One of the first things that you will need to decide as you move to the country is "How much land do you want to buy?" Many people want to move to a rural area because they want more space. They come from a city where there is extremely dense building or a suburban development where the lot size is often very small and they come out here to put some distance between them and their neighbors. Sometimes the amount of space they ask for is a lot more than they are prepared for.
One of the first trips out to look at homes with your buyer's agent should be to some houses with different lot sizes. Many clients come to me and ask for a minimum lot size of 5 acres only to be shocked by just how large that area is. An acre is 43,560 square feet, which is roughly the size of a football field without the end zones. One acre alone can seem huge to someone who is used to no space or the smaller lots that the suburbs offer. Let me tell you that 5 Acres is a lot of land and with a large amount of land comes added maintenance costs and time to care for it. You need to be ready to take care of the lawn areas and the field areas on the land you buy either by paying a service (which can get quite expensive with larger yard and/or open field areas) or by doing it yourself (which can take a lot of time each week.)
When you live on larger parcels you lose some of the sense of neighborhood that you were used to where you came from. You need to drive just about everywhere, even for play dates for the kids. You can't always count on a neighbor seeing that your house lights are on when you are not home or hearing noises that don't belong there. The block parties and close ties with neighbors may not happen in areas with larger lot sizes.
One common misconception that buyers have about lot size is that even the slightest amount of difference in lot size will significantly change the price. In most cases, a building lot in rural areas that consists of one to five acres will be priced similarly depending on the house for the value more than the size of the lot. Larger parcels for farming or estates of course are priced more for the much larger land area. I have had many buyers think that one house should be priced lower than another simply because the first house had a 1 acre lot and the other had 1 and 1/2 acres. It is just not the case.
Taxes on these properties are based again mostly on the size of the house and it's amenities not on land size. While there is an adjustment for the amount of land it is not as significant in the assessment as the house is. Many people will shy away from a larger lot because they are afraid of the taxes and in truth they are not that much more. If you are comparing several houses look at the taxes on a couple with different lot sizes but in the same community with the same square footage and you will see that it should not be a great concern one way or the other.
I hope this will help you to narrow down your search criteria and find the perfect piece of land for you. There are options here in the Greater Hudson Valley of NY to meet everyone's needs. We have urban, suburban, village and rural locations that can provide you with the perfect blend of country for you. Working with an experienced buyer's agent can help you to choose what is best for you. If you are looking for a home in Orange, Ulster, or Sullivan County NY I would love to be your Buyer's Agent. If you are looking elsewhere I would love to find someone in your chosen location to help you. Give me a call or send an email today.
I moved here from my original hometown in suburban Bergen County NJ to find a very different life. I have many clients who have come from New York City and areas closely surrounding it that have found some unexpected challenges when learning how to live in this area. Moving to a more rural location may be quite an adjustment for someone who is used to living in a place with more dense population, municipal services, more readily accessible transportation, and frankly a lot of noise. I know you may think that a lack of noise is a good thing but the "quite" can be one of the more difficult adjustments to make when moving away from the city.
I will be producing a series of blogs this coming week to help you learn a bit more about moving to the Greater Hudson Valley of NY which can help anyone considering the move from a city or close suburb to a more distant and rural area that is still within commuting distance of any city. I hope you enjoy the information I provide that may help you to decide whether you could learn to love it in the country too. Check in tomorrow morning for the first of the series "Moving On Out To The Country".
Moving On Out To The Country - How Much Land Do You Want? Part 1 of a Series
Moving On Out To The Country - Consider The Nights - Part 2 in a Series
Moving On Out To the Country - The Simple Life May Not Be So Simple -Part 3 In A Series
Moving On Out To The Country - My Water Comes From Where??? Part 4 In A Series
Moving On Out To The Country - Where Does the Waste Water Go??? Part 5 In a Series
There are options here in the Greater Hudson Valley of NY to meet everyone's needs. We have urban, suburban, village and rural locations that can provide you with the perfect blend of country for you. Working with an experienced buyer's agent can help you to choose what is best for you. If you are looking for a home in Orange, Ulster, or Sullivan County NY I would love to be your Buyer's Agent. If you are looking elsewhere I would love to find someone in your chosen location to help you. Give me a call or send an email today.
I know some of you may be surprised that OCC is up here in the Greater Hudson Valley of New York instead of in one of the Warmer Orange Counties like Florida or California but it is right here, not 20 minutes from my home. I was able to spend time at the building through a program I have been enrolled in for the past 10 months that deals with different aspects of My Orange County called Leadership Orange. We have gone once a month to various locations around the county learning about institutions and services available to and issues facing the citizens of Orange County, NY.
We were at OCC Headquarters, which just opened last month, as part of our environmental session. The building was built including a lot of green technology. It uses much less energy that other buildings of it's size and they did a phenomenal job there. It was really cool.
