Property opinion

overcomer · Jan 10, 2012

I heard about a piece of land in a location suitable for a BOL. The land is about 19 acres, is mostly wooded, and has a river/creek (good water, trout) running through it. It is bordered by a camping resort on the South, private woods on the West, a road and a house on the North, and a road with the river parallelling it on the East.

The property is has a thin strip of road access between the road and river on the East, but there is no bridge to get across to the land. There is no right of way on either road, and building a bridge would be a federal process with the army corps becoming involved.
The land was also stripped of topsoil 30 years ago, so soil for growing would have to be brought in.

Everything would have to be hauled in across the creek. One of the property owners or the resort might let us have an access path just to get materials in. I'd have to construct some sort of walking bridge to cross the creek (read four wheeler access).

I think it would be ideal for a BOL. I'm thinking cabin, no utilities. Maybe some livestock. Camping weekends and summers off and on, full time if SHTF.

Resale value would be low, so unloading it later might be an issue. If they come down on cost substantially . . . . .

What issues or solutions do you see?

OVC

AtticusFinch · Jan 10, 2012

overcomer said:
I heard about a piece of land in a location suitable for a BOL. The land is about 19 acres, is mostly wooded, and has a river/creek (good water, trout) running through it. It is bordered by a camping resort on the South, private woods on the West, a road and a house on the North, and a road with the river parallelling it on the East.

The property is has a thin strip of road access between the road and river on the East, but there is no bridge to get across to the land. There is no right of way on either road, and building a bridge would be a federal process with the army corps becoming involved.
The land was also stripped of topsoil 30 years ago, so soil for growing would have to be brought in.

Everything would have to be hauled in across the creek. One of the property owners or the resort might let us have an access path just to get materials in. I'd have to construct some sort of walking bridge to cross the creek (read four wheeler access).

I think it would be ideal for a BOL. I'm thinking cabin, no utilities. Maybe some livestock. Camping weekends and summers off and on, full time if SHTF.

Resale value would be low, so unloading it later might be an issue. If they come down on cost substantially . . . . .

What issues or solutions do you see?

OVC

I don't quite understand the geography. Are you saying that the property is landlocked?

crankyfarmer · Jan 10, 2012

Does the road touch the property? I would talk access with the owner of the road. Most people are pretty decent to deal with.
You can build up some soil pretty fast for gardening with some manure and compost. I am turning a piece of ground that wouldn't even grow a weed into viable land just by dumping rotting bales on it and working them in.
My Brother in law ran into a similar situation. He was looking at a BLM lease. It had a trail that was very long and very bad. Too rough to bring in a camp trailer even. He wanted a mobile home. Right next to it was flat level farm land. I told him he had a choice he could go talk to the farmer about pulling a mobile across the land. (It sounded like they wouldn't let anyone access the land because of past trouble.) Or he could pull the mobile through their harvested fields in the fall and beg forgiveness and probably a $100 trespass fee.
Sometimes you have to break a few eggs.

skiduck0965 · Jan 10, 2012

Purchase an easement so you can access the property through the edge of one of the adjoining properties. Happens all the time. Basically you would be buying a driveway from the public roadway down the side of your neighbors property to get to your property.

home in oz · Jan 10, 2012

Run, not walk away.

Too many problems.

charliemeyer007 · Jan 10, 2012

You have not lived until you try and get a permit to put a section of culvert in a creek to make a crossing. I be looking at an overhead wire trolly. Does it have any solar window? How are taxes on 20 acres? Does it flood? What is upstream? Is all the timber scrub? Stripped of topsoil sounds weird, how did they haul it away?

Baddogg5 · Jan 10, 2012

there are better ones out there unless you get it for a song

Hedge Living · Jan 10, 2012

charliemeyer007 said:
You have not lived until you try and get a permit to put a section of culvert in a creek to make a crossing. I be looking at an overhead wire trolly. Does it have any solar window? How are taxes on 20 acres? Does it flood? What is upstream? Is all the timber scrub? Stripped of topsoil sounds weird, how did they haul it away?

The flood question is a big one. A beautiful, bubbling creek can turn into a monster that swallows you whole from time to time. The fact that they stripped the top soil probably means it did flood. Nothing makes good black dirt like a well used flood plain.

Recon3 · Jan 10, 2012

I'll have to know EXACTLY where this property is to give you a proper answer. LOL.

Recon3

Recon3 · Jan 10, 2012

This x2.

Recon3

home in oz said:
Run, not walk away.

Too many problems.

WaterBoy · Jan 11, 2012

Sounds like you need to see this property in more than one season. I agree with the posts above, unless they are giving this property away, keep looking.

overcomer · Jan 11, 2012

I actually know the land fairly well, or at least the land around the land. The creek does rise, but they have enough elevation to get well out of the way.

It did occur to me to find an easement, but outside of bringing in heavy materials, not sure I'd need one. The land does have parking, but it would be a short walk to the hunting shack, over the river.

It would be more than a culvert, upstream the road goes over three 7x10, square concrete tile culverts. Upstream are beaver ponds and meadows and a town park.

I think it is partially treed, and then some scrub. I have no idea why they'd take the topsoil, but generally in the area the subsoil (or whatever) is clay/hardpan. I think there is plenty of sun there, it lies near the top of the hill on the west side of a N/S valley. They get the sunrise, but loose the sun earlier in the day. No idea about taxes yet. It's totally unimproved, and besides a cabin, might only be developed by someone with $$$ later.

The roads are all town. Yes, it is landlocked, except for the strip between the creek and road, a thousand feet or better. There is a path access between two private properties. The path used to be part of the whole property before the house lot was sold off.

I tried to upload a scanned map/drawing, but I couldn't get it to work.

OVC

Zosimos · Jan 11, 2012

One thing is for sure, the golden horde would be likely to try an easier target.

The Heretic · Jan 11, 2012

Hmm.

1) Your access and egress is difficult.

2) It would be hard to grow anything there without bringing major amounts of soil.

This sounds good to you?

I understand the difficult access can be an advantage, but it would be a lot better if you had a bridge and later on you could collapse it. If I am understanding it correctly, there is only one way to get onto the land?

greenhorn · Jan 11, 2012

No access...Time to unload it to some sucker, and move on to a new piece of ground.

Ric · Jan 11, 2012

Bordered by a campground on one side....... where do you think all those people with RVs and campers are planning on going when SHTF? I'd look for something a little more remote.

Pawiscoming · Jan 11, 2012

Does it have an undiscovered cave on it?

crankyfarmer · Jan 11, 2012

If the price is right a lot of things can be overlooked or overcome.

George Newbill · Jan 11, 2012

If is is dirt cheap maybe, other wise too much hassle. Keep looking.

merlinfire · Jan 11, 2012

That property description bothers me for some reason. Doesn't seem like a good idea.

There's lots of land to be bought. I'd look elsewhere unless its at a price you can't refuse.

Property opinion

overcomer

AtticusFinch

crankyfarmer

skiduck0965

home in oz

charliemeyer007

Baddogg5

Hedge Living

Recon3

Recon3

WaterBoy

overcomer

Zosimos

The Heretic

greenhorn

Ric

Pawiscoming

crankyfarmer

George Newbill

merlinfire

Top Contributors this Month

Recommended Communities