Looking to move to the country outside Austin, help? (Spring: homes, to buy)

[Jimmyp25]

Originally Posted by bluegreenred

Hi all,
I plan to move from the southwest to Texas, to be closer to my aging parents.

But also to finally make a move to living in the country, being closer to nature.

I am single, so not a family here, and work remotely. I tend to be introverted and don't need to have too many social activities.

I am thinking I'd like to be within 30 mins to an hour of Austin. Ideally looking to get an acre or two of land with home on it. Definitely not in a town but also not super remote. Ideally would like to have immediate access to the woods from my property.

Have only lived for about 6 months rurally before, so I am researching what it's like.

Thoughts on what counties/ areas to look at? I've been looking at Bastorp.

Any other suggestions on what I should consider?

Kempner .. im about 1 hr from Austin subrubs.. I paid 505k for 2 acres, new home, 4 bed 4 bath 3300 sq ft , no HOA, outside city lmits.. I also have AG exempt on my land and will have chickens in about a month.. I also have views of hill country, deer, etc

The builder currently is about to finishe 3 more houses on our street and they list them on MLS as soon as they are done....which will be in month or two

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Jimmyp25

Kempner .. im about 1 hr from Austin subrubs.. I paid 505k for 2 acres, new home, 4 bed 4 bath 3300 sq ft , no HOA, outside city lmits.. I also have AG exempt on my land and will have chickens in about a month.. I also have views of hill country, deer, etc

The builder currently is about to finishe 3 more houses on our street and they list them on MLS as soon as they are done....which will be in month or two

They let you keep your ag on only 2 acres? We have our ag (we have substantially more than that so it's not a question here) but at least one acre of your place will be considered your homestead for which you can get homestead exemption but not ag. (In our case it's two acres for the homestead.) You say you have your ag - is the piece you purchased part of a property that already had its ag and it was cut off from it? In that case, last class I took on this (and personal experience) says you'll need to apply yourself to keep it.



I'm looking at Lampasas County Appraisal District info on ag requirements (since they're the ones who make the final decision). You might want to read them, too, to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed (and perhaps talk to the county agent to make sure you don't lose the ag and what you really need to do to keep it). There's the state law and then there's the things that counties determine individually (some counties count ranch horses as being ag, others require breeding in order for it to qualify, for example). This is mainly for the OP

(Click on Agricultural 1-D-1 Guidelines here.)

[austinnerd]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

They let you keep your ag on only 2 acres? We have our ag (we have substantially more than that so it's not a question here) but at least one acre of your place will be considered your homestead for which you can get homestead exemption but not ag. (In our case it's two acres for the homestead.) You say you have your ag - is the piece you purchased part of a property that already had its ag and it was cut off from it? In that case, last class I took on this (and personal experience) says you'll need to apply yourself to keep it.

Some subdivisions have things like a wildlife exemption for all the properties within as long as the property owners allow the wildlife that the exemption is granted for to go onto their property (they can be fenced from the 1 acre homestead but must have access to the rest of the property).

[Jimmyp25]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

They let you keep your ag on only 2 acres? We have our ag (we have substantially more than that so it's not a question here) but at least one acre of your place will be considered your homestead for which you can get homestead exemption but not ag. (In our case it's two acres for the homestead.) You say you have your ag - is the piece you purchased part of a property that already had its ag and it was cut off from it? In that case, last class I took on this (and personal experience) says you'll need to apply yourself to keep it.



I'm looking at Lampasas County Appraisal District info on ag requirements (since they're the ones who make the final decision). You might want to read them, too, to make sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed (and perhaps talk to the county agent to make sure you don't lose the ag and what you really need to do to keep it). There's the state law and then there's the things that counties determine individually (some counties count ranch horses as being ag, others require breeding in order for it to qualify, for example). This is mainly for the OP

(Click on Agricultural 1-D-1 Guidelines here.)

The land already had AG from last year . A ranch that is at the back of our property that is 170 acres sold the lots of land that were all AG. So it currently has AG status.

The county already sent me a application for 1-d-1 Open Space AG use appraisal . I talked to all my neighnors that also have AG exempt and one of them has chickens only and the county granted them AG exempt from the previous land that was used to build their house.


I am waiting for my chicken coop to arrive and doing some fencing next week for goats and some donkeys.. The back acre of my property will be dedicated to this.

The coop was suppose to be here 2 weeks ago and has been delayed. I finally got delivery notice for next Saturday. Once I get the animals I am calling them. I want to have the animals present on the land when I make this call.

I have not sent the AG form in yet but it says I have until May 1st to get it to the tax district. We also have tons of deer, foxes, hawks, etc in our back yard all the time..... I was going to ask about the wildlife as well.

I was not quite sure how to fill this form out but a neighbor said they would help as well.... we just moved in back in oct

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by Jimmyp25

The land already had AG from last year . A ranch that is at the back of our property that is 170 acres sold the lots of land that were all AG. So it currently has AG status.

The county already sent me a application for 1-d-1 Open Space AG use appraisal . I talked to all my neighnors that also have AG exempt and one of them has chickens only and the county granted them AG exempt from the previous land that was used to build their house.


I am waiting for my chicken coop to arrive and doing some fencing next week for goats and some donkeys.. The back acre of my property will be dedicated to this.

The coop was suppose to be here 2 weeks ago and has been delayed. I finally got delivery notice for next Saturday. Once I get the animals I am calling them. I want to have the animals present on the land when I make this call.

I have not sent the AG form in yet but it says I have until May 1st to get it to the tax district. We also have tons of deer, foxes, hawks, etc in our back yard all the time..... I was going to ask about the wildlife as well.

I was not quite sure how to fill this form out but a neighbor said they would help as well.... we just moved in back in oct

Just remember, the coupe can only have TWO doors.




If it has four doors, it would be a sedan

[DashRiprock]

Originally Posted by Jimmyp25

I am waiting for my chicken coop to arrive and doing some fencing next week for goats and some donkeys.. The back acre of my property will be dedicated to this.

You're planning to put goats and donkeys (plural) on one acre of land?

[Jimmyp25]

Originally Posted by DashRiprock

You're planning to put goats and donkeys (plural) on one acre of land?

They will be fenced off on the back acre.. I am going to let them roam all over the two acres though ... and put them away in the evening.... 2 donkeys and 6 goats will have plenty of land .

I see some people over here with cattle and they dont even have them on a acre of land .. Theres 10 acres next to me that someone else owns. I am trying to buy it but the owner lives far and has not responded to my letter.


Theres another person that has a horse and the horse is maybe on a 1/4 acre area

[Trainwreck20]

Interesting. Most counties have either a codified set of rules or at least rules of thumb for the number of acres per type of livestock. It is county specific, though, and there is a lot of leeway for them to make their own rules. To be honest, though, AG exempting one acre is not going to make much (if any) difference in the value of your property. In fact, I suspect that the county doesn't care because your one acre + house is so much of the value and based on nearby comps that it becomes negligible.

Edit:
Looked up a random property just outside of Kempner. 1.6 acres with a land value of $27k. If that value was uniform, you would put about 16k into AG exemption. Again, I suspect that at least some of that is indirectly added back to your property value through comps.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by austinnerd

Some subdivisions have things like a wildlife exemption for all the properties within as long as the property owners allow the wildlife that the exemption is granted for to go onto their property (they can be fenced from the 1 acre homestead but must have access to the rest of the property).

I'm familiar with that. (Not only because we have our ag and I've had to defend it AND then convert it to wildlife but because until I recently retired I was a real estate agent specializing in rural properties and had to take many classes in the subject.)



It was the reference to chickens that threw me, if it's wildlife ag.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Jimmyp25

They will be fenced off on the back acre.. I am going to let them roam all over the two acres though ... and put them away in the evening.... 2 donkeys and 6 goats will have plenty of land .

I see some people over here with cattle and they dont even have them on a acre of land .. Theres 10 acres next to me that someone else owns. I am trying to buy it but the owner lives far and has not responded to my letter.


Theres another person that has a horse and the horse is maybe on a 1/4 acre area

Have you raised livestock before?



And unless that horse is taken out regularly for trail rides, 1/4 acre is nowhere near enough land for it.