Farms Available Immediately Outside Seattle? (Kent, Auburn: home, organic, zoning)

[randywoodley7]

Folks, I'm a complete novice to Seattle but need to find a farm (20 plus acres) for under $500,000. and still be able to commute to Northwest Seattle. (Any trains?) I have kids as well as horses, cows and goats. Also, near a Native American community is preferred. Can't locate much on the Northwest MLS. In what areas do I begin looking?

Thanks! Randy

[mthomson]

That's going to be a tough find. If 20 acres isn't totally necessary, and you can deal with less, your options obviously go up.
I'd go to Feed and Tack stores and ask them if they know of anybody who has that type of property who may be willing to sell. You can also search for large animal veternarians and ask if they have any knowledge of a place like that.

[randywoodley7]

those are both good ideas-thanks! But I am currently in Kentucky and need to narrow it down to some particular areas before I can contact Feed and Tack or Large animal vets...
Randy

[AzDreamer]

Below is a link to a map of Washington's Federal Lands and Indian Reservations. The Tulalips are north of Seattle by Marysville. On the Kitsap Peninsula are three more. You would have to commute by ferry across Puget Sound.

http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/i...edlands/wa.pdf

[mayfair]

Your best bet is probably up around Sedro Woolley where there's a lot of farmland and you might possibly find something under $500K. The commute would be long- probably 2 hours each way.

Anywhere commutable to Seattle is very expensive and being built up rapidly.

[allforcats]

Isn’t AzDreamer’s map great?! mthomson’s suggestions are brilliant, as so much farm activity is often word-of-mouth. Google will give you veterinarian and feed & tack contact information for towns you choose. Beloved Google...

I'd add this suggestion: with Mapquest, open a map of, say, Marysville WA (no street address needed). If you keep zooming in, you'll get smaller city/town names. If you click on Aerial Image, you’ll get an idea of what the area looks like.

Then open Realtor.com.
- Right near top of page, click on Advanced Search.
- On that Advanced page, enter a city/town name and Washington (it will not search without a city name and state name).
- Click on FARMS, unclick the other residential choices. (With cows, you'll need agricultural zoning).
- Click on HORSES ALLOWED. (Again, for zoning. Don't click on Horse Facilities, as that could limit your possibilities.)
- At the BOTTOM OF THE PAGE, click on the SEARCH button. (You'll need to include Horses Allowed in the Search trigger, so be sure to use the last Search button on the bottom.)

Realtor.com will not give you everything that might be available, but it can give you some education and ideas.

About the farm in Arlington (MLS ID# 27215679) with, it says, "524950 acres" and priced at a dollar an acre, this ain't the year 1807 so that's not possible. I sent an email to the Realtor asking what the correct acreage is. BUT the listing says it's 20 acres or more :-) When I get an answer, I’ll post it here for you.

Be very careful about the FLOODING POSSIBILITIES of the areas you investigate. Many areas in western Washington are prone to flooding which can be light to completely destructive, anytime from late October through December, sometimes later, and just about every year farm animals perish, especially cows and cattle. Does anyone out there have a flood map for western WA?

[scirocco22]

Yeah, I just took a quick look on the MLS, Randy, and I didn't seen anything close to what you are looking for.

The only listing I saw was, I think, in Lewis County that had anything close to 20 acres for below $500k. You definitely won't find 20 acres for under $500k within commuting distance to Seattle ...no way, in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, or Skagit Counties.


edit: allforcats, isn't that supposed to be 5.2495 acres? I saw that listing but I thought the description stated 5+ acres. Yeah, I'd be curious what you find out.

[allforcats]

Have you checked Craigslist?

[randywoodley7]

I have checked craigslist but not lately...these have all been great suggestions.Thanks! Hard to believe though that I can't find a farm within commuting distance of Seattle for a half million...wow, how things are changing...

I just wrote the mayor of Enumclaw for help locating something since I read the town is really trying to make themselves agricultural friendly...we raise organic cattle, sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits. No big production-but focus on health and quality...

I'll need to commute 3 times per week to teach. I saw there is a commuter station in Auburn.

Randy
Randy

[allforcats]

Yes, the Sounder train stops in Auburn. A very comfortable daily train ride to and from Seattle.

Organic beasties, eh? The Hoh Humm Ranch on the Olympic Peninsula does exactly what you do, plus pigs for meat and llamas for trekking.

Here's the link for the Hoh Humm Ranch. If there's a City Data rule against including this link, just Google Hoh Humm Ranch Forks WA. http://olypen.com/hohhumm/

The owners are descended from the original white settlers (from Ohio, previously Germany) of the Olympic Peninsula. You might want to contact them for advice. One of my great joys is that their huge animal family contains three very white, very smart and very friendly Great Pyrenees who own the goats, and hummingbirds.

The name of the ranch, by the way, is a fabulous pun. The 200-acre ranch is located on the Hoh River, just outside the Hoh Rain Forest, in the vast area of the Hoh Indians. :-)

The owners are now in the ?70s? They use their home as a B&B. I stayed there for two nights this summer. The couple are sorta friendly, in a typically "contained" farmer style, and both, unfortunately, seem to be perhaps verging on the beginnings of loss of memory. However, they do have adult children who work the ranch with them. I have no idea if they would be helpful to a newbie, but it's worth a try, eh?