# Whats the least expensive area of West Virginia?



## mountainwmn

I have always wanted to buy 10 or so acres in WV, hopefully with an old house and barn, to fix up and raise some horses and sheep. But when I search craigslist I'm finding its almost as expensive as where I am now. Am I looking in the wrong places? Or did I wait too long to do it?


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## Guest

I would guess the least expensive real estate could be found in south-west WV .


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## Darren

mountainwmn said:


> I have always wanted to buy 10 or so acres in WV, hopefully with an old house and barn, to fix up and raise some horses and sheep. But when I search craigslist I'm finding its almost as expensive as where I am now. Am I looking in the wrong places? Or did I wait too long to do it?


There are still deals. You need to pick an area and spend time there to find them. From what I've seen craigslist isn't used much in WV except for a few of the big cities which are not places for deals.

Every month the state dept. of ag has a market bulletin that lists farms and acreage. You should be able to find that online. A lot of property changes hands without being listed. I'm saying don't use a real estate agent. I've seen quite a few parcels that sold without a real estate agent being involved.

If you're serious about WV, I'd consider a larger tract simply because of the terrain.


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## Nomad

United Country usually has a lot of listings, though I'm not sure of the areas.

Nomad


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## Darren

To answer your original question, I'd suggest looking at the counties with the highest unemployment. You can eliminate the northern and eastern panhandles along with Monongalia and probably Marion County. Morgantown and Fairmont are located there respectively. Forget Harrison County since the FBI Center has driven prices up. Kanawha and Cabel Counties are out where Huntington and Charleston are located. Forget the winter resort areas in the Northeast central area.

The farther from an interstate.without being in a resort area might be worth checking. Keep in mind parts of WV have a huge drug problem. The southern areas have a higher than generally known problem with HIV because of drug use. 

If you find something PM me and I can possibly give you some additional help. I know of some areas where folks from out of state have moved and then moved out within a short period after discovering how lawless it was.


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## Terri in WV

Doddridge County usually has some pretty good deals. In that general area and towards Parkersburg, you'll also find quite a few places with free gas. But, be for-warned, there's also quite a bit of flooding there. I'll echo Darren, forget Mon and Marion Cos. There's quite a few Mon people moving to Preston. I'd forget Preston also, the schools are lousy, they're raising property taxes and there's a lot of drugs. The joke around there is if you want to get away with murder, do it in Preston Co. 

You might want to check Homes and Land of North Central WV or landwatch.


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## mountainwmn

Thank you! I have been browsing United Country, and I was able to find that ag bulletin board, which was actually pretty helpful. I don't really want to find myself in the middle of a drug war, I just want some nice mountains, some sheep, and old farmhouse and maybe a creek. I've always been obsessed with WV, but I honestly haven't ever been there.


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## Darren

I agree with Terri on Doddridge County. Ritchie and Lewis County are close by. Here's a link to the newspaper in Lewis county. They have an ad for 20 acres w/o buildings in Braxton County. Upshur County has one of the nicest small towns in WV, Buckhannon.

Here's a link that has all of the links for WV newspapers.

http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/usstate/uswestvi.htm


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## TedH71

Try for the Appalachian mountains areas...not just WV. I imagine it's what you want..mountains.


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## RonM

My buddy and a gang of us built a cabinin Tyler Cty. near Shirley WV, hunting is good, land prices were decent whe n he bought it. I like the area around Moorefield and it's a lot closer but not many people out near Shirley. The drawback for us it's an eight hour ride from Delaware for 5 days of hunting......


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## Guest

I now live in Doddridge County . It would help to know a ball park figure of how much you are thinking of paying .


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## HeelSpur

I'm in Hardy County in N.E. WV not far from Moorefield. City slickers have really driven property values to high with their week end get-a-ways. Drugs and alcohol are also big problems here and so are break-ins. Its still nice here though. I've been here since 92 and there is one thing that I'm always reminded of, I'm not from here.


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## RonM

We used to hunt in Hardy near Wardensville and Rio, have some buddies in Wardensville... I used to eat at the Cacapon Rest..... could be there in 4 hours... nice area too but the DC crowd ruined it....


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## HeelSpur

RonM said:


> We used to hunt in Hardy near Wardensville and Rio, have some buddies in Wardensville... I used to eat at the Cacapon Rest..... could be there in 4 hours... nice area too but the DC crowd ruined it....


We probably know some of the same people. This place really used to be a magnet for deer hunters, but I'm glad it has thinned out some. Do you ever hunt back at Wilsons Cove?


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## mountainwmn

That newspaper link is great Darren, thanks. Someone emailed me individual links years ago, but most of them didn't work anymore. What I want is mountains, but a little warmer than here, but not so south that I have cockroaches the size of my head chasing me around. If I could find something cheap...say under 50k....with owner financing/ land contract, that would be awesome. Or I'm tossing around the idea of selling my place and getting something a bit more expensive, and without financing. I'm not sure how much to worry about drugs, we got them here too. But I don't want to be in an area I have to worry about drive by shootings or HIV infested meth heads sleeping in my barn. Or breaking into the house at night. I don't need to worry about work or schools, I just need cheap living.


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## RonM

Not familiar with Wilsons Cove, mostly was in Bean Settlement..


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## Darren

I'm not sure what you mean by mountains. As an example this is a picture of the town of Glenville located in Gilmer County. I call these hills. These are the foothills of the Appalachians. Some folks from flat areas might call them mountains. Are you looking for something higher and steeper? Generally as you go east from I79, runs north and south, you get into the higher elevations. I would guess the hills in the picture are about 1,300'. Farther east in the valleys, you might not get sunlight on the ground until 10:00 am.


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## PMcNemar

Braxton County is where I live, and the prices are reasonable, but you have to watch what part of the county you get into, bad drug problems in certain areas. Rosedale, Frametown, Burnsville, and Sutton are all near me and all seem to be a bit heavy on the drug dealers and users. Gassaway itself seems to be fairly clean. Not squeaky, but certainly better than the other mentioned places.


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## HeelSpur

RonM said:


> We used to hunt in Hardy near Wardensville and Rio, have some buddies in Wardensville... I used to eat at the Cacapon Rest..... could be there in 4 hours... nice area too but the DC crowd ruined it....


You probably recognize these.


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## mountainwmn

Hmmm, I can't really tell from the picture, they kinda do look like hills. I guess as long as its cheap enough I could settle for just a view of hills if I had to. But flat views makes me want to puke.


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## Tinker

We had 136 beautiful acres in Tyler county. It was on a hilltop, and very private. Dodridge County has nice stuff reasonable too. There are not many job opportunities in these counties, and that is why we moved.

Matt at Sunnyside help us find our place, then sell it a few years later. They specialize in rural property.

http://sunnysiderealestate.homesand...eId=9336&SearchTourMedia=0&Page=2&SortBy=dpr3


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## Terri in WV

Matt's pretty nice, but his wife is a fruit loop. Had them show me one house and when I asked where the den was(that they had advertised the house as having) she said, "you're standing in it." It was a 3x8 hallway:hair. They wasted my time on several occasions with not being upfront in answering my questions about different properties they had listed.


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