Retirement Land

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Why not just rent something rustic?

You can probably find most of what you want without getting trapped. Of course, you should use the same care choosing your place, but you are much safer. My sister and her family owned a "gentleman's farm" for many years. When they eventually wanted to go somewhere else (it can happen), it took them years to sell and they never got what they wanted for it.

My opinion.

Gypsy

 

[Lazarus]

There is risk in the country of what can be next to you, in the city as well. I guess unless you have a homeowners association. Which might be worse than the pig farm. Imagine being told how to cut your lawn or what color you house should be, no pickups in the drive way ect. Don’t think I would like someone having that much control.

 

[HFWR]

There is risk in the country of what can be next to you, in the city as well. I guess unless you have a homeowners association. Which might be worse than the pig farm. Imagine being told how to cut your lawn or what color you house should be, no pickups in the drive way ect. Don’t think I would like someone having that much control.

Them's figthin' words!!

Pickups are the state vehicle of Texas...

At one time, at least, I believe Silverados were the most stolen vehicle in TX. Keep mine in the garage!!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Renting makes a lot of sense around here.

Only bad thing that could happen is you rent, prop values dont drop like they should but go sideways for 10 years while rents rise.

 

[Lazarus]

mean I wouldn't want them telling me I couldn't have a pickup in my drive. Pretty much always had one there. Heard of a homeowners association that wouldn’t allow pickups in the subdivision so this guy they made remove his pickup decided to fight back. He got an old station wagon and made a plywood gun turret on top like a tank, painted it camouflage then parked it in front of his house. Not a truck and not against the rules. If they changed the rules he would be grandfathered. Don’t know if they relented and allowed him to have a pickup.

I live in Texas also and I think every house in my neighborhood has a pickup or two. Plenty of guns and fishing boats and dogs also.

Still if I was in the country I wouldn’t want a pig farm or a trailer park next door. I don’t know what you can do other than buy a lot of land.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm

I have three(two of which actually run) - my neighbor doesn't count his pickups - only his 18 wheeler and a couple 'slightly smaller 'real' trucks. Five boats on one side and seven waveriders(kids and grandkids) on the other. We're the whole in the doughnut - no boat.

Not a kayak in sight.

Heh, heh, heh.

Oh yes - add in one 30 foot or so RV. The big Gulf size shrimp boats are further down the inlet.

Our homeowners association is more concerned with the Volunteer Fire Department and what the Army Corp of Engineers is up to for flood/hurricane protection.

 

[Nords]

Imagine being told how to cut your lawn or what color you house should be, no pickups in the drive way ect. Don’t think I would like someone having that much control.

Our HOA controls over 14,000 homes. You can only use the approved exterior colors & finishes and roofing materials. You can't have stuff in your carport (other than your car), you can't have junk on your lawn, and your trash cans must be hidden from street view. (Except after sundown the night before trash day until sunset of trash day.)

It goes on like that for pages & pages in the CC&Rs but you get the idea. Because the house is titled in my spouse's name but not mine, the HOA won't even talk to me. She can't even have me talk to them for her unless she sends them a notarized copy of a power of attorney.

Annually they fly a helicopter down the gulch (our backyard) looking for fire hazards and then send us letters telling us that if we have a fire hazard then we're responsible for fixing it. (But do they invite me along on the helicopter ride? Why not, I'm paying for it!) For all this we pay $26/month and it's darn cheap compared to other neighborhoods.

But after you visit a few of the island's HOA-free neighborhoods, you decide that it's a small price to pay for such intrusive management. It's apparently the price we pay for those who will not keep up their property (or your property values).

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I've been a party to several of these. One was composed of the typical "ounce of power turns us into nazi's" crew. You may have heard of them. A homeowner put up a very nice vinyl material picket fence and painted their house a very creamy shade of yellow. The HOA told them that they hadnt gotten around to putting vinyl fences on the 'approved materials' list, so even though it looked like wood and would always look good with minimal maintenance, they'd have to remove it. They also decided that the creamy yellow didnt fit the 'earth colors' described in the cc&r's, so the homeowner would have to repaint a different color. This "yellow house massacre" made the national news about 3-4 years ago.

By the way, in my opinion the house looked beautiful.

$15,000 dollars later, the HOA lost the endless series of appeals and had to pay the homeowner for their legal costs. The cost of this pigheadedness was spread around to the residents.

My last one was more insidious. They took the money and wouldnt enforce any of the rules. Turns out if you dont pay them they can take your house after fining the crap out of you, but the other half of the agreement doesnt have to be carried out. Eventually a lawyer/resident took up a collection to target the specific homeowners who were nuisances and started suing them directly, in bypass of the lifeless HOA. Last I heard the guys running the HOA were trying to organize a cityhood campaign to convert the town to a city. They'll make fine politicians.

The middle class neighborhoods I've lived in that didnt have enforced cc&r's honestly never had any big problems. The working class ones like my wifes old one, on the other hand, had plenty of blight homes.

 

[Nords]

They also decided that the creamy yellow didnt fit the 'earth colors' described in the cc&r's, so the homeowner would have to repaint a different color.

That explains why our HOA only lets us pick from the color chips at the dictatorship office.

 

[laurence]

I'm so glad I don't have an HOA. Every once in a while a neighbor doesn't mow the lawn for a while, but otherwise everyone takes good pride of ownership. I guess if you pay half a mil for a house, you don't want it to go down the crapper!

 

[Nords]

I guess if you pay half a mil for a house, you don't want it to go down the crapper!

That was so last year.

Today the Oahu crap is selling for $600K.

Quality costs more. 15 months ago we saw a listing for $885K that had some scary erosion/subsidence problems at the back of the lot (at the lip of the gulch). It was "overpriced" for the market (at the time) and it never sold so the owners rented it back out. It went back on the market last week for $929K and it's sold!

 

[laurence]

Well, you gotta remember I'm in the armpit of America compared to you!

We're pushing 600k now, but things have definitely slowed down. DW and I were looking at dream homes in North Carolina (Chapel Hill area) and Colorado Springs, CO. on line last night. Lots of land, views, ideal homes with all the trimmings - we could pay cash with the proceeds of our house. She could get a job in NC no prob, and I could get a job in Colorado Springs no prob. and the other could be the stay at home spouse. Very tempting....but she won't leave mom behind.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I had a good solution for people who stop taking care of their property. Drop by the hardware store and pick up a $1.50 "Home For Sale" sign, nail it to a piece of wood and go jam it into their lawn.

Works every time.

If that didnt work, my next step would be to go to a direct marketing campaign. If the neighbor, as in Laurences example, didnt mow their lawn for a little too long? Print up 100 fliers advertising a new lawn cutting service, first month free evaluation service. Put one on every windshield at the mall. After the 45th call asking about the free month of lawn mowing, I figure that would get the message through.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

We deal with both situations. Here in Illinois, although it is a subdivision, there is no HOA or rules other than county laws.
So, you can do about what you want with an existing house, let animals
run loose, not mow your lawn, etc. I like it, but can see it comes with
the risk of getting a nasty neighbor and not having any options.

The Texas condo rules and regs are as thick as the phone book.
I have a visceral dislike of this but it does help preserve my
equity.

JG

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I had a good solution for people who stop taking care of their property.  Drop by the hardware store and pick up a $1.50 "Home For Sale" sign, nail it to a piece of wood and go jam it into their lawn.

Works every time.

If that didnt work, my next step would be to go to a direct marketing campaign.  If the neighbor, as in Laurences example, didnt mow their lawn for a little too long?  Print up 100 fliers advertising a new lawn cutting service, first month free evaluation service.  Put one on every windshield at the mall.  After the 45th call asking about the free month of lawn mowing, I figure that would get the message through.

Too subtle!

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Subtlety

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Is

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Specialty

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

!

 

[Mr._johngalt]

We deal with both situations.  Here in Illinois, although it is a subdivision, there is no HOA or rules other than county laws.
So, you can do about what you want with an existing house, let animals
run loose, not mow your lawn, etc.  I like it, but can see it comes with
the risk of getting a nasty neighbor and not having any options.

The Texas condo rules and regs are as thick as the phone book.
I have a visceral dislike of this but it does help preserve my
equity.

JG

Had a bunch of stuff happen recently that relates to this issue.
First, the residents at both ends of our sub. (upstream
and downstream) are builders and own heavy trucks and equipment,
so they mostly handle snow removal and road repair on a
voluntary basis. Last Tuesday, a big tree felt on my neighbor's deck.
He spent all day yesterday cleaning it up, but for some reason he opted
to dump all of the debris in the river (illegal I am quite sure).
I didn't say anything, but was pretty sure it would cause trouble.
Sure enough, this morning a guy way downtream appears at my door
asking for my neighbor's phone number (he's a weekender).
Seems most of the debris stopped at his dock (very shallow there).
I'd have been wired, but he seemed pretty calm. Anyway, all
interested parties are downstream from us, thankfully. Another resident
has parked an old fishing shack on a vacant lot until he gets around to
setting it on a foundation and fixing it up. Like I said, very few rules out here. Thus, the residents mostly work out things on their own.
I prefer that as opposed to a bunch of imposed regulations.

JG

 

[Lazarus]

How much land does everyone think is necessary to have privacy from the neighbors? Don't want to tie my money up in more land than I need since it won't be making me money.

 

[laurence]

I think size of property is too narrow a view. My lot is small in SD, and because of the small lot size, everyone is more aware of each other and more careful to be considerate. My parents own a 10 acre spread in Colorado(vacation home), heavily forested, feels very private. They had a problem with a neighbor shooting his 22 rifle at any "durn thang". Some of those bullets splintered off trees very close to their cabin. Ugly fight, that was. You move someplace to get away from people, you might be surrounded by those who don't get along with people!

 

[Ol_Rancher]

One man's privacy is another man's overcrowded living conditions. I have come to understand why Daniel Boone moved to Kentucky when he noticed a neighbor within 5 miles of his place.
I am in the center of 25 acres and feel than 100 would maybe guarantee some privacy. One neighbor has 10 acres, the rest are on from 18 -- 65 acres on the same ridgetop I live. Most of those are hidden amongst trees. The ranch behind our ridge is at least 1,500 acres and the ridge across in the opposite direction is not that large. I would hate to see a rooftop across to another ridge maybe a mile away.
At this point I can see 3 rooftops within my field of view but one of them is a barn that adds to the view rather than detracts from it. At night I can see only one light from a house a mile distant. The real bane of hill country is the proliferation of cellular towers and the buyer of hill top property must look carefully at he horizon with binoculars before buying. One strobe light can ruin a 30 mile view.
Of course the minimum privacy test is if you can shoot guns off your porch and/or choose to use the land outside your front door to relieve yourself.

Yeehaw

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

My old mcmansion enjoyed large lots. I had one neighbor on either side that was a good solid rocks throw away and one in the back that was about 300-350 feet away. Guy on one side was an a-hole. Had the dogs that barked all day and all night and kept digging out under the fence and attacking people, his teenaged kids drove over my lawn when I complained to animal control, etc, etc. A very helpful reason to downsize and move out.

My current smaller home has good distance between me and my 'side neighbors' because we're in the back of a cul de sac, but I have four small homes on tiny lots lined up in my backyard. 15 foot tall shrubs create a sense of privacy. Other than a few occasionally barky dogs and some kids playing (aka 'the sounds of suburbia') its pretty quiet.

I know a guy who had ten acres, as did his neighbors. One of them threw these yahoo redneck parties every weekend where they blasted what was allegedly music, screamed and yelled all night long. When he complained, the neighbor waited until there was a good stiff breeze in the direction of my friend and then started burning garbage and dead animals. When he complained about that, the guy said the burning of the animals was part of his religious preference and the sheriff told my friend he'd have to sue in civil court over it.

So land size may help. But one a-hole neighbor can ruin things for you regardless of how far they are away.