So we went back to the first one we were looking at in Blooming Grove where I got so upset after they cut down a lot of the trees. Maybe it's because I didn't overreact as much or maybe I'm tired of looking for land, but it actually didn't look too bad this time. They put a big round pond/tank on the level part where we would've liked to build, but there's a couple of other good building sites with a slight slope that we should be able to deal with. Daniel is afraid snakes might come to the house from the pond so we might have to fill it in. Does anyone know what you can do with a tank pond? I was thinking of putting the septic system there and filling over it since it is at a lower level than the building sites. I'll have to post a question in the forums. The good thing though is that is has different kinds of loamy soil, which if I remember reading right, are great to build on. I'm just glad there's already a soil report done!! I will have to call on Monday to get all of the cost info on utilities and such like I did for the land in Azle.

If anyone is interested in this information, I'll type it up here. This is for a lot in Springtown near Azle:

No building permit needed if out of the city, just septic permit (which installers usually take care of for you)

No zoning restrictions, automatically zoned agriculture if in the county and no commercial zones in place.

Sewer costs: Conventional if you have good soil: $4,000-4,5000

     Alternative (aerobic) if you don't have good soil: $5,500-6,500

     Both for 500 gal/day system. 

     Permit if doing separate for Wise county is $360 for conventional systems, $560 for aerobic

Wells: If you can get a good water supply from the Paluxy which is 200-220 feet down it's $4,950 total for a well. If you can't and have to go down to the Trinity which is 400-440 feet it's $9,000 total. 

For phone/cable/internet, one of the providers is Verizon and they said they would run it to the house for free if you sign up for their services.

For electric, the provider for that area is Tri-County Coop and they charge $5.75/ft to run it overhead or $6.87/ft to run it underground assuming they don't run into any rock or obstacles.

Of course this was all just getting one estimate per item, but it helped to figure all the costs that would be additional to get this land ready to build since it has no utilities hooked up. Hopefully it will be a bargaining item to get the asking price down. If anyone in the area would like the info for the subs that I got those prices from, please PM me.

So I have left the final decision up to Daniel because I am tired of driving all over the place looking at crappy land. I have given him a deadline of the end of October to decide between Blooming Grove (Corsicana) or Springtown (Azle). Hopefully we'll be able to decide before then.

After that I'm going to have to figure out how to put in an offer and close the deal. The owners in Springtown don't have a Realtor and in Blooming Grove the owner is the Broker/Real Estate agent. I would like to try to close on our own without a Realtor because I really don't want to have to pay a Realtor a commission since I have done all of the work!! The Realtor in Corsicana takes forever to reply and never has time to show us the properties that I've found online, she just gives us directions.

Anyway, I guess I'm done ranting. If anyone has any info on real estate sales please help!