Monday, February 20, 2012

Farm Tour: 5 Farm, 5 Dud Marathon

image from thinknice.com

This past Saturday I toured another 5 properties in New London county to purchase.  I fully intended to go through farm by farm, outlining the pros and cons of each property (and giving out awards like "Most Glittery Ceiling," "Fattest Pet Dog," and "Most Unusual/Disgusting House Smell"), but here we are two days later and the bottom line is that none of the farms had potential.

The first four properties, for one reason or another, had not enough usable land (either because of wetlands, steep slopes, or being too thickly wooded).  The fifth property was actually pretty nice - nearly 8 acres of horse pasture/woodlands with paths, and even an antique apple orchard (all in need of improvements).  The house was nice too, but in the end I don't feel up for maintaining an 18th century, 5 bedroom farmhouse.  The listing price was $350,000 ($50,000 more than my loan amount), but the cost of improvements (even just to bring it up to a level to be able to get insurance) would be cost-prohibitive.

I know this is the worst thing to say, but at the first two farms that I put in an offer to purchase, I just had a feeling.  I was excited and hopeful and could imagine myself establishing a life there.  I'm waiting for that feeling again.  I really hope I find it soon.

Yesterday I scoured the internet and sent another 30-ish potential properties over to my real estate agent to review and set up viewings for.  All of them are further from home than I was hoping to be, but I'm optimistic that the distance won't matter much if I find a beautiful spot to call home.  Tomorrow I'm going to see another property in Ledyard, and hopefully later in the week/over the weekend I'll see a bunch more.  It's an exhausting process, but hopefully it will all be worth it when I find another property.

Still no word from the lawyer on the Lebanon farm.  I'm SO eager for closure, but apparently this is just another lesson in patience.

I feel good that I'm doing everything I can right now to find a farm, but it still just doesn't feel like enough.

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