Would you buy this Highland Home?

[skids929]

When buying any piece of property abutting undeveloped land you ALWAYS want to be concerned with future land use- always.

Typically a zoning map from the town (usually available on their website) will answer this question pretty quickly. But where it's farm land not sure it has a zoning class yet. I would think a few questions to some town officials would shed a considerable amount of light on what may or may not happen with that land.

Either way, I wouldn't buy it unless I knew for sure what the land was slated to become.

[MurphyPl1]

Actually, I would look at both the current zoning for the property and the Future Land Use map. They are not always the same thing.

Also, the other thing to look depending on where it is - is it in a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). This matters because it may eventually annex into a city and any development would fall under those zoning standards. If it's ETJ that doesn't get annexed, then the standards are far lower. You could theoretically end up with a dirt bike track there and no one from the county would bat an eye.

[GripeWater]

I wouldn't not only because of the farmland, I just doesn't want to live in the boonies now just because they may be habitable in 10 years. What if I need to sell the house next year for some reason? ... and I want everything nearby and good schools so no I wouldn't. I don't have an obsession for new construction, I consider it just one part of the package.