Q: I’m making plans to retire in approximately five years. The children are grown and through university, and my spouse and I ultimately assume we’re at the stage in our lives wherein we will follow our dream of purchasing asomelalandbuilding a home on it, and raising horses. We have sold and offered two houses in the past, similarly to the house we live in now, but I don’t recognize anything about buying raw land and constructing a domestic. Can you give me some suggestions on how we have to get started and what to look for? Thanks.
A: Boy, it’s terrific with that recognition of what you need to do and are capable of achieving it. But now the real homework starts.
You genuinely have three issues that you need to keep at the forefront of your mind as you undergo what will undoubtedly be a lengthy process.
You want to buy acreage, construct a domestic, and raise horses. It sounds smooth when you have the money. However, it’s not. Every step and the manner you’re going totaked ask yourself if the solutions you’re getting will let you accomplish all three goals.
Once you have an extensive, trendy concept of where you want to search for belongings, you’ll get familiar with the zoning restrictions within the location.
If you need to shop in Solano County, as well as most counties, you’ll discover that each rectangular inch of land is zoned in a few ways. Large-acre parcels are normally zoned for agricultural use and have regulations on the variety of homes you may build on a given amount of acreage.
For instance, you may discover a property zoned for agriculture 20, which means the minimum parcel length is 20 acres. The region’s definition of agriculture may also suggest that you could best build one home, and there can also be a maximum of rectangular pictures allowed. Additionally, what is and isn’t agriculture can be a subject of debate with the county.
All of that may be high-quality with you. However, you want to train yourself approximately the restrictions before you signal any or money adjustments hands.
It’s additionally commonplace to locate that these parcels had been located inside the Williamson Act.
The Williamson Act consists of rules that permit a belongings owner to the vicinity, in effect, a deed restriction on the assets so that the assets can handiest be used for certain types of agricultural production. The benefit is that the land is devalued, and property taxes drop to almost nothing.
The downside is that after it’s inside the Williamson Act, it can be tough and steeply priced to pull the assets back out.
Whether or not your horse enterprise is in conformance with a particular property’s Williamson Act restrictions is something you’re going to have to work with the suitable county’s planning branch to get a determination on.
