I've spent a great deal of time waffling back and forth on this.
We own a second place out east of Atlanta. It's about 7 acres, fully fenced (4' chainlink about 6.75 acres). It has a 2 acre pond on the property, about 35 feet from the house at the closest. Small barn.
House is a '59 brick ranch. Only 2bd/1.5ba on a shade under 2000sq ft. Last updated (partially) in the 1990s. Crawlspace only.
We took an offer on our main house today (we'll see if it comes through to closing). Have some extra building lots next door we'll own free and clear to liquidate too. Trying to decide whether to renovate and build an addition on the lake/pond place, or sell it too, then buy something that suits our needs.
The kicker is, property lays like 40 acres - there's a 5 acre lake behind the back pasture and barn, house is set a good 350 feet back from road already, and next door is a mini farm lacking frontage and acreage to subdivide.
Downsides: watershed protection district make building permits a huge hassle to obtain; the low income crowd fleeing the gentrification of Atlanta has chosen the county to settle in... demographics are shifting to very low income, high crime, liberal oriented types - meaning to the south part of the county where businesses all are the restaurants are closing in favor of fast food, stores are going down hill, bail bonds opening up, and buy here pay here car shops and thrift stores are taking over...
For what it's worth it's in the north part of the county and that watershed zoning (they'll never roll it back) mandates large lot sizes on new development... so density will never come.
It's very peaceful there, but if you want to leave the property to go do something... well, id rather not be out at night anywhere thays a 20 minute drive from the house where any shopping is. Need to go 45 minutes minimum to do anything, preferably about an hour.
We own a second place out east of Atlanta. It's about 7 acres, fully fenced (4' chainlink about 6.75 acres). It has a 2 acre pond on the property, about 35 feet from the house at the closest. Small barn.
House is a '59 brick ranch. Only 2bd/1.5ba on a shade under 2000sq ft. Last updated (partially) in the 1990s. Crawlspace only.
We took an offer on our main house today (we'll see if it comes through to closing). Have some extra building lots next door we'll own free and clear to liquidate too. Trying to decide whether to renovate and build an addition on the lake/pond place, or sell it too, then buy something that suits our needs.
The kicker is, property lays like 40 acres - there's a 5 acre lake behind the back pasture and barn, house is set a good 350 feet back from road already, and next door is a mini farm lacking frontage and acreage to subdivide.
Downsides: watershed protection district make building permits a huge hassle to obtain; the low income crowd fleeing the gentrification of Atlanta has chosen the county to settle in... demographics are shifting to very low income, high crime, liberal oriented types - meaning to the south part of the county where businesses all are the restaurants are closing in favor of fast food, stores are going down hill, bail bonds opening up, and buy here pay here car shops and thrift stores are taking over...
For what it's worth it's in the north part of the county and that watershed zoning (they'll never roll it back) mandates large lot sizes on new development... so density will never come.
It's very peaceful there, but if you want to leave the property to go do something... well, id rather not be out at night anywhere thays a 20 minute drive from the house where any shopping is. Need to go 45 minutes minimum to do anything, preferably about an hour.
