Acreage wishlist - What would you want/do you have that is a must?

[Parks 788]

I've posted her a couple times about our family move to OK from Socal, actually my wife is born/raised Okie, so it is a move back home for her. This will all happen once our son graduates high school and moves off to college in about a year and a half. We will be buying land as opposed to moving to the "city" or even a town. While I know what I want, for the most part, in a piece of property I'd like to hear from everyone what their top "must-haves" are for the right parcel of land.

Here is my list of must-haves.
*Acreage - Prefer at least 160 acres but maybe would look at 120 or even 80 if the land matched my needs perfectly. I'm more inclined to give up a "want" or two to buy more acreage. 320ac would be ideal but if bare land it starts to get out of our price range if we need to build a home on it.
*75% Timber
*Power to property line
*Live water, Lake, Ponds - these three are in order of preference.
*Outside city limits
*Hunting (firearms) and shooting legal
*Some elevation change

What is/would be on your wish list? You posting may give me ideas i have not thought about or considered.

 

[dennishoddy]

I've posted her a couple times about our family move to OK from Socal, actually my wife is born/raised Okie, so it is a move back home for her. This will all happen once our son graduates high school and moves off to college in about a year and a half. We will be buying land as opposed to moving to the "city" or even a town. While I know what I want, for the most part, in a piece of property I'd like to hear from everyone what their top "must-haves" are for the right parcel of land.

Here is my list of must-haves.
*Acreage - Prefer at least 160 acres but maybe would look at 120 or even 80 if the land matched my needs perfectly. I'm more inclined to give up a "want" or two to buy more acreage. 320ac would be ideal but if bare land it starts to get out of our price range if we need to build a home on it.
*75% Timber
*Power to property line
*Live water, Lake, Ponds - these three are in order of preference.
*Outside city limits
*Hunting (firearms) and shooting legal
*Some elevation change

What is/would be on your wishlist? You posting may give me ideas i have not thought about or considered.

The more acreage you can afford the better, You will like it and the opportunities to create a hunting wonderland will rise.
The first thing I would do before buying anything is to drive around and see how many deer blinds/stands are visible. Talk to the neighbors if possible to see what their thoughts are about hunting on their properties. I have neighbors on two sides of one place that do not allow hunting. They create a sanctuary for me.
Another place the owner surrounds me and is very selective about what he takes. If it isn't big, it walks. My kinda guy.
On the other hand, those that have towers on the fence line of properties your looking at would be a no go.

Water on the place would be a premium, but not a deal breaker for me. You can always build a pond, and the gov farm services will sometimes cost share for new pond development. You can also designate as a wildlife pond with the feds for waterfowl if you agree to partially drain it, plant duck food in the shallows and then refill it with the fall rains. It's a grant deal if you qualify.

If there was a power line or pipeline right of way that would be a plus. Others come to mow it and the new browse is a deer magnet. You can also put food plots on the easements. I have 5 pipeline easements through one place and I get some nice gun money for easements, along with crop/surface damage payments when they install the lines. You can still hunt the easements.
Elevation change is going to be minimal west of I-35, more so east of I-35 unless you consider the lawton area.
Deer weight size is bigger in the NW with big racks, but the most B&C come from the SE, but the big bucks weigh about 1/3 less than those from the NW.
If there is farmable ground for grains, hay, etc you can lease that part out to make your land payments. The farmer renting the property will be planting food plots for you.
Most heavily timbered areas don't hold a lot of wildlife. Sunlight can't reach the ground to create forbs and brush that the deer prefer to eat. your better off IMHO with some property that has a dense forest/high grass area for a sanctuary area that they can bed in with food plots on the other side that requires travel to get to them.
Perfect layout.
I'll think of more later probably, but that is it for now.

 

[Tanis143]

I would say easy/semi-quick access to a city. Maybe a rural internet provider other than DSL. Some electrical co-ops are running fiber in rural areas. And right now, no flood plains where a house will be built.

 

[Judi]

Look at,.. Sequoyah, or Adair counties........mountains, freedom....everything you are seeking...plus nice prices

Very rural....Great people,....

 

[filbert]

First is access, you want a county road. Everything else is a headache. If you have to fight about easements or right of ways you are screwed. People come and go, so you have to deal with this as long as you own the property, county road stays there. The best county road is when you have a county commissioner living on it. LOL

 

[Dumpstick]

I have to agree with @filbert ; county road access. The headaches from dealing with neighbors over shared privately maintained roads is a major problem. If you must be on a private road, at least be the closest one to the County maintained road.

Live water will thin the choices dramatically. Also, if you are on live water, be on the inside of the curve of the river. The outside of the curve means the river will eat your land every flood. I've seen many, many acres just disappear to the water (look up Twin Lakes, south of Crescent and west of Guthrie).

 

[Okie4570]

Which side of the state do you prefer to live on?

 

[MacFromOK]

First is access, you want a county road. Everything else is a headache.

This, this... a thousand times this!

I never had these problems, but I know some folks that have. Doesn't matter if the nicest person in the world grants you an easement. People die, and multiple heirs can be a nightmare. Every... single... day...

 

[SoonerP226]

This, this... a thousand times this!

I never had these problems, but I know some folks that have. Doesn't matter if the nicest person in the world grants you an easement. People die, and multiple heirs can be a nightmare. Every... single... day...

Yep. There have been a couple of threads here over the last year about problems with bad neighbors and private roads. Even if you have perfect neighbors when you buy, people die or move away, and you never can tell what kind of jackwagon will buy the place.

 

[SoonerP226]

Personally, I think I'd want the forest percentage to be closer to 50%, but if you're looking at 160 acres, 75% could be OK, although it pretty much limits you to east of I-35. My place is somewhere around 90% forested, and I can tell you that trees are terrible litterbugs. And it's not just the leaves and acorns--I've had oaks drop branches that you couldn't move with anything smaller than a Ford 8N tractor. Plus, they're attractive to termites, carpenter ants (those bastards *love* blackjack oaks), and spiders.