Franklin Cty - Horse Property/Teaching Jobs (Roanoke, Rocky Mount: cul-de-sac, for sale)

[Momto4]

Hello all,
We are from SoCal and were very interested in Roanoke and the surrounding areas. I have perused many threads in the VA forum and find the information so helpful so far. I do have a few more questions:

1) Dh is a middle school science teacher. Is science considered a teacher shortage area in VA? If not, are there certain areas in Franklin County he might have more chance of getting one? Finding a job for him would be a main goal for us.

2) Our other goal is to find a horse property of about 5-10 acres (we could go as small as 2-3 if we had to). If the property has a home already built, we would not mind a fixer that is underpriced as we are willing to fix up ourselves. Where are the best areas for this type of property in Franklin County? Price-wise, we could probably afford $2-300K outright from the sale of our home here. Is this realistic?

Can anyone refer me to a good MLS website for the area?

Any further information would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[seanpecor]

I think there are/will be shortages insofar as Franklin County is growing and the student population is growing as well. Plans are in the works to build an elementary school (Windy Gap Elementary). I assume you've already bookmarked Franklin County Public Schools (broken link).

My two favorite urls for perusing real estate in the area are:

Search Franklin County, Rocky Mount, Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate Listings For Sale

and

Roanoke Valley

The first link I like because the detail pages are more descriptive and there are more and larger photos.

There are 5 acre lots for sale in a new subdivision in it's early stages called Cahas Green. If you bookmark my webcam (http://extranet.digitalspinner.com:8180/cahascam.jpg) you can monitor it's progress from afar. There are 31 lots, 17 of which are 5 acres and 3 horses per 5 acres are allowed. They have a sign w/ a subdivision map that has red dots indicating which lots have sold, and about 6 or 7 of the 5 acre lots have already sold. The most expensive 5 acre lot is about $129K. If you visit my horse farm blog (Sean's Horse Farm and Family Blog) a recent post talks about the subdivision and provides an email address for the realtor.

I visited with the developers recently. I had emailed them about the webcam, letting them know that they could use my webcam for marketing purposes if they so desired. So they decided to visit with the mad scientist / dotcom entrepreneur / horse farmer at the top of the hill They were nice folks. The prime developer (George) and the realtor (Cindy) are married and in their 50s. They live in one of their past subdivisions - Countryside Estates just off Grassy Hill Rd. Countryside is a sensible country subdivision and it was very well designed, so I'm happy George and Cindy bought the 110 acre parcel visible in the webcam, and not the Florida developer who wanted to carve it up into 90 lots!

I think you'll want at least 2 acres of pasture for every horse, in a pasture w/ run-in situation. Otherwise you'll run out of forage and you also might convert sod to mud. I told them I would have put a 2 horse limit on a 5 acre parcel. If you plan on a split scenario like what we follow, where you put horses out from 5pm to 8am during the warm months and put them out from 8am to 5pm during the winter months, and otherwise keep them in stalls w/ hay and grain feedings then you could get away with 1 acre per horse, maybe. But then you should rotate, like, have 2 0.5 acre lots. That way you can do rotational grazing.

I think you could find a 5 acre property with a house needing renovation in the $200K and below range. Where I live in northern Franklin County (Boones Mill / Hardy), land is more expensive than in the southern side, where it's too far to commute into Roanoke.

Hope this helps,

Sean

[Momto4]

Originally Posted by seanpecor

I visited with the developers recently. I had emailed them about the webcam, letting them know that they could use my webcam for marketing purposes if they so desired. So they decided to visit with the mad scientist / dotcom entrepreneur / horse farmer at the top of the hill They were nice folks. The prime developer (George) and the realtor (Cindy) are married and in their 50s. They live in one of their past subdivisions - Countryside Estates just off Grassy Hill Rd. Countryside is a sensible country subdivision and it was very well designed, so I'm happy George and Cindy bought the 110 acre parcel visible in the webcam, and not the Florida developer who wanted to carve it up into 90 lots!

Thanks, Sean! All great information. I am wondering what exactly you liked about these particular subdivisions when you called them "sensible"? Also, do you think there would be strict covenants or HOA-type restrictions associated with these lots? Are there strict fencing requirements here or elsewhere in the area?

Thanks again - I really appreciate reading all your other responses on this forum, too!

[seanpecor]

I think I use the word sensible because, if there is going to be development, then it should take place sensibly. In the above example, the developers bought a 110 acre terraced parcel. They could have graded the new roads over existing tractor access roads that accessed the property and saved alot of money. Instead they looked at the lay of the land and designed two cul-de-sacs in two places that required significant excavation. And they used the excavated fill to smooth out terraces that previously experienced erosion when the land was used for farming. And rather than press the County to allow them to create 90 1 acre lots, they went with 14 roadside +/- 1 acre lots and 17 5 acre lots. Alot more natural beauty is retained. Their Countryside Estates subdivision (and their other new subdivision, Cahas Retreat) were designed and implemented using similar philosophies. I think that it's largely because the developers live in the community that they're developing in. A larger regional company rolling in, buying land and developing spec homes would not place such a high priority on environmental or community responsibility.

I don't know if they have strict fencing requirements or not, but you could email Cindy and ask. Generally folks around here build either 3/4 rail wood/vinyl fences or that high tensile vinyl rail fencing (Centaur?). High tensile wire fencing is a big no-no although I see it being installed from time to time by folks who seem to value money more than the health of their horses. I don't know a single horse fet or fence installer around here who doesn't have multiple horror stories when it comes to high tensile wire fences. However, if I were to guess, Cahas Green would have fence requirements regarding the style or quality of fences. I doubt they'd want a property lined with electric wire or tape on the perimeter although I suspect there would be more flexibility for partition fencing.

In general, if you're outside of a subdivision then you are subject to county zoning regulations regarding fences but judging by what I see around here I don't think they don't regulate fencing much for A-1 zoned land.

Sean