That's a beautiful property, but you can find others maybe just a bit less "perfect" at substantially less cost. https://www.trulia.com/property/3211836017-11250-County-Road-4027-Kemp-TX-75143
I also found that just searching using Zillow will cause you to miss properties as well. Also, Zillow isn't really ideal for searching for acreage properties. Another search engine you might consider looking at is http://www.landsoftexas.com/ And since taxes are a major issue for most who care about their finances, I also found this site most handy https://smartasset.com/taxes/property-taxes TX has no income tax and running a country (TX considers itself separate from the US in many regards, and in some it is) takes money, most of which is raised here by property taxes. You can mitigate it somewhat by using the homestead exemption (knocks $25K of assessed value for tax purposes), but the biggest is the agricultural exemption. You block off 1 acre around the house to be the residential property and get the rest designated as agricultural. That way the value gets broken up and some is taxed substantially lower than the residential portion. You do however have to document ag income within 5 years to keep the exemption and not have to pay back taxes (and penalties) on the whole property. From what I understand there are 2 types of ag... timber (helps with the 5 year but can kill you years from now) or animals, and here in TX, cattle are the king when it comes to ag. TX doesn't recognize goats or chickens and the like from what I understand.
Sales taxes are steeper than CO as well, you can get an ag exemption for that as well where you'll pay no sales tax on materials and supplies that are directly geared toward the ag portion of the property... animal feed, fertilizers, equipment, fencing, etc. That can save you a bundle! And I guess it even includes dog food.
Really glad your SO is willing to consider it. If he's really a "city slicker" type, and I'm guessing that he is, you might want to look NE-E-SE of Dallas. I know you said he doesn't like big cities, but he does want to be within reach of higher paying jobs and such... That way he'll be within reach of a BIG city and all that it offers... You'll be in the eastern portion of the state which has the highest annual rainfall (it's GREEN!) and an hour outside Dallas you'll be in country. Really, there are some decent "small cities" east of Dallas, Tyler being one of the largest.
There are no mountains down here for you to climb to escape the heat (and humidity... remember there's a LOT of humidity down here!) and the further south you go, the higher the humidity gets. Also, hurricanes do sometimes move ashore along the TX coast, which is pretty flat, so they carry massive amounts of rain and flooding inland quite a ways. So as I was recommended, you might consider drawing a line east/west and stay north of that line.
I also found that just searching using Zillow will cause you to miss properties as well. Also, Zillow isn't really ideal for searching for acreage properties. Another search engine you might consider looking at is http://www.landsoftexas.com/ And since taxes are a major issue for most who care about their finances, I also found this site most handy https://smartasset.com/taxes/property-taxes TX has no income tax and running a country (TX considers itself separate from the US in many regards, and in some it is) takes money, most of which is raised here by property taxes. You can mitigate it somewhat by using the homestead exemption (knocks $25K of assessed value for tax purposes), but the biggest is the agricultural exemption. You block off 1 acre around the house to be the residential property and get the rest designated as agricultural. That way the value gets broken up and some is taxed substantially lower than the residential portion. You do however have to document ag income within 5 years to keep the exemption and not have to pay back taxes (and penalties) on the whole property. From what I understand there are 2 types of ag... timber (helps with the 5 year but can kill you years from now) or animals, and here in TX, cattle are the king when it comes to ag. TX doesn't recognize goats or chickens and the like from what I understand.
Sales taxes are steeper than CO as well, you can get an ag exemption for that as well where you'll pay no sales tax on materials and supplies that are directly geared toward the ag portion of the property... animal feed, fertilizers, equipment, fencing, etc. That can save you a bundle! And I guess it even includes dog food.
Really glad your SO is willing to consider it. If he's really a "city slicker" type, and I'm guessing that he is, you might want to look NE-E-SE of Dallas. I know you said he doesn't like big cities, but he does want to be within reach of higher paying jobs and such... That way he'll be within reach of a BIG city and all that it offers... You'll be in the eastern portion of the state which has the highest annual rainfall (it's GREEN!) and an hour outside Dallas you'll be in country. Really, there are some decent "small cities" east of Dallas, Tyler being one of the largest.
There are no mountains down here for you to climb to escape the heat (and humidity... remember there's a LOT of humidity down here!) and the further south you go, the higher the humidity gets. Also, hurricanes do sometimes move ashore along the TX coast, which is pretty flat, so they carry massive amounts of rain and flooding inland quite a ways. So as I was recommended, you might consider drawing a line east/west and stay north of that line.
