WYSIWYG
Caveat emptor! That is a common Latin phrase which means “buyer beware.” It applies to everything and we usually hear it relating to used cars or other previously owned items. It also applies legally to home buyers who need to take it into consideration. If a house is sold “as is,” that means if there are problems there will be no recourse for you.
Raw land also brings challenges and it is imperative that you look around and study your surroundings. Can you live with the way things surrounding your land are today? It is likely that is how they will remain.
Please don’t buy land and then try to change the world to your liking. If you are planning to live where you will need to use a gravel road, decide if you are content with the conditions. If you are not, buy someplace else. Take time before you purchase to notice if the main road is too busy to please you, if it’s not straight enough for you, if it’s too dusty as you see it today. In a rural area, frequently roads are not paved. There is a phrase in the computer world—WYSIWYG—which stands for “what you see is what you get.” If you don’t like something, and it is not on land that you own, don’t expect, let alone demand, that changes be made. Pay attention to how much traffic goes by or what other things might disturb you before you buy the land.
You might be startled awake by farm equipment running at 4 in the morning. If that will upset your sensibilities, you had better think again before you buy. Farmers use the best management practices and they do not work by the clock. They gauge their time by what needs to be done and how early they can or must start their days. Does a neighbor have a rooster that crows early in the morning? You need to realize that the chicken was there before you and will not have to be removed just because you can’t sleep in.
People move to rural areas for many reasons. When people move in and soon start insisting that the county fix what the newcomers perceive as problems, increased taxes will follow. Soon the newcomers have created higher taxes for the entire county.
Words that are not attributed to anyone, but a quote that has been floating around the internet goes like this, “You came from there because you didn’t like there, and now you want to change here to be like there. Citizens here are not racist, phobic, or anti-whatever-you-are, but simply like here the way it is and actually most are here because it is not like there, wherever there was. You are welcome here, but please stop trying to make here like there. If you want here to be like there, you should not have left there to come here, and you are invited to leave here and go back there at your earliest convenience.”
In other words, you need to assimilate to your new surroundings, don’t expect the new location and the residents to change for you. Think of your move as a learning experience and enjoy the challenges.
