Unrestricted Land Realities - Podcast #4

In today's episode, we're talking all about unrestricted land - realities and what to expect. 

🤔Looking to buy or sell real estate in the North GA or Western NC mountain areas? Let’s chat! 😃
Trish Rodriguez
REMAX Town & Country 
The Richard Kelley Group
📲 Call/Text: 678-859-6058
☎️ Office: 706-842-7450
📧 trodsells@gmail.com
www.therkg.com
Instagram - trishrod81
Facebook - Trish Rodriguez - North GA Realtor
Tiktok - trishnorthgarealtor

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Higher Elevations, the podcast about all things North Georgia and Western North Carolina Mountains. We're your host, Trish and Mark Rodriguez, local real estate agents with Remax Town and Country, the Richard Kelly Group. In today's episode, we are talking all about unrestricted land. So we get a lot of phone calls about people wanting unrestricted land, whether it is a home that's on unrestricted land or it's uh bare, vacant, unrestricted land that they want to be able to build a home on. So today we're breaking down the realities of unrestricted land and what a lot of people don't actually expect when it comes to it. So, what are some of the reasons that people call about unrestricted land? Like why do they want the unrestricted land?

SPEAKER_01 0:52

Privacy. Typically they want to have chickens.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Yep. That's a common response.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

They don't want to have any rules or restrictions to govern how they can use their land.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yes, yep. So a lot of the time when people are calling about the unrestricted, uh, a lot of the time we just get the answer that they want that privacy and they don't want to be told what to do. Um, which ultimately means that they are typically used to what um an overbearing HOA situation. Um and so they're looking for unrestricted land because they they just don't, they're tired of the rules, they don't want to be told what to do. Um, in some cases, though, uh we do have uh quite a few people that will call that actually want chickens. Um and chickens can be a difficult thing anytime you're in any kind of a neighborhood. A lot of the time a restriction in the covenants and restrictions would be no fowl or only animals that are household pets. So um, so those are some typical reasons that people call but uh for unrestricted land. But a lot of the time the people that are just looking for not being told what to do, uh they don't want an overbearing HOA. Sometimes they can find what they're looking for in a neighborhood that does not have an active HOA. There are some covenants and restrictions that will help um, you know, uh what am I trying to say?

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Help um help keep order in the neighborhood without charging for it.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

Well, yeah, that, but also, you know, they're they're just not gonna be overbearing. You know, they're trying to help keep up your the value of your home, but they're not going to be overbearing in the sense that, you know, if you're if your yard is more than a quarter inch high, they're gonna send you a you know a letter, a nasty gram um with a fine because you need to cut your grass or whatever. So um, so if you're looking for something that's just not overbearing, then a lot of times you can find that without having to look for unrestricted land. But if you are specifically wanting uh a mini farm, you know, or chickens um and a garden, then typically you are going to have to look for unrestricted land. What are what are some of the realities of unrestricted land? So what's a lot of the things that we see when we're riding riding around with clients that are either looking for homes that are on unrestricted land or they're looking for unrestricted land to build on? What's a lot of the stuff that we end up coming across?

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Probably the first thing is large tracts of land are not going to be open wide areas that are just gonna be fully functional. Uh we see lots of times properties that are five, six, ten acre plus usually winds up being mountainside and half an acre to an acre is usually about all you're gonna get out of that large track. Um typically the prices on these are generally smaller too, which are lower, which could be an indicator that these are not really the most ideal um tracts of land to to you know have gardens or raise chickens or even have some sort of usable land just for a yard per se.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Right, right. So and and what you mean by the lower price than that is that typically when it comes to land specifically, the lower the price when you have a lot of acreage, it's typically not going to be worth anything. That's the reason that it's priced low because they can't get rid of it. Um, and it's exactly what Mark just said. You're gonna have a lot of sloping land, it's not gonna be very usable, it's gonna be a lot of trees. Um, you know, so if you're looking for more something like pasture land or something where you can have a good yard, a good building site, um, a good gardening spot, uh, you know, all of those things, that land on acreage is just going to cost more. And especially if it is unrestricted, because unrestricted land is hard to come by. There's there's not a lot of it out there, and um a lot of people want it, or or a lot of people think that they want it. Um, so that makes it more expensive because it's just more desirable. So when we're talking about unrestricted land specifically that you would want to build on, what are some things that we have found that actually makes the unrestricted land harder to build on?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Uh well, first and foremost, I think is the location of the land itself. Uh, like I said, if it's if it's a lot of uh mountainous terrain, uh hillside, it it makes it a lot uh more difficult to to develop. Um, you know, you might find that just around about you're gonna find that you're gonna be over, you know, six figures in order to just make a structural base to start building a home. So that that's probably the the biggest thing. Um we've started to find more lots that can be in floodplains as well. So um, you know, with with Helene happening a few years ago, flood, flood insurance and flooding is something that has to be heavily considered now, and it's not something that is just more uh noticeable right on top of the river or the lake or anything like that. So, I mean that's something else you have to contend with, um, you know, being down in the valleys of the mountains and stuff like that. Um, I think the other thing to consider is typically we find that there is really a lot of um undesirable areas that you pass through before you can get to the the acreage. Um meaning that uh some people just don't take care of the property the same way that you would. Um so I mean you have to kind of keep that in mind too, that uh these areas are are are pockets of where you're wanting to be, and you are unfortunately going to have to, you know, drive by the more undesirable to get to where you're trying to be.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah, and I would say that's probably one of the the biggest shocks uh to people, I think, um, when when we start to go out and look for things um that are specifically unrestricted, we get there, and obviously, like Mark just said on the way there, we have passed other unrestricted land. And what does unrestricted land do? The what people are looking for is they want to be able to not be told what to do, right? So if you don't want to be told what to do, neither does your neighbor. Um, you may take care of your stuff, but your neighbor may not, and neither one of nobody's telling neither one of you what to do, so you know you're you're gonna have to deal with with that, and I think that's probably one of the biggest shocks that we sometimes um see people have when we start to go and look at unrestricted land. Um, something else uh when it comes to the building side of things on unrestricted is um the ease to get there, like you said, location. Location can sometimes be a problem. Um, sometimes it's going to be remote, uh, sometimes it's going to be down a really crappy, awful gravel, dirt road uh that's very bumpy, may require four-wheel drive to get there. And let's be honest, if this is going to be your full-time home, I most people do not want to have to drive a road like that on a daily basis to get back and forth to their house. Um, if it's part-time living, you know, maybe you don't care so much. But typically with full-time living, you don't want to deal with that. Um, so it could be remote, uh, could be on a really bad, awful road. Um, sometimes the unrestricted land is actually right on the highway. And whatever, you know, whatever highway it is, if it's a if it's a busier road, you're gonna hear all of that road noise. So it really depends on what you're looking for, what you're trying to accomplish with the you know, with the land or with the home that's on this land as to whether or not it really makes sense for you. Okay, so something else that um that I think needs to be discussed when it comes to unrestricted land is budget. Um, a lot of the time when I have people call and they are looking for land specifically, um I I think there's a misconception that North Georgia and Western North Carolina has a lot of cheap land. And while that is not necessarily an entire misconception, because we do have a lot of land that's still available and it can be cheap, but I think the misconception comes in when it's cheap, it's cheap for a reason. Um, it's typically not very buildable, and um, and like I said before, if you are looking specifically for unrestricted, I think that you have to be very realistic when it comes to a budget because with unrestricted land, it is very desirable because a lot of people want it, and there's not a lot of it, and so you just have to be more realistic when it comes to the budget. If you are looking for something that's going to be good, usable, um, unrestricted, and your budget is $25,000, you're looking for a unicorn. It does not exist. Um, so you know, and especially if you want acreage, I mean, for a good piece of land that's unrestricted, you're probably looking at a minimum of about $100,000, and that may only be an acre, or it may just be under an acre. Um, if you want more land than that, then the budget has to increase. So I think just you know, setting your expectations on what is realistic for the area and understanding that you know, when you see a piece of land and it seems like it's a really good description of the land and it's a really good price, um, just just go into it with w eyes wide open and be cautious because uh if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Do you have anything to add on that?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Okay, so the only other thing that I can think of right now um to talk about when it comes to unrestricted land is going back to the use for it. So sometimes I will have people call that want to have um, let's call it a family compound, or they want to um they want to be able to do a tiny home community or an RV campground or something along those lines. So just because you are purchasing or looking for unrestricted land doesn't mean that the local government is not going to get involved and tell you what you can and can't do on the land. Um, unrestricted does not, you know, I think there's a little bit of a misconception that unrestricted means totally unrestricted. You can do whatever you want. Um while there is a little bit of that, we still have building codes. There's still gonna be building requirements in each of the counties. So if you're you know, if you're looking to put several tiny tiny homes on a community or on a piece of land, um that becomes a community, and that is not something that you know most of the counties are gonna have regulations uh about that. So um, so those are just you know, that's just something else to keep in mind. So again, I think it boils down to why do you want the land? Um what what are you trying to accomplish? And um uh if you're just looking for that privacy and just not having that overbearing HOA, then you don't necessarily need unrestricted land.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

So you got anything else that you can think of that is important to talk about when it comes to unrestricted land?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

Not really. I mean that's those are generally the the few bases that uh people are looking for when it comes to unrestricted. So like I said, just to kind of recap, if if you're looking for unrestricted, you're typically looking for uh privacy, you're looking for uh a lack of rules per se. You're you're wanting to have some sort of livestock or um um just anything along those lines. Um if you're looking to make a uh a compound of sort, family compound or RV or tiny home, Airbnb, etc., um these are generally the most um common reasons that we've heard for looking for unrestricted. So you are gonna have to do some investigation, you are gonna have to narrow down what you're you're mainly looking for. You are gonna have to be realistic about your budget, you are gonna have to uh talk to the county uh that you're looking to purchase in because you are going to have to find out the rules, the guidelines for yourself, what can and cannot be done because above everything else, the county is going to dictate what you are allowed to do. So um, and the biggest thing is that unrestricted is limited. Um, there's only so much land out there, and uh there's no more being made. So uh just keep that in mind. And uh, if you can do these things and follow these few simple rules, then uh you know we can we can explore and see what is out there and available.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Yep. All right, okay. So, with that, if you are looking to buy or sell real estate in the North Georgia or Western North Carolina Mountains, please give us a call. My contact information will be in the show notes, or you can visit our website at higherelevationsre.com. Thank you for tuning in, and remember life is truly better at higher elevations.