That needle in a haystack
by Michelle on July 28, 2009
in Buying in NH
Sometimes it feels like finding the right buyer for a property is like finding a needle in a haystack…
I have had one particular lot of land on the market for almost a year now. Land usually takes longer to sell than a residential home anyway, but I have had so much activity on this lot… at least a few calls or emails a week (which is quite a bit!), but nobody serious enough to make an offer. Usually if a property is shown a number of times and there are no offers, we have to assume that there is a pricing problem. In this case, though, the price is not the issue.
This lot is a very unique lot. A total of about 13 acres, smack dab in the middle of a few hundred acres of conservation land. The lot includes a logging road almost a mile long, 50 feet of frontage on Ossipee Lake, and hundreds of feet of frontage on both sides of the Bearcamp River. And…did I mention the conservation land? It is surrounded the `Bearcamp Woodlands`, a conservation area maintained by the New England Forestry Fund. It is a fabulous property.
What you can not do, though, is build on this lot. Maybe in the future you will be able to when they develop a super clean and tiny and effective septic system and they relax the NH Shoreline Protection Act. But for now (unless you know someone very important and really enjoy jumping though hoops)… you can not.
So, as I was saying, I have been getting a lot of activity on this lot. Mostly buyers – unrepresented buyers – who assumed they could build on the lot. If the buyer was represented by an agent, the agent would have been able to see that the lot would not support a septic and would be able to explain to them the Shoreline Protection Act and all of the red tape involved with building on or even remotely near the water these days. Do you think, really, that a 13 acre waterfront lot priced at $79K is not going to have some sort of issue?
I have always known that this lot will make an incredible camping spot, vacation spot, get-away-from-reality spot for one lucky family. River frontage where the river is wide, crystal clear, and deep, perfect for swimming. Lake frontage with views into a Loon Sanctuary. And, of course, amazing privacy. LUCKILY, though, I do think I have found the perfect buyers…(or more accurately…they found me!).
You do not know how happy it makes me that these folks are realistic about the lot. They know they will never subdivide. They know they will never built a mansion. They know they may never be able to build at all. They know that locals have been walking down this logging road for generations, and are probably still going to no matter what . They are exciting about finding that perfect camping spot for family weekends and campfires and (hopefully) lot of s`mores! They are realistic and excited about what they are getting – and that could not make me happier.
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