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Going for a 40+ acre lot....Thoughts?
- Thread starter DJBrad
- Start date
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namedpipes
NES Member
I know. It happens. But I'm talking about people that are 30 yards from a CAR.
North East Kingdom in Vermont is a great rural area (Burke Vt). I bought 10 acres in 1989 (when I was 29), and added another 8 acres just last year. Been building a house for 20 years now, mostly alone and with help from the wife and a few good friends. You can still buy larger parcels of land for $2K an acre if you look around. No local building inspector in my town and as an owner/builder I am even exempt from the building code (try that in Mass!). 34 HP tractor with a backhoe and I can dig out the biggest stumps in 2 hours (takes all day to burn it). Legal to hunt on your own property with no license (in season), legal to shoot on your own property until 10:00 pm. Good fishing, beautiful lakes and mountains. Small town, old school America for sure, love it!
40 acre parcel next to me with 2-3 bed house and great oversized outbuilding going into foreclosure soon (young guy died in motorcycle accident) will be about $225K (not on the market yet), views of Burke Mtn, apple trees, cedars with some mixed hardwoods, big deer & bear. House is a quarter mile in (at least) off the dirt town road, been vacant almost 2 years now.
40 acre parcel next to me with 2-3 bed house and great oversized outbuilding going into foreclosure soon (young guy died in motorcycle accident) will be about $225K (not on the market yet), views of Burke Mtn, apple trees, cedars with some mixed hardwoods, big deer & bear. House is a quarter mile in (at least) off the dirt town road, been vacant almost 2 years now.
KBCraig
NES Member
Burke isn't far from me (Lancaster NH).
Where VT screws you on property, is by doubling the taxes if it's not your primary residence.
212 miles door to door, 3-1/2 hours if I don't stop. I work 4 day weeks, so leave Mass at 5:00 am Friday and back Sunday afternoon. Been doing it so long its my normal routine. Not as much in the winter.
Non-Resident homeowner pays commercial rate property tax in Vt. I pay 25% of what I pay in Mass. though, on 4 times as much property.
Thats some doom and gloom right there @jpk but I see what you’re getting at. Here in Ma common law is the law of the land. Its the commonwealth. Everybody owns your land. To own lots of land in MA or anywhere else for that matter opens up potential problems when it comes to natural resources or green new deal shenanigins.
That being said are there some examples of abuse here in MA for land owners that I might want to know about?
Be sure to check for 'protected status' land. Whatever that might be. I almost bought acreage in Maine, 1/2 of it was wetland. I didnt want to pay for land i might not be able to use.
Posting from phone...
I’m very careful of this. Of course the cheap properties are, “Buyer or buyer’s agent to perform due diligence.”, or 3/4 of that land is wetland, brownfields, severe slopes, or reduced frontage. The reduced frontage is the one I’m looking for since it mostly takes any developer or builder out of the equation and usually those can be very nice lots.
After much consideration and reconsideration with my wife about this we’ve decided to just payoff our mortgage within the next two years and then comfortably, with ample time, move on something that fits the bill. Of course if the perfect plot pops up we’ll jump on it though with a family of 6 it will be more seamless to wait it out and reduce the DTI.
i will say that building a house under a construction loan is not entirely pleasant experience. Not that building or renovating a house with cash is pleasant experience either. The massive amount of choices you have to make is exhausting, but having to keep the bank consultant and contractors happy while getting what you want out of it ... that’s double over time.
You may be wise beyond your years.
One day I'll be wise for my years, I keep hoping, but I'm never getting wiser.
I cased this land just a few weeks ago and know there is alot of interest. Its right near the border of Princeton in northeast Rutland. It is also across the street from Savage Hill WMA. It was quite nice with a wide trail access from Paddok and a gravel road in from Bushy. It has a cleared hilltop and underground electric already installed. I bumped 6 deer in there and it abuts swamp and marsh land to create a nice backyard buffer zone.
The cleared build area is too close to other homes hence the reason I’m not gonna go with it. I would have to build another 200+ feet southeast to be more private with that much land.
This is another one with 52 acres. It’s still on my mind and has loads of nice hardwoods on a hilltop. It is still not the perfect plot but the price is nice.
It looks like its been logged already from peering at google earth views of the larger 43 acre parcel on the hill. Solar road and layout plans already done with survey in hand. I walked some of it already and it can be done with a wide sweeping driveway from south to north as the elevation at the road is steep. The electric could be done cheap too as there is a very flat and private spot on top of the first elevation close to the roadside powerlines.
It looks like its been logged already from peering at google earth views of the larger 43 acre parcel on the hill. Solar road and layout plans already done with survey in hand. I walked some of it already and it can be done with a wide sweeping driveway from south to north as the elevation at the road is steep. The electric could be done cheap too as there is a very flat and private spot on top of the first elevation close to the roadside powerlines.
cstockwell
NES Member
Thats about 20 minutes from our place in Bath.
I'm 160 miles door to door, 2-1/4 Hours. I never mind the trip up, but I hate going back to the Communistwealth of Massachusetts.
Reduced frontage is a good recommendation, just make sure it meets the building code for frontage requirements. In my town 200' of frontage on an approved road is required for a buildable lot. I only have 132' but it was an existing lot before the zoning change back in 1985. I have 176 Acres which I can only build one residence on, and that's okay with me.
I wound up with a 25 acre plot and just did a survey on one long 1200ft border. Here are some pics to show how important an instrument survey can be when the border is not accurate nor the corners of the lots. Had a staking and lot corner adjustment not taken place, adverse possession could be used by the abutter but it is usually cumbersome and costly to fight.
