Ed Soehnel

After more than a year of looking (more like 18 months if we consider when we started researching the area), we were able to find a property that we like very much.  Located in Sedalia, Colorado (Douglas County), about 35 miles south of Denver, its 13.5 acres with an existing house on it built in 1959 and several utility buildings added over the years.  We were able to negotiate a bid and it is currently under contract.

Satellite Plot Map

Geographically, the property rises gently from the road to reveal excellent views looking west of the Front Range mountains.  All of the property is bordered by agricultural land.  The soil is fairly sandy and has scrub oak throughout.  Sandy soil, as I have learned, makes it easier for vegetation to grow.  We had previously looked at properties which had expansive soils that are richer in clay, but little to no natural vegetation because soil conditions are not as conducive for natural growth. The long narrow section forms more of a valley that ends down at the bottom where the property meets the road.  The area that extends down in the picture above is actually a flatter meadow that overlooks the valley slightly.

The property is bank-owned and has several issues that will need to be addressed:

1. The original home is well built, but has major repairs required, including a new roof, new heating and plumbing and new appliances, to name a few.
2. There are several poorly built utility buildings that need to be torn down.
3. There are many piles of largely unusable stuff, from piles of wood that have been sitting for years, to outright trash left by the previous owners.

Our long-term goal is to build a new house on the meadow and use the old house as a dog training facility.  In the short-term, we plan to make the repairs required to the main house and use as our primary residence.  Most of the unusable stuff and trash is located in the long valley area, as is the utility buildings that needs tearing down.  There are also some areas in the long valley area where the previous owners had gardens and other forms of landscaping. There is also a dirt road in the long valley area that goes up to the top of the valley.  We plan to remove all the stuff, trash, utility buildings, old landscaping and the dirt road and return the long valley area to its natural state.

I have embedded a Picasa Album with pictures of the property

We’ve been looking for over a year now for property in the Castle Rock/Sedalia area, which is south of metro Denver.  While the city of Castle Rock has traditional homes on 1/4 acre lots, we’ve been looking at rural lots that are 5-35 acres.  This area includes many lots that were subdivided into parcels long ago for rural residential use.  This means that owners can build homes on the lots as well as additional buildings such as barns to maintain horses and other livestock.  Most of these rural residential lots have homes on them.  There are also large properties in this area that continue to be used for ranching and agriculture. Some are being sold and subdivided into rural residential parcels as time goes on, while others are part of a conservation effort by the county to maintain them as ranches.  Even though some are sold for residential purposes, the county appears to be maintaining the area for rural residential use only and not allowing traditional track housing development.

Colorado's Geographic Regions

This area is part of the Palmer Divide, which is a mountainous range that extends east from the Colorado Front Range, which runs north to south. Actually, it is not mountainous comparable to the Front Range, but more like rolling hills.  The area is higher in elevation than Denver, generally in the 6000-7000 foot range, thus it receives more precipitation.

We’ve learned plenty about how to look and what to look for.  We found a broker who not only sells these properties in this area, but also lives in this area with property of her own.  At first, we were pretty much looking at any property that met some general guidelines.  Not knowing what to look for, we decided it would be a learning process to see as many properties as we could.  Also, the driving around gave us a good feel for the specific areas within this region that we like.

Douglas County Assessor Plot Map Tool

We have learned to somewhat pre-qualify a property before we take the time to visit.  We use the Douglas County Assessor Office online records a great deal.  Plot maps (warning:  use a speedy Internet connection to access these maps) and extensive information on each property are made available to the public.  We also use Google Earth and are able to save all of our property research in KMZ files.  GE offers the added benefit of telling us the elevation of the mouse point on the screen, so we can tell very quickly if a property is hilly and has less usable land.  We can also get well permit information to understand when the well was drilled, its depth, throughput (gallons per minute), etc.

A property visit usually starts with the home.  Most properties we are looking at have homes already built.  There are still many vacant land parcels, but those in our price range are generally a part of HOA’s, so we are trying to avoid them.  Since our long-term hope is to have a dog training business with an indoor facility as well as our home on the property, we need to find land without many restrictions.  We do the usual home tour and pay particular attention to structural problems in the plumbing, electrical, foundation, walls, roof, etc.  Many of the homes we look at tend to be older and the owners have done pretty much what the wanted, so its important to identify things that are or could be problems.  Following the home tour, we walk the entire property and look at fencing, drainage/erosion and signs of tree or shrub infestation.  We also locate the well and the septic tank.  Walking the property takes awhile, since its multiple acres we are scoping out on foot.  We visually look at the surrounding properties to determine any impact on this property from activities going on there.  And of course, we look for views of the surrounding hills.  We might take upwards of 300 pictures and use a GPS device (Garmin Forerunner 205) to plot out way points, such as the location of the well, septic, fencing, etc, so we can view in GE.