Real Estate: Must Haves

[Wompinblazer]

Hello again.

Wanted to pick your collective brains and see what some of your "MUST HAVES" would be, if you were (or are currently) looking into land purchases. Like, annual water flow? BLM adjacent? Mining claims? Land locked or easy access without private easements?

If you could visualize your ideal plot of land, what would it look like? How large would it be? What does the topography look like? What kind of land/hardscape are you seeing or wanting?

Keeping money in focus, hypothetically, if you had $500,000 cash to burn on a plot of raw land (literally anywhere in California) what are you getting and expecting for your money?

Full disclosure, I am kicking around the idea of buying up some land with a couple other parties to create a little piece of heaven. A few small families with young kids, looking out in areas less traveled for recreation/camping/fishing/shooting/etc. I'm partial to the areas of California on the Eastern side of the Sierras from Olancha up to Tahoe. Basically anywhere along 395. I am a real estate professional, but just trying to see what else yall think of and come up with.

 

[sonofeugene]

Privacy. Freedom from all noise. A great sunset view. Access to water and electricity. Access to gas, if possible. No restrictions on what I could build. Reasonable access to grocery shopping. Reasonable access to medical care.

 

[Wompinblazer]

Privacy. Freedom from all noise. A great sunset view. Access to water and electricity. Access to gas, if possible. No restrictions on what I could build. Reasonable access to grocery shopping. Reasonable access to medical care.

Those are all well within reason.

Some of the parcels I am looking at have the following commonalities -
3 sides (of a square) are backed to mountains/hills that are not easily traversable
Stream flows through portion of property with water rights
At least 5 miles from main roads
Most of the square footage/acreage is usable (need 51% flat ground across parcel)
Desert scape is North Facing (with respect to the 3 mountain surround - figure I dont want direct sun all day long)
Mountain/Forest scape is South Facing (with respect to the 3 mountain surround - figure I DO want direct sun all day long)
PRIVATE
No mining claims nearby (reduces opportunity for accidental trespassers)


We are looking at parcels varying in size from 3 acres to 70 acres. Obviously we'd like as much land as possible, but it has to make sense. The 70 acre parcel is not nearly as desirable as the 3 acre, but the 3 acre leaves several boxes unchecked for us. There is one just under 10 acres that is hitting the sweet spot, but the flowing water is dependent on snow pack from a higher elevation and isnt fed from another source, so a drought (which will happen again if not already) can stop the flow until snow comes back. Would LOVE a natural pond or something to that affect, but, will probably work on getting a well/cistern over time.

 

[colossians323]

Depends on what you want.

If you are buying property, other than utility easements, avoid easements at all costs. They only end well for the person who is using the easement.
Water rights are important if they come with the property (water on or adjacent to property).
Mineral rights might be important depending on state.
Access to property
Neighbors
Physical buildings on property
Fencing
Ability to build on property
Property in a trust (if you are sharing the property with others)

 

[treelogger]

What do you want to do with the property? That's at the core of the question. One extreme: go there 3 times a year, camp for a weekend, have some fun with rifles and dirt bikes, and otherwise leave it alone. Other extreme: Build a nice big house on it, in a good school district, walking distance to elementary school, playground nearby for the little one, 15 minute commute to the high-paying job (Hollywood or Silicon Valley or Financial District downtown), room for building an ADU for your in-laws to retire to later. There are lots of intermediate things.

Is being able to shoot in the back yard necessary? How long a walk will you tolerate from the mudroom of your house to a little private range? Do you want to have ATV trails or a home-build MX track in the back? When your family comes over for T-day, do you need to sleep an extra 14 people? Are you a CEO who needs to meet with and entertain VCs? Do you need a large garage with a lift and machine shop for your antique car hobby? Where will the 3-phase power for the Bridgeport and the sanding cabinet come from?

Or breaking it down more finely: How about the need for internet, water, and electricity? Are you comfortable doing maintenance on a well/tank/pump system yourself? Even if you're just camping for a weekend, you'll probably need water. By the way, a well, tank, 12V pump, 100' garden hose, old pallet and a few 2x4, and a shower head will make a really comfortable warm outdoor shower in the summer (buy a black hose and lay it flat in the sun).

If you're just camping occasionally, you probably don't worry too much about access, as long as it is possible to get there without a neighbor challenging you with a 12-gauge, or a court ordering you to never trespass across your neighbor's land again. If you want anything more, you really do need to worry about access and easements. And the statement "avoid easements at all cost" would mean that many properties are landlocked, so you really want to understand easement law and how to work with them. Easements also mean that you will need to work with your neighbors. If you want to do outdoor activities like shooting or ATV/motorcycle riding, you'll do that anyway, because otherwise the neighbors will cause the sheriff to show up. And properties large enough that you can shoot centerfire rifles without the neighbors noticing are rare, and very remote.

 

[denpython]

First make sure you can find affordable home insurance in California, if that is relevant.

 

[KingRansom]

NO NEIGHBORS FOR AT LEAST 135 MILES IN ANY DIRECTION

 

[H. Bowman]

I wasn't looking for just land, but when looking for my house I didn't look at anything under 10 acres, had to be somewhere I could shoot and preferred long distance, had to have a good well, didn't HAVE to be but wanted it to be out of sight of neighbors, and needed at least 2 garage bays.

Wound up on ten acres with a range (not quite 200 yards, but it's from my indoor heated reloading bench so when it's snowing it's fine) and a fantastic well with no visible neighbors, 5 garage bays, and a rental unit that's bringing in mid term rental income. I could be happier, but I could definitely be way worse off. The main road traffic is audible and the dirt is not very good for growing, so we're slowly working on bringing in good soil, and I'd prefer quite a bit more land but this is a good starter home. I don't shoot a lot at once so I don't disturb the neighbors within earshot too much, but I have USFS land less than 10 miles away that I can do 1200 yards on and drive to the targets pretty easy, and I've got a fantastic view of the landscape.

One place I ALMOST bought was on just under 300 acres with a much smaller house and we'd have been perfectly fine in that, but there was not barn/shop/garage at all and no cell phone service. The phone service I could live without, but the time/permits to build a shop and a barn were a deal breaker. There was also one single other house, directly across the dirt county road, within stone throwing distance, and on a shared well. If it weren't for that house being RIGHT there (what the hell, why would you put houses nearly touching each other on 300+ acre parcels??), we'd have likely bought it and build the extra buildings we needed. That house was for sale as well but the cost was about 5x what I could afford.

 

[H. Bowman]

First make sure you can find affordable home insurance in California, if that is relevant.

How much insurance do you need for bare land that's paid for with cash? Not my area of expertise, but I'd think an umbrella policy for liability would cover that pretty easily.

 

[Vintagearms]

Not near an airport or over the flight path.

 

[doser]

There's some good questions & ideas here!

 

[Wompinblazer]

To answer some of the questions:
Would like to go to the property at least once per month. Would be camping, fishing (if possible), shooting, dirt bikes or ATVs for movement across distances, walking the rest (hence mostly usable or relatively flat threshold). Permanent structure wont be put up for some time, if at all. Mostly just looking for rec land for all of us. We already own homes in this state (and a couple others), just want a little retreat for all of us. Electricity will be provided by way of generator with solar backup, housed onsite in a connex trailer or two. Havent determined how to secure full time yet, but the plan is to be far enough away from anything that if honest folks come across it, they wont be tempted to be anything other than their honest selves. One of the properties has its own dedicated well, one has plans for a shared well with an adjacent parcel but no work has begun, and the remaining parcels have water flowing by way of creek/stream.

The property will be purchased as an LLC, with each family as 1 member. Bylaws and articles are filed with the state already. It will be a free use property for the LLC. No limitations on how or when the families use it, everyone can show up or one person can show up and stay for a month (provided there are no CCRs included with the purchase that dictate a structure must be in place within X days/months or other local laws that dont allow rec land habitation for more than x days per month).

 

[colossians323]

Starlink is a must for rural properties if you want any type of connectivity, especially if it is out of cell range.
I have starlink at 3 of our properties and travel with a mini which average download speeds while driving are 150-200mb, and even through all the mountain driving we never lose connectivity.

 

[Enfielder]

If it is remote, and no one lives full time on the land be prepared for whatever you build to eventually be vandalized and possibly destroyed. Seems to be the way of things these days. Also dumping of toxic materials or just plain junk. Both issues happened to people I inow that had their remote retreats. One had a cabin on it that was repeatedly broken into and finally knocked down by idiots off roading who crashed into it and then used chains to pull it down. Access was contolled by locked gates but about every time the owner went to the property, his high security lock was cut and multiple unknown locks were in its place. The other person just had remote property that turned into a party and dumping spot for yahoos.

 

[sonofeugene]

I definitely wouldn’t buy property unless I was going to live there. Too much hassle.

 

[NapalmCheese]

Hello again.

Wanted to pick your collective brains and see what some of your "MUST HAVES" would be, if you were (or are currently) looking into land purchases. Like, annual water flow? BLM adjacent? Mining claims? Land locked or easy access without private easements?

If you could visualize your ideal plot of land, what would it look like? How large would it be? What does the topography look like? What kind of land/hardscape are you seeing or wanting?

In the Sierra...

100+ acres between 4000-6000 feet with mixed hardwood and conifer at the base of a taller granite mountain surrounded by BLM or NF. Dense forest on the hillsides with 20 or so acres of scrub and pasture. A good flowing spring leading into a few acres of wetland at the lower elevation adjacent to the pasture that feeds into a larger cool water creek. One corner just barely on a state or county maintained road for ease of access. No claims in the area that aren't mine.

Within 2 hours of where I live if not there.