Looking For Land/Wanting To Move (WV or KY area)

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

I am looking for information on an area to move to . . . . am looking possibly in W. Virginia or Kentucky but will consider all possibilities. Basically we are looking for land . . . with or without buildings. . . . that we can purchase through an agreement with the owner (not a bank) and which is preferably in the country and not near or in a large city of any type.

Thanks for all your help!!!!

-- wolfie (wolfiequinn@hotmail.com), December 12, 2001

Answers

Response to Looking For Land/Wanting To Move

check out Country homes realty in Spencer, WV.

-- chuck in MD (woah@mission4me.com), December 12, 2001.

Here is a local land company that deals alot with owner financing in our area and in WV, Bruner Land, www.brunerland.com , or 1-435-3434. Most all their property is very rural, and occasionally they do have land with a house/barns on it for sale with owner financing.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), December 13, 2001.

There is a realty company in Vanceburg, Ky which is in the corner of WV and OH that has some really inexpensive land and farms. Their website is bivensandsilvey.com. I hope this helps.

-- sawmillman (tfloyd@lexcominc.net), December 14, 2001.

Wolfie,

Have I got a deal for you! (By the way those are words I would ordinarily look out for - however in this case it's true.) Here goes...

My husband and I own 94 acres near Cedar Creek, MO. (It's a very small town - under 200, I'd guess, but I've never seen a sign so I don't know for sure.) Anyway, its about 25 miles east from Branson, MO if you know where that is.

We bought the land one piece at a time over a 10 year period. First 71, then 23, then because of an error in our deed that the original owner didn't tell us about, (says he forgot!), we had to repurchase 3.3 acres that we thought we already owned. (It's complicated but since it's all straightened out now, I won't go into the details.) Anyway, to compensate us for the extra money that we were out-of- pocket, the original owner has made us a deal. If we can come up with $12,000 by the 1st of January, he will say we're square on the remainder of the money we owe him. (Saves us about $9,000.) He needs it by that time so he can use it on a place he wants to buy in OK.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we decided to see if we could sell the 23 acre piece to raise the cash so we would at long last be debt free. (Enabling us to be true homesteaders finally and not have to continue this one foot in the 18th century, one foot in the 21st century that we've been doing for soooo long!)

The deal would be this... If you could come up with $12,000 cash (the exact amount we need), then we will let you pay out the rest of the price anyway you want with absolutely NO INTEREST. We feel interest is just not right (something for nothing really), and since we've been down that road ourselves, we aren't keen to place similar burdens on others. We need a total of $25,000, so that would leave $13,000 owing. You could pay a little each month or one payment per year or whatever works for you.

As for the land. Its really beautiful... about half woods, half native glade. The woods are typical of this area, that is to say they are mostly oak, hickory & red cedar with ash, dogwood, redbud, hawthorne, smoketree, serviceberry, etc. making up the understory and a smaller percentage of the upper canopy. The glades are full of native grasses like big & little bluestem, indiangrass, sideoats gramma, etc. Tons of flowers too! Black-eyed susans, blazing star, Missouri primrose, alliums, false indigo - and on, and on, and on...

There are 3 springs, two of which feed ponds. There is a large pond besides that is creek fed. Not to paint an inaccurate picture however, I must tell you that these springs and ponds have been neglected for enough years to have huge willows, cedars and black locusts sucking the life out of them. The main pond will only hold water for a few weeks after very heavy rains. (A layer of bentonite clay would solve that problem.) The 2 spring fed ponds still produce and hold water, but they need to be dredged out and the trees cut out of them if they are going to stay full.

Wildlife inventory :Deer, turkey, quail, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, occasional bobcats, and once we were very sure there was a cougar on the place. (Several sightings on the same day not more than a mile down the road.)And a whole lot more. Long before we purchased the property, someone lived there in 2 old beatup trailers. They were pretty nasty people and really junked that area up. The trailers are still there, but fortunately they confined most of their mess to the immediate area surrounding them so only about a 1/4 acre chunk is an eyesore.

There also apparently was an even older homesite not far from the trailer spot where we found an ancient pile of dressed stones and a lot of very old junk, (Some of it is actually pretty neat - maybe even useful if it can be reclaimed. I saw one nice old iron twin bedstead - complete.) In addition someone had long ago dumped about 30 old cars there. We had a junk dealer come in and haul all those off a couple of years ago, and now you can't tell they were ever there. We know a guy who may haul off the trailers too, so that would be a temporary problem only.

There is an electric pole with meter to the site, as well as a 250 gallon propane tank (needs a new regulator, but otherwise fine.)

If you want to build your own house, the raw materials would be all around you - plenty of nice cedar and oak, more rocks (limestone) than you could ever use, and neighbors (us!) with about the best do- it-yourself library you'll find anywhere - conventional or alternative. (Including underground, strawbale, cordwood, timberframe, etc.)

Schools nearby in Taneyville, Branson, Kirbyville, and Forsyth. Hospitals, shopping, shows (if you're into that) in Branson and Springfield. Of course for regular supplies, Forsyth has nearly all you'd need. Feedstore in Taneyville is old-fashioned and friendly. (Old guys still kick back in chairs and shoot the breeze with Clarence - the proprietor.)

Bull Shoals Lake is less than a mile away. Mark Twain National Forest abuts the entire east half of our property (You'd be in the western section and not adjoining but maybe we could work something out if you want to have access.) Hercules glade wilderness can be reached from our property without ever crossing private land.

Well, I didn't exactly plan to write a book. Hope this gives you a pretty good picture, but feel free to write back here or at our E- mail address if you have questions. It would sure be nice to have "Countryside" neighbors!

-- Deborah Stephenson (wonkaandgypsy@hotmail.com), December 17, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ