what is your criteria for new land purchase?

Use Less · #21 11/28/14, 06:44 AM

I would want to know previous usage and soil condition. My house here in town is built on a former ravine that was filled in. Not the town dump, but included household trash. Luckily that was done in the 1870's or 80's, so about the worst of it is bits of china, glass and metal surfacing all the time. The 1940's topo maps will tell you the soil type, but may not show how depleted.

Use Less · #22 11/28/14, 06:47 AM

On my list of maybes is country land. I am not that interested in adding livestock in quantity again, and my 200 or so square feet of garden still yielded way more than I can use. I really, REALLY want a view of the hills and trees that are already grown.

ChristieAcres · #23 11/28/14, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2old2playftball

MichaelArk;
Restrictions are few since it is a plantation(similar to a township with no town government). So approval comes from the Land Use Planning Commission out of Augusta, Maine. I have been talking with them and will be setting up a meeting with the guy who can advise me about what I can and can't do with regard to water. How do I find out about mineral rights? Would it be in the deed?

SkizzlePig:
I tried to look up Highland Plantation in citydata but it wasn't listed. Population is only 73!

I talked to the selectperson of Highland and learned a lot.

thanks for the input guys keep it coming.

Your Title Report will have all the information on Easements, Bundle of Rights (including Mineral Rights), etc...

On the general subject of criteria, DH and I were strict with our criteria due to our own plans. While we were open to a larger property, price, and meeting our top criteria quickly narrowed the results down.

I'd never buy a property without an existing well (passing all the testing). Our property is bordered by 2 properties with wells. There is a 3rd property on the other side of the N one. Of those 3 wells, our well has a much better output and our water is better than at least 2 of them. Had there been no well here, we would have never considered buying our property, knowing the closest wells weren't good ones. I'd also never pay to have a well installed on a property we didn't own, yikes! Neither of us were interested in treating or filtering water when we knew it was possible to buy a property with pure water here. We didn't want to store water, use a cistern, or have to collect rain water. Since we have springs on our property, we will be installing a hand pump.

If one finds an incredible property without a well, all options should be explored.