Quote:
Originally posted by Buzz Tatom:
I need some of ya'll to play devil's advocate for me. We have a ranch in North Tx with multiple(9) ponds and 2 lakes. Our land values have increased dramatically over the last 5-7 years. It has been a very good investment with great enjoyment. Here is my dilemma. I am concerned with not having income off of it for future generations so it could possibly stay w/in the family. I have many ideas and that is not what I'm asking about in this thread. Specifically we have been approached by a wind generation company to put wind generators on our land. Approximately 20+ stories tall on some barren land we do not use at the north end of our ranch. Income could be 25,000-60,000/ year to us. Possibly more over the years. We would be able to see them from the house but it would be more than 3/4 of a mile away. In your opinion does this hurt or help the value of the land. Just a note if we do not do it will still happen on someone else's land so they will be quite prominent in our area. Again it takes up no cover and is on land that we never use. Give me your thoughts.

Thanks, Buzz
Buzz, to find out for certain, you would need to see what two very similar properties sell for, with the only difference being one has a view of the wind mills and the other does not, and you would need to review as many of these sales/scenerios as possible. An appraiser who specializes in this could be consulted. You would hopefully find one in your state, if not, an expert in this very narrow niche could be consulted from other parts of the country, and be ready to pay dearly.

Using a cheap man's method, you will notice that people will build almost anywhere. Go out and look. Look for TVA substations, and powerlines, or whatever the electric authority has out there, and see if it matters. To me, they are much uglier than windmills, but I've never seen them(windmills) in person. Around here, there are plenty of half million dollar homes, almost directly under TVA powerlines.

Bottom line is, to come close to prove mathematically what you should do is going to be a costly endeavor. If you plan to never sell, you may want the income, assumnig there are no negative things caused by these windmills. I mean the Power substations and lines are suspects of causing cancer, and people still live in and around them. Surely your situation wouldn't be so bad.

Good luck.

Robinson, PI (Politically Incorrect, of Course)