Pros & Cons
When we rolled up on the 3rd piece of land we went to look at yesterday, a group of other prospective buyers were already stationed there. So we hung out on some NFS land nearby and waited till they left. I enjoyed some rock laying and cloud watching while Mike played around in a rock field. Time well spent if you ask us.
Yesterday, Mike and I scouted out online and then went off in search of three different pieces of land for sale around the Missoula area. In case you’re like me and appreciate such things as stats, here they are:
Piece of land #1: 20-minutes from Missoula; 5-acres for $125,000.
Piece of land #2: 40-minutes from Missoula; 11-acres for $150,000.
Piece of land #3: 50-minutes from Missoula; 20-acres for $200,000.
The pics above are from piece of land #1
Pros: good terrain for building; surrounded by tribal land protected forest; good access; good privacy; lovely trees on site
Cons: two rows of really large power lines cut through property; can hear nearby highway quite well; power lines make loud buzzing noise; terrain while nice is also very one-note (no view)
The pics above are from piece of land #2
Okay. So. You see the sign on the gate above, right? Yeah. That was the gate we were instructed to go through in order to get to the piece of land for sale on the other side. Not great.
We’ve run into these kind of signs before on our land search treks and for me they are deeply disturbing every time. Were it only up to me, I would’ve left right then and there. It could be a utopian dream piece of land but if the neighbors are posting signs with pictures of guns pointing at you with warnings about how they don’t call 911 that’s a big red flag for this girl. Mike, on the other hand, is not at all bothered or deterred by these signs.
Pros: good terrain for building; nice & quiet; great trees & also sun access; good year-long access
Cons: neighbors are not only close but also potentially not the friendliest sort; shared driveway cuts through acreage for sale; a little socked in with trees; gated access which would need to be opened/closed every time you enter & exit due to free roaming animals (although free roaming animals are also a pro for us cuz we love animals); not as private as we would like
The pics above are from piece of land #3
Pros: good access; small creek on site; good terrain for building; a well is being drilled & added (as you can see in pic above); nice trees on site; nice rocks on site (which Mike would love to have & use for building material); some good access to sun; has access to power already on site
Cons: not as private as we would like; semi well-traveled dirt road cuts through acreage of property; building sites are limited to one area, most of acreage is steep hillside terrain; a little further away from Missoula than we would like
Here’s the thing. This whole looking for land thing is not easy. Mike and I were chatting in the car on our way in between tracts of land about how part of us would enjoy simply having only one option to choose from. Part of us would love to just have someone be like: Here, here’s your land. Boom. End of discussion. None of these pesky decisions to be made or choices to choose from. It’s all a little too much for us to sort through in regards to what the heck we should do.
To add further complexity, every piece of land is different. Even though part of me is still like How different can a bare piece of land possibly be?! it never ceases to amaze me how when we put boots on the ground, each piece of land has its own unique set of pros and cons in terms of what we’re looking for.
And the more land we look at, the more we adjust our list of “must haves.” Something has to give here, I’m just not sure what it is. (Insert hammed up sigh here.)