# Dealbreakers?



## checkitnice (Aug 10, 2010)

Say you could get a nice parcel of land, with a barn and a house, for 30k. What would be a dealbreaker for you, whether in the house or land?

What would make you run away at any price? What features would you absolutely love, that you would pay extra for?

We're searching for a home and finding all sorts of ... interesting stuff out there! Just trying to see what the cutoff should be for some of these places.


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## jbos333 (Aug 17, 2008)

Neighbors close enough that I could possibly see or hear them would be a dealbreaker.


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## willow_girl (Dec 7, 2002)

Former meth lab!


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## thesedays (Feb 25, 2011)

100-year flood plain.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Bad neighborhood, pig farm next door, sewer treatment plant across the road, obviously difficult neighbor, freeway noise .....

You couldn't pay me enough to make me accept a pretty little free farm right in the middle of a drug ghetto in one of the decaying big cities. Location does matter.

Good fencing is an enormous plus for me. It is a lot of work to install and costs a bunch of money, yet doesn't seem to increase the sale price.

I can paint and re-roof, and plant landscaping. But there has to be water available, and I want power to the property, or at least to the property line.

Steep slope is a no for me. I don't want to walk up and down hills all day every day in order to take care of my place. Soil that won't drain is unacceptable.


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## acde (Jul 25, 2011)

I would want water and mineral rights.


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## blufford (Nov 23, 2004)

Mold problems would probably make me back out.


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## Laura Zone 5 (Jan 13, 2010)

checkitnice said:


> Say you could get a nice parcel of land, with a barn and a house, for 30k. What would be a dealbreaker for you, whether in the house or land?What would make you run away at any price?


Bad Neighbors / Area
Neighbors too close to the house.
Habitual Trespassers
No water / deep deep well
Contaminated soil
Mold in the home / barn 




> What features would you absolutely love, that you would pay extra for?


Pond / Running Stream-Creek
The house is up on a hill/mountain where I can see for miles
Garden and fruit trees are established
Barn is already established for goats and chickens



> We're searching for a home and finding all sorts of ... interesting stuff out there! Just trying to see what the cutoff should be for some of these places.


We have owned 3 homes.
Our first was a perfect first home. In 4 years, we grew out of it.
Our second was in a neighborhood (had 3 young ones) and served it's purpose. After 10 years we were ready for the country.
Our home now is on 5 acres, and its wonderful......but times are a changing and we are slowing starting the process of looking elsewhere....

Never settle. 
Don't let emotions make the purchase.
Pray.......a lot!!


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## checkitnice (Aug 10, 2010)

Okay, whew. Our favorite place isn't looking too bad then!


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## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

I think - one man's dream is another man's nightmare - different strokes for different folks - junk to one; treasure to another........ What I may find as a "deal breaker" someone else may scoff that it's only a picayune hinderence and not to be thought of.
All that said, for me a deal breaker or love it or pay extra for or run away from would greatly depend on my own personal preferences at the time......... and yes my preferences overtime have changed.


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## Tobster (Feb 24, 2009)

Problems with the title or a clouded title. Claims on the property, tax liens, survey disputes. Discounted properties often have these issues and the buyer believes it can be corrected. The problems can be solved, but requires time and money.


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## checkitnice (Aug 10, 2010)

This place has an established orchard, an amazing garden spot, sound barn, artesian well, and is surrounded by organic farm fields. Over 10 acres altogether. The neighbors are old coworkers of DF's, who have kids and are very involved in 4H. We love it.

The downsides are that it needs: water heater, furnace, the upstairs bath has leaked into the dining room ceiling over the winter, and it pretty much needs all new plumbing.

Dealbreakers for me are treeless lots, roundup-happy neighbors (the area is very flat and I've seen some places with pretty scorched lawns because of neighboring farms), no well, bad septic, no closets.

This place has closets EVERYWHERE upstairs. It's insane.


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## BarbadosSheep (Jun 27, 2011)

Sounds like a really nice place!! It's easy to fix plumbing problems....not so easy to fix horrible neighbors.


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## Patrick (Sep 13, 2011)

Micheal said:


> I think - one man's dream is another man's nightmare - different strokes for different folks - junk to one; treasure to another........ What I may find as a "deal breaker" someone else may scoff that it's only a picayune hinderence and not to be thought of.
> All that said, for me a deal breaker or love it or pay extra for or run away from would greatly depend on my own personal preferences at the time......... and yes my preferences overtime have changed.


I agree. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. We don't have to live there. Your opinion is the only one which matters.


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## checkitnice (Aug 10, 2010)

> Quote:
> Originally Posted by Micheal View Post
> I think - one man's dream is another man's nightmare - different strokes for different folks - junk to one; treasure to another........ What I may find as a "deal breaker" someone else may scoff that it's only a picayune hinderence and not to be thought of.
> All that said, for me a deal breaker or love it or pay extra for or run away from would greatly depend on my own personal preferences at the time......... and yes my preferences overtime have changed.
> I agree. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. We don't have to live there. Your opinion is the only one which matters.


Very good point. I was just making sure I wasn't delusional for thinking that the issues with this place are minor! Plumbing doesn't scare me.


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## nathan104 (Nov 16, 2007)

water heater, furnace and plumbing is somethingg that can be easily fixedwith some money and time. Its things you cant change or fix that could be deal breakers.


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## Lizza (Nov 30, 2005)

Water and Access, these two things are hard or impossible to overcome


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## rickfrosty (Jun 19, 2008)

thesedays said:


> 100-year flood plain.


Understandable, but this land may be extremely rich on account of the rare flood - river-bottom land .


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## PhilJohnson (Dec 24, 2006)

checkitnice said:


> This place has an established orchard, an amazing garden spot, sound barn, artesian well, and is surrounded by organic farm fields. Over 10 acres altogether. The neighbors are old coworkers of DF's, who have kids and are very involved in 4H. We love it.
> 
> The downsides are that it needs: water heater, furnace, the upstairs bath has leaked into the dining room ceiling over the winter, and it pretty much needs all new plumbing.
> 
> ...


The place sounds like a decent deal if it were around here. None of what you listed is impossible to fix however I would tear out the entire dining room ceiling and let it air out. The rest of it is pretty easy stuff. I redid all the pipes in my house with PVC. It took one day.


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## Terri in WV (May 10, 2002)

For me, right of ways and easements would make me :runforhills:

Fixer upper houses don't faze me.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

HOA, CCR's, Easements, no Well, not forested (at least partially), not private, not in a good old conservative community, bad neighbors, lack of mineral rights/ownership transfer, and no shop. We would have bought this place without a home on it! It fit every single bit of our criteria, except I wanted no house or an older farm house. We have a double side remodeled manufactured home. DH would still like to build, but with the economy, our ages, well, having a 10 X 20 log cabin on our property, to go with the two 10 X 20 garden cabins he built, would be just fine.


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## machinistmike (Oct 16, 2011)

after buying my house I found out real fast things that I never thought of. 1) nursing homes...a facility full of old people that do what old people do best, fall and break bones and then of course they also die. When they fall or code out someone always calls 911 and here come the paramedics, lights and sirens, at all hours of the day and night. The fire department is a mile to one side of me and the old folks home a mile on the other side. So no nursing homes and no police/fire stations anywhere close. 2) Any type of restrictions on land use, why buy if you are being limited to only approved uses. 3) high theft rates in the area, why buy somewhere if all your things grow legs and wander off.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Terri in WV said:


> For me, right of ways and easements would make me :runforhills:
> 
> Fixer upper houses don't faze me.


Yup. Easements and rights of way are deal breakers for me.


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## jdnich (Dec 31, 2002)

*NOISE!!!*
First, make sure and visit during the work week between 7 AM and 5 PM...what may seem like place perfect on a Sunday afternoon might turn into a loud, noisy nightmare during the weekday. Examples would be a quarry anywhere in the vicinity. It need not be next door to impact you with blasting and/or large trucks. Coal mining of ANY KIND for the same reasons. PLUS active mines usually operate 24/7 Monday thru' Saturday.Google Earth can be your friend here as can a web search of "quarry" or "mine" + zip code.

*Coal Mines...currently operating or not:*
In addition to noise from operating mines, even old abandoned shaft mines can affect groundwater supplies (not to mention quality), cause sinkholes, and even abrupt flooding from what is known as "breakout drainage"!. In coal country (and this is often in some of the most beautiful parts of our country that also have some of the cheapest property values) that mountain cabin by the sunny knoll with a rock outcropping covered in Mountain Laurel and native Rhododendron could easily have an old shaft mine just below it and you would never know it...until after you feel the earth shift and your living room drops from under your feet!! Google or Yahoo or whatever "mine subsidence".

*ETC.*
Ditto on owning mineral , water and gas rights. AND, though we live in and love the mountains, we agree that it does get old (as are we ) trudging up and down steep hills to garden,etc.


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

Not enough timber on the land to totally conceal me from all directions. I don't like just being able to pee off the back porch!


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## kabic (May 12, 2009)

I've seen some areas where there are train tracks parallel to the road with houses set not too far away. Not something I would want


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## unregistered168043 (Sep 9, 2011)

A community. Never buy a community lot where you have to adhere to the community rules. I was involved in that once and it was a nightmare. Certain people get on the community board and make rules to suite them...what you can have in your yard, how many lights you can have, whether or not you can hang your laundry outside, etc,etc


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## NorthCountryWd (Oct 17, 2008)

Terri in WV said:


> For me, right of ways and easements would make me :runforhills:





Pony said:


> Yup. Easements and rights of way are deal breakers for me.


Why? Some of the best properties I've seen have small easements on them. Granted the type, size and location of the easement matters, but minor easements are common and don't negatively impact the property.

My 274 acres has a 20'x 80' right of way for the neighbors driveway on the southeast corner (that I never see), and a power line easement along the road. Neither are anything close to a deal breaker.



Darntootin said:


> A community. Never buy a community lot where you have to adhere to the community rules. I was involved in that once and it was a nightmare. Certain people get on the community board and make rules to suite them...what you can have in your yard, how many lights you can have, whether or not you can hang your laundry outside, etc,etc


Agree....for me this is a dealbreaker.


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## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

NorthCountryWd said:


> Why? Some of the best properties I've seen have small easements on them. Granted the type, size and location of the easement matters, but minor easements are common and don't negatively impact the property.
> 
> My 274 acres has a 20'x 80' right of way for the neighbors driveway on the southeast corner (that I never see), and a power line easement along the road. Neither are anything close to a deal breaker.
> 
> ...


On nearly 300 acres, a small easement in a remote corner is hardly a concern, I'm sure. For those of who can only afford smaller parcels, however, it's a different story.

We foolishly allowed ourselves to be saddled with an easement that essentially allowed any and everyone to drive right through our land.


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## Ohiogal (Mar 15, 2007)

Deal breakers for me are: bad septic, non-flowing wells (wells that don't recharge at a good rate) and noisey neighbors. Agree that building renovations and things you can change by $$$ are within your control. Where I live I have a nice private drive and a patch of land that the house sits up on a hill. Neighbors are a decent distance from me - and the county road noise is buffered by a bank of trees and shrubs. Biggest deal I have is the neighbors 1/4 mile down the road on the opposite side who insist on riding their ATV's 24/7 and firing off their guns at odd hours. Definetly do a deed search and see what the encroachments are (if any) and if there are any legal issues with title to the land.
Your place sounds really nice.


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## Catalpa (Dec 18, 2011)

The place you're looking at sounds great; like others have said check out the neighborhood in person and on google. Check the deed and easement info carefully. But it does sound wonderful, especially with a sound barn and the orchard trees.

Plumbing and electrical can get expensive but is pretty easy to deal with. Just make sure you remove or thoroughly clean and bleach any area affected by past water leaks. Changing out the water heater and furnace isn't too hard, and it gives you the opportunity to install modern, efficient units. Also check that the well and septic are in good shape, so you'll know if you have to plan for a new leachfield or well pump or whatever.

Just from your description, I think I would have a really good feeling about this parcel.


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

Lets see... deal breakers....
~Water Quality, no water, bad well... nuh uh. 
My childhood home suffered some earth tremors and ruined our well... the ordeal to get running water in the house lasted years. We spent 2 without and made do with the water hose (not sure why THAT worked exactly), and rain barrels. We had to take baths at friends houses. SO embarrassing for a tween. I won't do that to my kiddos. 
I got nothing against frontier living, but this isn't 1852. Technology allows for hot showers and water in the kitchen so I want. 

~Bad electrical scares me. 

~Easements. I am super private and get a touch of anxiety anytime a car pulls into my driveway or slowly past my house when I'm not expecting someone. 

~Neighbors. I may rent, but I will never buy next to people I wouldn't want to talk to. No alchoholics that mistreat their children and animals and property, no excessively nasty people of any age, no snobs, no one who hates animals. I don't care how much money they have, or how shabby their place looks, as long as they have some pride of ownership that's good enough for me.

~No sewer. Seriously. I look for 2 baths with my family size and yet I come across NO baths. If your house is on grid, it should have SOME modicum of functional waste treatment. I get the whole green toilet to go with green energy, I really do, but if that's not what you're selling it should be plumbed.

~ Compromised title. Same reason as easement, I don't want people bringing their equipment on my land for oil, minerals, water or air. My nerves won't take so many strangers. 

~Mobile homes. Good enough for renting... but I've lived in so many cheap disposable houses over the years. Give me a farmhouse with a solid core. I won't purchase another doublewide. Tired of paper walls and particle floors and plastic doorknobs. 

~Mold. Remember that house with no water? yeah, it had black mold and mushrooms growing inside the drywall (or should I say damp wall?) too. 

Things I need:

Livable as is. Fixer upper is fine, TLC is fine. Needs to be updated is fine. But no safety hazards. I'm a klutz and I have klutzy kids. Mold and mildew clean, reasonably weather tight. 

Good well.

Trees. Trees. and trees. Done with desert landscapes. 

Some type of barn or animal shelter

Some Pasture. 

Things I love:
Established garden

Orchard & established food plants

Farmhouse style houses

covered porch

Fenced and cross fenced is nice, but DH's father owned a fencing company, so putting in our own fences is easy. 

Big classic barn

Some forest, woodlot prefered.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

I agree with above except for Mobile Home, and this is why:

In our area, we paid 50% less for our property, almost 7 acres, which was uncommon to even find, with a double-wide mobile home, a separate well built code-attached office (16 X 16), a double carport, and a very well built shop. Now, having a mobile was the exception I made for our property, due to all of our criteria being met (zero properties met all of them, in fact, most hardly any of our criteria). I found out, much to my delight, our property taxes were half what they would have been if there had been a little farmhouse here. Ours are the lowest up here on the hill (!!!). As soon as I have the Agricultural Exemption approved, our property taxes will go even lower. 

What I have seen folks do with mobiles was simply amazing! They just got remodel permits and went to town. They are still paying property taxes for mobile home properties, even though you can't see what is left of the mobile (!!!). In our case? To keep our taxes very low, we will be further remodeling our home's interior, knocking out a few walls, re-doing our bathrooms, the laundry room, and the kitchen. I am going to design an attached greenhouse. Now the exterior of our mobile will look the same, but the interior will be a well insulated solid home with high quality finishing, nice doors, etc...


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

Re: mobile homes,
I should probably mention that I am looking at homesteads that fall within "tornado alley"... I can't think of a mobile as anything other than a death trap. A renovated mobile home in a different area might be just fine though


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

Dusky Beauty said:


> Re: mobile homes,
> I should probably mention that I am looking at homesteads that fall within "tornado alley"... I can't think of a mobile as anything other than a death trap. A renovated mobile home in a different area might be just fine though


In a "tornado alley," living in a mobile home :runforhills: Yep, death trap for sure, don't know why in the world they are even sold to be installed in those areas. I understand why folks sometimes opt for them, due to the expense of building/buying a stick built home.

What we paid for our property really surprised the Broker I was working for, as it was less $ for BARE LAND, just because a mobile was on it  We get high winds here, but we have left a perimeter of 2nd growth trees, as a wind-break, and have had no damage from them. Just clearing 1/2 acre of trees, netted us $12,000. The trees were Cedar, Hemlock, and Fir, 2nd growth huge trees. Back in our forest, we have huge Maples which are bordering old growth. Finding properties with any 2nd growth is hard around here, too.

At least, thankfully, our double-wide mobile was remodeled, so sheetrocked, newer appliances, double-paned windows/all sliders, and a peaked 30 yr comp roof. So, it is very liveable. Our planned remodeling can be done in time, no rush at the moment.


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## Dusky Beauty (Jan 4, 2012)

lorichristie said:


> In a "tornado alley," living in a mobile home :runforhills: Yep, death trap for sure, don't know why in the world they are even sold to be installed in those areas. I understand why folks sometimes opt for them, due to the expense of building/buying a stick built home.
> 
> What we paid for our property really surprised the Broker I was working for, as it was less $ for BARE LAND, just because a mobile was on it  We get high winds here, but we have left a perimeter of 2nd growth trees, as a wind-break, and have had no damage from them. Just clearing 1/2 acre of trees, netted us $12,000. The trees were Cedar, Hemlock, and Fir, 2nd growth huge trees. Back in our forest, we have huge Maples which are bordering old growth. Finding properties with any 2nd growth is hard around here, too.
> 
> At least, thankfully, our double-wide mobile was remodeled, so sheetrocked, newer appliances, double-paned windows/all sliders, and a peaked 30 yr comp roof. So, it is very liveable. Our planned remodeling can be done in time, no rush at the moment.


Sounds lovely! So pleased you found the right place for you at just the right time!


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