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What would be the best counties to search for property that has rolling meadows and pastureland instead of woodlands and beaches?
Also trying to decide if buying land and building or buying a house would be a better choice. Is it difficult to get septic, well, permits here? Where I live in VT we don't need a building permit for anything.
What would be the best counties to search for property that has rolling meadows and pastureland instead of woodlands and beaches?
Also trying to decide if buying land and building or buying a house would be a better choice. Is it difficult to get septic, well, permits here? Where I live in VT we don't need a building permit for anything.
I am having trouble telling you where to find "rolling" meadows, so I will provide options. There is much cleared land in the eastern half of North Carolina. However, it is flat. If you are interested in flat, cleared land for a horse pasture, try Scotland, Sampson, Duplin, Wayne, Wilson or Robeson County.
Trees grow up quickly on open land, so places further west would often have to be cleared for pasture. Moore, Albemarle, Anson, or Stanly Counties will be "rolling". There are many horse lovers in Moore and Orange Counties, however, land would be expensive. Yadkin and Stokes also might have options, eg Walnut Cove, Flat Shoals and Quaker Gap in Stokes County. Also look for the piece with 51 acres and a farmhouse in Danbury, Stokes Co. Yadkin is a wine-growing region if that info. helps your search. There is a nice 30 acre piece in Yadkinville.
BTW, I don't believe it is difficult to get a septic permit. Just watch out for land that does not perk.
Last edited by goldenage1; 05-10-2016 at 09:18 AM..
Far as rolling pastureland there is a lot of counties within the Foothill region, the upper counties IMO are Alexander, Allegany, Wilkes, Yadkin . Other beautiful counties but will have limited forests but rolling pasturelands within, include Burke, Rutherfordton, Caldwell, Cleveland.
google 'NC Landwatch' it will show available acreage that is available.
Geographically, NC has three basic regions, with the central third called the Piedmont (e.g. "foot of the mountain" or foothills). You can find rolling pastures basically anywhere in the Piedmont.
As for ease of dealing with permits, county health departments issue well and septic permits. County building & inspections depts issue building permits. Not all pieces of property are equally suitable for septic systems. With regard to digging a well, water tables vary. Some county departments are going to be easier to work with than others. And it can vary depending on which inspector your project is assigned. It's definitely a crapshoot.
Personally, I'd advise finding an existing house with land if at all possible. Even renovating an existing house would be less stressful than building from scratch in most cases, especially if you do not have good knowledge of local builders.
P.S.
Quote:
Moore, Albemarle, Anson, or Stanly Counties will be "rolling".
Albemarle is not a county; it's a town in Stanly County.
Rolling hills are the foothills of the mountains. NC foothills have isothermal belts where the air is up to 20 degrees warmer at night than at the base.
The further west you go within the piedmont, the more rolling. The further east you go the flatter it is. But all the piedmont has some rolling hills. The coastal plain flattens out and is flat like a pancake. The mountains are the highest in the eastern part of the US, so we've got it all.
As for pasture, all of the east coast would be a giant forest if we didn't mow. There are plenty of farms in the piedmont, but they will revert to woods if folks don't keep it cut back, graze cattle, plant hay, etc.
What else do you want in a homesite besides rolling pastureland? That might help narrow down your search field. Do you want proximity to a city, or would you rather be as far from one as you can get? Near a small town? Need a job?
Pretty much everywhere. I'm not locked into a specific area. Don't want to be on the coast due to hurricanes and don't want to be in the mountains. I need open space and sunshine. I get claustrophobic in the woods.
I'm noticing the pictures I'm seeing of houses for sale on the web have pretty awful lawns. Bare with patchy grass here and there.
Just looking at the wrong pictures I guess. There are plenty of nice lawns here.
We have a lot of soil types including clay. Sand is more prevalent in the coastal plain (east of I-95) and in the Sandhills (near Southern Pines, Pinehurst, down toward Rockingham).
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