[El Jefe]

Originally Posted by oldman

There's 40 acres about 3 miles east of me that's going for $240K, so that's $6K per acre. But when you look at land, there's a lot of things to consider. We bought our land 10 years ago and I learned some things real quick.
1) Does the land currently have utilities? Those costs can be pretty hefty. You have to at least figure in water, electricity, and sewage disposal (aka a septic tank, etc). Before you say "I'll just use my cell for calls", check the number of bars where you think you want to build and subtract at least one bar for the house insulation and such.
2) Is it on a dirt road? More than likely it is, so you better have a 4-wheel drive vehicle.
3) Forget cable and most high speed internet. If you're in the boonies you're going to have dishes in your yard. Yep, 2, one for your TV and one for your internet. If you're a heavy user of the net, you're not going to like the cost.
4) Do you really want 10 acres? Trust me, that's a lot of work and you'll need a tractor, mowing deck, and an outbuilding to house them in. You'll also need some kind of mower to get up close to the house. I have a little over 5 acres and it takes about 4 hours to mow and trim.
5) Don't think you can just buy a larger parcel and subdivide it. Many counties, including the one I live in, have restrictions on what can be done when you subdivide. Our county says each parcel must have 330' of frontage, so if the land is only 2 acres wide, that limits it to 2 20 acre parcels. Also, some of that land may be in a floodplain. Unless you want some pretty hefty flood insurance (and your bank will require that), make sure you know where that's at. It may also limit what you can do with the land.

Great advice. I know this all too well. We were trying to build on the back section of my folks property. We met with the town zoning board, gave them our proposal (paid $600), they accepted it and passed it to the county who charged me $600 and then denied it. So for $1200 we got no where.