The perfect property does not exist but planning can help you buy the best piece for your needs.  Below are a few suggestions on how to choose and evaluate properties before and during your search.  It is not a complete list.  It is some of the things that I learned in my looking process.  Your process will be unique to you, your locality and your needs, but I highly recommend you do the planning and research.  It will help to find a piece of property that meets your needs.

One of the most important aspects of managing a piece of property is to find the right parcel, meaning one that has the features that will enable you to do what you want.  Not all pieces of property have the features necessary to accomplish all goals.  For instance, I cannot grow clementines outdoors on my property; it is in the wrong growing zone.  That

Clementine Orchard

may seem obvious, but it is important to make a list of what you would like to do with your property before you go searching. A list similar to what many people make when buying a house. It helps you get what you want.  More importantly, it helps avoid nasty surprises later because some deficiencies can be overcome with money and work, some cannot.  I could build a huge greenhouse and grow those clementines, but money, time and energy are quickly stretched when you own and manage a piece of property.  Do your homework and conserve those resources.

When I began the search for the property that would become “The Land”, I knew I wanted a few things.  I wanted a house, cabin or barn, a pond, a woods for saw timber production, a place close enough to where I lived and worked to visit regularly and a place that was a rectangular to square shape.  Cabins, ponds and fields can be built, dug and dozed, but the shape and location of your property cannot be changed.  Additionally, if you are wanting a product like saw timber, it is best to start with a forest, even a young one than a field. During the process of searching for The Land, I found many beautiful pieces of property that for one reason or another didn’t fit my needs.

This is how I thought about my needs.

My first deal breaker was any property more than three hours from where I lived was out.  I don’t like to drive or commute, and I wanted a place I could get to relatively quickly.  My second was oddly shaped property, long and narrow, triangles and trapezoids that made boundaries hard to find or made a house site with seclusion hard to come by were out.  Third, any property without a least a young forest area was out.

For an item that could be built or dug, I looked for the necessary requirements to make it possible.

A dwelling or barn needs three things.  Access to utilities, a flat spot to build on and a way to get to it.  Access to utilities is simple to assess by looking on the road for electrical wires and talking with a realtor or neighbor to find out what is available in the area.  In my area, the only utility available is electric.  That was Okay with me, but some may want access to natural gas, cable TV and internet.  Even in the early 21st century, these are not available everywhere especially in rural areas.  A flat spot to build on can be found on the

A multipurpose structure can be a home for the tractor and people.

property or made with a bulldozer,but to be usable you need to get to that flat spot.  In the area where I was looking, there were a lot of properties that had great views and even flat spots that would have required a mountain goat or a very expensive, hard to maintain road to get to it.  If you are looking in a cold climate, remember snow makes steep roads hard to maintain and navigate. I choose a property with easy grades and road access.  Ravines and steep hills can be picturesque but make everything from logging to taking a walk harder.

A pond can be scenic, a food source and soul of diverse life for observation year around.

A pond requires two things that are important to consider even if there is an existing pond on the property you are looking at; a slope to feed it rain water and/or springs and a nonporous bottom.  A pond without one of these will either never fill after it is dug or be subject to large fluctuations in depth during hot weather and drought.  If the pond or site has a good clay bottom, it will hold water well but still needs to be fed with fresh water on regular intervals to maintain depth, aeration and overall health.  If you want a pond, look for these features before you buy.  My ponds have all of these and still lose 1 to 2 feet in depth during prolonged hot weather and drought.

Some other general considerations I took seriously before making an offer.

• Taxes:  What is the tax structure of the town/county/state where the property is located?  You’ll pay this every year so it is best to know ahead and taxes can vary widely even within a county. Talk to the town assessor, they are usually very willing to help.
• Mineral rights:  Personally, I would not buy a property where I did not own the mineral rights and after purchase I would be very careful about signing any contracts with oil, gas and utility companies.  The money sounds good until they put a well right where you were planning an orchard or a high power transfer line down the center of your property.
• Local regulations: What is permissible and what requires town board approval.  Some towns have regulations about the amount of trees that can be cut in a year and some even require permission before a tree is cut, others have regulations about the type and size of an agribusiness.
• Realtors:  I have found that looking for rural property, especially vacant land, is a niche market best served by realtors that deal with forest lands and farms.  They are a little harder to find, but tend to value land for its timber or agricultural value where conventional realtors tend to value larger pieces of land as development sites which raises the price.  Good for the seller, not so much for you.
• Leg work:  Get out and walk the properties you find interesting, with landowner permission of course.  I think I drove my very patient and professional realtor crazy, looking at over 100 properties and walking a significant percentage of those.  As a result, I have never suffered buyers remorse.

Happy searching.  Enjoy the process. It gets you outdoors and with each property you look at, you learn something new that will help you know the right parcel when you see it.