The 'hobby' farm pursuit

[mnjrutherford]

I just recalled something my eldest brother-in-law told me as we began the process of closing in on our current home.

"Don't fall in love with the first deal or any deal that falls through because the best deal is the one you haven't found yet."

As I pondered that, it occurred to me, I had been "house hunting" for years! When it get close, though, you kinda feel it in your blood and things start coming together to make it realized. We made our first visit to NC to see a 24 acre place that we loved on the computer. We made an offer, had financing pre-approved, the offer was accepted, then discovered that the lender was not listening to us when we told him "LAND". When it finally got through his thick skull that it was a house WITH 24 acres, he said he could give us the loan. So, that was scrubbed and though it kinda hurt, I remembered, our REAL house was not that one.

So, well... Mike and I made a prayer fast. We wrote out exactly what we wanted and we prayed. Then we got back to NC and began looking physically rather than just on the net. We changed the prayer. This time the prayer was, "If we make an offer on the wrong house, break the deal before it hurts us financially or emotionally. When we make an offer on the right house, make everything easy." THAT is exactly what happened. The next 2 deals were tossed within 24 hours. The 3rd offer was made, accepted and despite all that came our way, including Realtors that didn't know the law and worse... Every issue was surmounted and when surmounted our Realtor always said something to the effect, "I sure thought it was lost, but it turned out to be easy."

Course, that was our experience. Yet, I hope your experience goes at least as well if not better.

[ottawagardener]

Thanks Jo. I've been to well over 20 places now and are getting a bit tired. I couldn't tell you how many I've seen via the internet. Mind you, most of them were at the time of year where we couldn't really 'see' the land. Between Wednesday and now, we've been to 10 properties. It's there. I know it. Somewhere. It's the next one right?

Thanks seedywen for the advice. We have a nice real estate agent and she is working hard for us especially as each place is at least an hour away so it's always a 3 hour trip minimum and we try to see more than one at a time of course. The good thing is we're narrowing in on it is that we need, what we can work with and what we don't want.

I'll keep you updated!

[ottawagardener]

And Michel: yeah, hee hee. It is pretty funny. ;D

[dirtsunrain]

Raw land goes for $750 an acre here. Bring your own water.

I'm lucky that I live on some of the best farmland on the Island. The topsoil goes down 10 feet in places. Its sandy, but that can be fixed. I also have groundwater, which is a huge deal. A lot of my Island is desert or sitting over pockets of brine and natural gas.

I have a deal in the works to buy this place but I'm not sure what I want. The land is 3.5 acres, cut out of the original 400 acre farm. The land is lovely but the house is maybe more than a single gal can handle on her own. It's a wreck with lots of potential or its a wreck and a moneypit. I'm not sure...3.5 acres really isnt enough for a sheep farmer to happy with anyways but it would be nice to have my own home again for being uprooted (divorce) for the last 5 years. I am very much a homebody who puts down deep taproots.

[plantsnobin]

My daughter and I went driving this week, and this is the area that I am drawn to. Crawford county, which is adjacent county to where we live. There is absolutely nothing there, which is what I like about it. My husband and son in law were driving in this same area the other day, and SIL said he really liked it there, then my husband told him that that is where I wanted to move to. We want to find land that will be good for all of us, I am not going anywhere without my grandson! Anyway, this is the road that my husband poured a basement on, I went with him to find it. The directions were 'cross the creek, property is on the left'. Didn't mention that when he said 'cross the creek', you literally drive INTO the creek, there is no bridge. I sure do love that area.



Didn't even have to put the truck in 4wheel drive. Wouldn't want to try it in a car though

[ottawagardener]

Love it. You could have your own mote

[mnjrutherford]

Apr 10, 2010 12:10:52 GMT -5 ottawagardener said:

Love it. You could have your own mote

A remote mote!

[ottawagardener]

Monday - nada

Thursday - seeing at least 4 more.

[steveont]

good luck telsing!!
depending on how far out you want too go, there are some good buys near winchester. close too 31. or hallville/mountain/south mountain, close too 416. saw a nice huge log house with 2 large greenhouses near smiths falls! did not look occupied but no sale sign!

[ottawagardener]

Where did you see the greenhouse house, I want that one!

As for the house pursuit, the house of my family's dreams is near Plantagenet. It's a recenlty constructed log cabin on about 25 acres. Soil is probably silty/clay and probably vaires in thickness as it is on a North west facing hill. We had considered it before but the price dropped so now it's a real contender - Michel knows the one I'm talking about. Anyhow, convince me that I want a NW facing slope. Someone, convince me. As this would be in zone 4b, I figure that the slanted angle of the sun would drop the heat even further. Tell me what is great about hilly NW slopes people so I can buy it.

[ottawagardener]

Or Steve, tell me how I can buy the log cabin with a couple greenhouses on it. That's the one I want!

[mnjrutherford]

One thing I would do is go round to what I would make the garden areas and take soil samples. I've done that on several properties and rejected them all based on soil quality alone. As a wanna be farmer, I figured that was the first step in deciding on a new homestead.

[mnjrutherford]

Telsing, are deeds public access in Canada? If yes, look that log cabin property up. Here in the states you would find that information at the county level. You should find the owners name and "real" address within the file. Then you can send them a letter of inquiry. OR, you could check out the tax status. If the taxes have not been paid in several years, THEN you may be on to something. I've done stuff like this before and if you want to go this route I can give you some advice and direction. I think a log cabin would be better than a NW hill...

I've found the area on GOOGLE... looks kinda flat to me Teasing!

[ottawagardener]

Sadly it's both the log cabin and the slope (this is a gentle slope but still angles away from the sun's rays.) This is on a ridge just north of Plantagenet. You can see it in terrain view on google maps actually.

[sandbar]

Telsing,

Can you terrace the slope to get a better angle on the sun?