Advice on Buying Land

[Hummer]

The farther your getaway place is from your home the less often you will go there. I suggest 2 hours max. If you plan on building, land cost is a tiny fraction of planning, development and construction. Remote properties can double construction costs. If the land you're looking at is not part of a subdivision development you should verify with the county whether you will have enough acreage to build. That will affect your use and future marketability.

When you have an area in mind look up nearby land/lot listings on Zillow for a quick idea of land costs and availability. Also check out the online county treasurer records of land/lot sales over the past year or two to know what different types of properties actually sell for. I'm looking to buy land near our cabin and we're sorting through 320 land sales records from the past two years. Once I remove all the outliers we can build a spreadsheet of comparables to determine a reasonable cost for what we're looking at.

[BladesNBarrels]

If you want to shoot on your own land, look for 10+ acres and check the county restrictions.
A lot of counties in Colorado are at the 10 acre requirement.
Most counties tax undeveloped land higher than places with a residence. The savvy buyers look for land with an old house or structure.
Good hunting - that is half the adventure!

[DDT951]

OK forget near ski slopes. what i'm really envisioning is something i can park an RV on and ride an ATV into BLM land from for hiking/hunting/camping. Thanks for the suggestions so far. If you can suggest some areas you'd recommend or even a realtor you have used that knows where to buy land up there, that'd be great too.

Look at county zoning and land use laws.

Many of the mountain counties dont allow more than 30 days per camping and you can't store your RV on the land. Many also dont allow cabins without full certificates of occupancy to be built. That means well/water/sewer/septic/power/etc all have to be addressed.

[Jim B]

Have you checked Texas Creek/Cotopaxi?

[MED]

I've been looking at land listings a while and am contemplating buying something up in the mountains. Can the experienced outdoorsman/landowners offer me some advice? What i want is tricky since some things conflict with each other, but here's my ideal list.

1. max 2-3 hrs from Denver
2. Backs to BLM so i can hike/atv right into nowhere
3. Near ski slopes so i can sleep there instead of a hotel during ski season [FORGET THIS ONE. IT DOESNT APPEAR COMPATIBLE WITH REST OF REQUIREMENTS]
4. max of 100k for a reasonable size piece of land (5 acres min)
5. Accessible to an RV. Maybe even water/electric to the property line

Is this list impossible? I'd really appreciate hearing from anybody who's gone down this road before. I see some listings that may work, but appear impassible towing an RV. I also see listings that are way over 100k.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

If you go Jefferson, Fairplay, Como, Alma; you can drive Hoosier pass to Breckenridge when it is open. However, you may run into closures over Kensosha pass on occasion going back to Denver. Land down by Hartzel is cheap...Park County is pretty nice on the west side of Kensosha pass. However, they did put in some new ordinances regarding how long an RV can be parked without moving. I drive down to the Chaffee County range all the time; it's two hours from my house...that's the maximum limit based on your requirements. It is really nice down there.

[Jim B]

Most counties tax undeveloped land higher than places with a residence. The savvy buyers look for land with an old house or structure.

Didn't know that; thanks for the info!

[.455_Hunter]

If you want to shoot on your own land, look for 10+ acres and check the county restrictions. A lot of counties in Colorado are at the 10 acre requirement.

That went away with the 2003 state carry law pre-emption clause. Unincorporated county residents can shoot on their property as long as projectiles don't leave the property, regardless of county ordinance.

I have been through this with Jeffereon and Boulder County and it's not a joke, just not well publicized.

[BladesNBarrels]

That went away with the 2003 state carry law pre-emption clause. Unincorporated county residents can shoot on their property as long as projectiles don't leave the property, regardless of county ordinance.

I have been through this with Jeffereon and Boulder County and it's not a joke, just not well publicized.

Great! Do you have a citation that I can quote?
When I was looking at land in Park, Custer, and Fremont counties, I talked with the sheriff's offices and they were the source of the 10+ acre information.
I also asked about shooting Class 3 and they all said to give them a courtesy call before I started shooting. That was so they could give educated responses to anyone who called in.
They all stated that projectiles could not leave the property.
I did buy the land prior to 2003.

[Mtneer]

If you're planning on building, also consider the threat of wildfire. You can mitigate your own property but not BLM or Forest land, or neighbor's property, which could increase your risk. This is looking to be a good year due to snowpack but dry years are inevitable.

[glocktoberfest]

well, i wish i was a wealthy man, but the reality is i will probably never be able to afford to build on this land, so just having a place to park an RV and head into more remote areas or camp would probably be it. I'll be checking out all your suggestions. Thanks