Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations My Potential New Land

Ok folks I am still getting to know everyone but ya'll rock and I wanted to follow up about the land I mentioned that I was going to look at this weekend that had an existing pond of about a half acre on it.

Well let me just say I am soooo stoked about this now. My wife and I had planned to look to buy a place next year once my son was off to college and we could move permanently out of the city. But I found this place and we had to go look and now we must really soul search and decide if we are willing to have two house payment for about the next 11 months. I think I am and wait till you hear why.

When I first go to the place I loved a ton about it. There is a shop with two bays and an office that is real nice with AC and all. I think building this shop alone would cost almost half what the asking price of the whole place is. There are a few nice barns, the house is beautiful but smaller then what we have, I don't care because it is just me and the wife after next year so it is really bigger then we need.

The pond was a disappointment due to the lack of rain it is only about half full right now BUT the good news is good beyond words. I have a guy going to do a ground survey before we decide to make an offer or not but I don't expect there to be much of a problem at all with the ground, every hole with in miles of the place has orange clay in the bottom of it!

The existing pond is not really built in the right place as it is on some of the highest land on the property, it was very well done but just does not fully take advantage of the land. My guess is the gentlemen that built it just wanted it very close to the house because just below it is the majority of the land which is shaped like, are you ready for this? A GIANT BOWEL that is lower then the rest of the land.

From what I can see building a very large pond will be far more of an impoundment rather then an excavation. Placed in this location the pond would gain drain off from a huge area beyond the property lines.

90% of the project would just be scraping the top soil and moving earth to create the dam. Any excavation would really just be for bottom scaping.

The potential pond could be 3 acres to 7 perhaps 8 acres just based on where you choose to build the dam! So basically the construction cost should be similar for any size lake I want to build with the only variable being my bottom scaping. I also own a small bobcat and could do a lot of extra scaping on my own!

So the only question is how much land would I be willing to give up, the answer of course is all of it. So this LOOKS like a place I can create a 7-8 acre lake for what most would spend to create may be a 1-2 acre lake.

I am so stoked but I have to make a good decision we will have to do a bit of sacrificing for the next year to buy it. Yet if the survey comes back good and I get a firm estimate for what I expect construction costs to be by the time we were to move in full time next year if this drought ends I could not just have the place of my dreams but the pond of my dreams full of water as well.

It really could not be more perfect there is even a dry creek bed in the bottom of the property that the over flow can be easily directed into.

Wish me luck folks!

Where are the pictures? Are you just temping us with a minds eye view? :p

Dam spell checker, I meant tempting!

Jack, this is outstanding news. You will want to verify that there is no chance of this potential pond running up onto neighboring property or some other crazy restriction. Oh yeah, and one more thing....
You will want to verify that there are no fault lines anywhere within perhaps 100 miles or so. The potential of a giant bowel movement can be devastating to land values.

Brettski, you a funny man.

Brettsi - Dam spell checker - GIANT BOWL

I was cutting Jack some slack due his excitement level. Your comments are well thought out, though.

You guys are great, the wife and I are gonna do some praying and thinking about this. It is a big burden to have two house payments. It looks good and we shall see what the survey says.

The problem is we had no plans to do this yet it just kind of ended up in front of us. As for pics, I will show you guys the listing with pictures as soon as I decide to buy or not buy it. Don't what to help market it out from under myself while I am thinking on it.

I hate to say it but after a night of sleeping on it and praying about it we just can't go 130K deeper in debt and take on the ownership of a third property right now.

As promised here is the listing

http://unitedcountry.com/search06/Search...-00007&RP=&FT=P

It is all that is promised if anyone decides to go look at it please mention me to Brad who is the agent on the property. He is a great guy and I feel bad about making work on a Saturday and spending a ton of time with us only to now have to tell him we have decided not to buy at this time.

I think you will agree for anyone willing to live just east of DFW it is really a steal. It kills me not to be able to move on this but it just is not the right time,

Sense of responsibility is a cruel constraint.

Jack,
I've been there, only a different angle. When we were searching for the "right one" to develop for our weekend retreat and potential retirement crib, I found a 33 ac parcel that we absolutely fell in love with. We were sure that it was, indeed, the one we had walked all those acres for over a couple of years...it was perfect. It came up at a land auction; I attended with my finances in order and ready to bid. (btw, for anyone that has never been to a land auction, go....it is a new dimension that can only be appreciated by attending). The 33 ac was one of 10 parcels and the bidding came down to us and another guy working thru a broker on the cell phone. It became a tennis match; a "no blink" showdown. Finally, I closed my folder, stood up, and proclaimed "we're done...it's yours" and walked out. I hate to admit it, but I actually had a few nights thereafter that I could not sleep, thinking that maybe I should have gone a little deeper . I was actually kinda heart-broken.
Well, my friend, now I look back with nary a regret...nada. I am soooooo glad we did NOT pull the trigger. It would now be a substantial mistake, paling in comparison to the parcel we are now developing. Similar $ for the parcel, more acreage, better timber, pondsite dwarfing the other potential. No kidding, man....let it go!
You already know the story about door and windows....let the Man do his work.

Great post Brettski !!! In life, most of the time, when one door closes two more open. Like the Scouts say be prepared. Really think about things in advance from all angles and when the opportunity knocks don't be scared to live your life to the fullest. Carpi diem (seize the day) with a brave heart and no regrets. The alternative is to look back at the end and realize you have done nothing with your life.

We looked intensely at a LOT of land for over a year before buying our place. A couple of properties we thought we really liked, but the price was too high. Looking back, I wouldn't rather be any where else.

Part of the appeal of the perfect place can be getting it for a price that let's you, shall we say, customize it to your specifications. The place that's too much to buy doesn't leave money for customizing.

Jack that is a great price! I would be very excited if I were you! Good luck.

Although I am sure you are feeling a lot of disappointment right now don't dispair. If you have crunched all the numbers (sorry my cpa self is taking over) and determined that it is better for you to wait then you have made the right decision.

My advice to you is keep looking at properties, walk as many as you can. This will help keep you focused and will give you much more of a basis for comparison.

My wife and I walked a lot of properties before we found ours.

You will find your dream property.

Great thread. I too fell in love with a piece of land that I thought at the time was beyond anything I'd ever hoped of owning at a price that was low enough to cause me to be more reckless than I should have been.

I sold my house in California and moved here before the deal was closed and bought a small house in Tyler for the time being. It was raw land that I needed to clear and build a house on.

After being here a month, I realized that the deal would never happen. There were two owners involved and one wanted to sell. The other was going through the motions, but he wanted to file for bankruptcy and take the land from his partner through that route. What really scared me is that he had been in jail for extortion and embezelment. (sp)?

It made me sick to walk away from it, and for a few months after that, I felt that there was nothing else out there for me that would compare.

But like all oportunities, you just have to realize that there is always another one. I just got this idea to ask the company that owned the land next to that other parcel if they would sell to me. After a bit, they did for a very reasonable price just to get rid of it. It was a liability to them that was costing them more money than it was worth. Vacant land with nobody around to keep the locals out.

My brother is looking to move out here from California in the next year or so, and we've been looking at parcels in the 20 acre range with a small pond, or the ability to build a small pond. We've found numerous parcels in the $40,000 to $100,000 range. Some are as big as 44 acres for $2,000 an acre with a year round creek running through it!!!

He trains dogs and wants a place to practice different types of retrieves with various bank types. Most of the ponds we've looked at don't have the features he's after, but we're not worried because there are so many properties out there.

East Texas is a great area to live and own land. Property values are increasing, but there's still plenty of land available. Once you get about an hour East of Dallas, you get into the piney woods. To me, it's the most amazing area in the state!!!!

For fun, just go to www.realtor.com and you can find most of the listings available. Not all of them, but enough to give you an idea of what's available. If $140,000 was more than you want to spend right now for a place with all the improvements, maybe you might be happier with raw land for half that? Have a place to go on weekends and build your dream retirement home and fishing pond.

Good luck,
Eddie

PS. I wont name name's, but I've found that the real estate listing company that had that listing has a history of being way overpriced on there listings. They tend to be way out of line in comparison to the neighboring properties. The one I've dealt with also doesn't tell the actual location of the property on there website. You have to contact them to find it and listen to them apologize for the misleading information on there listing. It's like that in the MLS and there website.

I've seen them list land for $10,000 an acre and sell it for half that amount!!!!

I don't know about that office or agent, so I'm probably way off base implying that it's all there offices since I don't know that. But just remember that the asking price is always just a wishful amount that the buyer would like to get, and that the agent throughs out there to get the contract. Sometimes it has no relevence to reality!!!!!

The price on that parcel seemed ok from what I know of the area, but I'd be sure to see some comps before buying anything. I also wouldn't rely on the realtor for any "ANY" information on the land or area. There are a few that are honest, but allot of them have there own version of what is being honest and what information to volunteer.

Eddie

Anytime I buy land I like anyone getting a mortgage to do it would have an appraisal done prior to actually buying it. I do not believe the property was over priced by any stretch at all. Like I said to build the shop alone you would be sinking I would be 50K into construction costs.

The house if it were on say 1/2 acre and had no shop would sell for say 85-90 in Cooper based on other listings. So the value of the property is not the issue.

We simply had to accept that given we have our current house payment plus our payment on a property in Arkansas we just should not go deeper into debt right now.

I was also trying to speed up my escape from the city. The orginal plan was to move up to our place near Hot Springs and buy some land in the area as "hunting and pond land" and never really build our home there just keep the land more in nature for our own use.

My wife has started to renig on getting out in Sept next year, stuff about to far from family, etc. So I started to poke around closer to home and found that place.

The good news is I think walking the property drove home to my wife a few things.

1. She wants some mountains so she gets that Arkansas is about as close to home as we can find that.

2. She really does like me want OUT of the city and we are back on track for a Sept-Oct 07 escape.

Sometimes you just need to pause and think to get your priorities strait.

Hence we are back to plan one. I have my stellar agent in Arkansas looking for any piece of land 10 acres or more that has good pond potential and little building potential and is in say 30-40 minutes of where we live. She did an awesome job finding our place up there.

We love that place and like the house a LOT more then the one we just looked at. The issue from a pond prespective is it is way too high up in the hills and way to rocky for a good pond. I can build a nice little koi garden pond or what have you but no fishing pond. There is a creek in the back that runs when it rains I can dam that and make a drinking pool for the deer but let me put it this way you would be taking your live into your hands to get a bobcat back there let alone a dozer or track hoe.

The property is about 5 acres with about an acre in front and it is about as high up as it could be in elevation. I will post some pics tonight. So it is really beautiful but just not pond condusive.

I agree raw land is our best bet now that the wife is ready to go back to plan A! Land is cheap in that area, I can probally find 10-15 acres up there in time and pay cash for it. Our house payment up there is only 500 a month including taxes!

This is really the right way to go thanks to everyone for helping me think through this,

The Hot Springs Ark area has geology that has many potential pond/lake building dangers. It is an area that has highly fractured rock formations that are exhibited all the way to the surface and it (like Yellowstone Nat. Park) was shaped by volcanism (aka hot springs). Before buying land in that area for building a pond get professional help to see if it is possible.

I would never buy land with the intent of putting water on it with out having it surveyed first for empoundment or excavation.

Now that said just south of Hot Springs what you have is lots of fields and lots of clay soil. That is why we are willing to look 30-40 minutes from our little homestead for some good raw land.

We are focused on the areas between Bizmark and Hot Springs to the south. There are also some good areas to the south side of Lake Ouachita though it can get pricey there. Additionaly once you get out of Hot Springs to the North to the west of Hot Springs Village on up to the Jessieville area there is plenty of good pond sites. In fact the Jessieville Ranger District alone has a huge number of public ponds in the 5-35 acre size.

You are right though right in Hot Springs there are many problems which is in part why the land around our home is not suitable.

Thanks for the advice but I promise you we are not going to buy anything with out a professional ground survey and an estimate first,