# Is Property So Close to Town Good or Bad?



## dndweeks (Jan 17, 2013)

My hubby and I went out to look at three pieces of property today. All three were 5 acres each.

We ruled out two of the three
- One was price $150,000 because it had a large Morton Building on the property. No well, no septic, just a lot of open field around it and nothing else special about the property.
- One was part of a subdivision in which each piece of property in the subdivision are 5 acres. However, the piece we looked at slopes down and the neighbor told us that the lower part floods. I'm just not interested in giving up part of my property to flooding each year.

The last piece of property was the first one we looked at. It's on the edge of a small town, zoned as agricultural. However, because it's on the edge of town, we have access to cable, electric, natural gas and telephone (that has it's pros and cons). The property has a nice line of trees on two sides which would provide us some good privacy and adding more trees to the property would give us some excellent privacy. While the town is past the trees and across the street from the property, the other sides are nothing but farm land. 

When we found the property it was listed as 6.3 acres which is why we inquired about it. The seller decided to keep 1.3 acres and we've asked the real estate agent to see if the seller would agree to us purchasing the 1.3 as well. 

I should also add that the price is really good and we could purchase it as a contract sell and could potentially have it paid for before we even sell our current home.

While there are a lot of things we really like about this property, we find ourselves wondering if being so close to town is a good thing or bad thing. I see so much potential there and it would meet many of our requirements.

Anyone here have a homestead on the edge of a town? Experience? Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks.


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## KnowOneSpecial (Sep 12, 2010)

I liveon the edge of a little town of 350 people. We have sewer, but can still use our well. It's cheaper for us to get trash picked up because we're not a country account. Just remember that with every hook up comes a bill. 

Triple check and make sure you can have animals. In our town anything other than a dog or cat requires village council approval. Before we moved in we went to the board with a laundry list of critters-I threw every animal I could think of on it including an emu, ostrich, and elk. Everything passed except for the pig. For some stupid reason you can't have pigs in this town.


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## nostawmama (Dec 29, 2011)

Biggest thing I would worry about is being annexed into the town and having to pay the town taxes too. Also might have problems with town regs later on. Even if you are "grandfathered in" there might be restrictions on adding new animals or new species.


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## dndweeks (Jan 17, 2013)

The listing specifically states the property can be used as a farmette with horses, goats, chickens . . . . I also confirmed this again with the agent today. However, I will definitely confirm that other farm animals are allowed on the property. We know we wantchickens and goats, but I ceratinly don't want us to be limited because of the town. Good suggestion.


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## wharton (Oct 9, 2011)

dndweeks said:


> The listing specifically states the property can be used as a farmette with horses, goats, chickens . . . . I also confirmed this again with the agent today. However, I will definitely confirm that other farm animals are allowed on the property. We know we wantchickens and goats, but I ceratinly don't want us to be limited because of the town. Good suggestion.


Never trust the listing or the word of a realtor. There can be mistakes and on the darker side, flat out fraud. A few years ago, on my residential street, a new homeowner moves in and promply turns his front yard into a small truck stop. I stop buy and ask where he got the idea that three big rigs idling overnight, in this neighborhood, was gonna' fly? He informs me that his realtor checked with the "town" and it was all legal. I had to tell him that there is no "town" and that due to the small size of his property, he was allowed one commercial vehicle IF it could be parked at least 60' from the front line. He was obviously surprised and told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. Well since the guy was a Polish national, who barely spoke English, I offered to set up a meeting with the township officials to clarify things, BEFORE the fines and the towing starts. I doubt that he was real happy with that realtor.


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

How close to town are you? Can you see it from your home? Is there a lot of traffic? How big of a town? Is it just a coffee shop and a Hardware store or are we talking wal mart and Home Depot?


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## sunflower-n-ks (Aug 7, 2006)

Some good questions have been asked.

Ii live on the edge of a very small (11 family) community. Nothing is sold here. Some good and bads for my situation. Yours may vary.

Lots of traffic as people go by my place leaving town and coming back. Lack of privacy.

Wild animals get used to people and take on abnormal behavior that makes them more of a risk.

The potential of problems with people trespassing, etc. Although here that is minimal, I have had some issues. This is a quiet town, so almost no noise issues, but that could be a problem.

On the flip side, I feel like the presence of people (minding their own business) can be a positive in keeping the bad eliments out. A strange car is watched as it moves through town.

Here, there is no restrictions for animals, except county laws, Just keep um on your property.

Spend some time in the local coffee shop or other gathering place and see what the general attitudes are and if you will fit in or can live with those attitudes. THEY won't change.


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## RonM (Jan 6, 2008)

I would say that being near town is good, closer to grocery , hospitals, hardware, etc and give you the opportunity to open a small roadside produce stand . At my age I wish that 35 years ago I had bought closer to town, or even in town.....


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## dndweeks (Jan 17, 2013)

Joe.G said:


> How close to town are you? Can you see it from your home? Is there a lot of traffic? How big of a town? Is it just a coffee shop and a Hardware store or are we talking wal mart and Home Depot?


The property is on the outskirts of town. We drove thru town and got to the very last street and the property is on the other side of the road from town. It's a small town of about 950. We drove around the town a bit. It's a little midwest country town with the bare necessities. We'd have to drive about 20 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart and Home Depot. We walked around and looked at the property for about 30 minutes and saw maybe two cars drive down the road in that time. 

One benefit of the property is the trees. There is a small grove of trees with room to build on the other side. You can barely see the houses looking thru the trees and once the trees bloom you wouldn't be able to see anything. If we bought the property we would continue adding trees to build the grove down further on the property for even more privacy.


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## dndweeks (Jan 17, 2013)

RonM said:


> I would say that being near town is good, closer to grocery , hospitals, hardware, etc and give you the opportunity to open a small roadside produce stand . At my age I wish that 35 years ago I had bought closer to town, or even in town.....


I didn't think about a small roadside produce stand


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## chewie (Jun 9, 2008)

depending on the town itself, it could work out very well. I like further out for many reasons, but there are times being in a location as you are looking at would be SO nice.


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## Mulegirl (Oct 6, 2010)

You said it's currently still zoned agricultural? I'd guess you'll be fine concerning animals, though you should be able to check that pretty easily. Personally, my DH and I would _jump_ at the possibility of a place like that right on the edge of town, so long as we felt comfortable with the town, and the house was what we needed. Our "real jobs" are online, and having that cable modem again would be a complete dream. Mmmm, unlimited downloads . . .

Go have lunch, see how you feel eating at what seems to be the most active restaurant/diner/bar. If it feels comfortable, and if the local newspaper doesn't make you concerned about possible future political shifts (do they seem to be trying to ramp up development?), go for it.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

make sure the livestock you want are alloued and the taxes are not to high an advantage of living close to town is a veggie stand or a sign selling fresh eggs can really pay off . if it is a nice town .the other side of the coin is troublesome stay dogs and urban rufieans or outlaws ,or upitty neabours who complain of cowing roosters barnyard smells or views .hope you can fall into a prosperious spot in a nice town a sweet corn stand can do well but not if the noise of a tractor isn't allowed .


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

I second Wharton, slightly differently. There are different levels of trust, but a good Realtor will NOT affirm what you can or cannot do with a property, but rather provide the proper documentation for the County, showing it OR refer you who to contact to get that information. Since I am a Realtor, I knew where to find all the information I needed when I bought my property. Zoning and property size dictate what types of critters and how many you can have. We first wanted 2.5 acres, but wanted less restrictions to what we could do. So, we bought a little more (6.68 acres). I'd recommend calling the County and asking them about restrictions that relate to your zoning, property size, and location. They may be able to tell you how to navigate to the documentation if accessible online (ours is here).


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## Joe.G (Jun 26, 2012)

I live between two towns, I am 4 Miles out side of one and 6 Miles outside of the other, They both are about the same size, Both have food stores/gas/lumber yards/Pizza/and other resturants and stores. I am then about 20 Miles away in either direction from HD and Walmart, I am far enough out of town not to hear or see it and close enough to run to town to get something and it not being a all day trip.


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## dndweeks (Jan 17, 2013)

Mulegirl said:


> You said it's currently still zoned agricultural? I'd guess you'll be fine concerning animals, though you should be able to check that pretty easily. Personally, my DH and I would _jump_ at the possibility of a place like that right on the edge of town, so long as we felt comfortable with the town, and the house was what we needed. Our "real jobs" are online, and having that cable modem again would be a complete dream. Mmmm, unlimited downloads . . .
> 
> Go have lunch, see how you feel eating at what seems to be the most active restaurant/diner/bar. If it feels comfortable, and if the local newspaper doesn't make you concerned about possible future political shifts (do they seem to be trying to ramp up development?), go for it.


Yes, the property is zoned agricultural. The town limits end across the street. We were walking across plowed corn field looking at the property. 

I think we will take your advice and go have lunch there this weekend to get a better feel for the residents and see what we think.


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## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

I suggest you search yourself to determine what your true priorities are.

Only then can you assess this property, as to how well it fits in to those priorities.

If we look at properties without clearly established priorities, we tend to make the priorities fit the property, instead of the other way around.

Just my experience.....


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## dndweeks (Jan 17, 2013)

tarbe said:


> I suggest you search yourself to determine what your true priorities are.
> 
> Only then can you assess this property, as to how well it fits in to those priorities.
> 
> ...


We know with 100% certainty that we enough land to build our house, a huge garden, some grape vines, berry bushes, chickens, goats and housing for the chickens and goats. We are researching beekeeping and do plan to put in a small orchard. While we don't have plans for any other animals at this point, we also want to know that if we should decide to add a pig, turkeys, ducks, etc. we aren't going to run into problems.

As we are looking at property I'm envisioning how things would be set up on that property. Can I see my house there, my kids (human, not goat) and dogs running around playing, the garden, animals, etc. I can see all of that easily on this piece of property, not so much on the others we have looked at so far. Maybe we're going about this differently than most would. I don't know.

We also found out that the seller owns an additional 3 acres adjoining this property and is thinking of selling it as well. If so, we would have the opportunity to expand another 3 acres giving us a total of 9.3. 

I'm trying to get answers to some other questions, but the person I need to talk to at the zoning office is on vacation until Monday. In the meantime, we are taking some very good advice from ya'll. We're going to have lunch in town this weekend and go back out to look at the property. We're going to talk to the people who live there. We're definitely learning that you can get a lot more information from the neighbors than you can from the realator. After all, they are living and experiencing life there.


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## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

If you aren't seeing any deal-killers after giving it lots of thought, then you might be well on your way!

Best of luck to you on the decision. It sure is an exciting process.


Tim


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## MJsLady (Aug 16, 2006)

nostawmama said:


> Biggest thing I would worry about is being annexed into the town and having to pay the town taxes too. Also might have problems with town regs later on. Even if you are "grandfathered in" there might be restrictions on adding new animals or new species.


We live 15-20 miles away from town in part because of this.
Yes there are conveniences we "miss out" on but we have lower tax rates and are far enough out that being dragged into the town and its rules is unlikely.
We do not have a well, but a local water company.
We are county and there is an independent guy who offers trash service for less than half what the town company company charges. We could burn trash but this is a drought and most of the time there is a burn ban in effect.

Being county we can pretty much do anything we like with out place too. One guy over 1 place (we each have 1 acre) has a mini ranch and now has 3 head of cattle on his property.



The only thing we miss is faster internet. Cox is just 5 miles away though and will probably move this way in the next year or 2, so they say.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

Don't know if you plan on hooking to city water and/or sewer, if available, but connection fees are sometimes based on acerage. Check!

If you plan on drilling a well and putting in a septic system, check costs, permits and flow rates of neighboring wells to be sure you will, hopefully, have enough for ag uses. Septic systems require fairly decent soil types and can be quite expensive. Talking to well drillers and septic installers might be a good thing to do.


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