Beware of Open Land

When purchasing a house, one of the things people look for is location. Many peoples ideal location involves being surrounded by open land. If you are looking for / considering buying a property with adjacent open land, you must investigate to see if there are any plans for the area.

Imagine buying a home, only to find out that a shopping mall is due to be built on that farm land behind your house, or that homes are to be constructed on the open land in-front of your house, blocking that nice view of the Wasatch Mountains.

If you do have open land, you will need to check the zoning. If the zoning is residential, sooner to later homes will be built on it. If the zoning is business, you could have shopping or office buildings built on the land, which will of course will bring an increase in traffic and noise.

If you are buying a new home, check with the builder to see what the plans are for the land. Often developments are constructed in phases, so what was once empty land, may to earmarked for more homes, a park, a church or even a school.

Even if there are no current plans for any development on the land, remember sooner or later the chances are the farmer (or whoever owns the land), may well be tempted to sell the land for development. This is particularly true if the area is already succumbing to urban sprawl, with new home developments popping up all over the place.

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