advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[meth0d]

My parents went through a realtor in Maine for their land, a lot of the online listings were slightly misleading, but they eventually found a great piece of land for good money. Beyond that, I can't speak too much to the process, but a realtor is probably your best bet to get into a new area.

 

[Prepper]

Good news for you. There is an abundance of properties out there that will meet your needs. Unless you're rolling in money, I'd recommend you look in Maine. NH used to have cheap land, but that is pretty much all gone (although you may find some lower-priced parcels near the northern tip of NH). Anything that does look unusually cheap for NH is going be unbuildable swamp or 2 miles from a road with no Right Of Way.

As for Maine, it is still possible to get land that is under $1000 per acre, as long as you are buying a large lot (you won't find any 5 acre lots for $1000 an acre since that'd make the whole thing only $5000). Some of it will even be on a maintained road, or some distance up a private logging road (that you'll have to maintain yourself or not use in the winter). What will make land cheaper is if you need a ROW to get there, or is on a non-maintained road, or even one that has no R.O.W. (I'd recommend you avoid those since you DO need to get there somehow). I bought 85 acres for under $1000 an acre -- it is on a hill (it IS the hill actually -- goes up one side, over the top and back down the other side) with spectacular views in all directions (once I have a site cleared), has a brook, is accessible by private logging road (winter and spring access is a challenge though -- I literally got stuck in the mud visiting the land yesterday), and is a hunter's paradise. So, stuff is out there.

I'd suggest looking in the western Maine area for starters. In addition to amazing mountains, scenery, lakes and rivers that few people know about, it'll also be in range of some major cities and towns like Auburn, Augusta and Farmington. It is great being in the middle of nowhere, but eventually you need to interact with civilization, or maybe even commute to a job someday should you want to live there.

realtor.com is a great place to get started. It lets you control what you want to see very nicely, e.g. pick a town and all towns in 20 mile radius of it, and show all land over 25 acres. Then, it shows them. PM me and I'll send you some names of realtors in Maine that are very accustomed to selling rural land.

 

[cynergy]

Thanks guys for the replies. I talked with my wife about this and she seems to be more enthusiastic then I am about this idea! Prepper - I am going to look online using Realtor.com and some other sites that I found. As we do some more research, I might take you up on your offer for some names of realtors.

My wife and I found some nice listings for some pretty big lots at a decent price in ME near the northwestern corner and also near Newfoundland, Canada. I think I'm going to need something with frontage to at least a gravel road.

Thanks again for your tips fellas!

Cynergy