Rose Cottage Ltd

I have to admit I LOVE watching “Million Dollar Listings” on Bravo TV. I’m less impressed or interested in the social lives and sexual orientation of the realtors shown than I am in the drive and determination they have for their profession.

As a real estate investor, most of the properties I’ve ever researched or purchased have been rural. There are often no “comps” – which is how the New York and Los Angeles realtors can value a property down to an accurate square-foot price – often before they get there. When researching rural real estate, you often don’t have this capability. The more unique your proposed property, the less “comps” or comparable properties that have recently sold, you will have to use in valuation. In New York or LA or in any other urban or even suburban location, comps are easy to find. Then you just adjust higher or lower based on specifics your potential choice has or doesn’t have.

So if you are looking for rural property you won’t be worried about whether or not there is a 24 hour door man and security entrance, and the question of on-site parking may not seem much of a “perk.” If you’re looking at a raw land purchase, “Is there water/sewer and electric on the property?” or “How much main road access does the property have?”

If you’re looking at a rural property say as a vacation or second home you’ll want to know things like:

++ Is cable/high-speed internet available?
++ Does the property have a well or is it on a well/septic of its own?
++ Is any driveway accessible year-round? (Critical for mountain, snow-likely land purchases)
++ What’s going on on all the properties around my property? (Hopefully no meth labs or hog processing facilities!)
++ Are there any zoning issues or restrictions?

Other than the last, you can be sure New York realtors won’t be asked any of these questions – although they have others specific to big city living.

What I think is a positive of rural real estate is that you will probably find you have less competition for your piece of country. Instead of searching for a property in a most trendy area of New York – meaning that’s where everyone ELSE wants to be right now, you’ll more likely have time to spend on finding the right property and will avoid being outbid before you have a chance to act.

So where do you go to find your place in the country? Ignoring cost and location for a moment, what makes one property preferable over another?

Rose Cottage will be diving deeper into the subject of rural real estate heading forward and will be highlighting some outstanding rural properties on the market. Some will be “dream” properties in the multi-million dollar range – others will be properties with beautiful views and that are good value AND listings that tell us most of if not all we need to know.

It’s going to be F-U-N!