Anyone buy a nice home on land and regretted it?

[SilverBullet432]

Your water well wont be tainted... Water tables are rather shallow the fracks are 8000+ feet below the earth... Source: i work in the oil and gas industry. Im looking at buying a property north of my town. It has 2 oil wells on site, 5 acres, LOVE IT! Want to build a nice 3 bedroom ranch style house and have a small range in the back

[Scoby]

My wife and I moved from the suburbs to the country 18 years ago.
We bought a turn of the century farm house on 103 acres. We never thought we could afford it but it has been a dream come true.
The land is now worth twice what we paid for the entire place.

I renovated the entire inside of the house. Did it myself with the help of friends.
It belonged to a widow. It had green and pink carpet and green/yellow wallpaper in it. 1960's yeah!

If it is something you want do it and don't look back.

BTW - What type of land is it? All trees? Open grassland or brush?
Flat? Creek/water?

[Airhasz]

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.

You can mow as much or as little of it as you want. You will need a plow to get in and out of your driveway if in a cold climate though. Most own a tractor and grooming the property is part of the fun. I would recommend checking out the flooding on the property in the spring when the snow thaws so there are no surprises later on. Obviously there are no sewer systems in rural areas, so it is important to see what happens to the water in the spring meltdown and rains. The biggest plus for me is privacy and doing what I want without a thought of complaining neighbors.

[sinister]

I lived in government quarters on-base, apartments, and in some huge cities the majority of my life. When I retired from the Army I found the place where I thought I'd be buried in the back yard.

If you have the means I'd recommend it.

[FlyingHunter]

Leaving the city and building a home on acreage has been one of the best decisions I've ever made based simply on the quality of life it has afforded me and my family. I brought little in terms of skill sets to the scenario. Here we are years later and I can run my John Deere, chainsaw, fix well pumps, etc...with precision. The learning curve has been part of the joy. To hunt/shoot on your own land, to sit on the front porch and hear...nothing... is a treasure. While some of my friends and family were concerned about our children socializing well due to our choice of living in the "boondocks" - well, I have to laugh. As I type this, there are 4 kids sleeping in the basement after a late night of xbox gaming. Why? All of my kids friends always want to come to "the farm". They go hiking, exploring, airsoft, ride the UTV, etc...

Down sides: Taxes on land can be fun. You'll need expensive stuff such as tractors (always buy bigger than you think you need), tractor implements such as box blades and bush hogs, chainsaws, larger riding mowers. It does take time to keep the property maintained such a trails, fence lines, long driveways, fallen trees.

You'll need to invest your hard earned money somewhere. Land values fluctuate with the economy but will never be worth zero. You can't drive your UTV or go hunting on your 401k statement. For me, land has been an investment that gives me daily happiness - what's that worth?

[sewvacman]

We moved from the Washington DC 13 years ago and moved to Gettysburg when we were having kids. Now, other than missing really good restaurants, we can't stand going down to DC and have no idea why any one would still want to live there. There is an adjustment period of course, we still joke that we live in "Mayberry" where everyone does things at their own pace- slow.

I make considerably less here than I did in DC but I have so much more. For what I would have gotten a low end condo in DC for I have a 2500 sq. ft. home and a little over an acre.

15 acres cleared would be a pia to take care of. I would want 3-5 cleared and the rest wooded. Preferably having the cleared land smack dab in the middle.

Good hunting, hope whatever you choose works out for the best.

[Caeser25]

If you have the money, DO IT.

[matemike]

This might fit you situation.

I used to live in the suburbs of Houston. I thought living outside of the city was much cleaner, safer, with less crowds and traffic. But soon even that area got too crowded for me. So after about seven years being there, still seeing cop lights on my street a few times a month and even having my wheels stolen off my truck right in my own driveway, I decided to move even further out.

My wife and I (no kids yet) looked for several months at places with 5-10 acres, some with ponds, some with shops, but none of those places had a house that pleased us. Or they were SO far out in the country that neither of us thought it was doable.

Finally we settled on a place that is 2.5 acres, with a big one story custom home that is only a decade old. We have plenty of room to build a decent 20X40 shop. The driveway slab already extends 75' into the backyard for the foundation. It has a 500 gallon propane tank which feeds an outdoor grill, so even if the power goes out, I can still grill as long as there's gas in the tank. Currently a tank can last us about a year, and I try to keep it above 50% throughout the year and above 70% through hurricane season.
Another thing I love is that I can shoot in this area. I have a hundred yard straight shot in my "backyard" with a good backstop where I plink at cans with my 22. And there are lots of deer and hogs around here. While we aren't "supposed" to shoot in this area, everyone does it. My neighbor even asked that if I see any deer or hogs in his garden, would I please "dust their ass". I kindly agreed.

Our biggest regrets are all the flower beds that the previous owners had around this property. My wife and I are not gardeners; there are 30 large gardens around this house. We've been taking some out. Mybe noe day we'll have just a couple flower beds to provide cover around the font of the house and one vegetable garden in the back. All 2.5 acres is pretty lawn grass. Right now we have a guy that cuts the grass, weed eats and cleans the clippings off walkways every other week for very cheap. We'll hang onto him as long as we can.
Another regret is that we would have opted for a pond over a pool. This house has a pool and its upkeep is just one other thing that needs to be considered. A pump went out right away. We had it turn green on us twice already. And with all the foliage around the pool the baskets need to be emptied multiple times a day. That gets old. We considered having it for one more season to make sure of our decision, but we may dig it up and make it a pond which will need MUCH less maintenance.

Grocery stores are fifteen minutes in about three diffeent directions which I'm fine with, and my wife got used to it after about two months. Thankfully this house has two refrigerators, plus a huge freezer and a huge pantry to we can stock up pretty good each trip. And there's a gas station a mile from here to that comes in handy quite often.

The last thing that may or may not be a regret, since I could go either way, is that a lot or our friends and family say we live too far now. So we see them a little less, but oh well. I didn't think we saw them terribly often where we lived before anyway.
We had some awesome neighbors where we lived before. While the folks in this rural setting are nice as well, it just seems that eveyone keeps to themsleves more. They mostly all have horses or ponds and nice shops, so they stay busy without being out and about. That's why we moved further out, right? To be alittle more secluded..? So again I'm fine with it, but my wife misss the social gatherings in our previous establishment. The "block parties" if you will.

That's about it. Hope that sheds some light on what to expect if you move further out to more open areas.
I like it better and I recommend it.

[jmnielsen]

I can't wait to be done with college so I can move back out in to the country. I enjoy my space and my quiet, and while living in a city has it's perks (like grocery stores right around the corner) I can't think of a better place to be than on a small chunk of land outside of town. If I had the money to do it I would in a heartbeat.

[WillBrink]

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.

Not sure how any one could answer that for you as it's about what you enjoy, your priorities, stage in life, etc, etc.

I grew up in Brooklyn NY, and have lived on property in NH 3 miles up a dirt road and 10 miles or so from closest town with an outhouse and no electricity. While I have fond memories of both extremes, neither are for me at this time in my life and I wouldn't return to either.

I like the outer edge of some up scale burb where I have quiet and privacy with low crime, etc, and with a short drive in either direction, can be hiking in the woods or seeing a show and shopping in town.

That's the "sweet spot" for me generally.