Mastering a Rural Real Estate Investment: Perkability Adds Value

LCF Group story: Dave tests for suitable septic drain fields on Old Crooked Road Farm 1-13-07

Mastering Rural Real Estate Investing

            Testing for useful septic drain fields at Old Crooked Road Farm 1-13-07

            Working with rural land usually means that public water and sewer are not available.  Value is added to land when it has been tested and approved for a septic drain field.  We are just starting the process of making this 50+ acre property available in tracts of 2 to 5 acres, which are affordable to many.  In Franklin County, Virginia, where this property is located, any tract over 5 acres may be sold without testing for a suitable septic drain field.  To us it is not reasonable to sell any land to someone intending to build without this testing.  Saturday was really a beautiful sunny day with record- breaking  temperatures of 65 degrees.  It was just great to be working on the farm and walking up and down the pretty Blue Ridge Mountain ridges.  Wildlife is plentiful in this area and in the afternoon a neighbor “Junior” came by to see if he could hunt rabbits on the farm next season. He said rabbit hunting is really good in this area.

                                                 We hire a certified soil scientist for testing and design of septic systems.  For the testing at Old Crooked Road Farm, Dennis Childress (a certified soil scientist) and I worked the whole day doing a feasibility study just to find out how well the farm “Perked” -- a term used to indicate how good the soil is for septic drain fields.  Dennis worked really hard using a hand auger to make 3 inch bore holes up to 50 inches deep. Drilling these holes by hand is a lot of work, and by looking and feeling the texture and color of the soil at various depths an experienced person like Dennis can tell if a drain field is possible.  Dennis drilled 26 holes at spot locations on the property and we found that only very select places were suitable.  Some properties have had very good perking and a drain field could be put at any location. 

Because only select parts of the farm are useful  we are going  back for 2 days on January 24^th and 25^th  to locate the actual drain field locations needed for this project.  To help make the work easier for Dennis a backhoe will be used to dig deep into the soil for testing. I have made arrangements with Don Brooks to bring his backhoe and work with Dennis and I. Don and his excavating team have worked many projects for us including pond building, forging roads, clearing land-- they even removed an old swimming pool for us in Floyd.  Both Don and Dennis have helped us for a number of years and we are always pleased to have them work with us.

I will get some photos of the soil testing next week and write about the results.  It is not obvious when a project is complete how much work and talent is used to make your rural land investment market- ready.  I will be writing about each step in the process of transforming this property for fulfilling someone’s Dream of a beautiful home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Dave, LCF Group

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