From the realtor:

Hello, I see what you are talking about. He does not have an easement. I just spoke to him on the phone, and he is a nice guy who has been getting his water from that source for many years. His name is [REDACTED] and his number is [REDACTED]. I would prefer to spoke to him directly and maybe come to an agreement. I have his permission to share his name and number with you.

He said that the water station is on the property to the East but its very hard to know for sure without a survey. On X is close but no completely reliable.

Sooooooo….thats a no on the easement. Which means, IF the borders shown were correct, the piping and watering station are on the listed property. But thats too big an ‘if’ to take into a conversation with this guy. I need to be 100% sure of (literally) where I stand in regard to property lines.

So whats at the end of that polypipe I mentioned a few posts back? This:

I walked a bit of the property using onX GPS/maps. OnX, as well as the Mt Cadastral, it appears, assuming the borders were accurate, that this little watering station is about 30-40 feet on the inside of the border  of the property. This leads to a whole pile of questions…

If, and this is a key ‘if’, the borders shown on the Onx/GPS are correct then there needs to be an easement for this thing. If there’s not an easement, that opens up the possibility of a ‘mutual agreement’ that lets him not have to move the thing and gives me some access to that water. Or, if there’s no easement, it could just go from 0 to 60 and become an adverse possession issue or some such. So…I need to absolutely confirm the location of the property border to see if this thing is on their side or ‘my’ side, and I need to find out if theres an easement. Even if there is an easement, does that easement include putting a watering station on the property vs. just having a pipe running across it?

It appears gravity fed. I GPS’d the elevation at the watering station, and then I GPS’d the elevation of where I’d likely build. A difference of about 40 feet with the watering station being lower. In theory, as I figure it, this means that there could be gravity feed to a nearby holding tank or cistern and then the water pumped the last 40′ to the site. Need to think that one through.

So, one mystery solved and several more made.

TL;DR = I like it enough to make an offer, I dont like it enough to make it a very good offer.

There were indeed water sources on the property. Two swampy/muddy creeks. One was just black stagnant water and mud in this August weather, the other had a tiny rivulet of flowing water. But thats in the middle of August…I’d imagine that in the spring its more substantial. Interestingly, there was a block poly pipe running along the ground along the length of the creek. It ran from the state land side of the fence and through the subject property. Not sure what that was about but it seems to suggest that theres an upstream water distribution point of some kind. Wonder if I could just tap into it with a T-joint or something.

And, there was indeed, a fairly decent flat spot to build. You crested this rather steep road and at the bottom was a nice little circular area that would seem to lend itself to a small cabin. Major drawback – the water sources, such as they are, were all the way at the other end of the property 440 yards away. Thats a quarter-mile for those of you keeping track.

The roads to get up there were about what I expected. There’s no way youre getting in there in winter without either a snowmobile, snow-specific four-wheeler, a horse, or snow chains and some cajones of steel. That isnt necessarily a deal breaker. The roads could accommodate trucks that were designed for such roads. I saw a forest-fire-fighting tanker trunk maneuvering the roads with aplomb. I suspect a small-ish well drilling rig could get in there. I’d rather lean towards having a well in there.

It has…possibilities. The price is somewhat within the range I was looking for but there’s going to be a degree of terraforming necessary….trees removed, some minor roadwork, etc.

I was thinking of offering 20% below ask, cash, and go as high as %10 below ask. I think I’ll just offer 20% below ask and if it happens it happens, and if not…the hunt continues.

Going to look at a piece of property tomorrow. The problem with these sorts of pieces of property is that you often seem to have to navigate a labyrinth of dirt roads of varying quality that often, because of terrain, need to switchback, loop, dogleg, and otherwise snake through the terrain. Google Earth is definitely useful for getting an idea of the path to take, but a GPS loaded with the appropriate maps is also a requirement.

My goals tomorrow are to see how navigable the road is, what the terrain on the property is like, investigate the purported water sources on the property, locate and GPS mark at least one of the corner pins, and generally get a feel for things. If, and only if, all that checks out…then its time to start figuring my plan of attack. My research shows the owners are out of state (California, of course) and that they haven’t been to the property in years. To me, that sounds like people who inherited it and might appreciate a fast all-cash sale. Just how much cash is going to be the challenging part.

If that goes through (and thats a heavy if), then its time to start prioritizing things. Most notably will be getting a current survey done to get a detailed map of the place, pins in place, and some very exact ideas of where the boundaries are. And setting up whatever sort of legal fiction is necessary to maintain privacy.

Maybe spend a few weekends out there camping as I explore the place to get a feel for it and think about what exactly I want to do with it and where.

But, thats all putting the cart before the horse. I’ll walk it tomorrow and see what happens. If I don’t like it, I’ll hand it off to you guys and you can see if it’s something youre interested in.

And, as is slowly dawning on me, the purchase of the property may be the cheapest part of the whole affair. Once that’s done its time for wells, septic, foundations, infrastructure, fuels, landscaping (or, more accurately, terraforming), etc, etc. I’ve been searching for property for so long now that Im like the dog that chases cars and then doesn’t know what to do with one if he caught it.

Guess we’ll see tomorrow if its a car worth chasing. Should be interesting.

Oh, and you know what the most useless-but-fun part of this process is? Coming up with the cool name for the place. I’ve often referred to it as Commander Zero’s Post-Nuclear Bunker O’ Love And Lingerie Proving Ground but I might need something a little bit more succinct for the shoulder patch.