Quote:
Originally Posted by DETRoadster
Zoning is everything, man, and in some communities those restrictions are killers. The town we are buying in is notoriously prickly about tree removal, minimum tree canopy, and maximum impervious coverage percentage.
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My first choice of lot is in an unincorporated part of a county, and is zoned agricultural where even a mobile home is acceptable. It is in a recreational/weekend home type area, near (but not on) a 20-mile long motorboat lake, and not in a subdivision or HOA. Despite the rural-ish area, it has gigabit fiber Internet, municipal water, and 100% underground utilities. No sewer, but I wouldn't expect it. Interstate highway access only 5 minutes away, but the nearest department store is 30-45 minutes away and there's a moderately-sized supermarket about 12 miles away. The area used to have a huge Wal-Mart, but they took their ball and went home because the customer traffic wasn't enough to support it. In other words, a perfect retirement location with low cost-of-living and the ability to telecommute during the retirement transition...if it wasn't for the deed restrictions!
I just re-read the restrictions/covenants that the real estate agent provided me a few weeks ago...and they aren't too bad on second pass. Other than the usual antenna tower restriction that has annoyed my family for generations, the only thing that would change my barndominium plans is that they do not specifically list steel as an acceptable material for the outside walls on either the house or out-buildings. It is fine for the roof, though. I may be able to work around this with a facade or something.
We closed on our HELOC in January, and I can pull out enough money to build a no-frills barndominium with facilities enough for a weekend getaway with a CO. My ideal retirement plan is to sell our house in upstate NY (less than 4 years on the mortgage), use that to pay off the HELOC, and use the remainder to finish the interior build-out with zero mortgage in our perfect retirement garage with a bedroom attached.
On the topic of trees, the town where I live now has restrictions where nobody can cut trees after March 31st every year. There is some sort of rare migratory bat passing through, and they don't want anything disturbing the trees until they leave late in the fall. The town is also blocked by law from mowing the grass in one of their parks, because some rare bird nests there on the ground.....
