Buying a horse property.. what would put you off ?

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TinyTrigger

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Just interested. We bought our own house/yard 2 years ago and there was nothing that put us off. It was in an ideal area with everything we needed although the whole place needed/still needs some tlc.

Discussing with a friend about a house on the market at a very good price (on for €220k) not too far from us. 3 bed, 1 bath house in nice condition (wouldn't need much doing bar decoration to your own taste), 4 acres, stable block with 4 stables & a bit of a barn. Nice local hacking, close to big towns (10mins to one and 20mins to another) with local village amenities. Close to large EC's and good (motorway) road links. Great hunting country with plenty of choice (of packs).

The only downsides are slightly small room sizes (it's a cottagey type bungalow) and proximity to a fast A road (that she hates!)

I wouldn't consider those things as "bad" as you could live with them easily for the house/land it is and for the price it is. For me, dealbreakers would be a lack of hacking (quiet lanes will do - but access to off road hacking is ideal) and being directly on an A road or similar. An arena was on the list but wouldn't have been the end of the world if property didn't have one - we got lucky and our house came with one!

What would put you off a property that you could keep your horses on ?
 
We are so packed in these days that most people have to live somewhere with something others wouldn't like eg, trains, motorways, airports, sewage works, industrial units so for me their is very little that would put me off tbh.

I wouldn't want to live near a cemetery or abattoir if'm honest but thats all that springs to mind.
 
Hmmm.. abbatoir.. actually I really don't think I could do that one .

The cemetery would freak me out but I could probably live with it - spooky yes but would be worse living near live people who were a nightmare!
 
lived next to church yard which was fine
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the land would put me off if it got very wet in winter
 
lack of safe hacking, too close to a major road, any huge pylons close by would be the initial no-nos.
umm, when i was looking for this place i found 1 that was suspiciously cheap for what was there. it transpired that there was a very large gypsy/traveller encampment at the end of the field. i don't think i could cope with that unless i knew they were the, umm, good, honest, non-kleptomanical type.
 
We live right out in the sticks anyway, the only thing that would put me off would be poor hacking or lack of short hacking routes. It's 15 minutes drive to an A road from where we live, and ten minutes to a mere B road!
 
I think i'd be more tolerant of things anyway, cos the fact I'd have my horses at home would outweigh noise etc. I have my yard near a motorway and love it cos I come from London and complete silence freaks me out, also the babies get so used to noise / activity they really behave when they go out and about cos they've seen it all before. I also didn't buy my land as a rural idyll but as an investment. Big developments are getting closer so who knows and I might aswell use the land for the horses in the meantime.

But, I've seen flats built 20ft from the M3 and I wouldn't chose to live there. If I didn't have a specific reason and was just sitting in a flat I'd chose somewhere prettier.
 
very large gypsy/traveller encampment at the end of the field. [ QUOTE ]


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Actually thats one I hadn't thought of and yes thats a definite no no.
 
I saw dozens of properties when I was looking.

Some, to be frank, needed a gallon of gas and a match.

Others had good land (50 acres +) and NO fencing whatsoever but were down to crops (expensive to re-grass) Others had no barns or workshops.

I crossed off anything on busy roads too.(Dogs, cats etc) Or anything that looked wet - read bottomless bog (luckily we were viewing when it had been wet for a couple of weeks)

We bought one with just 2 acres of fenced paddocks and have had to fence over 4km of boundary just to keep stock off the road - that would put me off if I was doing it again, I could have put in a covered in-ground pool for less.

Hacking, again, if I had more time (and money) I would have been a lot fussier.

House, MUST be in move in condition, I don't care about having to slap paint on a few walls and minor stuff, but major renovations (roof, waterproof basement etc) were a complete no-no.

Neighbours - again. Very, very fussy, absolutely none within spitting distance, that was essential. I cannot bear having someone being close enough to see the label on my knickers when I hang them out! I wouldn't even get out of the car to look if the house was within 200m of another one.

Three were fabulous, all within our budget, lovely houses, all over 100 acres, good outbuildings, except, that they were all within a mile of chicken farms and when the wind blows in the right direction you really didn't want to be within 5 miles of them. Gross. Not happening.

I don't have my dream home, but it isn't a nightmare either.
 
LOL I know what you mean about space and privacy, when I visit friends now I don't think I could go back to living in a street or estate, you're so stuck in for space you can't breathe.

When I was invited for drinks at my friends new house in the summer it was really weird all these people crammed into a 30ft garden, it was just so weird having fencing closing you in and not being able to mooch around when you become used to open space.
 
when we were looking we looked at one house that was ideal -apart from the only access to and from the property for cars and people/animals was an extremely busy A38, very close to a roundabout and there was no other access to get out hacking and not even I am crazy enough to hack any of my horses on that road
 
Saw one house that looked ideal. But as we were talking to owners in their sitting room two HUGE rats ran across the room and disappeared under the sofa. Owners didn't so much as blink so couldn't have been anything out of the ordinary. Was enough to put me off.
 
Spot the Risk

I know the one you mean as I am just living the other side of Newton Abbot now.

This house we looked at was in Cornwall near to Trerulefoot roundabout where the A38 was single carriageway but stioll a nightmare
 
A footpath or bridleway across the land. From bitter experience I will never ever buy another property that has a right of way across it.
 
Quality of grazing - lived with 5 acres of ragwort for 6 yrs and soul destroying trying to get rid off the blasted stuff! Then access to off road hacking.
 
We live in our perfect house - and got it cheaper than it should have been because it needed so much doing. I can do fencing, weed killing, maintenance, building works etc. But I needed good grazing and at least 2 acres per stable - 16 stables 32 acres. I wanted property we could improve but that had all the basics there. Absolute show stoppers for me:any sort of mining underneath, but no tin mining as liklihood of arsenic poisoning in land. Not clay soil (huge problem in Devon) Good free draining soil - no marsh grass. No footpaths/bridleways through (had a horse attacked when he was kept on a bridle path). No travellers/gypsy camps within a 10 mile radius. No riding on main roads/rat runs. No close neighbours ( by which I mean at least 1 field away). No pylons. No wind farms. No caravan/camping sites. I know I am fussy but we got exactly what we wanted - Here
 
Bosworth - I am coming to live with you ( I will unfortunately have to bring my hubbie, and 2 small children as well!)

Seriously, that is exactly the kind of place I want!!!!! Lucky you! (although I shouldnt be too greedy as do have 4 acres and 2 stables at home already!)
 
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Bosworth - I am coming to live with you ( I will unfortunately have to bring my hubbie, and 2 small children as well!)

Seriously, that is exactly the kind of place I want!!!!! Lucky you! (although I shouldnt be too greedy as do have 4 acres and 2 stables at home already!)

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Me too, I want to live there. Its just beautiful bosworth. I currently dont own, me and OH will hopefully buy, but it will be a bog standard house, no land or anything, he is not a country bumpkin like me, but I hope in time we will have something more rural
 
Land on a steep slope or poor soil would put me off. Poor hacking would put me off too. Neighbours wouldnt be too much of a problem. I would prefer a house I could live in or that would be habitable before winter. I would also prefer a smaller house.

Pylons and footpaths would also put me off as would the gypsy encampment and cemetery!

Being in an area of outstanding natural beauty/national park would put me off too if horse facilities were not in place.
 
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A footpath or bridleway across the land. From bitter experience I will never ever buy another property that has a right of way across it.

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Ditto this, the footpath that runs along the other side of our wall is bad enough! Also when we were looking we rejected 2 houses that would have been perfect as ideally we wanted something that could be divided into two, the first because the motorway was at the other side of the fence (not safe for cats & JRTs even if double fenced for horses) and the other because the land was too steep in one field and too wet in another. We have since found that the latter is in a frost pocket and stays cold and dark most of winter, so are particularly glad we opted for our south-facing property, even if it is impossible to divide.
 
We brought a thatched house, 6 stables & 10 acres, it was lovely at the time but now in hindsight if I could choose again I would not have any clay soil (yuck) that would be the first thing I would check out, I would also check if I could find somewhere that isn't as windy as here but I don't know if that would be possible
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And off road hacking directly from the yard so my dog could come with me
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