From Idaho to KY (Lexington, Louisville: for sale, real estate, 2010)

[pacalady]

We have visited KY touring from Louisville, over to Lexington area, down to Somerset looking for farm land, and have decided to concentrate our search to the Lexington area (within 30-45 minutes). Paris looks nice, although we didn't get to visit there. Does anyone have any other suggestions? We'd like to find 40 acres so we can put up our own hay for our alpacas, and still have grazing for them. We LOVE the huge trees, which would provide some shade during the hot weather, so are looking for more pasture than 'woods'.

Anyone have suggestions about where to concentrate our 'hunt'? I've contacted a realtor in Paris, but haven't heard back yet. Appreciate everyone's feedback!

[Davart]

Easiest thing to do would be to go to REALTOR.com - Real Estate Listings & Homes For Sale and start searching for what you are looking for, you can expand your search to the surrounding areas. If you have contacted a Realtor and they haven't got back with you, forget them and contact another one. There is nothing more important in looking for a house long distance then to have a not good, but great Realtor.

[pacalady]

I actually got a referral to a realtor from another alpaca breeder who lives in the Paris area. This realtor is VERY responsive and helpful with all kinds of great information. Already sent me several listing to see what I thought about them (as part of the research) until we can visit in August. I appreciate your suggestion and reply.

[LauraBrueggman2]

Breckinridge County is a great area for raising your animals. Lots of acreage for sale cheap and only 1 hour from Louisville. I have driven to Lexington many times and it is a nice drive. Low taxes, low crime.

[lovintexas]

AVOID Paris. The countryside might be gorgeous and pastoral, but you WILL regret moving there. It's a town that thinks any economic progression is just horrible, and the people are pretty snooty.

Why not give Danville some consideration? The land is also pastoral around that city of 16,000. It is home to three colleges, including Centre College, one of America's top 50 private colleges. It has become a regional center for economic progression; dozens of factories, huge or tiny, have decided to set up facilities in Danville. Constitution Square, Isaac Shelby, and Perryville Battlefield are all state historic sites in or around Danville; CS was the site of Kentucky's first capitol. IS was Kentucky's first Governor and I believe he's from this area. PB is the site where a major Civil War battle occurred.

This small town is only 35 miles SW of Lexington. There are Peeble's, JCPenney, Goody's, Wal-Mart, Kroger, and a cinema 8 in Danville. Much larger shopping centers sit in Lexington.

You can find plenty of places in Danville/Boyle Co. where you can hunt on your own property. If you love to boat or fish, Herrington Lake is on the county line with Garrard County. Lake Cumberland (which I wouldn't recommend until 2010,) Laurel River Lake, Taylorsville Lake, and Green River Lake are all nearby.

[Toria]

Originally Posted by lovintexas

AVOID Paris. The countryside might be gorgeous and pastoral, but you WILL regret moving there. It's a town that thinks any economic progression is just horrible, and the people are pretty snooty.
.

one man's opinion only, and there are many of us who disagree....

[LauraBrueggman2]

Going to Realtor.com is a good idea for some areas but not exactly user friendly when looking in kentucky as we found out when searching from Florida to move here. Best thing to do is type in "acreage and farms for sale in Kentucky" and you will see various properties that do not show up in realtor.com or other mls sites. That is how we found ours. Also landandfarm.com is a good site and you can type in a zip code and do a radius search.

[pacalady]

Thanks for the insight everyone! We find the lbar site pretty concise in navigation, filtering out anything we aren't interested in. We have started looking into flying out the end of July first of August to spend some time travelling the Lex areas.

I saw on a climate map that if we get further north, and east, we get out of the subtropical climate zone ..... kind of the northernmost tip of Ky. Just curious ... we really like the Bluegrass areas!

Paca Lady

[lovintexas]

For nice rural areas around the Lexington area, why not give Danville/Boyle Co. some consideration (like I said before)?

Some other areas you might want to consider (that have great, fertile soil in abundance, relatively cheap, and without high property taxes):
-Mercer County
-Garrard County
-Madison County
-Fayette County in its extreme outer edges

I'd avoid Franklin, Anderson Counties because the terrain in these places is rather rocky (not the best for producing hay,) property values are higher because they're between Louisville and Lexington, and property taxes are a bit much. Also, I wouldn't consider Woodford, Jessamine, Bourbon, and Scott counties because while their lands are good, their property taxes aren't.

[pacalady]

That's exactly the kind of info I'm looking for!! I've found a website I can tax information on, and yes you are correct, the taxes for Bourbon, Woodford et al are higher than others.

One of our concerns is to be close to camelid trained veterinarians, also limiting how far north/south we can look. Besides, it's hard enough finding property 3000 miles away just in one 'vicinity'!! . I'll re-visit lbar for Danville and see if I can find anything interesting. Thanks again for the info.

Does anyone know anything about Fleming County? Found an interesting looking place up there......

Pacalady