Suburban/Rural lifestyle for newbies

We are playing with the thought of buying a residential property with 1 or 2 acres of land and want to see if it’s even viable for us. I want a big shepherd dog and that’s how the need for acreage cropped up.

We both are city bred and aren’t familiar about farming or rural living. Just home gardening experience. Our goal is to continue our IT jobs and send our 11yr old daughter to a decent school. Big dogs, chickens and vegetable garden is the cherry on top.

We found some potential properties around the bay with all those requirements met and wanted to understand what would “agricultural zoning” mean? In terms of property taxes, insurance, electricity. Most of these properties have a septic tank and well (Private).

Any resource or realtor recommendations are appreciated to guide us in owning and maintaining such properties. Lack of experience is the big inhibitor for us. We want to make an informed decision and not end up with ‘The money pit’ :slight_smile:

May I know which areas you are talking about in BA? Thanks!

Orinda, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, Castro Valley, Sunol.

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Orinda number 1 the rest follow in order of desirability.
The larger the property the larger the headaches. On big issue is water. Make sure you have a good well

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Can you do farming or other agricultural use with just 1 or 2 acres? It’s a lot bigger than a typical suburban lot but still not that big.

For 1 or 2 acres you can have a large pool with pool house, grass with play area, dog run, chicken run, lots of fruit trees, large driveway and garage, maybe a tennis court or basketball court, but probably not much beyond that. If you are on a hill the usable space is even smaller.

My wife and I have been keeping backyard chickens for a number of years now. We do wish we had 1 acre of land so we can have more space for them. Chickens actually don’t need a lot of space (I read a few square feet per chicken is enough which is surprisingly small) but we would prefer to have more space for them to roam around. If we could keep some roosters we could hatch eggs.

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They have IT jobs. There won’t be any farming.

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I have 5 acres in Cameron Park. Definitely not enough land for more than a gentleman farm. Farm animals own you, you don’t own them. My vineyard is only 1acre but can produce 1200 bottles a year. But bugs, birds and mold can get most of the crop. As far as growing fruits and vegetables… it cost more than it’s worth and no guarantee of a decent yield.

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Have you looked along the coast or in the mountains in San Mateo or Santa Cruz counties? Great climate. Find some acreage that just burned last year and looks like hell. It will come back amazingly fast. And no fire danger for some time as the excess fuel has been cleared.

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Any particular websites you would recommend for the acreage.

Want a real farm? Loopnet

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Currently how much time do you/family spend in the garden on the weekend+weekdays after your day job/s? Is that some work you look forward to and don’t tire doing it?

My understanding is large acerage is a lot of work and one needs to be motivated, hence these are the questions I would ask myself(which you might have thought of already, so pardon me if so).

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Try this:
https://www.redfin.com/CA/Turlock/5326-Clayton-Rd-95380/home/169653399

I just moved from Castro Valley, and have a friend who purchased near Crow Canyon and is doing what you said. However, its a lot of work. He spends all evenings and weekends getting his land going. he is into gardening at scale, and has chickens, etc. Our agent in CV was Rebecca Sayami if you want to reach out to her - she is super plugged into local real estate.

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No, I’ve always lived rural and just used Zillow or Realtor.com

if @Neel is still interested, this looks interesting. Best of both worlds. A modern home on 6 acres

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/21555-Eden-Canyon-Rd-Castro-Valley-CA-94552/24916554_zpid/

@girlykick - Thank you for sharing.
We went to this property this weekend. The views were phenomenal. But, the access is brutal.
The private road is the only road to go to the house and it’s a one way single lane laid on the hill edge. So, two cars cannot go up and down the hill at the same time. So, the residents have to co-ordinate with the neighbor’s family and make sure only one uses the road at all times, either going up or down.

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https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sunol/1930-Kilkare-Rd-94586/home/933950

Market is super hot. This went into pending in a week.

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yikes. yes hard pass. can you imagine coming home after a dinner out, when things go back to normal? or even having people over?

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If you want country living…

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North Bay near Santa Rosa. Wine country. 17.5 acres asking for 1.65M.

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Santa-Rosa/7100-Foothill-Ranch-Rd-95404/home/2278478

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