On Sun July 6th I had a playdate arranged so hubby decided to go for a motorcycle ride to get out of our hair. Upon his return he told me about some "nice properties" he had passed along the way.
Now here's the part where the "kinda" comes in. I don't want you all to think that a couple days later is all it took for us to find our dream property. The key here is "dream." It's actually been for as long as we can remember that we have wanted more space. Not necessarily more house but some land of our own to play around on. Of course when we bought our current home that dream wasn't fulfilled. But we always kinda of knew we wouldn't stay here. Don't get me wrong we love this home. We started our married lives here, got our puppy, had our 2 boys and made many other memories. Realistically it also wasn't possible to even look for the first few years and then the financial crisis happened and then life happened.
So really I would say it's been in the last couple years we got more serious about moving. Friends of ours moved to the west side of town in fall last year and at that time we really took a hard look at our situation and what was on the market. We had some very serious talks about where the kids would be going to school,etc. (and yes it did seem crazy to think about high schools when our oldest wasn't even in kindergarten yet!)
But we made the decision to stay put. We completely renovated our master bath this past spring.
Flash back forward to July 6. What the heck? Why not take another look online to see what was out there and what hubby thought he might have seen. So I searched for properties in our county for 3+acres. And low and behold I found a 5 acre piece of land right on the other side of the river. Same distance to daycare, same school district, set back a nice distance from the road, a decent price. It was on unincorporated land and the listing was for a build to suit, single family residential home. We didn't feel we could afford the price including the build but in the fine print was noted that the land could be sold separately. We thought if we could afford the land now, that maybe we could build in the future. So 2 days later I received the email response with the listing price for the land alone.
Another 2 days later we had an appointment to view the property with the listing realtor.
In the meantime... we decided to go have a look on our own. We found what we thought was the driveway and went on in, however that was not the lot. So hubby ventured through the woods and knocked on a neighbor's door, who was kind enough to tell us to come park in his driveway so he could point us in the right direction. It was a summer evening and the mosquitos were in full effect. I was not dressed to trudge through the woods so hubby and son#1 went for it. Upon their return to our vehicle they said they saw what they thought must be the land. I would have to wait til 2 days to see it with the realtor.
In the meantime...I called the realtor who sold us our current home and set up an appointment for him to come look at our house to tell us what he could possibly list it for.
In the meantime...I called the county (since the land is on unincorporated county land) to ask about zoning and ordinances and building permits and etc.
In the meantime...I reached out to friends of ours who had just finished building their home last summer.
In the meantime...we reached out to our immediate family to get their thoughts.
And yes, if you think that's a lot of "in the meantimes", you are right. There was a lot going on those couple of days before we even saw the property.
Thursday morning came and our realtor came to see our home and gave us good news that our house could be listed for more than we thought. We told him we had an appointment to meet the listing realtor to visit some property and he wished us luck but also asked if he could send us some listings of properties, with homes, to view in the area. We agreed and thought it would be a good gauge of what we might get in either scenario.
Thursday afternoon we pulled into the neighbor's driveway, once again, this time meeting the realtor. I'm sure you got the gist by now, but to be very clear, there is NO driveway at the property. The realtor had been out the day before (the day b/w when we were there last and Thurs) and spent, he told us, 4 hours clearing a path out to the opening. Here's where I should tell and show you, the property, which is a "flaglot". Meaning it has a long skinny driveway (or what will become a driveway) which then opens up to the 5 acre property.
In this picture the property is the rectangle in the middle that is a different shade of green.
The property was extremely overgrown, which makes sense b/c according to my research the listing had been on and off since at least 2008 (the pic above is from 2012). At this point the realtor told us that the property was originally going to be subdivided into 4 lots, which he was going to do as a subdivision. But then the market turned and he could not invest anymore. He says the lot was a farmette that was inherited by children of parents who had retired south and they were eager to sell.
We walked on back and it was beautiful. A tree line driveway leading back to a field, the perimeter surrounded by tall trees, backing up to a gravel pit under reclamation. Secluded enough you don't "see" the neighbors, but drive on out and all the closeness of conveniences the same as we have it now. We walked to the back of the 5 acres, "met" the back neighbors (that story later) and then walked back to the car. The realtor was winded but we were invigorated and in love with the land.
