Just bought 6 acre of land. Now what???

[Dftodd]

Our county permits are to make sure that you actually build on your property not part of the neighbors. They do however keep an eye on your septic as its being installed

I helped my brother install his septic. They set the requirements. He followed the depth and requirements per the plan. They came out and inspected once it was all laid out with the gravel base and pipe set at correct depth for drain line and leach field.

Once they gave the nod, he finished covering with gravel and back filled the trenches.

 

[Dftodd]

Good post.

This condition has to at some time stall the new home build market. I haven't saw any slow down here yet. Being rural our choices of builders is small. The good ones are booked out two years. $500 p/sqft is completely undoable for me. I struggled with $120 p/sqft. A small acreage here, 20 acres or less, will bring $7K p/acre. A rough 40 acres of timber will bring $4.5K p/acre. Good tillable land will bring $8K p/acre. Rich bottom ground will bring $9K p/acre.

Here, land prices very by county and area. I've seen a $45k price tag on a Two acre lot on a cliff side. You had a narrow tract for the driveway to the building pad. I could list many other examples as well.

I paid $65k for the 6 acres. Depending on how the downhill lot is, I could very well turn around and sell it for $45k or more. Especially if I clear out the scrub when clearing the other lot.

 

[Dftodd]

To me they are both intertwined cause you need the permit to get an inspection in my area. Yes I totally agree permits can get out of hand. I lived briefly in a hoa neighborhood I envisioned them grabbing pitchforks and torches when I did welding, worked on the cars, or parked and opened the popup camper. They seemed relieved when we moved.

I lived in a neighborhood with an HOA in Florida. The HOA was voluntary, but a couple of residents patrolled the neighborhood with huge chips on their shoulders. They could only enforce county ordinances and had to call code enforcement only. They had no teeth.

This got interesting since the neigh irhood actually sat in two counties. 1/3rd of the neighborhood was orange County, and the other 2/3rds was in Seminole. Orange County had stricter regulations.

Orange county residents would try to enforce their ordinances on Seminole counties side and were constantly getting told to get bent by either residents or code enforcement

 

[Dftodd]

$500 Was a complete non-starter for me also. So I am proud to say my house was delivered on a truck…

10 years ago, you could get a home stick built in one of the neighborhoods for $89/sqft here. So $120k to $140k average on the advertising signs at the entrances to the neighborhoods.

Prices now are $210k to $240k in the newer planned developments for similar constructed and sized homes.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

After building on an acreage, and living there for 50 plus years, I would strongly advise:
1. That you put considerable thought into landscaping. When you are young, maintenance is not so much of a problem as it is when you are in your 70's and 80's. By that I mean that you should plan your yard and surround area to be as maintenance free as you can manage. Give considerable to what trees you have, and want to keep, what you plant, and where you plant. A $20 tree today, may cost you $2000 to take down when it is too close to your house. The more stuff you have to mow around, the longer it takes.
2. Give considerable thought into what city/county services; i.e. sewer, gas/electric are available and if you want to take advantage of them. My septic gave me lots of problems; switched to city after about 20 years.

 

[Dftodd]

My folks live happily in a double wide placed on a full walkout basement, since they retired over 20 yrs ago it's held up very well and really happy with qaulity.

They sure have come a long way with quality. My wife owned a single wide that she purchased brand new for $27k when we first started dating. Had the cheap windows and thin doors that needed the locks specifically made for mobile home doors. But being a single mom with 3 kids, it was way cheaper than rent on a 3 bedroom.

Now it's 2x4 construction and decent double paned windows.

 

[stumblinhorse]

Not trying to spot you, just generally, what part of Colorado are you in? We Jeep there a lot. Have a "Brother" that lives in Alamosa. Wife's family live in Springs and Littleton.

I live in Grand county, on the west side, where it is still rural. I Jeep here a lot also!

 

[Dftodd]

After building on an acreage, and living there for 50 plus years, I would strongly advise:
1. That you put considerable thought into landscaping. When you are young, maintenance is not so much of a problem as it is when you are in your 70's and 80's. By that I mean that you should plan your yard and surround area to be as maintenance free as you can manage. Give considerable to what trees you have, and want to keep, what you plant, and where you plant. A $20 tree today, may cost you $2000 to take down when it is too close to your house. The more stuff you have to mow around, the longer it takes.
2. Give considerable thought into what city/county services; i.e. sewer, gas/electric are available and if you want to take advantage of them. My septic gave me lots of problems; switched to city after about 20 years.

That I agree with you on. My neighbor at the old house built on the lot next door a year before we purchased that house.

He and his wife had all the fancy flower beds and nicknaks to weed eat around.

Two knee replacements later, he was cussing himself for all that they put in.

Wife and I had some contentious arguments over landscaping. My point was it might be pretty, but it adds time to the three hours it's already taking me to take care of the yard.

If I had my way, it would be easily to maintain shrubs that you contend with once or twice a year

 

[BackRoad]

We bought 35 acres in July 2019 that had electric and septic, but no well.

The day after buying the land, we closed on the sale of our original home and 2 acres.

The day after that we both officially retired. It was all pre-planned to domino over the 3 days.

Then we celebrated!


We stayed with a favorite BIL for a short period before finding a year old, 36 foot long, well built "four season" 5th Wheel, with which we then moved to our land. At the same time, we had a well drilled, put up a quick 12x16 foot tool shop and added a lean-to roof for the tractor.

A couple of months later, we shifted focus to head out for an extended "National Parks" trip with the 5th Wheel.

Three months into the trip (unfortunately while at Arches), Covid hit with all its early uncertainty, so we headed straight back to PA and the safety of our land and have been hunkered down...now for almost 3 years - and still in the 5th Wheel.

We finally broke ground for our final home build last fall. The delay was a combination of the supply chain fiasco, scarce (then inflated) construction material and related government created lock down nonsense.

We are now about 3 months out from home completion...and still living in that 5th Wheel!


Our lessons learned: After being happily married for 46 years, we are still doing OK in the 5th Wheel with reasonably high confidence we'll see #47...but the limited space can still be "trying" at times...

Also suggest buying a quality 4 season RV if you go that route...Arkansas gets less cold than Pennsylvania, but it still gets cold and some snow (we lived next door in OK for ~25 years) plus you have to manage for higher and longer summer heat than we have in PA.

We put up 2" foam skirting in the fall. It makes a meaningful difference in heat retention to keep the wind from blowing underneath the RV.

Full-time in an RV takes it toll on the RV, so expect some maintenance to be required.

Plus the fridge is small and the range and oven even smaller...plan to go visit someone for Thanksgiving!

But we wouldn't trade the time in the 5th Wheel and living on our land for a 5 Star resort.

The RV works for the two of us - but likely would not appreciate it as fully if we knew it would be forever!

But the benefits so far: Life is short...and we have been able to live on our land for the last 3 years - without a permanent dwelling.

And it's an easy 40 foot commute from the RV to work on constructing our "till we die" home...

Plus there is great, unexplainable satisfaction from watching our deer up close every morning while drinking a pot of coffee...


Perhaps a similar plan might work for you...get an RV and live on your land while building your barn-dominium, then sell the RV after completion.


Good luck in whatever path forward you decide.

 

[BoylermanCT]

Definitely check with your town or county building official for any zoning restrictions etc. In my town, you can't build a barn, shed or accessory building without first building a residence. They have minimum size requirements for how small a house can be, foundation requirements, RV's can't be lived in full time etc. Your builder will guide you, but have a conversation with the building official. I'm on good terms with mine, and that made building my barn a very smooth and easy process.

 

[two_bit_score]

Our county permits are to make sure that you actually build on your property not part of the neighbors. They do however keep an eye on your septic as its being installed

Those permits are to keep track of improvements on the property for the property tax assessment.

 

[two_bit_score]

Prices now are $210k to $240k in the newer planned developments for similar constructed and sized homes.

Congratulations on your land purchase! Looks like you have a fresh canvass to create something special. Enjoy it and post pictures so we can enjoy your journey!

 

[Torvy]

We opted for a custom metal building on wood frame. We are also only a few months from completion. Our retirement plan was always to be done working when our youngest graduated HS. That was this past May. I wish we could sue China for the money and stress they have cost us. We are at least a year behind and over $100k over budget.

I could not live in a manufactured home after living in a 'real' house. Better to scale back extras. We looked at new manufactured and they were all too cheaply built. By the time you upgrade, they are nearly the cost of a real home.

We are lucky, our county has few regs for building. Trades know how to build in code, but they also know which code info is just an arbitrary number and which are valid. For instance: we don't like the wasted space under sinks. Our preference is for a cabinet to the top with a 6-8" drawer on bottom (also less bending as we age). Code on the plumbing would have prevented this due to height of the drain pipe. The few additional inches are meaningless in reality, but code had to pick a number. No code means we can make rational decisions with the advice of trained experts.

 

[Yander]

We bought a modular home in 1998. It was an All-American modular and we really liked it.

What we found, while searching, was that there is a big difference between a modular home and a manufactured home.

There's also a big difference in price.
The modular home is essentially a stick built home built inside of a controlled factory setting.

A manufactured home is also but a lot of times the specs are different such as the floor joists, the roof rafters, windows, and other things.
A lot of the modulars have a 6-in outer wall as opposed to a regular 4-in wallet most stick bilt homes have.

That was 24 years ago so I know things change. I don't know what is out there right now but keep all of those things in mind and do your homework.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Definitely check with your town or county building official for any zoning restrictions etc. In my town, you can't build a barn, shed or accessory building without first building a residence. They have minimum size requirements for how small a house can be, foundation requirements, RV's can't be lived in full time etc. Your builder will guide you, but have a conversation with the building official. I'm on good terms with mine, and that made building my barn a very smooth and easy process.

I ran into same issues with rural property I bought in VA.

 

[2manyrocks]

Just to clarify, there's a difference between deed restrictions that are set aside in a deed of record that prohibits certain uses of a property like "no junk yards" versus zoning and building codes imposed by the local county/city/state. If you have property that is totally free from restrictions, zoning, and building codes, then by all means build what you want while you still can.

 

[riptides]

My county is like a secret police government. They are unbelievably strict in rules and regulations on buildings and land use. Especially so if you are in agricultural/rural zoning.

So you have state stuff, then local county stuff to deal with here in VA.

On the bright side of things, we are so backwards that change has not really run us over like it has neighboring counties.

I think the OP is beyond all the restrictions and whatnot, so congrats, good for you, and I'd go with a barndominion. More options for futures, IMHO.

 

[Tinhack]

Yikes, I didn't have any restrictions when I moved here. The only deed incumbrance was if I drilled and struck oil, I had to share it with the seller. I kept all mineral rights. I put in the septic system, planted electric poles, put in water lines and put in a driveway. The only regulations I had to abide by were the state highway entrance of my driveway and the electric company for the first pole distance for my meters. I'm not within the boundaries of any city and no HOAs for my property. The county had a population of about 40,000 when I moved here. It about 49,000 now. Lots of new developments have sprung up. Mostly city slickers from San Antonio. The drive up to the big city used to be about 17 minutes (most of it is 75mph Interstate). And I can get same-day or next-day deliveries from Amazon.

 

[Yander]

I have mixed feelings about no building codes whatsoever. In our last house a lot of 5 acre lots sold off of a field. I bought one of those five acre lots.

A local stick builder bought three of them. And a supposed roofer from Columbus bought two.

The roofer was building a house for him and his mom so two houses.

The local contractor that was building the other houses got to know him and was looking at the house as he was building it. He had no jack studs in his windows. His roof joists were far to small for the span he was doing.

Within about 6 or 8 years both of those houses look like they needed to be condemned. I'm leaving a lot of details out about the problems with the build. My point being just those two houses have really run that neighborhood down.

 

[ovrszd]

Yikes, I didn't have any restrictions when I moved here. The only deed incumbrance was if I drilled and struck oil, I had to share it with the seller. I kept all mineral rights. I put in the septic system, planted electric poles, put in water lines and put in a driveway. The only regulations I had to abide by were the state highway entrance of my driveway and the electric company for the first pole distance for my meters. I'm not within the boundaries of any city and no HOAs for my property. The county had a population of about 40,000 when I moved here. It about 49,000 now. Lots of new developments have sprung up. Mostly city slickers from San Antonio. The drive up to the big city used to be about 17 minutes (most of it is 75mph Interstate). And I can get same-day or next-day deliveries from Amazon.

I can't confirm this because I never chased an answer. But I think my County has a restriction on how close my sewer effluent can be to my property line. Otherwise, no one cares.

I live in a large County with 8,000 residents. I'm 75 minutes from a "City".