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Are you a civil engineer or an excavation contractor? $30,000? Really?
You're just throwing a number out there. A new septic system will most likely cost in the range of $10,000-$15,000.
I've heard the above and I've also heard that $30K too. I think it depends on your site. We bailed on an otherwise lovely property in Hadley because the guy who did the perc tests told us that there was no way we wouldn't need a mound system, the water table was too high. Not something on the listing at all. We made some calls.
Why not rent for a few years and wait for that perfect piece of land to pop up? Plus you could get a feel for the area and figure out what town you might want to settle in. As someone who grew up in the area, I can tell you there's a lot of old farmland and parcels that are constantly being put up for sale. As far as the the property in Granby... you're spending over 300k for what amounts to 25 acres, a questionable barn, plus tearing down a house... After that tear down you then need to build a house...
Compared to out west, people are not building much in rural New England. Undeveloped land is relatively cheap and sits on the market for a long time as the cost of building is very high. It's extremely hard to make a profit on new development (subdivisions etc), so those that build are in it for the long haul and will likely take a financial hit on resale value of their property. If you're retired and ready to settle, have at! The Pioneer Valley and Hilltowns are a very special place, and I think you'll enjoy it. Best of luck!
Why not rent for a few years and wait for that perfect piece of land to pop up? Plus you could get a feel for the area and figure out what town you might want to settle in. As someone who grew up in the area, I can tell you there's a lot of old farmland and parcels that are constantly being put up for sale. As far as the the property in Granby... you're spending over 300k for what amounts to 25 acres, a questionable barn, plus tearing down a house... After that tear down you then need to build a house...
Compared to out west, people are not building much in rural New England. Undeveloped land is relatively cheap and sits on the market for a long time as the cost of building is very high. It's extremely hard to make a profit on new development (subdivisions etc), so those that build are in it for the long haul and will likely take a financial hit on resale value of their property. If you're retired and ready to settle, have at! The Pioneer Valley and Hilltowns are a very special place, and I think you'll enjoy it. Best of luck!
Thank you! We've thought of renting, of course. And it is not off the table. It seems so logical, but it fills me with dread, for various reasons. One of which is simply that I am highly sensitive, introverted, and absolutely must have a place of my own to feel okay. Not all that resilient. My gut is rarely wrong about these things.
Another is that just moving once and for all is going to be absolutely enormous. Hanging in limbo in rented lodgings for months or years would make it so much worse! Plus, finding a rental which will accommodate 3 largish dogs may be quite difficult.
You are right about the Granby property -- it is not a great deal by any means, especially not at the listed price. There is no septic system, and no perc test as yet. We may well be looking at the dreaded mound system and $50,000. The house is covered with layers of lead paint. And so on.
We are now discussing the possibility of stripping the house down to its original footprint (something like 700 square feet -- but two stories of course), and connecting it to a new small house, so as to avoid a property split and still keep the oldest and best part of the house. My husband is not yet convinced about the property at all, but he is still mulling it over.
The old house, minus accretions, does have some advantages. It has been kept up, structurally, and is livable as is, short term. So we could have a place to stay on site while building the newer house. A remodel could show off its strengths -- light filled rooms, wide board pine floors, nice old staircase. I already had in my mind that it would be very useful to have a second living quarters (I was thinking of a mini-cottage) which could be for out of town visitors, a farm-sitter, caretaker, or, eventually, a home health aide. Part of the age-in-place plan.
The barns are also a big plus. The idea of being able to park my truck and horse trailer under cover, store a whole season's hay, put in animal stalls, and still have room for my husband's dream machine shop and wood shop in the OTHER barn, is very appealing. On bare land, we would have to build all these structures, and inevitably they would not be as charming.
I keep thinking about it. Granby could hardly be more ideal for horse-keeping -- the Granby saddle club arena is a fifteen minute walk from the property, there is an active trail group which maintains horse rights of way and local connector trails. The town website actually boasts that there are more horses per capita in Granby than any other town in Massachusetts! Which would be absolutely wonderful for me. In California, where there are a lot of horses, there are piles of money, gated mansions, gigantic show barns, and a totally different atmosphere. Where I live now, my family has owned land since 1972. Back then, there used to be trails all over, accessible right from my door, but they have all been blocked off now by landowners, and the roads are terrifyingly busy. I have to trailer my horse at least half an hour to get to state park trails, and those are often overused and degraded by mountain bikers. It is discouraging here.
Location is everything, they say. A lot hinges on how we feel about the community of Granby and whether we will fit in there.
Are you a civil engineer or an excavation contractor? $30,000? Really?
You're just throwing a number out there. A new septic system will most likely cost in the range of $10,000-$15,000.
Neither.
$10,000-$15,000, really?? Do you speak from experience or is this just a guess? I have friends who just spent $30,000 (not a number thrown out there as you put it) and I have even heard of expenses up to $50,000.
$10,000-$15,000, really?? Do you speak from experience or is this just a guess? I have friends who just spent $30,000 (not a number thrown out there as you put it) and I have even heard of expenses up to $50,000.
If you run into ledge or have to deal with a very high water table (both common in New England, I'm hearing), it's pretty easy for it to get expensive.
On the other hand, it's easy to find water! It is not unusual here in Ca to spend that much on a well.
You neglected to buy property 35 years ago where there is now an insanely bloated real estate blimp (too big to be a mere bubble . . .). An ordinary modest house on 2.5 mostly unusable acres on my road went for $1.1 mil a few months ago. It was on the market for two days. These are weird times.
If you run into ledge or have to deal with a very high water table (both common in New England, I'm hearing), it's pretty easy for it to get expensive.
On the other hand, it's easy to find water! It is not unusual here in Ca to spend that much on a well.
The $30,000 was the cost to replace an old septic and leach field. So I'm guessing it would be less if there isn't anything there to dig out. Unless like you said, you hit ledge and have to break it up.
I've never heard of a well costing anywhere near that much. I had a well dug for $3,000 for a vacation camp in Maine. They had to drill 140ft. to find ledge and 180ft. to find water. The total depth of the well is 260ft.
You neglected to buy property 35 years ago where there is now an insanely bloated real estate blimp (too big to be a mere bubble . . .). An ordinary modest house on 2.5 mostly unusable acres on my road went for $1.1 mil a few months ago. It was on the market for two days. These are weird times.
Yikes! And to think only 8 years ago, we were at rock bottom. The real estate market in MA is heating up - maybe not as much as CA, but it's definitely a sellers market in MA now. NJ is still on the soft side - sort of in between buyers and sellers market.
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