Anyone buy a nice home on land and regretted it?

[Javelin]

I'm thinking about moving and buying a new home ... though I like the idea of buying a nice new custom home in a nice new neighborhood I realized for the same price I could have a nice place on 15 acres (albeite farther away from Dallas and the uptown lifestyle).

Has anyone made the jump and had regrets leaving the manicured lawns and beautiful track homes for the country? Half a mil does not buy what it used to but it still buys something... It's a tough decision and I am having a hard time wrapping my head around it.

[Javelin]

This whole idea came about recently. This bible verse jumped out at me even though I'm not all that religious.

"He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough." Proverbs 28:19 KJV

Maybe it means something. Maybe not. Dallas lifestyle is appealing and trading my BMW for a truck and exchanging my Ninja for a tractor is kind of a big change and change is hard to think grapple with. So any advice would be appreciated from the folks who have done it.

[nimdabew]

Personally, I can't wait to leave behind city life and buy a place where I can sit on my back porch, throw a rock as hard as I can, and have it land on "mine".

[Airhasz]

Moved from the city to build house and custom barn in the country 20 years ago and love it. Six hundred foot driveway, JD tractor, pond, ride quad to hunting blind, etc. I watched my father do it after he retired, he really liked it so I made the move at 30 years old and it's great. It was easy for me since I didn't have a wife and children at the time. It can be hard to convince wife to move away from friends and family. Do if you can, the younger you are the better.

[jklaughrey]

Best thing I did was leave Los Angeles and move up to Pacific NW. Not on a farm, but property in a rural area:-D

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Belmont31R]

My parents do because the grand fathered property tax rates passed in Cali wouldn't apply to me, and the new owners pay as much in taxes a year as our entire income.

[Javelin]

I think the property tax situation is a valid point. I'm looking at total costs of solar power, 600ft well and an aerobic septic tank all that require maintenance. It's one of those expenses that come with living outside the city. Found a great place someone built (house was newer but too big... Think 4500sqft) but they were fracking 1/4 mile up the road and it was scary thinking my well water would be tainted so I passed. I'd like to find 3000sqft home off the grid with 15 acres and a horse barn and maybe a steel workshop. That sounds pretty nice actually. I have the resources to do this once in my life so it's a forever jump and it's been keeping me up at night.

I like the idea of having my own 50m smallbore range and gated access to my driveway. That's a huge bonus but the added time to get to any grocery store is something to get used to as whole foods is like 10 minutes from my house now. Big change vs country living ...

[rero360]

I grew up in Western NY, tiny little town that really had nothing in it other than a post office, volunteer fire dept. and an American Legion. The nearest "grocery store" was the next town to the south, about a 10 minute drive in good weather, the nearest real grocery store, Wegmans" is about a half hour away. My parents live on 4.5 acres on top of a hill with a 550 foot driveway, well, septic tank, the whole 9 yards.

I now live in South Pasadena, CA where I have two grocery stores two blocks from me, starbucks is three blocks away, tons of stores, banks, restaurants all within walking distance.

I'd go back to the rural lifestyle, (minus the insane lake effect snow) in a heartbeat. What my parents paid for their 3 bed, 2.5 bath, 3000 (?) square foot house and the land, you couldn't even get a one bed condo for that in an ok neighborhood here in LA.

[Sensei]

Do you have the skill and spare time to manage / maintain 15 acres of land? I sure don't which is why I contribute to the underground Mexican economy to maintain my 0.6 acres.

Unless you are going to have 15 acres of forest, owning land can be a pain in the ass if you don't know what you are doing. An expensive pain in the ass too.

[cop1211]

Moving to the country is a dream of mine, but that's all it's going to be for me, unless I can hit the lotto.