Hello,

I need some information on the Dover, NH area or any area within a 100 mile radius. I am in negotiations with a perspective employer in NH and before i can really decide what to do i need to first find prices on farms in rural areas,,,, if they exist. We raise goats and i need a farm with about 20 acres at least, a fixer upper would do and in a very remote region. On a dirt road with the neighbors at least a mile away. I hope i am not dreaming here and this place might exist in NH. the company is located in Dover, NH. I would like to take the position but no use moving if i can't find what i need and if the cost of living is high.

Thanks for your time and hope i can find something. Any help is appreciated. i have done searches but so far nothing that fits my wallet of needs.

Bernice

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 01, 2000

Answers

Bernice, Dover would be a very expensive area to live. It is within commuting distance of Boston, and on the seacoast, if that tells you anything. The housing market is really tight anywhere in the souther half of New Hampshire. Where are you now? Any possibility of a visit before making a decision? A hundred miles on the New England back roads would probably be a two and a half or three hour trip. However, it is possible that by going into Maine you might find a farm like you describe for a reasonable price. I will tell you what we have, and the price the realtor and banker think we can get for it, and you can draw your own conclusions (give you a hint -- I would never pay that much for this place!!!). We are about an hour and a half from Dover, by the way. If we were farther south, I'm sure our property would be valued even higher. We have fourteen acres, half field and half wooded, with a small creek at the back (about an acre is wetland). The soil is very rocky, though we have developed a garden area (which is full of weeds right now). The field is starting to grow some little trees (still mowable but starting to look a little scruffy) because my husband has been working seven days a week and hasn't had time to mow it for a couple of years. The house is a 150-year-old cape, but has very little original about it other than the post and beam frame. We've replaced some of the very badly done wiring, but over half still needs to be done. Plumbing could similarly use an overhaul. Fireplace needs to be torn down and the hole in the wall filled in. Soft spot in the bathroom floor. Enclosed back porch (with basement under it) is in the process of being torn down as it was falling down. Kitchen needs a lot of work. Two car garage also needs repairs (partly because we housed sheep and goats in it one winter when the electric fence wasn't holding them in the pasture!). For this place, really kind of a dump, the above mentioned real estate people think we can get $110,000 to $120,000. Anything nicer will go for a lot higher in this area. However, I think that in Maine you might have better luck. (Of course, we are only a mile from the interstate, in one of the primary tourist and summer-people areas in NH, and our town is one of the more *desireable* areas -- we had a realtor call us a few months ago to see if we were interested in selling but we didn't want to deal with that particular fellow.) http://www.merealestate.com/ might be a starting place to look at real estate. There is less expensive property north and west of us, but I think you would find it an awfully long commute. Also you should be aware that New Hampshire's property taxes are among the highest in the nation (we are *only* paying about $1600 a year, because the house is in poor shape and we have most of the land in current use, which discourages resale for development in return for lower taxes). I hate to sound so discouraging. New Hampshire is a pretty state, but we are planning to sell as soon as possible and move to Northern Maine free of debt, where we can get forty to eighty acres of former farm land for under twenty thousand dollars. If I can help you with anything else, please e-mail me! Best wishes in your decision-making process. Kathleen

-- Kathleen Sanderson in NH (stonycft@worldpath.net), December 02, 2000.

I lived most of my life in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is about twenty minutes south of Dover on the coast. I absolutely love that area of the country but I'm afraid it is quite expensive. The cheapest place in New Hampshire that you can find what you are looking for is Farmington, but I don't recommend that you move there. It is made up of a bunch of wild low-lifes (to be polite). We lived there for eight years before we moved to Virginia and it was quite an adventure, but I had the advantage of being from New Hampshire to start with. I served on the zoning board and their planning board and hubby was a volunteer fireman and we both were volunteers on the ambulance squad so we got to know this town intimately. It is controlled by the couple that own the bank and they basically run the town. Although I believe that the old man may have died by now so things may be changing a little. Anyway, the problem with finding reasonable prices within driving distance to Dover is that going south east you reach Portsmouth which is extremely expensive and if you go far enough north of Dover then you reach the lake country and property becomes very expensive again. I would recommend, instead that you live in Maine and commute from there. Commuting from Maine is very easy and there is not a lot of traffic. I worked in Kittery, Maine most of my adult life and lived in Maine some of the time and New Hampshire the rest of the time. New Hampshire has no income or sales tax and consequently has a high property tax to make up for it. It is smarter to live in Maine and shop in New Hampshire. Maine has an income tax and a sales tax and a property tax but the property tax is significantly lower. Land is cheaper in Maine and the roads are well-maintained in both Maine and New Hampshire in the Dover area. Try looking for land in Maine along the New Hampshire border heading north. That will get you far enough away from the more expensive southern area but in Maine you will not hit any major lake areas that will increase the property prices. I've kind of said quite a bit in this message. If you want more info, feel free to e-mail me directly.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), December 02, 2000.