How did you find your equestrian property?

[FlyingCircus]

I'm desperate to move from where I am. Fields are more like lakes and there are so many comings and goings that my mare finds it very stressful.

I'd love for a bit of peace and quiet by ourselves with land I can maintain as I want.

Have an eye on all the regular sites. Is there anywhere I might be missing?

For anyone fancying some window shopping I'm looking either New Forest sort of way or Suffolk. Budget up to £1m. 2+ acres and would love for there to be some stables in a logical place. Only kicker is my OH wants the house to be decent too (spoilsport), which has meant many of my suggestions get thrown out!

 

[Sprogladite01]

I found mine in the 'Equestrian property for rent/sale UK' group on facebook. Spotted it at about midnight one evening, went to view next day, offered and accepted the following. May be worth sticking a 'wanted' post up It was advertised via Cheffins for what it's worth (I'm based in Cambs but I'm close to the Suffolk border). Good luck in your search!

 

[tda]

We had seen and considered ours a few years previous (only a few miles from where we lived before) but we couldn't afford it anyway, then he decided not to sell.
We were out walking years later and saw the board, it is half a mile from the main road and that was the only sign up . I dont even think it was advertised in the newspaper.
We had trailed the all over the north of England /north wales/southern scotland looking for something

 

[TGM]

Our experience was 26 years ago so may not help you much! We decided to sell our cottage and move further away from London to get somewhere with a little bit of land. Had no problem getting an offer on our place, but finding somewhere with land to buy was proving more problematic. I had literally got to the point where I was going to give up, when I was flicking through the local paper and saw an estate agent's advert for several properties. There was one with no photo just saying 'looking for paddocks'. I assumed it was just for paddocks only, but read it anyway just to be nosey, and it turned out to be a cottage attached to the 2.5 acres of land as well! I rang the agents there and then and arranged to view it the very next day. They were surprised we didn't want to see the property details first, but we knew we had to act fast as other places had sold before we viewed them. Viewed it, made an offer straightaway which was accepted, but then the vendor lost the property she was after so we had to wait ages for her to find another one, which was very stressful!

 

[Abacus]

Rural Scene (where I found mine, although it's in the village near me so I knew it was for sale anyway)
UK land and farms

One way of doing it if it's too hard to find the right house + land is to buy the land in a place you like, and find a house near enough. Not quite as lovely as having them right at home but it's a lot easier to find what you want without compromising too much on either. We did this in reverse; had lived here for 9 years when my yard came up for sale, and at that time my horses were half an hour away. It is only a 1 minute drive or 5 minute walk from home and is the next best thing to having it all in one property.

 

[Abacus]

Or you can search for land on rightmove...
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/126967187#/?channel=COM_BUY

OK that is somerset, but...

 

[Sugarplum Furry]

A lot of smaller independant estate agents won't advertise on the main selling sites like Primelocation and Rightmove due to the cost. We worked out if you Google search 'local estate agents near or in' the area you're interested in you'll find properties for sale which haven't been advertised nationwide.

We rented a holiday let in the area we were interested in, scoured the local papers and estate agents windows in the town and found our house and land within a month.

 

[millitiger]

I bought 18 months ago, a house with 7 acres.

Every morning at 7am I ran my saved search in RightMove, within the drawn area I had specified, with key word of 'acres.'

I think it took about 5 months, a few viewings which weren't right and a purchase that fell through... but no joke, it was searching EVERY day and making sure you are first to call the agents!

Next thing is what situation are you in?
I was sold, chain free, with mortgage in place which put me in a really strong position to offer with.
Also meant I went from submitting my offer to completion in 10 weeks which was great.

 

[dixie]

I wish I knew. I’ve been searching for over two years. This market is brutal and land prices are still crazy high.
we have a small search area and a high price area which isn’t helping ?
I’m on Rightmove several times a day and regularly ring the estate agents.

 

[HorseMaid]

We haven't got a house with land but did buy some land earlier this year after nearly a year of searching, it was advertised through a site that usually deals in farmers markets/livestock auctions etc, they didn't advertise on Rightmove or anything and they don't really do Facebook either, I think we were lucky as it was a great price.

What we also did was contact all the estate agents and tell them what we wanted, then they would email us in advance of anything going online.

With regards to having a house and land separately we are now planning to move to a house a bit closer to the land we have bought which is the best we are going to be able to manage!

 

[southerncomfort]

Once we'd identified the area we wanted to move to I googled a list of all the local agents covering the area and contacted as many as I could to let them know what we were looking for.

Equestrian properties are still selling quickly and a lot never even make it on to websites.

The other thing you can do is join local community FB group's and post on them with what you're looking for.

 

[irishdraft]

It took us 10 years of searching various areas before I found our present property. It was advertised with an agricultural property agent the minute I saw it we immediately viewed & agreed to pay full price then & there. I was checking all sites almost daily .We were also in a good position as we were living in rented .

 

[Bobthecob15]

Post on the Facebook community posts for areas you are looking in, you'll probably get a few people reply we did! Several hadn't put their houses on the market yet but were thinking about it. Definitely worth a try

 

[Crugeran Celt]

My horse was at livery and when out riding I often passed a property I loved, on a quiet lane with a small field behind it and a patch of land along side the house just the right size to put a few stables. I mentioned the property to my husband and he wanted to go and see it, hadn't ridden that way for a week or two so when we drove up the lane and there was a for sale sign on it just seemed destined to be ours. Only had three acres and we had three horses but decided to buy anyway. Moved in, built stables and managed the land for a few months when a neighbour who owned a seven acre field directly behind our three acres offered to sell it. Couldn't believe our luck. We then also had use of another five acres of land above us as owner no longer had animals and wanted it grazed. This year a five acre field opposite our house and a two acre field above our three acre paddock came on the market so bought them as well. Perfect little set up and the best thing we did.

 

[catembi]

I chose the four biggest property sites, rightmove, onthemarket & whatever the other two are. I had in mind four locations that I wanted to live near-ish. I then checked all four sites every day for properties between £x and £y within z miles of the four locations. I set the budget to be likely to encompass properties which had land. (I also checked all the sites like rural scene, landandfarms etc.)

I did this for ages, and one day I was three quarters of the way through my checks and thought, why TF am I even bothering? Kept going...and this house came up! Non equestrian property, but with 4 acre garden/wilderness. Went to see it the following day & put in an offer that same day. Job's a good 'un! If I had just stuck to looking on the equestrian sites, I would have missed it & it's the most perfect, perfect place for me.

 

[Rowreach]

Agree with Catembi, don't restrict yourself to "equestrian" properties, the last one I bought was a beef farm (bull pens make great stables).

We are currently trying to buy a place which came up practically on the doorstep, after looking for somewhere in a huge search area, and having three of them fall through for various reasons. I have a horrible feeling we won't get the nearby place either, as the sellers are being very awkward, so our search is continuing ...

The keyword filter is the bane of my life - I've still not worked out what the best words are to use, so many things you think should work manage to miss potentially ideal properties.

 

[mhorses]

It took me a few years of keeping an eagle eye on a daily basis on rightmove in the area I desired to live and finally something appropriate came up. It was a house I had passed by many times before and never realised it had a paddock behind it. I paid a lot more than I wanted to but made big sacrifices to make it work. Good luck

 

[FlyingCircus]

This is filling me with a bit of hope!!

I concur the keyword searches are absolutely pants. Especially when they pick up "1/3 acre garden" when I'm searching for actual acreage!

In fairness we do need to stick ours on market but have had it valued and have a number of people interested in viewing should it come on market. I know it doesn't make us the most proceedable, but I'd hate to make someone wait potentially a year + for me to find somewhere that I like and can afford! Estate agent didn't seem at all concerned about selling as I'm very lucky to have bought in an up and coming area that houses are like hens teeth in.

 

[sport horse]

Little tiny ad in local paper one Thursday morning. Cottage and 12 acres. Viewed it that day and bought it for asking price subject to it being removed from the market. Previous owners lived here for 25 years and we have been here for 45 years!

 

[J&S]

We waited patiently for 20 years to be able to buy the field behind our house! Thank heavens we did, as now with OH wheelchair bound, i simply would not have time to keep travelling back and forth to rented livery.

 

[Ahrena]

RightMove with search tags.
Still had to filter out a lot of crap.

I also only had half your budget but was open to move pretty much anywhere.

We’re moving to a beautiful cottage on 8 acres with a school and stables hopefully around spring time.

 

[southerncomfort]

Also, with regards to the house be open minded about number of bedrooms. For instance if you're looking for a 3 bed, don't be put off looking at a 2 bed with an extra reception room that could be converted to another bedroom.

You're unlikely to get everything you want in terms of property and land/facilities so be open minded and be prepared to compromise on some things.