Houses with Land in SW New Hampshire

I spent some time today getting a feel for the NNEREN real estate search engine and some realtors sites. I looked at properties less than $200,000 with more 2 acres, and turned up a couple mini-farms, a commercial property, and a lakefront, along with a residential or two. I’m unsure what the agricultural designation means in New Hampshire, because it certainly isn’t having a moderating effect on the property taxes. Maybe it has something to do with development possibilities. All things being equal, I’d prefer commercial zoning as long as I didn’t have any commercial neighbors.

The last thing I’m thinking about at the moment is the number of rooms in a house or how they are currently being utilized. I’m used to living in one room that does duty as a kitchen and office, so interior space has more to do with how I spread out my business than how I live. For whatever the reason, the properties listed in this price and acreage range were concentrated in Winchester, NH. Some 68 properties showed up when I searched, but many were just land or didn’t look like reasonable candidates for one reason of another. The short list included two realtors I hadn’t come across yet, HKS Associates and Authority Realty, so I’ll be looking them up at some point.

My first short-list for the area in increasing acreage:

Winchester, wood frame, $145,000, 2 acres, lakefront, 6 stall barn, $3,000 property tax, gravel driveway

Sawnzey, manufactured home, $150,000, 3 acres, residential, $2,500 property tax, dirt driveway

Winchester, wood frame, $140,000, 4 acres, agricultural, $3,500 property tax, gravel, driveway heated garage, full basement

Alstead, wood frame, $140,000, 4 acres, residential, $3,400 property tax, gravel driveway, barn

Winchester, manufactured home, $160,000, 8 acres, agricultural, $3,000 property tax, dirt driveway, full basement, barn

Winchester, wood frame, $130,000, 10 acres, agricultural, $3,800 property tax, dirt driveway, partial basement, shed

Marlow, wood frame, $130,000, 10 acres, residential, $2,700 property tax, dirt driveway, full basement

Winchester, manufactured home, $140,000, 12 acres, commercial, $2700 property tax, paved driveway, slab foundation and a barn

None of the houses had town sewage, a few had town water, only the last had a paved driveway. I’ll have to see what I can learn about Winchester over the web, see if I can find newspaper listings from Keene or some other index of property addresses so I can get a look at the lay of the land with Google Satellite imaging. I won’t be able to look closely at any of these properties until I’m back in the States next month, but it gives me an idea what’s available in the price range and the probably operating costs, so I can compare with Vermont and Western MA. As high as those real estate taxes look, over $20 per thousand for most of these listings, it’s offset by a zero income tax in New Hampshire, vs 5.X% in MA (they make it up every year) and something in Vermont. I’m not turning up any 40 acre properties in Southern NH, I’ll have to bump the price range and see if any are listed.