The article forgot one REALLY important one:
ZONING
I moved out bc I was tired of boarding my horses at the mediocre facility, and concerned that that one big snowstorm wouldn't let me drive out to feed them. I don't mind driving 30 minutes to the closest city, where we have enough competition that groceries/good and services are not out of the world$. Whenever we get terrible winter weather the courthouse (DH is an atty) closes and we just stay home.
My horses are in my back yard now, and we live on the west most N-S street of a 200 person town. Our street, with 3 homes, are ALL zoned AG2, so we can all have livestock. The whole rest of the town is residential, with one business. Without the AG zoning, my 5 acres are worthless to me.
When I was teaching riding lessons I had several horse periodical subscriptions. Even back in the 1980's they were telling horse owners that you should NEVER move to a rural property adjacent to or close to a housing development. Many, many times the people in the development would tire quickly of ANY animal odors and sooner or later those same "nice" neighbors of yours would file to and change YOUR ZONING. This is NOT a new issue and now, it's become even more hostile to livestock owners.
I love my place, but I didn't pick my property for the nice sunsets. This is a 100yo house and grounds, but it isn't a place where my ancestors lived. When DH and I pass on, I have instructed my 3 DD's to sell and get out what they can from it. BC I own 5 acres, close to town and improved to obviously be a horse property, with a barn w/ 3 stalls and adjacent shelter, and 4 acres of new, from 2008, equine fencing, good layout that I improved upon, a 4 car garage and two outbuildings, it is an affordable property for the next horse owner. You need at least this much ground to pasture and school your horses. The next alternatives close to us were totally undeveloped 20 acre tracts of a farm that was purchased and split. Our purchase price was $89,900 and we closed October 31, 1999.
When we bought I had just met the DIL of the owners by chance the very day it was listed. We put a hold on it and only had to wait for the owners to figure out how they were moving out, which took about 1 1/2 months. The very day after the closing I moved my horses in.
I have a good snowblower, but NOT a tractor, as yet and the town and county plow out the town's streets, even if we are further down the list from the top. If you are separated from homes by farm properties you HAVE to have a tractor to plow yourself out in the winter. I do own a 2007 Dodge Cummins Full Ton, 4 x 4 doolie (6 wheels, instead of 4) and it can plow through drifts in a winter weather emergency.
If you research thoroughly, you should be fine. Save up and buy what you need as early as possible. We bought a cheap riding mower, but now own a John Deere. Don't know what brand of small tractor I will get, but I can tell you what they all have and about $how much then run. You MUST buy your tractor new bc people only sell them when they become money drains. A small tractor is low enough to fit into a garage. I don't own ANY buildings with a ceiling high enough for the other kind, but they cost too much anyway.
Just FYI.
