And now, it's time for "another offer" on the family estate

[67Dart273]

NObody was more surprised than I, in the dead of winter, we got an offer on the place. You who've been following might remember a sale didn't go through last year. Neither offer actually makes the county appraised tax assessment, which is a bit disappointing, but another "glitch" was finding out that nearly half the approx 35 acres has been declared wetlands.

The proposed buyer seems pretty excited. He wants to fix up the house, and live in a country place. This is sort of what I've been saying all along............within a mile of the local town, yet it has the atmosphere of being 20mi in the country...........

10404/Nna W Pine St, Sandpoint, ID, 83864 - 3 bed / 1.0 bath | Windermere

Overhead shot bearing generally east. You can see my "now gone" black Dakota parked in back, and the junker "White Whale" by the barn. My POS sister as you can see allowed nearly half the roof to blow off the barn. This could have been fixed by two good men in one day's work

The obvious tree line going from bottom left towards top right and then to the right top around past the house is the trees and foliage resulting from the drainage "creek". This is not a named creek and goes dry nearly every summer. This is only the beginning of the wetlands problem.

"What we thought" was the west (front) hayfield LOL turns out to be "wetlands"

Looking sort of north at the front/ west field, or "used to be." Hard to believe we were able to plow, plant, mow, and run equipment in that "marsh" that is quite (NOT) obviously a wetlands!!!

Looking generally north from just about above the house. The trees down the middle is the "creek." The field at left is the west/ front field (or was!!!) and the one at rear is the "back field" out past the barn

A view looking S from the house out to the street. You can't see the neighbor's house across the street. The "creek"/ trees to the left (east) isolate you from the neighbors a few hundred feet away, and there is no one close to the W, SW, or S

I think you can see the "country" atmosphere, and I cannot believe people are not clamboring for it

Looking SW. Yup. Deer, out own private field full LOL The city limits of the local town are less than a mile away. The limits I think were moved and may be a LOT closer

 

[67Dart273]

My "boyhood stairway." No idea how many times I've been up and down those. Yeh. I know. "Campy" cowboy wallpaper.

Part of what was my brother's and my bedroom. The door into the small room was for my two sisters. The junk on the floor is insulation where someone inspected the attic

 

[Treblig]

Looks like a nice piece of land besides the flood plain problem. Would you be allowed (or someone else) to bring in soil and build up the property so that water doesn't collect on the low lying areas??

 

[Jadaharabi]

Thought Trump was rolling back the wet land thing.

 

[Ddaddy]

Wet land regs are complicated since an area doesn’t have to be actually “wet” all the time to be classified as one. If it collects water at certain times of the year and that water replenishes the Forrest area around it or the aquifer below it, it falls into a certain class. But, it is still considerd a “wetland” area.

If you can sell it at the price of this latest offer and be content with what you get, go for it.

Getting wetland designations changed is nearly impossible so the buyer will always have to accept it for what it is now since it won’t be changed easily.

 

[fishmens67]

Wetlands or 35-50 condo's, I like the wetland idea.

 

[67Dart273]

Looks like a nice piece of land besides the flood plain problem. Would you be allowed (or someone else) to bring in soil and build up the property so that water doesn't collect on the low lying areas??

There is no "flood plain problem" other than the fig neuton in the imagination of whoever "declares" this **** wetlands. Like I said earlier, I don't know "how" we ever managed to run tractors and other equipment on the "swamp" of a hayfield.

Wetlands is a bunch of bullshit. Essentially "they" declare it so, and you have to try and fight it. I'm told very few win. It essentially takes your land with no just cause

You have a front lawn? YOU could have a "wetlands" according to "them"

 

[RustyRatRod]

Wow. Keep us posted. I sure hope this offer works out.

 

[Louie70Dart]

Yeah, hope this works out for you also. About time you get a break on that property.

 

[oldkimmer]

I hope everything works out fir u Del. Good luck buddy. Kim

 

[fishmens67]

There is a buyer for every property, I believe that in the end, Del gets the place sold for a decent profit and with the wetland designation, his family homestead will remain virtually untouched for many years to come.
The truth is, we need to slow down development/ destruction of our beautiful state.
Certain Federal designations help with that.
It may sound as if I'm a tree hugger, I'm not, far from it.

 

[inkjunkie]

When we were looking for a place the realtor showed us what, at that time, was a drug house. Had a seasonal pond/stream on it. Guy that bought the place restored the damn near destroyed house and removed the trashed outbuildings. Drove by it a few years back and saw a For Sale sign on it, and someone sitting on the porch. I stopped, just out of curiosity. Back when we looked at it the place was banked owned, the bank wanted $45k for it. Woman I spoke with said that they spend nearly double that getting it to its present state. She told me that buying it was the biggest mistake they made, shortly after purchasing it all but the square footage that the house was sitting on was declared "wetlands"....and that designation was making it damn near impossible to sell.

 

[67Dart273]

There is a buyer for every property, I believe that in the end, Del gets the place sold for a decent profit and with the wetland designation, his family homestead will remain virtually untouched for many years to come.
The truth is, we need to slow down development/ destruction of our beautiful state.
Certain Federal designations help with that.
It may sound as if I'm a tree hugger, I'm not, far from it.

If the gobt wants wetlands they need to PAY for them, it is that simple. This is not wilderness it is private land. And it is NOT wetlands. At least not any 15 acres. "The creek", MAYBE. Hell we never did anything with it, anyhow.

If you were to walk W of the house up into the woods on the hill, say, early in the spring after snow melt, maybe, April, or even mid-late March some years, you would not say to yourself "this is wetlands." You would say "this is a wooded hillside"

And this was not done with our input or even being informed. We found out after the fact. It was done by some asshole drone sitting on his *** looking at a computer map

 

[68gtxman]

30 years ago, I went to get a permit to build an attached garage. They refused to give me one because the NJ state passed a wetlands act. Since they didn’t have a wetlands map yet, the law said any unimproved land that wasn’t flood land was now considered wetlands unless you could get the NJ DEP to declare it otherwise. I called the DEP and they said that they didn’t control this and they couldn’t do anything about it. They told me that the US Army Corps of Engineers had to issue a declaration or else they wouldn’t do anything. Well, I know the COE and I asked them to help. They of course said that this was a NJ state issue and they had no authority to declare anything non-wetlands or wetlands. I asked him if I gave him proof that the garage addition location clearly wasn’t wetlands, would he give me a letter saying just that. He agreed and did so. Then I took his letter to the DEP and they gave me a letter saying that the COE said my location was not wetlands. Then I took the DEP letter to the township construction office and they gave me a permit. A month later, my neighbors all had permits too. I asked them how they got permits and they all said that the construction office said that since I got permission from the DEP, all my neighborhood must be good as well!

Anything involving any level of government is a royal pain in the rear end!

Good luck Del!

 

[67Dart273]

^^Thanks^^........This is the kind of horror stories I'm running into "around the internet." I've come to the conclusion that "Do you have a front yard? Do you grow anything on it? Weeds? Then it's wetlands!!"

 

[MileHighDart]

We’ll, regardless of the wetlands issue. I hope you make the sale and get a decent price for it.

 

[67Dart273]

We’ll, regardless of the wetlands issue. I hope you make the sale and get a decent price for it.

You have to temper "what you think it's worth" with a few things...........

1....My share of last summer's failed sale was 9K of interest money, and I was told that was high. The sellers must have started out being fairly serious to put down 20K in interest

2....If I was say, 40, I'd wait and maybe try and fight the wetlands deal. And wait for the next "up" cycle But I'm 70. We just lost some members here, I've lost some friends this last year, how much time, really do I have?

3....Interest rates are climbing, and things are looking volatile. The financial guys I deal with (took care of Mom and Dad's finances) think this is as good as we'll do, considering all this, and that the emloyment/ economy is starting to cool again. It might be a few more years before another "up" trend. Hell I might not even be "here."

4....Considering the terrible performance of my so called sister, this being sold will allow me to distance myself from her forever.

 

[Ddaddy]

You have to temper "what you think it's worth" with a few things...........

1....My share of last summer's failed sale was 9K of interest money, and I was told that was high. The sellers must have started out being fairly serious to put down 20K in interest

2....If I was say, 40, I'd wait and maybe try and fight the wetlands deal. And wait for the next "up" cycle But I'm 70. We just lost some members here, I've lost some friends this last year, how much time, really do I have?

3....Interest rates are climbing, and things are looking volatile. The financial guys I deal with (took care of Mom and Dad's finances) think this is as good as we'll do, considering all this, and that the emloyment/ economy is starting to cool again. It might be a few more years before another "up" trend. Hell I might not even be "here."

4....Considering the terrible performance of my so called sister, this being sold will allow me to distance myself from her forever.

Peace of mind of being done with it is worth a fair bit too. I hope it all works out, you deserve a break.