What inspections for a farm purchase?

[Texarkana]

@fourfillies

Check the zoning at the Township or county yourself.

In PA, this is particularly important because every municipality has its own zoning regulations.

I grew up in Chester County, which is very “horsey.” But within the county limits, there are 57 townships, 15 boroughs, and 1 city (I had to Google this)— all with different rules pertaining to horses. You may be able to own as many horses as you want on one property, but you drive a mile down the road and not be able to have any livestock on an equivalent property. And a lot of it is not based on common sense.

[Samondel]

I looked at a “turn key” property yesterday… Barn water involves turning on a complex series of hydrants, indoor arena has no kick boards, so goodbye knees, stalls are these weird “way too narrow to be box stalls, but too wide to be standing stalls” that would have to be combined to create reasonable spaces… Everything is there, but it all looks like it’s been basically moldering for 15 years. And it’s been on the market for over a year, to my complete lack of surprise.

[luvmyhackney]

Link? I love looking at properties that need more work than mine. It makes me feel a Ti y bit better.

[clanter]

but you drive a mile down the road and not be able to have any livestock on an equivalent property

That can and does happen here, one side of street may be in one city that allows pretty much anything while the other side of road pretty much nothing is allowed

A person should read the master plan of their city, here zoning regulations must be adopted in accordance with the comprehensive master plan

[JanM]

I like to look at an overhead Google map view, and pull out to see what everything in a mile or more looks like. I look for motorcycle track ovals, sewage, places that look like junk yards with cars everywhere, and also see if any properties look like a hoarded out mess. Or if there are any commercial farm barns, like chicken or pig gigantic metal buildings.

[Alpha_Mare]

I second fourfillies… check the zoning for yourself and any future neighbors . !!!

wish I had had an enviornmental inspection.

[Simkie]

Another excellent resource is the city or county GIS mapping. Take a look at who your neighbors are, where the city/county shows your property lines (this can be a little off–a survey is still important) and what all is around you. This should also have an overlay for easements or wetlands. Click through all the various mapping options and see what’s there on the property.

Cities often also have their tax information online. Lookup your potential neighbors and see if there are any red flags there.

[clanter]

@Simkie

This should also have an overlay for easements or wetlands

along that line check FEMA flood zones, these are updated as needed

visit the FloodSmart website where you can search by zip code.

Frequency of Updating Flood Maps?

[ReSomething]

@JanM

If there are any utilities you have to have, like high speed internet, and they aren’t installed yet, confirm that they are available, and how much it will cost you with the supplier. If something like good cell reception is vital, try using your cell phone everywhere on the property.

This a thousand times. I worked for the USPS and got chewed out bc one of my customers was within the technical bounds of internet service but they hadn’t extended their service that far yet. For some reason she blamed us for the fact she would have to pay 5 figures to get service and both her RE agent and the internet rep left out the part about actual costs. I guess I was the only person she could find to talk to but dang. 8 years later there is a fixed wireless tower and fiber optic cable running down the freeway, plenty of folks still can’t access either.

[ReSomething]

That’s pay for in some counties but yes, a valuable resource.

[HungarianHippo1]

@fourfillies

Have someone verify the flows on the well(s). Most well installers can do this in half an hour. To me, it was well worth the peace of mind.

Almost all state Depts of public health maintain detailed logs on all water wells when they’re first dug and later re-tested. Check the log for any problems reported at your well and properties near you. If there are a bunch of new wells dug that you can’t pin on just new development, that could be a bad sign that your well is next if the aquifer levels are falling. See how deep the nearby wells had to go, and research what your budget needs to be if you have to do the same. I mean wells do get old and fail, it’s not the end of the world. But you really do want savings socked away for it, so you’re in a position to act immediately.

Walk the whole place methodically. Lots of old farms have a dump area(s). If you find junk, make it a condition of closing that it’s been hauled off b4 closing.

Look for a recent survey on file in Planners office, or else pay for a boundary survey. Home inspector won’t do this, it’ll be a couple grand.

Research the fence laws in your county and learn how they apply to you. For example, in a “Right Hand Rule” state, neighbors stand at the middle of their shared fenceline, and you are responsible to maintain everything to your right, and he has to maintain everything to the (you guessed it) left. BUT it’s not always the case. Gets a bit funky if the land was previously subdivided…

[fourfillies]

This. There a pockets of our not very rural county with only bad options. We had to limit our search to pockets with broadband. And passed on one (otherwise pretty great) place that the cost to run cable would have been $20K+ and no promise Comcast was even willing to do it!

[foggybok]

@fourfillies

This. There a pockets of our not very rural county with only bad options. We had to limit our search to pockets with broadband. And passed on one (otherwise pretty great) place that the cost to run cable would have been $20K+ and no promise Comcast was even willing to do it!

We lucked out here. There is nothing available except DSL. DSL is usually slow when you are far away. The good news for us is that there is a hub right on our corner, so we are first in line, so our service is great. people down the road, not so much.

[foggybok]

Will second checking zoning. Our property was classified as Ag. You would think that meant zomed Ag, but it does not. There is a use map of the area that calls us Residential/Ag instead and that limits the livestock per acre much more than plain Ag. Not an issue for us, we aren’t going over the limit anyway, but could be for some people if they thought the stocking rate would be 1 per acre like other Ag properties. And the property across the street is closer to town but has a different classification. It’s really weird how they drew it up.

Also one concern that came up on a different property that we did not buy was proximity to a toxic waste site. Although it had not reached the property, there was a significant plume associated with it that was moving. You can look these things up on the toxic waste sites.

[Texarkana]

@foggybok

Also one concern that came up on a different property that we did not buy was proximity to a toxic waste site. Although it had not reached the property, there was a significant plume associated with it that was moving. You can look these things up on the toxic waste sites.

Yikes! Where does one find these maps?

We have a landfill about 3 miles away, as the crow flies. One thing I didn’t anticipate was the odor. You only smell it when the wind is coming from the southeast. It’s not intolerable, but it’s also not a nice smell.

[foggybok]

Here are some sources

Cleanups in My Community | US EPA

of course, they are only the known sites!

The one by the farm we looked at was an old landfill. Here is the report on it. Apparently it’s in better shape now because the 5 year report states the plume is diminishing.

DAKHUE SANITARY LANDFILL | Superfund Site Profile | Superfund Site Information | US EPA

Edited to add: I used to live on a toxic waste site in CA. You had to sign a waiver when you moved in. I actually figured I was safer there than other areas because it had been cleaned up and was constantly monitored. There were so many toxic waste sites in the Bay Area I figured there were many more that had not been discovered and at least this was monitored.

[Texarkana]

Thanks!!!

I actually use that map when teaching environmental science (clearly my brain is turned off right now).

For some reason I was envisioning something that could actually use GIS to track spread!

[foggybok]

Figure 3 of the 5 year report shows a map of the plume, but no GIS map for tracking

[foggybok]

Looks like you can zoom in and see the site boundaries. The site boundary matches the plume in figure 3. Not sure how often they update though.

[ReSomething]

Long story short the city dump was that far away, 3 miles, and not an issue until they sold it with rights to expand and the purchaser solicited bids from more cities. So now we had the waste coming from a city with a pop of 3 HUNDRED thousand on top of the original 30,000. It started to smell very rapidly and much further away. Took a number of years and a legal battle but the concerned citizens got it shut down in 2021, basically they exceeded their permitted capacity and their permit to operate was revoked. It’s been a year now and no more refinery stink in the mornings.

Also you don’t want to be on the same road used to get to a dump, the trucks beat up the road surface, leak unnameable fluids and drop bits of debris that look awful or flatten your tires.