Some questions about owning acreage

[mark]

The wife and I live in the heart of Melbourne, but we're thinking about purchasing some acreage in country vic. We're looking at anywhere from 30+ acres with some of the properties being as large as 100acres.

Preferably we'd have wooded land with a little bit of clearing for animals, house site, etc.

For those who live on acreage, what does an average day look like for you? How often do you run through your properties and clear/maintain the wooded areas?

[woodPixel]

I know nothing of the question, but I'm enjoying a book you should grab: Heartwood: Growing Trees for Conservation and Profit - Australian Agroforestry Foundation

If on Facebook, there is Bambra Agroforestry Farm @ https://www.facebook.com/agroforestry.net.au/

Your question is something that has been on my mind for some time!

[BobL]

Have several friends with wooded acreage ranging form about 30 to 100 acres.

The retired friends acreage I have coffee with on a every other week basis have about 200 acres about 300 km away from the city where they normally reside. 30 acres of the 200 are prime bush with lots of native plants like the local orchids, and remainder is cleared and fenced and leased to neighbours as pasture. There are also about 5 acres around the house which contains a small orchard and numerous trees (native and otherwise) which they planted back in the 1970s when they lived there full time.

Recently he told me he spends about 2 days a month managing just the bush part and the trees around his house. Apart from taking down large trees that are too close to his house, he does everything else like maintain fire breaks, clearing up leaf and dropped branches around the house and pruning to maintain views etc. The branches and trees that get removed provide them with a stead supply of firewood. Every time I see him after he's been away for a spot of pruning and firewood cutting etc he comes back scratched and exhausted and also a couple of kg lighter! Not really my idea of fun - I can't even keep up with an 1/8th acre city block!. He says if he could afford it he would get it more of it done professionally.

[TermiMonster]

Something to be aware of: some councils no longer grant permits to build on blocks less than 100 acres. If there's an existing house, no probs. (i'm not sure how widespread that is).
TM

[rustynail]

We have always lived on acreage. I could not imagine any of our family in a suburban home.
There are pros and cons. One needs more time the larger the block. There is always something to do. Prioritizing is important. Rural knowledge makes life easier. For the uninitiated, progress is usually slow or costly. Mistakes are more punctual and also costly.
Just choosing a viable block requires more than a passing interest in rural living. Aspect, water, soil type, deficiencies, just to name a few. All traps for young players.

[Christos]

This is not in the ball park of what you are asking about as we only have 5 acres. The area originally was farming land and what we gathered is more for grazing not crop growing. It has been sub-divided into 6 titles, where 2 are 20 acres and the other 4 are 5 acres each. When we built it required electricity and water to be run the length of the street then to the house. The driveway is road base and needed a pipe to be installed for the water to run under the driveway when it rained.

When you build a house you basically get a house, no landscaping the rest you have to do for yourself. One of our neighbors has basically fenced off 4 acres of his land and put sheep on that part of his property so he only has to look after lawn around the house along with the trees that have been planted. Another neighbor has planted tress along the driveway and at the back of his property where the house is situated. The rest of the land he plans to have some farm animal(sheep maybe). Until then he mows the lawn with a ride on mower which can take around 5 hours to mow. We have a similar situation as we planted tress along our driveway and installed a watering system to give them a good start but the rest of the property is just grass and we use a ride on mower to keep the grass low again about 5 hours to mow. We mow every 3 or 4 weeks during summer and winter 4 to 5 weeks depending on how quickly the grass grows.

Our property is clay and to dig into that requires quite a lot of effort when it is dry. But after it rains for a fair amount of time this clay becomes mud, much easier to dig but not good when you are walking around. So there is a balanced that it needed to pave or concrete around the house and have some grass that will allow some water runoff away from the house. We have seen two of the neighbours have quite a bit of mud at a certain part of the property(house) where the water just sits there. I have asked one of them on what they were going to do, they said that they will add drainage to that part of the property then he added that it takes time to get this done with all the other stuff he has on his plate.

I guess what I am saying is that being on a rural property takes a little bit of work to get things to a point that it will almost take care of itself. Although at this stage I don't think it will be a short term thing.

[DaveVman]

I have been there done that. I enjoyed it but this is very definitely not for everyone. This lifestyle means a lot of time tending to your property, which is not going to give you a profit. That matters because there's always something to spend money on. Not spending the money means you spend more of your own time and energy. Very often somethings can not wait.
One day my neighbor was home with the flu. Her sheep got out. I found her out her sick bed walking all over our property hearding her sheep back home.
That's nothing.

The volume of work is flexible. But somethings are not optional. A broken water pump has to be fixed or replaced immediately.

So make very sure you have a decent annual on going budget to maintain your property.

Personally I loved replacing fences, water pipes and everything else every weekend and some evenings. Doing stuff not related to the property like visiting friends was the exception.

Whatever time you think you will spend on the property, times that by something. There's not a certain amount of time because the amount of time you could spend is almost endless if you have the energy.
It depends what quality of property you want. It could be a dump or it could be on a magazine cover.
Most people try to improve things enough to the point that things run fairly smoothly. Note that there are always things to do if you have animals. Not having animals has its own issues.

Also there's a lot to learn and you can keep improving things if you want to improve productivity rather than just maintaining things.

Unless you really want to care for animals, think long and hard about how much pasture you will have. Too much is too much work for a hobby. Too little can bring it's own problems.

Consider renting first. In my observation most people give up and move back to the city.
Personally I had to give it away thanks to a messy divorce.


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[rrich]

My thought is "What about property taxes?"

[Optimark]

My thought is "What about property taxes?"

In Australia you get 2 hectares to go with your house, anything outside of that is taxable.

http://law.ato.gov.au/atolaw/view.ht...199967/nat/ato

Mick.

[mark]

Some great responses, thanks everyone.

In terms of taxes, the plan is to buy it, establish it while we're working and then retire there, so capital gains tax is less of a concern at this point, and I'm sure the law will change every few years from now until then given the clowns in charge at the moment.

The upkeep is my main concern. I really wanted wooded acreage to try and keep the slashing/grass maintenance down. My hope was that wooded acreage for the most part takes care of itself and only requires a little bit of cleanup, i.e. fallen trees cleanup.

I really had my heart set on more land rather than less so that I can establish a holiday home for the kids when I retire and live up their full time, and giving them a bit of isolation/privacy could help the space feel more like theirs.

But in my older years I worry that I might get too tired, too bored and too sore to effectively manage the property.

[KBs PensNmore]

My Sister and BIL had about 5 acres out of Darwin, they had to sell up because it got too much work for him, mowing virtually every couple of weeks, watering etc.
With wooded areas, fire would/should be of the greatest concern, sure the house can be rebuilt, but what about the sentimental stuff. If I was to be in a position to have property like that, I'd build a bunker that was fire proof, and be able to hold several people, while the fire went over and it was safe to get out. Also a large dam that would catch the the run off water and be used as a sprinkler system on the house and shed.
To cut down on the cleanup around the trees, you could run sheep or cattle to keep the grass down, and have a little bit of money coming in.
Kryn

[DaveVman]

You CAN fence off wooded acreage and let it care for itself. There's a fire risk but I'm sure you knew that.
What you need to consider is the home paddock size and how you will care for that. It doesn't have to be a lot of work.
You will have to be a handyman but you probably already are.
Plus I know a few rural men who are extremely fit into their advanced years which is no coincidence. Go for it.

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[tonzeyd]

Met a chap who owns a fairly large block down the road from me (gumtree buyer) whilst having a chat with the bloke and got onto the topic of large properties and apparently your insurance goes through the roof and the amount of hoops you need to jump through in order to be complaint when your block reaches a certain size. Can't remember the number he quoted but might be worth looking into especially if you don't need all the land.

In WA after the recent bush fires (Yarloop), every block of land has a fire rating depending on how close they are to bush land etc, in order to purchase a new block of land you need to get a specialist to "rate" your land this is a very expensive process and can significantly limit what you can/can't do and what you have to do to maintain the regulations the council has set.