Should we sell or stay?

[gypsymama]

We currently live in south central Ohio and are thinking of selling our property and moving to another county. In this area everything is being bought by real estate companies and subdivided. And since DH work takes him to Cleveland a lot (about a three hour drive...he usually stays a few days a week) and his other office is in Columbus (an hour from us and two hours from Cleveland) we were thinking it would be nice to closer to his work.

When we bought this place, it cost us $89,000 for about 18 acres. We have a 5 bedroom, 3 bath house that is about 3,000 sq ft (built in 1975). There is a stream, a spring, 7 acres of woods and the rest cleared farm land. I would like a much smaller house. I wouldn't mind putting up a cabin or having mainly woods.

Currently people are paying about $7,000 - $10,000 an acre, buying an average of 3 - 5 acres. We could easily divide our place into at least 4 lots and sell the house on 2 acres.

Not sure what the cost for surveying is and I know we will need to do some sprucing up of the house.

All you Ohio people....how are land prices between Columbus and Cleveland?
What's a good county to live in?

Not sure if it's wise to move right now and whether property taxes and land prices would be too high. One of the reasons farmers are moving out of the area is that they can buy land so much cheaper south of us.....but we want to go north.

Any ideas and imput are more than welcome. Thanks

[Mike in Ohio]

I like Carroll County where our farm is. Zip is 44615 if you want to see where it is on a mapping site.

Mike

[h_oder]

Where at in SC Ohio? We just bought land in Pike Cty. We live in Gahanna, just outside of Columbus.

Anyhow, I think land between here & Cleveland is going up (just like anywhere else) - especially if you are along the I-71 corridor. Once you get a little bit outside of that, it might not be too bad.

[gypsymama]

We're outside of Amanda about 1/2 hour SW of Lancaster.

We'd prefer hilly wooded property with a water source.

Mike: Does Carroll County have this? What are the property taxes like? What's land running there?

We'd like to find at least 10 acres.

Thanks to both of you for answering.

[Wags]

www.realtor.com It's the largest real estate data base there is. You can search by town or zip code and specify what size acreage you are looking for.

[ellebeaux]

I love the area around Hiram, Ohio. I'd move back there if I could! If you're interested in that area, let me know and I'll send you the name of a friend who's a realtor there.

I also like Sunbury, north of Columbus off of I-71 (or is it I-70, I forget!).

Burton would be a great place to live, too!

[Mike in Ohio]

Originally Posted by gypsymama

We're outside of Amanda about 1/2 hour SW of Lancaster.

We'd prefer hilly wooded property with a water source.

Mike: Does Carroll County have this? What are the property taxes like? What's land running there?

We'd like to find at least 10 acres.

Thanks to both of you for answering.

Gypsymama, you can find hilly wooded property in our area and (at least in our immediate area) there are plenty of propertys with water sources.

Our place is a mix of open and wooded....about 50/50. We have identified 8 springs on our 55 acre property.

Here are some pictures from our property:

http://members.aol.com/export4/farm_hives.jpg
http://members.aol.com/export4/back_lake.jpg
http://members.aol.com/export4/index.html
http://members.aol.com/export4/nuts.html

Mike

[JAK]

One way to think of it might be that you are in the perfect place where you are because the land is appreciating in value in addition to all you other efforts. Where you move to might be more land for less money, but also more work, and it might be another 50 years before it starts appreciating in value. Perhaps it depends on whether or not you have kids and what their plans might be.

[danb98577]

Sort of a sideways step, but you might look at Champaign county-parts are very rolling ground, especially near Kiser Lake/Urbana. Prices used to be reasonable.