Before you can start building, you must have the parcel surveyed. This can run between $1,400 to $2,000.
You may have been provided a plat map, but unless it's been marked, you really don't know where your property boundaries are. Do not assume that the plat map is accurate. You need to have a licensed surveyor mark the property. Better yet, get the Seller to do it before you buy it.
Fences don't always fall on the property boundary. Often times, they don't.
Why is this important? Because there are set-backs you have to follow when it comes to building your home, garage, etc. You can be fined at best. Told to take it down at worst.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Building
Not all parcels are buildable.
Some are zoned so there's a restriction on what can be built on the land. In some cases, residential buildings aren't allowed and a building permit will not be issued.
Take careful note of the grade of the land. If the grade is too steep, you won't be able to build. If it's viable, a pad can be cut out of the slope; however, the steeper it is, the more costly it becomes.
Bentonite Clay is common in the foothills. Under wet conditions, it can expand, buckling concrete foundations and twisting I-beams in the process.
Another thing to remember when building on a slope: water flows downhill.
It's quite possible to be flooded or have a mudslide sweep into your home.
Some are zoned so there's a restriction on what can be built on the land. In some cases, residential buildings aren't allowed and a building permit will not be issued.
Take careful note of the grade of the land. If the grade is too steep, you won't be able to build. If it's viable, a pad can be cut out of the slope; however, the steeper it is, the more costly it becomes.
Bentonite Clay is common in the foothills. Under wet conditions, it can expand, buckling concrete foundations and twisting I-beams in the process.
Another thing to remember when building on a slope: water flows downhill.
It's quite possible to be flooded or have a mudslide sweep into your home.
Water
Let's talk for a minute about that very precious commodity: Water
In a rural area, you won't have the luxury of hooking up to city or county water.
You'll have to get a well dug.
No, you can't do it yourself. You have to get a state licensed contractor to do it for you.
If you have the Right to Build, you have the right to a Domestic Well.
That means you have the right to draw up to 1800 gallons of water per day... for your home, crop, pets, and livestock. To give you an idea of what that means, the average American uses about 100 gallons a day inside the home. That doesn't include washing clothes or dishes. All totaled, the average home uses about 1400 gallons a day.
If you want more than that, you'll have to purchase Water Rights from whoever owns them in your area. At best, it can be expensive. At worst, it could be impossible.
Not all water in the Nevada wells is good water. Actually, most of it isn't. It's heavy with minerals that can cause long-term health effects. A good filtration system may be necessary.
Before you decide to purchase, call the well drilling companies in the area. Most will tell you how deep of a well you will need... and current prices are running about $38 a foot. A 300 ft well will run about $15k.
Surface Water:
If there is an irrigation ditch or stream running through the property, it doesn't mean you can use it. If it's a man-made ditch, that water actually belongs to someone. If it's a stream, it may be protected by the State or the County. Some wetland areas cannot be developed in any way.
In a rural area, you won't have the luxury of hooking up to city or county water.
You'll have to get a well dug.
No, you can't do it yourself. You have to get a state licensed contractor to do it for you.
If you have the Right to Build, you have the right to a Domestic Well.
That means you have the right to draw up to 1800 gallons of water per day... for your home, crop, pets, and livestock. To give you an idea of what that means, the average American uses about 100 gallons a day inside the home. That doesn't include washing clothes or dishes. All totaled, the average home uses about 1400 gallons a day.
If you want more than that, you'll have to purchase Water Rights from whoever owns them in your area. At best, it can be expensive. At worst, it could be impossible.
Not all water in the Nevada wells is good water. Actually, most of it isn't. It's heavy with minerals that can cause long-term health effects. A good filtration system may be necessary.
Before you decide to purchase, call the well drilling companies in the area. Most will tell you how deep of a well you will need... and current prices are running about $38 a foot. A 300 ft well will run about $15k.
Surface Water:
If there is an irrigation ditch or stream running through the property, it doesn't mean you can use it. If it's a man-made ditch, that water actually belongs to someone. If it's a stream, it may be protected by the State or the County. Some wetland areas cannot be developed in any way.
Services
If you build in a rural area (and that's where most of the cheap land is), here's a list of basic services that may not be available to you:
School bus route
Postal service
UPS service
Snow plowing
Garbage pickup
Heating fuel delivery
Telephone landlines
Sewer service
Water service
Electric service
Emergency Services might be more than 45 minutes away.
School bus route
Postal service
UPS service
Snow plowing
Garbage pickup
Heating fuel delivery
Telephone landlines
Sewer service
Water service
Electric service
Emergency Services might be more than 45 minutes away.
Back to Access Roads
The next thing to research is the maintenance and condition of the road.
Call the county road department and check to see how often the road is maintained.
They might not maintain it more than grading it once a year.
They might not maintain it at all.
There might not be any agency, association, or other that maintains it.
Some county roads don't look much different from a BLM Jeep trail.
Many large construction vehicles can't navigate small, narrow roads.
During extreme weather, they may become impassable.
The county might not plow them.
Wet weather, floods, mudslides, other natural phenomenon, and overuse can destroy roads.
The county might not repair them.
Make sure the road was properly engineered and constructed from durable materials.
If it's dirt, it most likely wasn't either.
If it's not a paved road, it's not likely the county will pave it anytime soon.
If the road is maintained by the NDOT... all of the above conditions may still be true.
All of this can be costly... not only to maintain the road, but wear and tear on your vehicle.
Call the county road department and check to see how often the road is maintained.
They might not maintain it more than grading it once a year.
They might not maintain it at all.
There might not be any agency, association, or other that maintains it.
Some county roads don't look much different from a BLM Jeep trail.
Many large construction vehicles can't navigate small, narrow roads.
During extreme weather, they may become impassable.
The county might not plow them.
Wet weather, floods, mudslides, other natural phenomenon, and overuse can destroy roads.
The county might not repair them.
Make sure the road was properly engineered and constructed from durable materials.
If it's dirt, it most likely wasn't either.
If it's not a paved road, it's not likely the county will pave it anytime soon.
If the road is maintained by the NDOT... all of the above conditions may still be true.
All of this can be costly... not only to maintain the road, but wear and tear on your vehicle.
Mineral Rights
The next thing to check into: Mineral Rights and Mining Leases
Now, the realtors might tell you that the Mineral Rights in most of Nevada is owned by large corporations... and that's true.
However, some of the land mentioned not only has the Mineral Rights owned by a mining company, but it's also under a Mineral Lease.
That means the large corporation has Leased the Right to Mine to a smaller company for mining. That also usually means that at some point, they will.
There have already been two cases in Desert Valley (Jungo Road area) this year where the mining company has come in and bulldozed entire mini-ranches in order to get to the minerals underneath.
They can legally do that... and they don't have to compensate the landowners for anything... at all.
So... how to avoid all that, and still get cheap land?
Get land that's zoned in such a way that mining companies would have to jump through hoops in order to do any mining... and would have to do it on small scale if they did get permission.
In Humboldt County, that means it needs to be zoned at least AG-20: Agricultural lots of 20-39 acres.
In Pershing County, it means the zoning would have to be at least LDR: Low Density Rural.
I haven't researched Lander, Eureka, or Elko Counties yet, because that's farther from Reno than we wanted to move.
For all that cheap property in Desert Valley... you can go to your property, you can camp on it, play paintball on it, or other things like that... so long as you're not going to try to build anything that you don't mind being bulldozed.
You can usually get this information from the County Assessor's Office.
Now, the realtors might tell you that the Mineral Rights in most of Nevada is owned by large corporations... and that's true.
However, some of the land mentioned not only has the Mineral Rights owned by a mining company, but it's also under a Mineral Lease.
That means the large corporation has Leased the Right to Mine to a smaller company for mining. That also usually means that at some point, they will.
There have already been two cases in Desert Valley (Jungo Road area) this year where the mining company has come in and bulldozed entire mini-ranches in order to get to the minerals underneath.
They can legally do that... and they don't have to compensate the landowners for anything... at all.
So... how to avoid all that, and still get cheap land?
Get land that's zoned in such a way that mining companies would have to jump through hoops in order to do any mining... and would have to do it on small scale if they did get permission.
In Humboldt County, that means it needs to be zoned at least AG-20: Agricultural lots of 20-39 acres.
In Pershing County, it means the zoning would have to be at least LDR: Low Density Rural.
I haven't researched Lander, Eureka, or Elko Counties yet, because that's farther from Reno than we wanted to move.
For all that cheap property in Desert Valley... you can go to your property, you can camp on it, play paintball on it, or other things like that... so long as you're not going to try to build anything that you don't mind being bulldozed.
You can usually get this information from the County Assessor's Office.
Legal Access
What I've found in my searches lately regarding cheap land... the first thing to look at:
Does it have Legal Access?
Let's take this one parcel for example: 40 acres for just under $10k. The advertisement says it has road access. True enough, the plat map shows a road going straight through the property. The problem is that it's a BLM access road, not a county road. The road comes off a county road and passes through a privately owned section, then a BLM section, and then back to a private section.
In order to obtain legal access (Right-of-Way), you first need to contact every person who owns every plot of land between the county road and the property.
You would need to get a Deeded Right of Access from each and every one of them, so you could pass through their property on that road. They can charge whatever they want for that.
Once those are obtained, you would have to get in touch with the BLM.
You would have to pay for the whole road to be surveyed. That's about $2000 for the first mile, and then $500-1000 for every mile past that.
Then you would have to pay for an Environmental Impact Survey.
If that passed, then you would have to pay for a Paleontology / Historical Significance Survey.
All totaled, it could run anywhere between $10k to $100k JUST for the right to get to your land.
You might think, "Well, I could just do it, and don't even worry about all that before I get caught. No one would know, right?"
Here's the kicker: you can't get a C of O (Certificate of Occupancy) if you don't have Legal Access.
Which means you could ignore it, try to get around it, and then not be able to actually legally live in the house you put on the land.
There are many lots being sold in Desert Valley (Jungo Road area) that do not have Legal Access. Most of them, actually.
Most of them are accessible by roads no more than Jeep trails... BLM fire access and hunting/recreational roads.
Does it have Legal Access?
Let's take this one parcel for example: 40 acres for just under $10k. The advertisement says it has road access. True enough, the plat map shows a road going straight through the property. The problem is that it's a BLM access road, not a county road. The road comes off a county road and passes through a privately owned section, then a BLM section, and then back to a private section.
In order to obtain legal access (Right-of-Way), you first need to contact every person who owns every plot of land between the county road and the property.
You would need to get a Deeded Right of Access from each and every one of them, so you could pass through their property on that road. They can charge whatever they want for that.
Once those are obtained, you would have to get in touch with the BLM.
You would have to pay for the whole road to be surveyed. That's about $2000 for the first mile, and then $500-1000 for every mile past that.
Then you would have to pay for an Environmental Impact Survey.
If that passed, then you would have to pay for a Paleontology / Historical Significance Survey.
All totaled, it could run anywhere between $10k to $100k JUST for the right to get to your land.
You might think, "Well, I could just do it, and don't even worry about all that before I get caught. No one would know, right?"
Here's the kicker: you can't get a C of O (Certificate of Occupancy) if you don't have Legal Access.
Which means you could ignore it, try to get around it, and then not be able to actually legally live in the house you put on the land.
There are many lots being sold in Desert Valley (Jungo Road area) that do not have Legal Access. Most of them, actually.
Most of them are accessible by roads no more than Jeep trails... BLM fire access and hunting/recreational roads.
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