I absolutely would keep the land. You won’t be sorry!
Agreed, resize it and keep the land. Very common where I live (big farming bux, never a failed crop, no lie it’s a legit boast for the region) and you see houses surrounded by land they don’t farm.
I really think anyone putting up deerstands can’t legitimately call themselves a “hunter”. I mean shooting human habituated animals is not sport by any stretch if even the most febrile imagination. They are just fuckwits with gun access. No doubt there are a myriad of excuses, none worth bothering with. Unless they pack in on foot or horse, they are not much more than hunting from their sofas (the atv types are about as useless)
You can’t stop them, so resize the lot, keep the land, and sell to people who are interested in a pretty garden. If they hunt, you still can’t control it, but they won’t be the sit-on-the-back-porch-picking-off-easy-shots non-hunter types.
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What condition is the land in? Is it wooded or pasture land? I would imagine that wooded might attract hunters, but if it is set up for livestock or horses you have a greater chance of a resident not allowing hunting. IOW, try to market to someone with similar interests. You might first try word of mouth that you “might” sell to a small or hobby farmer.
BTW I am not a hunter but I have nothing against deer stands or even baiting. I figure it increases the likelihood of a clean shot and quick death which is my main concern. The sport aspect doesn’t matter to the animal.
I much prefer stands, in New England a clear sight is going to be less than 50 yards, often under 25 yards. My concern is far more for a clean shot, with a safe backstop than for ‘sport’. A good hunter is one who cares about safety, clean shooting, and population management, not sport or trophy.
But, in any case, resize the land and keep it. Another option would be to see if you could sell it to a conservation group and let them deal with the headache of a deed restriction. Many land trusts are now working towards having the skill set and the funds to protect their lands and easements in ways that are specifically tailored to the needs of the property.
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We’ve been using the house as a guest house for a few years, and i’ve always thought that when we get too old to do everything on the farm ourselves, we’ll use it as a caretakers home but about 3 weeks ago i was mowing the lawn for final time this year and my riding mower caught on FIRE…(leaves or dry grass or something, got up in the engine). It was frightening as hell. Firedept came in time to keep the house from catching, but the entire front yard got burnt. So…now i’m kinda ‘done with it’. It wasn’t fun before, but now i am going to have to hire someone to mow the lawn…and i just don’t want to do that. I want out.
Yes, it’s wooded. Though the land is level enough to become horse property. My guess is it won’t be. This isn’t really horsey country. It’s redneck territory. Trumpland all the way. And hunters everywhere.
and well…‘hunting’ absolutely sickens me and if i can do anything to prevent selling to someone who hunts i will. The only reason i’m thinking about selling is that i’m pretty tired of taking care of the house and land, esp after the fire. I have a gazillion other things to do that are more meaningful to my life and my own farm.
You’ve gotten some good suggestions on here. I wanted to share that I get your concerns- I work for our state Wildlife agency & while I don’t hunt, I am all too familiar with the conflicts & “youcan’t make this up” insane & shockingly regular incidents. If all hunters were like my friends at work, understanding terrain & sight lines & never pulling the trigger unless they are 100% certain of target ID, I would never worry. Sadly, that is not true & giving unknown parties the benefit of the doubt when a mistake means my life is not a risk I’m willing to take. That is just being smart about your personal safety.
So I think subdividing, if you can legally do that, is a smart possibility to explore. You can’t control what someone else does with their property, but it makes it harder.
You CAN also neighbor shop. Because this is what my neighbor did when I bought my property from him. He could have made more money selling this beautiful land to someone else, but he chose me because I was compatible. Seller gets to decide. And if a buyer doesn’t want go along with whatever your selection process is, we’ll, they probably won’t be compatible anyway.
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your thinking is spot0n resonate with me.
Oh my, that must have been really scary! I can understand how that would be the last straw. And if you are looking to make your life easier, becoming a landlord is not the solution! I hope that whatever you do works out well for you.
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Just one warning if thinking of bringing into the situation any of those non-profits that promise to take care of the land for you.
There are many of those, some huge, national ones, that are less than honest.
Have several friends that, long ago, fell for those promises, but later found those non-profits had, when convenient for them, traded or sold land given to them if it didn’t serve their purposes or was considerably more valuable for other uses, like all kinds of development.
Unless that is ok with you, it is for some.
Any encumbrance to a title on your land, some of the conservation ones they pay you for those rights, gives the one gifted/buying those absolute rights to that land.
Get a very good real estate lawyer involved before signing anything, no matter what anyone promises.
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Yes, absolutely be careful. I’m on the board of our local land trust. Over the last few years we have extensively overhauled and clarified our processes for land acquisition. It really used to be a ‘wild west’ with a lot of unenforceable deed restrictions, bizarre clauses, shady deals, and so forth. Part of the transaction should specify whether or not the conservation group is taking the land for permanent conservation owned by them and their heirs/assignees in perpetuity, whether it can be sold to another entity that will honor the conservation agreement (usually the state), or if it is trade land that can be sold unrestricted.
These transactions can include pages of legalese. And it is Not boiler plate actually!
I think you really need to find yourself a lawyer to figure out what your legal options are. No one here will be able to give you facts that apply to your exact situation.
welllll…just trying to find out where i might go to find people who are nice and non-hunters to sell to. That’s pretty much all i’m asking. But COTH conversations do tend to become complicated…lol
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Not entirely true, or I would not own the house I’m sitting in now. Bought back in March- multiple offers at asking or above. We were not the highest offer but they picked us because they thought we seemed like a nice couple that was going to stay. Bought out of a trust and one of the beneficiaries owns the two houses next door. But, that’s with multiple offers.
You can decline offers below asking without much thought. I know, it happened to me. I suppose you could set the asking high, so you can decline offers from folks that you don’t want as neighbors. I imagine this happens, though I’m guessing it’s not very legal.
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hmm…good ideas. thanks.
Wow. I realize you HATE hunters, but that’s a pretty strong statement. That’s absolutely NOT the case. My husband hunts, in a deer stand, and is very concerned with not only managing populations, putting food on our table but also getting another trophy to put on our wall. You sure wouldn’t like to step foot in my house since I have 5 deer mounts, an elk, a walleye not to mention the animals we shot in South Africa, including the Zebra rug of the animal I shot. The majority of these are from bow, not rifle or shotgun. We eat every last bit of meat that we shoot (in the case of the animals in South Africa, we ate some, but the rest were donated since you can’t bring meat back home from there.)
Are you vegan or do you eat meat?
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Oh dear. A triggered hunter.
I never said “I hate hunters”
I do find those who lack sportsmanship reprehensible. Feeding and habituating your prey is a sign of weak-as-fawk “hunting.”
“I’m only concerned with a clean shot” well learn to shoot, garner some fitness so you can actually go after an animal that doesn’t think you are dropping more “deer chow” out on the stand.
I don’t care what you have on your wall, but gosh, you sure do. If that makes you feel like a hunter, well, hate to break it to you, they can wheel anyone’s lazy slice out on any canned hunt around the globe and call it a “trophy”. Better still there are farms that raise exotic meats that drive around in jeeps to “harvest” the animals. Calling it hunting or sport is a perversion of the word.
Come up to Idaho and do some back country work to get into an area where the average joe isn’t feeding deer and pretending it’s sport (and believe me you have to go far, because even the “wild” areas are hook, nook, and cranny full of people.)
Then the whole “are you a vegan” weakness. Christ on a rubber crutch. It’s not about that, it’s about animals that are not domesticated, treated as game, then lured in by incompetents who think because they have a gun they are in desperate need to shoot a wild animal. And then stoop to feeding them so they will stand still so they can be shot. If you call that sport, well, more is the pity.
You probably want to just want to block me or something. I know people who ride out to stalk and hunt and I respect the work and sport involved. I don’t respect those who just want to shoot human habituated animals. Life’s rough.
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Just curious - Do you think that a deer stand = feeding?
I don’t know about other states, but in the state I live in it is not legal to ever feed deer. We have chronic wasting disease and they don’t want deer to be gathering together at feeding stations (or that is what I am told is the reason for the no deer feeding ever law).
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A tree stand/deer stand is just a platform in a tree (or on tall legs/stilts) where somebody sits to hunt. It has nothing to do with feeding or baiting deer.
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It’s basically trolling for deer. Many feed and seeds carry chow.
They spend all year literally grazing/traveling through property unharmed and getting used to human activity, then people pick them off. I know it’s a common thing. I live in hunting country
Also our feed stores carry game food for birds, so pheasant hunters can do the same thing. I mean, man, some sport.
