facilities

[skew]

How many of you own as opposed to rent your storage lots? I am looking at purchasing a one acre lot to use for: equipment storage, wood chip mulch storage, firewood storage and the like. It is within 5 miles of town. The zoning is really tight around here and there are very few places that close in that the use would be allowable. I might be able to off set some land payment by renting out some space to a landscape crew- probably 4 undo a month seems like what the going is.

 

[lacky]

I rent a building for my storage. Unfortunately I don't have any outside type of yard, so there is no log storage or chip dump. I have to go to my dump sites when I need to dump. It is annoying not to have a yard but I like having my equipment indoors year round. It's plenty of room for me, about 3200 sq/ft. For $1400/month. It's also nice that it's about 5 minutes from my house. Where I live I would have to drive about 20-30 minutes to get to affordable land.

 

[JeffGu]

I own a house with unattached garage in a town 7 miles from home. It sits on a double lot, and we plan to add a 24' x 30' building on the empty half this summer. The current taxes on the property are $147/year but they'll go up when we add the new building and some improvements to the existing ones. As far as I can calculate, the annual taxes will still be under $300 and so far we've been able to keep the utilities very low. Of course, this is in a small town of only about 1200 people. I could never get off this cheap anyplace with a higher population density. This is rural farm country, so most things are more laid back... things like firewood and mulch aren't a problem as long as everything is kept tidy. All they really complain about is grass that's not mowed, weeds, and equipment that's not parked on gravel or concrete.

This isn't much space, certainly not like an acreage, but it's enough for my rinky-dink operation. And, it's paid for. No mortgage.

 

[ROYCE]

I rent space as well. I have a good size piece of land that includes space for logs, all our equipment and chips if needed. However, across the street is a compost facility that takes all the chips we can deliver. Our location is ideal for the market in which we operate. I am in close proximity to all the job locations we work. I have looked at purchasing some land and then building our own shop. However, land is not cheap around here. I looked at 5 acres( I would think one acres would be too small for you, I would think you would grow out of that relatively fast) this past summer. The asking price was 99,000. There was nothing on the lot. I would have to hire an engineer, put in electricity, a driveway, a paved spot for my equipment and then think about building a shop. That would all add anywhere from 30-65k onto the asking price of 99k for the land, not including the shop.
I opted to just keep renting and talked my landlord into allowing me to purchase a 14X20 foot shed, insulated and plumbed with electricity to add to our land. This will give us the heated space to store small equipment like rakes, oil, fertilizer supplies, and a place to stay dry if we want to sharpen saws on a rainy day. My cost for all this will be 650 a month for rent with an investment in the building of 8K. I can move the building to a new site if we ever do end up purchasing land.
Skew, if you can get a good deal on the land, and it is close to town. I would say go for it. There is something to be said for owning your own land. I have to ask permission for things that I would not have to if I owned the land. I just hope 1 acre is big enough for you.