savepaws
05-08-2009, 11:14 AM
Well we've looked at a million houses, it seems and nothing was right. We'd find a house we like but it would be in a bad neighborhood, or it would have a basement with water damage or there would be problems with the foundation. It was always something! It was soooo frustrating!! We didn't mind the fact that all the houses needed work since FH is a carpenter but we weren't going to invest in property that had major problems.
FH's dad kept telling us we should consider building a house but we didn't think we could afford it. But FH's dad sat down with FH and showed him that we could build a brand new house for about the same price range we were looking in. Since FH, his dad & bro are all carpenters, they pretty much can build the house for the cost of the materials.
So now we've been looking at lots where we can build and....we found the most perfect piece of land ever!!!
It is on a hill overlooking a valley and a creek. The people who own all the land around it have thousands of acres of green rolling hills for their cows. The view out there is beautiful! So after we saw the property we rushed up to the planning & zoning lady's office to find out what it was zoned as. She said "oh you have to have 40 acres in order to build a house on it". There is only 3 acres up for sale so she was pretty much telling us its zoned for agricultural only & there's nothing we can do.
So we were super disappointed and FH was just going to move on. The land is so beautiful and so perfect, there was no way I was going to give up just like that. I told FH that we could try and talk to the county & try to get it rezoned. FH went up to the assessors office and asked if they could find out the zoning because we just wanted to double check that the zoning lady gave us the right information. They said that he'd have to ask the zoning lady...who just happened to be there in that office and she was ticked off that FH was questioning what she already told him. In a very irritated & snotty tone she said, "I ALREADY told you that it is zoned Ag-1. I would have told you if it was Ag-2."
Well after doing some research, I actually think the zoning lady was WRONG! All the public record documents that I could find list the property as Residential. We even pulled a map off the zoning lady's website and on that map it shows that area is NOT zoned Ag-1.
We looked up the owner of the property and FH talked to him this morning and he said that it is zoned Residential and that there is even a well on the property (which if we are able to buy this and build on it...that solves a huge problem! We figured we'd have to wait 2-3 more years to build because we'd need to save up money for the well).
So hopefully we can get enough documentation to show this zoning lady that it is zoned residential...or at least Ag-2. Because if its zoned Ag-2 there's a chance we can build on it. But if its zoned Ag-1, we can't build on it at all unless we get it rezoned but that will cost us hundreds of dollars.
And IF we can prove to her that it is zoned residential...then we are going to put in an offer because if its zoned residential AND has a well...then it is a STEAL!
FH's dad kept telling us we should consider building a house but we didn't think we could afford it. But FH's dad sat down with FH and showed him that we could build a brand new house for about the same price range we were looking in. Since FH, his dad & bro are all carpenters, they pretty much can build the house for the cost of the materials.
So now we've been looking at lots where we can build and....we found the most perfect piece of land ever!!!
It is on a hill overlooking a valley and a creek. The people who own all the land around it have thousands of acres of green rolling hills for their cows. The view out there is beautiful! So after we saw the property we rushed up to the planning & zoning lady's office to find out what it was zoned as. She said "oh you have to have 40 acres in order to build a house on it". There is only 3 acres up for sale so she was pretty much telling us its zoned for agricultural only & there's nothing we can do.
So we were super disappointed and FH was just going to move on. The land is so beautiful and so perfect, there was no way I was going to give up just like that. I told FH that we could try and talk to the county & try to get it rezoned. FH went up to the assessors office and asked if they could find out the zoning because we just wanted to double check that the zoning lady gave us the right information. They said that he'd have to ask the zoning lady...who just happened to be there in that office and she was ticked off that FH was questioning what she already told him. In a very irritated & snotty tone she said, "I ALREADY told you that it is zoned Ag-1. I would have told you if it was Ag-2."
Well after doing some research, I actually think the zoning lady was WRONG! All the public record documents that I could find list the property as Residential. We even pulled a map off the zoning lady's website and on that map it shows that area is NOT zoned Ag-1.
We looked up the owner of the property and FH talked to him this morning and he said that it is zoned Residential and that there is even a well on the property (which if we are able to buy this and build on it...that solves a huge problem! We figured we'd have to wait 2-3 more years to build because we'd need to save up money for the well).
So hopefully we can get enough documentation to show this zoning lady that it is zoned residential...or at least Ag-2. Because if its zoned Ag-2 there's a chance we can build on it. But if its zoned Ag-1, we can't build on it at all unless we get it rezoned but that will cost us hundreds of dollars.
And IF we can prove to her that it is zoned residential...then we are going to put in an offer because if its zoned residential AND has a well...then it is a STEAL!