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Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update
Buying Your Retreat During ‘The Melt’
Ah…for those of you who have never heard of the ‘melt’ or
the ‘mud season’ in a cold climate you’ll be in for a big
and most likely not very exciting surprise. This phenomenon usually lasts
a few weeks to a month and during that time the entire area is just plain
wet and muddy. Most roads other than the main highway have [commercial/logging/mining]
load weight restrictions placed on them with heavy fines for violations.
This is to keep
the roads
from buckling and sinking when the earth underneath them thaws and is sometimes
very soft. Shopping for your retreat during this springtime surprise can
often be as much a pain as when there is three feet of snow on the ground.
Walking property lines and even getting to some properties will
be a challenge at times. During this time, in addition to the hiking boots
one should normally
have while property shopping in the boonies is a good pair of tall
mud boots.
A positive aspect during this time is that you’ll be able to see first
hand any drainage and wetland issues. Basements will be showing a seasonal
dampness or leakage as well as low spots that may have otherwise been judges
as tillable or a decent place for a structure will be identified. Sometimes
even the slightest sag in the land can be an issue during this time and these
areas are sometimes impossible to see during the summer months. Seasonal
streams erupt from out of nowhere and once pristine roads turn into mud soup.
Nicely manicured gravel driveways into some properties just plain sink into
oblivion. During last year's mud season we ran into a situation where we
had to lay gravel and approximately double the yardage was used due to sinking,
than if we could have done it after the mud season.
When out looking at properties it will be obvious what the quality of road
construction was done in some of the land splits for sale in your locale.
I can think of one property that has a road winding up a steep hill and ending
on top of the most beautiful view for miles around. I’m certain that
the road will either wash out or be damaged during this spring’s thaw.
It was constructed using a large amount of rock and boulders from the hillside
and fill dirt with no provision for runoff, no culverts whatsoever. With
the heavy snowpack in the western US this year, any new owner would be in
for a large bill for road repair. Buyers, beware of road construction! Have
an engineer
look
at
any
questionable
construction before you get involved in purchasing raw land.
If you buy a retreat during that time be aware that the moving truck could
be delayed by a few weeks and increase the moving costs unless it stays cool
enough in the morning hours when heavier loads are allowed with a permit
(usually before the sun gets high enough to begin the morning thaw, about
10 a.m. here).
If you’re like a lot of folks out there that haven’t yet sold
the property that was going to be used [to raise funds] to purchase that
retreat I have some easy
advice. Don’t
fret over losing $100,000 when there may be a day very soon when you won’t
have anything left to lose at all. Get out now! Even if you have to
drop your
price
drastically, wouldn’t you rather have something to work with than nothing
at all? Time is truly short in the real estate markets for all involved, even
the commercial market is about to take a bath, and a cold one at that. I’m
envisioning empty dark office buildings all over yuppieville this time 2009.
Knowledge is only power when one actually acts upon it. Otherwise it’s
like fools gold, eh?
How to Burn Down Your Retreat
Early Wednesday afternoon we got paged out to a structure fire a few miles outside
of our local little town here. As I’ve explained many times before in the
weekly update rural fire departments take a bit of time to get to the scene,
period. So as this story goes the homeowner was cooking and decided to take a
walk, no problem. The food burns and starts the kitchen on fire, again no problem,
it happens all the time. Now, the homeowner arrives after a short walk and sees
smoke filtering out of the home so they run inside and attempt to put out the
fire using a pillow and not a fire extinguisher. Well, not the smartest thing
to do, but again no problem. They were unsuccessful so the homeowner decides
to open all the windows before running outside and calling 911. Now we have a
big
problem! Had the fire been left to smolder while we were en route we could have
simply vented the structure, made entry and used a foam solution to quell the
fire and the home most likely would have been in okay shape. But, venting the
fire immediately so that it had oxygen to burn for 12 minutes before we arrived
was
not a smart thing to do. Normally a fire will double in size every 30 to 45 seconds,
very scary? Yes! As you might deduce, we arrived on scene to a fully engulfed
home (again). One propane tank exploded right before we arrived and luckily we
were able to keep the other 500 gallon tank from exploding (the paint was bubbling
on the tank as we put water on it). My point? Keep fire extinguishers on every
wall of your retreat and don’t open any windows and close all the
doors
you can as you (safely) exit the house. The doors will act as a break
in the fire slowing the spread and the closed windows will deprive the fire of
needed
oxygen. If you have your retreat built do yourself and the firefighters a favor,
don’t place the propane tanks 20 feet from the house, keep them as far
away as possible and bury them! I suppose someone might think that a red fire
extinguisher and a flashlight would look silly hanging on every wall in the retreat,
but I suppose then that’s why it’s a retreat, a safe house
for the family in times of peril, right? Be sure to make it so. Remember, fire
is a bigger
threat that thieves at rural retreats, especially if you have a ‘bat cave’ to
hide your preps in. Assess the risks and prepare appropriately. God Bless - TS
in Idaho
