So Close!!!! (Huntsville, Madison, Hazel Green: buying a home, buying, live in)

[southman]

We are planning on moving and buying property and staying a while. We are/have been in georgia for many yeas and many places in georgia. We toured alabama from i-20 on the east side all the way up to chatanooga. We have read how nice south brimingham is in the smaller cities. We know that huntsville and florence are awesome. We just have this one small issue that yall may be able to help with. We are looking for corn fields and rural land thats bigger than 2 acres and also flat. Is there any place that seems to fit this in north alabam?

[Wandering_Missourian]

You say that you are looking for corn fields/rural land greater than 2 acres... what is your intended goal w/ your property? Are you aiming for a "farmlette" that you can grow some crops on, or you just want to be in those areas w/ other farms? Are you working in Huntsville, or can you look at property further out?

If you need to stay close by... I would look at the homes/farm properties around Hazel Green to New Market (north central/NE Madison County). You will find plenty of lovely places that are still mostly countryside. Good luck finding any acreage much lower than $8000/acre for the smaller lots on prime soil. If you can live a bit further out..... I would look further northeast into Tennessee (from Elora to Cowan). There are some beautiful rural properties out there w/ the Cumberland as the backdrop. I have a friend that has a farm out there and there is no other way to describe it than "idyllic".

Places to avoid? Anything in the 72/I-65/I-565 triangle (city of Madison is eastern section) is completely OUT. It's either sprawl from $300K cookie cutter new homes in Madison moving westward, or giant farms that are hundreds of acres or more (that hopefully stay that way). You'll never find a small lot without paying a fortune. I'd also avoid Harvest as well due to the horrible roads and horrible, terrible sprawl that will constantly remind you that you don't live in the country (but also somehow don't have the benefits/amenities of even suburbia as well).

Long story short... look north or NE of HSV. You will find your mostly flat property on prime soil w/ a lovely view to go with it!

[harry chickpea]

Be aware that if you are next to an operating farm there are activities that come with the territory. There WILL be big machinery a few times a year, with the attendant noise and dust/soil that can be like an Arizona dust storm. There WILL be crop dusters flying low overhead on quiet mornings to drop insecticide. There WILL be crop rotation for the health of the plants and the soil, which means the corn field might be cotton or soy or canola or another crop. There will be pollen periods that will be intense. If the soil needs amending, you may find that it is nicely covered in chicken litter that smells for a couple of weeks. If there is livestock, there will be flies, cattle may jump fence and stampede your garden, goats will pull escape acts, and so on. Most flat land became flat because of repeated flooding. That means that for periods of the year it may be mucky and not do well by septic systems.

You might be better off with an old hill farm that is mostly woods but with a few acres of row crop land.

[CoreLysium]

My neighbor has 2.5 acres, but it's a yard. (Mine is 1.0 acres)

Corn is within walking distance on residential roads, then a path through the woods.

Hazel Green.

[writerwife]

I'm west of Hsv on acreage. I'm on a hill but there is plenty of land around me that is flat, wide and open pastureland. Missourian has it pretty nailed for that area but, there are other areas with a few acres of flat farmland but much of that would depend on how close you want to be to one of the 'cities'. I'm about an hour west of Hsv but spend more time driving there than I would care to as most of my family, etc is over that way.
If you were looking for 50+ acres of flat farmland it might be a narrower search but a few acres you can find anywhere but generally, the closer you are to the city, the more you will pay.

[CoreLysium]

I personally would prefer to be further from cropland, specifically corn and cotton. The defoliant for the cotton really makes me ill for a week. And thought I can't detect when they spray the atrazine, an endocrine disruptor, on the corn, I could handle not being made less of a man by a cropduster.

[southman]

There must be bigger fields there if they are crop dusting by plane.

[CoreLysium]

Yes. Generally, two acres is not a field. It's a garden.

[trace riggins]

Originally Posted by southman

We are planning on moving and buying property and staying a while. We are/have been in georgia for many yeas and many places in georgia. We toured alabama from i-20 on the east side all the way up to chatanooga. We have read how nice south brimingham is in the smaller cities. We know that huntsville and florence are awesome. We just have this one small issue that yall may be able to help with. We are looking for corn fields and rural land thats bigger than 2 acres and also flat. Is there any place that seems to fit this in north alabam?

Yes, there are many properties within a 20 mile radius of huntsville. 2-5 acres are abundant. I buy these properties often and conduct searches in the following order: valleymls, drive around, and inquire on large acreage to parcel. Buying land is much different than buying a home. Best of luck.

[Keeper]

Check out Marshall county. Even though we are on top of Brindlee Mountain there is a lot of land that is flat.