I had been watching the listing for a long time; a few weeks ago it had the caption "Active Opt Contract" which means a buyer had made an offer and the seller had ten days ( I think ) to accept or reject it. It disappointed me, but since I hadn't yet won the lottery, there was no way I could have purchased it.
I had written about it earlier: Google Earth vs. Bing Maps. Of course, there was no way in my current financial circumstances I could have bought it, but it was fun to look at it and dream. (*some* might say that was a waste of time, but for me, it was fairly innocent entertainment and didn't hurt anyone but me and not much at that) I've always wanted some land out in the country, enough to raise a few animals and have a garden that wouldn't be plundered by neighbors or torn up by the local young hoodlums when I was gone.
The property was on the market for a long time, especially considering it looked like it was well worth the money. (the price had even been dropped by nearly half a million bucks not long ago) It made me wonder just why it was being sold. At first, I figured the springs might be drying up; I've seen that before with other similar properties. I'd find them on Google Earth and use the historical imagery to look at the water levels, then look again on Bing Maps. One such property showed a 20 acre lake to have dropped several feet in depth - the elevation tool isn't all that accurate, I realize, but the measuring tool showed at least ten feet of shrinkage of shoreline from past years.
When doing some cursory research on the Savoy, TX property mentioned above, I saw an article from several yrs. ago where the owner had hosted a "protest" meeting of concerned locals in the area. A power plant was going to be built not far away and in spite of their objections, the permit went through and the facility was built.
I sympathized with them up to a point - most everyone wants progress and energy independence, but there's also the "not in my back yard" crowd, the "NIMBY" movement. The new plant was far enough away for the owner of the property to not be bothered by noise, but after zooming out and looking at the location geographically-wise, I started to better understand their objection to the plant being sited where it was.
You'll need to click the screen shot, then envision a line from the power plant (in the bottom left corner of the graphic) going from generally southwest to northeast, the direction of prevailing winds in this part of the world during the spring and summer. You can then see any pollution/particulates generated by the plant would pass right over the property. (the "push pin" graphic is just the edge of the property- the houses and lake are up and to the left of it)
I don't know if that was the reason for the sale and also don't know if there was enough pollution from the plant to make a difference. What did concern me was later reading an article about the Keystone Pipeline and seeing where one of the proposed routes was sited: (the line was made by me and it was the best estimate I could make from the information I read)
So, perhaps the owner of the property was "gettin' out while the gettin' was good". I've seen loads of nice properties for sale around the Dallas/Denton area but there's also been a BUNCH of drilling down there over the last five or so years. None of the properties I've seen offer the mineral rights along w/ the land, either. Growing up in the oil business, I wouldn't have much problem with having an oil or gas well on my land...
...as long as it was MINE.
I had written about it earlier: Google Earth vs. Bing Maps. Of course, there was no way in my current financial circumstances I could have bought it, but it was fun to look at it and dream. (*some* might say that was a waste of time, but for me, it was fairly innocent entertainment and didn't hurt anyone but me and not much at that) I've always wanted some land out in the country, enough to raise a few animals and have a garden that wouldn't be plundered by neighbors or torn up by the local young hoodlums when I was gone.
The property was on the market for a long time, especially considering it looked like it was well worth the money. (the price had even been dropped by nearly half a million bucks not long ago) It made me wonder just why it was being sold. At first, I figured the springs might be drying up; I've seen that before with other similar properties. I'd find them on Google Earth and use the historical imagery to look at the water levels, then look again on Bing Maps. One such property showed a 20 acre lake to have dropped several feet in depth - the elevation tool isn't all that accurate, I realize, but the measuring tool showed at least ten feet of shrinkage of shoreline from past years.
When doing some cursory research on the Savoy, TX property mentioned above, I saw an article from several yrs. ago where the owner had hosted a "protest" meeting of concerned locals in the area. A power plant was going to be built not far away and in spite of their objections, the permit went through and the facility was built.
I sympathized with them up to a point - most everyone wants progress and energy independence, but there's also the "not in my back yard" crowd, the "NIMBY" movement. The new plant was far enough away for the owner of the property to not be bothered by noise, but after zooming out and looking at the location geographically-wise, I started to better understand their objection to the plant being sited where it was.
You'll need to click the screen shot, then envision a line from the power plant (in the bottom left corner of the graphic) going from generally southwest to northeast, the direction of prevailing winds in this part of the world during the spring and summer. You can then see any pollution/particulates generated by the plant would pass right over the property. (the "push pin" graphic is just the edge of the property- the houses and lake are up and to the left of it)
I don't know if that was the reason for the sale and also don't know if there was enough pollution from the plant to make a difference. What did concern me was later reading an article about the Keystone Pipeline and seeing where one of the proposed routes was sited: (the line was made by me and it was the best estimate I could make from the information I read)
So, perhaps the owner of the property was "gettin' out while the gettin' was good". I've seen loads of nice properties for sale around the Dallas/Denton area but there's also been a BUNCH of drilling down there over the last five or so years. None of the properties I've seen offer the mineral rights along w/ the land, either. Growing up in the oil business, I wouldn't have much problem with having an oil or gas well on my land...
...as long as it was MINE.
No comments:
Post a Comment