Mastering Rural RealEstate Investing

Additional perk testing at Old Crooked Road Farm 1-25-07

Our first two days looking for drain fields using the common hand sampling method (1-13-07, posted 1-18-07) gave us an indication of how well our “Old Crooked Road Farm” perked in general. We found that there were a limited number of areas on the farm that had proper soil for a good drain field and further testing was needed.  This week, 1- 23&24 -07 a backhoe was used to dig test holes deeper and presumably faster.  

Henry of  “Brooks Excavating” Company helped with his big tractor/backhoe and many test locations were examined. 
                                                           

The procedure is for the soil scientist (Dennis Childress, who is pictured here) to pick a location, based on his knowledge and the hand testing he did two weeks ago, and then have Henry dig a pit or hole up to 8 feet deep at that location.  Then after the pit is dug Dennis jumps into the hole and selects soil samples up and down the wall of the pit with a small pick. Testing is done by feeling the texture of the soil by hand and examining the soil type by visual inspection.  This is, of course, a lot of digging and testing. Many of the pits did not test well, and this required a lot more pits to be dug with the backhoe. 

After two days work, the soil scientist and backhoe operator found only 7 or so locations to be satisfactory.  Dennis will come back for more work by hand because we are looking for about 15 good sites.

Many will ask, “Why go to all this work to find septic sites for homes?”.  Of course you can't build a home without a health department-approved drain field, and it would not do the purchaser any good to buy property without knowing if a drain field is possible (though for a parcel of 5 acres or more to be sold without this testing is allowable in Franklin County, VA--then it would be up to the purchaser or home builder to do the testing. Most would find this difficult and not know how, or who to contact). If the property was found not have an adequate drain field site no home could be built.  When this happens,the purchaser ends up with an expensive recreational piece of property with no house. For this reason we feel it is worth the time and expense to be sure an adequate site for a drain field is already determined for the new owner.

We love Dennis’ enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness! We hope he will be able to get the desired number of approvable sites in the next few weeks.  When we know the location of the drain fields then we can select home sites accordingly, and continue to make each parcel “ready to build”, without a lot of hassle for the new owner/ homebuilder.

You, the reader, should be getting the idea that successful Rural Real Estate Investing can sometimes require a lot of TTL (Time Talent andLoot)!   Is it worthwhile?  – we think it is, and necessary.

We will keep you posted on our progress in making the Old Crooked Road Farm into convenient, desirable, and affordable “dream locations" for people to enjoy.