The land was exactly as the listing real estate agent described: Ten acres of beautiful hillside property out in the country. And by “hillside,” she meant “a cliff.”
To say that selling real estate agents can be creative with their descriptions is an understatement.
It took us a year of searching before we found the right property to purchase, but it was worth the effort and cost.
We were looking for at least 10 acres (40,000 square meters) of land.
Must Haves
Here are the top 7 things ranked in order of importance to us.
- Rolling terrain. While it didn’t need to be part of a mountain chain, the more elevation changes, the better because that type of property provides a better view and a more exciting location for our home and garden. The caveat is that building infrastructure (driveway and utilities) might be more expensive. We love water too, but lakefront or oceanfront property was too expensive.
- Good weather. It didn’t need to be sunny and 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) every day like in Hawaii, but a good amount of sunshine was a must-have for us, our plants, and the future solar power system we plan to install. Bonus points if the location had or was near (within a three-hour drive) to four seasons (we love snow for the winter holidays).
- Availability of water. Lakes, mountain streams, aquifers for a well, and even municipal water. It isn’t easy to live without one of these things. Being pragmatic, we prefer two in case one stops producing water.
- Reasonable distance to a city. Our goal was to be in the countryside, away from major cities, but not too far away. Our definition of a “city” was one with a population of at least 50,000 people. This is a large enough population to economically support a good mix of small business stores and a collection of big-box stores. Also, a good hospital in case I decided to smash my finger flat with a hammer. After much research, we decided that a maximum drive time of one hour was our definition of “reasonable distance.”
- Reasonable land purchase price. Our range was US $3,500 to $10,000 per acre for at least 10 acres (40,000 square meters) of land. The adage “location, location, location” still holds true–the closer to a city, the higher the price.
- Low property taxes. Having lived in high-tax areas of the country, we’re okay with taxes that go toward the things that everyone uses. Infrastructure maintenance and municipal services like a fire department are two examples. We’re not okay with paying for these services with high property taxes because once a fixed tax, like property tax, is raised, we have yet to witness a decrease. Sales tax, followed by income tax, is our preferred payment method because those types of taxes are easier to control by everyone.
- Major airport access. Non-stop travel to Europe and Asia is a significant benefit. The nice thing about the US is that if non-stop is unavailable, there’s almost no place that doesn’t have one-stop access. Similar to our “reasonable distance to a city,” a one-hour drive or less is optimal.
Results
Many states dropped off the list, particularly those on the east and west coasts. In the end, we looked very closely at these states (listed in alphabetical order):
- Idaho
- Kentucky
- Montana
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Utah
- West Virginia
Next time, I’ll share our evaluation process.
For even more details, join my free newsletter by clicking HERE.