chloe miller

Anne, because the 40 acres is all forested mountain land, so it takes quite a bit of deforestation and grading to get level spots. And even more if you want to get enough sun to garden. I would like the space to grow my little nursery side business too. You just dont have many level areas in the mountains. It would cost quite a bit of money to cut down the trees and grade out level areas and to do it right, stone walls are usually needed to retain what you cut back.
Not to mention its jus beautiful land with a bold creek along it, and we thought it was part of the property, initially and was one of the reasons we loved it.

I, personally think i could find a way to live without it, but, my husband is seriously considering his future there if he doesn’t have some flatish land.
Another thing that worries us, is if someone else buys it and decides to build a house right there in front of ours. We moved way out there for privacy and peace.

thank you for your insight! I do appreciate hearing from someone who owns land and has received offers before.

We are definitely willing to pay a higher price, and be respectful of whatever attachment they may harbor to that land.

Do you think its offensive to ask if we can have first rights to buy it if they end up selling it, if they dont want to sell right now?

And also, im much more of a heartfelt honest letter type of person, not too long or anything just show my appreciation for the land, and the history and tell a bit about the respect i will have for the land. Is that something that you personally would like or would you prefer a more strictly business letter?

Hi there, we bought 40 acres of mountain land a couple years ago, the land has been in the same family for generations so no survey had been done in a long time. There’s approximately 1.5 acres across the gravel road that we originally thought was part of the property, but ultimately ended up not being part of it. Wed really like to acquire it, as it is flattish (for WNC) and pretty cleared. We have our house site graded in on our property and hope to begin building soon.
I want to write a letter to the folks who own it asking if they would consider selling to us. There is no cleared land on our property and we dont need much, just enough to have a workshop/garden/ plant nursery. There  isnt many flat spots on our property without building a long road.

But also, one reason wed like to get that land now is we weren’t able to get the kind of loan we wanted to build the house. We own the house we live in and could get funds to build if we sold, but wed need somewhere to temporarily live. It would be way more easily doable if we could use that land to put a camper on and possibly a shed.

Our house is 45 min from the property and with gas prices how they are … it costs us 18 bucks to go out there and back in our truck!!

So if anyone has tips, or experience with doing something like this please tell me all about it! Or if you own land how would you feel about receiving a letter? How would you prefer someone to approach you?

A little more info… the land is part of old family land, and belongs to all the heirs but we had found and talked to one of them who said that land belongs to his sister. They own 120 acres on the other border of our property and are selling that right now. We showed interest to buy to the brother we met, and wrote him an offer. He told us he would talk to his sister and get back to us. He never did… we were trying to get a power easement from them for a long time. He would seem down to meet and get his sister out there but he never came through… he does live a couple hours away and owns a business so i can see why he’d be busy and forgetful. My new strategy is to get in touch with her directly.

Thanks for reading all my details! And i look forward to hopefully getting some helpful feedback

Hello John. Thanks for your response!

We have 40 acres. We definitely considered building while keeping in mind being able to add on. The road to the forever spot is 1/4 mile. The spot we are choosing to build at is right next to the gravel road that leads to the property, just a short little curve/house site and driveway will be needed. Of course we are interested in privacy but there is only one neighbor past us and we cant even see their house from our house site. A couple things pushed us to agree on building at the lower spot...

Grader gave us an estimate of 13k for drive, house site and full septic install at the bottom and 30k for all that plus 1/4 road to the upper spot.
We are currently living in a house we own and paying both the mortgages while building the house on the land and also finishing up some projects at this house. Once the new build is livable we can move and sell this house and be mortgage free. The idea is we will be able to save money a lot faster and build the other house faster. So saving the money on grading will go far at this point, because we are trying to do this as fast as we can (our goal is 2 years ish) to limit the amount of time we pay 2 mortgages. I also like the idea of not rushing decisions on the upper spot and being able to live out on the property for several years, really envisioning our end game.

I am a designer/seamstress with a business so thats why I need 250 sq ft of space. Im working in 144 sq ft right now and am very quickly outgrowing that space.... the business is growing every year, so eventually the first building we build will be very useful as my studio with space to keep growing, and also a woodshop for my husband.

If we built at the upper spot, we would have to drill a well, adding to the cost, and at the lower spot there is a well flowing spring head right about the house, making it easy (theoretically) to install a gravity system.

The building spot for the actual building is about 45'x 30' as that is the "flatest" spot. with a difference of about 6' from top to bottom, the hill gets a tiny bit steeper behind it being 10' in difference over 27 feet (this is where there is a stand of larger trees Id like to save some of them) then above that the hill gets gentlish again with a difference of 7 ft over 50 feet. This is where I would like to put a parking area, and keep a trail through the stand of trees to the cabin.

Very good tip to consider the impact of the heavy machinery. Im interested in more info on that, mostly because im curious. How long until they died? what kind of trees? and how large were they? I will talk to our grader and see what he thinks. Also great tip to plant saplings. I am a total plant nerd and ex professional organic landscaper/gardener so I will probably be putting in trees and shrubs as soon as the grading happens.

As far as looks go... we both do not like the feel of an all brand new house, feels "souless" and Ive already started scouting out doors, windows, flooring etc.

I appreciate the info and response!

Hi! we are currently designing our little home on sloped land, and would love to see what you guys have done, if you are in the same boat. slab on grade? piers? split level?
It is forested land in wnc. Were building a smallish home for us to live and work in (i work from home) until we can build the road up further into the property for our forever homesite. ideally we would have about 550sq ft living space and 250 sq ft for my studio. We are trying to save as much money as possible (who isnt) while still building a professional quality built home. My husband is a builder so that helps a lot. Would absolutely love to see yalls houses on slopes, even if its bigger than what Id like, just looking for inspiration. I have been doing a lot of looking around online and most of what I find is really fancy stuff that isnt realistic. I want the humble function of real folk building their cabins.

If anyone doesnt mind sharing costs i would love to gain that perspective too. Were really shooting for around 30k, not including grading.

I am trying to get our design down so we can move forward with grading. Very much interested in disturbing land as least as possible.

Hi! We have 40 acres in madison county, nc. We are just beginning our journey of building our first house, We are building at the bottom, a small building that will be a living space/ studio for me and my business until we can get the road and well built up further into the property to begin our forever house. There are logging roads all over the property that are really in decent shape that with a few links could get us all the way to the top, no gravel down  though. We have been looking into 4wheelers to be able to get around and start doing work up at the other homesite. A side by side would be ideal. Those are pretty expensive, and lately I have been obsessed with the idea of getting a suzuki samurai or a geo tracker, as they are often cheaper (not to mention cool af) my husband isnt totally on board due to them being heavier and more likely to screw the road up in wet weather. Curious if anyone has driven one of these vehicles around on ungraveled logging roads. a lot of the roads are not that steep (by mountain folk standards) and some are steeper.

Thanks in advance!