Floyd, VA (Mineral: HOA, loans, buying)

[Lopeses]

Originally Posted by Diamond Dave

I work with deeds every day. Almost all minerals right are in tact in Floyd in my experience.

There is a minimum lot size depending on your road access. Thus, there are a lot of 25-acre farmettes in Floyd.

Hi Dave - I had a question about this and another one you might be able to answer...

1 - I do see an unusual number of lots in Floyd county that are exactly 25 acres. Can you explain more about this minimum lot size and what determines it? Is it something like - if you are not on a public road, you must have at least 25 acres?

2 - I see some properties that say stuff like "Deed restricted to protect your investment" or something like that. Definitely "deed restricted". Do you (or anybody) know what this means?

Thanks!

[seanpecor]

I'm not certain but I know that the magic number of 15 acres in Franklin County will allow you to bypass a number of subdivision guidelines (road access visibility etc). So perhaps Floyd has a 25 acre cutoff. And that being the case, one might assume that the acreage has some dodgy access issues. In Vermont, for decades, it was 10 acres, and if you couldn't perc it, no problem. In Vermont they did away with the "10 acre loophole" but maybe it still exists in Franklin and Floyd County, Virginia.

If you haven't found it already you'll want to check into United Country:

Floyd Virginia Real Estate - Country Homes, Historic Estates, Golf Properties & Farms

They have listings that aren't often in the standard MLS and they have ALOT of listings. We found our horse farm through United Country back in 2005. They have lots of offices in the South and Midwest, but in other areas are virtually unheard of.

Sean

[Diamond Dave]

Originally Posted by Lopeses

Hi Dave - I had a question about this and another one you might be able to answer...

1 - I do see an unusual number of lots in Floyd county that are exactly 25 acres. Can you explain more about this minimum lot size and what determines it? Is it something like - if you are not on a public road, you must have at least 25 acres?

2 - I see some properties that say stuff like "Deed restricted to protect your investment" or something like that. Definitely "deed restricted". Do you (or anybody) know what this means?

Thanks!

Agricultural subdivisions cannot be less than 25 acres in Floyd County. I don't want to tell you the wrong thing, but I think to have lots smaller than that, you have to have an approved residential subdivision with 50 feet of VDOT road access per lot. Developers and real estate investors don't want to build a bunch of roads to provide 50 feet of road access each to a bunch of lots, so they'll carve up big farms into 25-acre farmettes and sell them that way.

Here are the zoning ordinances:

http://www.floydcova.org/business/su...nance10_02.pdf

Look starting on page 20.

A deed restriction is something written into a deed to prevent certain things from taking place on the property--like no trailers, chain link fences, junk cars, satellite dishes, or clothes lines. If all the lots in an area have the same deed restrictions, then theoretically the neighborhood would be safe from white trash . I think in Virginia that deed restrictions have a limited lifespan, and they're kind of hard to enforce (unlike an easement, which has real teeth).

Here is a taste of what to expect once a year in Floyd:

FloydFest 7, presented by Across-the-Way Productions, Inc.

[Lopeses]

Always more questions!

Anybody know what property taxes are like in Floyd/Franklin counties? I thought I'd find some easily enough online, but strangely, they don't seem to be listed for props in this area (realtor, zillow, local realtors...none seem to show this).

For example, a 25 acre 'farmette' with a 2000 sq foot house...that might sell for $400k-$500k Any guesstimates on property taxes?

Also, if there is a deeded right-of-way to the property, is that something that is set in stone forever (i.e. you will always have access through your neighbor's (or multiple neighbors') properties?

Thanks again!

[seanpecor]

The four of us spent Saturday at FloydFest. It was a good time!

Sean

[whynot?]

Floyd County's site is pretty lazy, no? It does have a link to searchable data at MixNet, but they could be more helpful.

City-Data has a profile at https://www.city-data.com/county/Floyd_County-VA.html The median property tax rate is about a quarter of the way down the page.

You can link to surrounding counties (including Franklin) a little farther down the City-Data profile page. Or go to Franklin County's considerably more straightforward (compared to Floyd's, that is) page at Franklin County Virginia - Taxes (http://www.franklincountyva.org/taxes.htm - broken link)

Good luck!

[Diamond Dave]

Originally Posted by Lopeses

Always more questions!

Anybody know what property taxes are like in Floyd/Franklin counties? I thought I'd find some easily enough online, but strangely, they don't seem to be listed for props in this area (realtor, zillow, local realtors...none seem to show this).

For example, a 25 acre 'farmette' with a 2000 sq foot house...that might sell for $400k-$500k Any guesstimates on property taxes?

Also, if there is a deeded right-of-way to the property, is that something that is set in stone forever (i.e. you will always have access through your neighbor's (or multiple neighbors') properties?

Thanks again!

Property taxes are $0.60 per $100 in Floyd. And that "per $100" depends on your assessment, of course, which has little to do with the property's sale price.

A deed is forever and can only be overturned by a judge or if the General Assembly changes the Commonwealth's property ownership laws.

P.S. Depending on your land use, you may qualify for "land use" taxation, which is lower than plain old residential taxation rates. You may have to keep a cow in the front yard, though. >eek<

[seanpecor]

In Franklin County you really have to be a farm to qualify for land use, and I suspect its the same with Floyd. If you buy a 25 acre lot in Franklin County, and if the land wasn't in active land or agricultural use for the prior 5 consecutive years, then the clock is reset and you have to wait and farm something like 3 years before you can re-apply. And if you keep cows, there is a herd size requirement that is based on acreage. So if you've got 20 of your 25 acres in ag land use you may need something like 10 cows It's not really going to save you any money if you're not already a farmer because the labor cost of managing a small herd like that would erase any gains from the tax break. However, if 20 of your 25 acres are wooded then you could still get land use if you put the forest into some sort of management plan and had selective harvest conducted as needed (every 25 years maybe). The details vary by county though. You could call the extension offices in each county and ask them to fax you the nitty gritty.

Sean

[Lopeses]

Thanks for the input everybody - that really helps. I'm a little surprised that rural Floyd co. has a slightly higher property tax rate than rural Franklin co. (.06% vs .053%). Pretty much same ballpark though.

Originally Posted by seanpecor

The four of us spent Saturday at FloydFest. It was a good time!

Sean

Aww man - I'm jealous!!!

[seanpecor]

Actually the Franklin County rate has just been dropped to 0.047% but assessments are higher than Floyd County so they may balance out.

Sean