Brettski,
Yes, I actually have 103 acres. 100 acres is the rectangle on the topo. The other 3 acres is a funnel shaped attachment in the southeast corner that gives me 600 feet of road frontage. My access to the 100 acres is thru the 3 acres. It is actually nice because of the privacy from the road - you can't see the 100 acres from the road. Below is a better diagram of the property shape that my son sketched. The dotted lines are paths....
The tradeoff to the privacy is the long driveway. To put a house in the middle will mean we are over 2000 feet from the road. There is an existing road system sufficient for access, but if/when we build then the driveway will need gravel, culverts, and other improvements. The aerial photo below from 1996 shows the property after it was selectively logged off (cut out the pines and left the hardwoods). The property is the light colored rectangle since the surrounding property was still primarily pine trees. You can see the road system then, and the previous owner added some 4-wheeler trails around some of the property line.
The other big cost will be power lines. The local co-op quoted me $1100 per pole after the first two poles, so this may be a significant investment. The price seems steep to me but I don't have any experience developing property. Since my son may want to build a house in the next few years I'm wondering how the power should be run since there may be a need for multiple meters. I guess that will be another learning curve down the road.
