Suit or Walk Away?

Hindsight is the best educator ever.
I bought our place from the bank (repo) 20 some years ago, "as is" type situation.
Wish I had 55 year old wisdom at 28.

We went through a lot of trials working with stuff that wasn't foreseen. 3 little kids, not a lot of expendable money but things had to work, no other option.
Every amount of free time was spent on this place for years and years.
I look back and I don't even remember how I did it.

I have talked with the kids about bailing on the place to make it simpler, easier to manage. I get more or less the same response from all 3. They have told me to do what I need to but this where they grew up, and it is the place they bring there kids to play in the woods and creek, explore and find the new cool things that mom or dad have already seen or done. Guilt trip or what?

I have some regrets but I truthfully don't think I could find a place with the same criteria that this place has, location etc. The house I could do without, but the land/setting is what brings everyone back.

I can sympathize ... my place was a mess when I bought it. It hadn't been lived on for several years, was overgrown with brambles, and I don't think the former occupants had ever had trash pick-up ... they just burned stuff, and not in a barrel, either. Of course, tin cans and glass jars don't burn very well ... arggh.

I spent the first summer hauling off loads of trash ... broken appliances, bicycles, toys, all kinds of crap. I don't think I'll ever see the end of it ... it seems to just push up out of the earth! Even deep in the woods ...

The really funny part was when the neighbors across the road (who were parents to the seller I bought it from) claimed my cows were making the place an eyesore and reducing their property value!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

Tango,

Have you considered a barter situation where someone could move on to the property to help you clean it? Maybe in exchange for room/board?

I don't know how this works but maybe let someone park their RV or motor home or tent?

I know its not about the work per se but about feeling swindled and you can't shake the feeling that the whole town is aware of the wreck of the property.... someone should have said something. IMO, people usually don't.

Sorry this has happened.

Clear the boundaries, fence and turn in a bunch of goats bought for cheap. Let them clear the land for you. You can then sell the goats for a profit.

With this kind of attitude you are asking people here for opinions, advice and help in solving this problem?

Thorns, brush,trees, overgrown sounds like a perfect habitat for a big group of goats. Not show goats, get some goats for meat, turn them out and provide minerals and water. You will be surprised how quickly, efficiently and clean a group of goats can transform a property. They can make a dense brush filled area a park like setting. So if you have acres upon acres, don't just turn them out on the whole farm, divide it up and clean up sections. Then the junk on top can be collected and scrapped for some cash. That is my first reaction to your problem. But then I keep looking at the sentence you typed in your original post.

Actually she is disappointed, overwhelmed, and depressed about it all.

That all could pass come spring and she could be back at the battle and making her silk purse from a sows ear, and also making her investment in land continue to grow.

But which path she chooses is up to her, and with listing it appears she just wanted to sound off about the disappointment here, no longer looking for solutions or help.

Which is certainly understandable, and of value too.

Not being in her shoes, I would have chosen the other path, as it appears many others would have. It appears she had already done the hard work and made a living place, from here on just need to keep tackling one small bit at a time and already over the hard part.

Looking at the pictures, it looks like a treasure trove - yea mostly just scrap iron and junk to burn or pay to haul off, but all the same.... With a good little house and a driveway, the tough part is done, would have been time to take a breather over winter, enjoy the work I did, and get back at it next spring with fencing and critters - if that is the plan. Muself I always find ponds way over rated and pointless I'd not waste the resources to put one in, but I am in the minority here I know.

But that is easy to say sitting here on my recliner.... There can be 100 other issues and things not being mentioned, and don't need to be.

Paul

I don't understand I guess,,you have spent alot of time and money to get the place cleaned up and looking good and suitable for farming and /or homesteading and now you want to give it up so you can do it all over again?
my farm was full of crap when I bought it as well and it took a lot of cleanup to get it useable but it was worth it,did you find underground tanks on the property?,just wondering ? one big crater of trash does not a homstead kill.

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

I would love it if you would pull up your britches and decide you CAN handle this. You've been through so much Tango - this should be a snap. Of course, we ALL are getting a little long in the tooth, and that's all the more reason to take a stand and win this. I never got my little "farm" all cleaned up but I still loved it and still pine for it.
Consider staying and becoming the pillar of the community that you naturally are. You HAVE already made a great impression just by cleaning up the place - as you've said, you HAVE increased everybody's property values and you admitted you've hired a GREAT contractor. Just become ONE with Tennessee - stay Tango, stay.

I checked out several "as is" homes when I was thinking of buying a place.

Walked laughing straight back out of one place. The foundation was sunk at least a foot just across the living room. Felt like being in a carnival fun house. Another one had a full scale termite nest on the living room wall and had been broken into several times. Lots of piping pulled out and the water heater tank was stolen. Another had tar paper and nothing else as a roof. Another had random live wires jutting out from the walls. Another had visibly flaking lead paint.

All of those properties were bought by speculators that planned on the Phoenix market rebounding and only one had the major issues declared in the ad. I always wondered if any of them knew that a bulldozer was the only way to fix up most of those houses.

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Avondale, AZ

The sentence does not imply that honesty is never possible. It says that it is not a given and claims should be verified, especially when there is money changing hands. No one here is selling me land. They are helping me based on the op. I am grateful for and read every reply, I don't honestly believe that every advice given will be right to follow through. Often a thread has contradictory advice because it is based on personal experience in different situations. So we ask, we read, we sift through and we work along as best we can.

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

long time no see very beautiful words.... thank you

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

forgive me for smiling at your last sentence. i can understand so well. When we move back to the land we join generations of family born and raised there and used to doing things a certain way. my neighbor suggested I bury the trash. it is because of buried trash that the place is the way it is. heavy rains wash away a little dirt above and voila, more trash. other neighbors said burn it, but i'd have to sort through what burns, like wood and paper, and what doesn't burn like glass, rubber, asbestos.... if i were to do that much, i might as well haul it off and let the county dispose of it. there are "convenience centers" all over, very convenient and true to their names but some folks are stuck in their habits and refuse to change.
at any rate, the amount of trash on the surface is only like two or three more trailer loads hauled. it is the open chasm ....

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

My best friend came to spend Christmas with me and ignore the for sale sign in front. She has helped me put up shelves and finish the kitchen - it needed one more cabinet which she bought for me. Perhaps she also thinks I'm just overwhelmed, disappointed, disillusioned.... for now, and it will pass. I dunno because I am overwhelmed, disappointed and disillusioned.

I've not discovered any underground tanks or anything to suggest hazardous waste. There is a healthy population of amphibians and the vast majority of trash is household with a healthy population of used tires, some with tress having grown inside. I think I've posted that it is my gut feeling that there was a "collector" living here at some point, someone who collects stuff. To me it is a mental illness, there are places like that in the south. You drive by what seems to be a junk yard but it is someone's home. The bulldozer would have uncovered pipes to underground tanks or dump sites when they tore down the buildings and gathered the debris. The bulldozer blade dug through a lot, especially where the pond was supposed to be. I think they would be visible after all the bulldozer work. At most there is probably a couple of old style septic tanks - i haven't seen them but there are all over this countryside and doubt this place would be an exception to that. so it is mainly just the chasm of trash which stretches almost across the middle of the property. Yeah, I am reading that a lot of people here don't think it is enough to qualify for selling the place but to me it seems insurmountable right now.

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Tiny Forest ~ my tiny blog

The OP is being open and honest here. She is taking this day to day. Who knows yet what the outcome will be. It is a warning to people buying property today and the pit falls they run into. Who are we to judge her. It is her life. We can/need to take what we can from this to use in our daily lives, otherwise let it stand for what it is. The OP has worked hard and deserves her do for trying. I hope all works out well for her and she finds her perfect homestead....James