The Search Begins
With our house finally sold, Andy and I can officially begin our property search in Palisade! Unofficially we’ve been looking at properties the last few years, first on our own and then when our friend Laurie showed an interest, we looked with her. During that time, I was able to do preliminary research on the area, learning about rules regarding dividing property, water rights, square footage of primary and secondary residences on a property and Airbnb regulations.
Here is a brief overview of what I’ve learned so far:
The majority of Palisade, more specifically the agricultural farmland around Palisade is protected by a land conservancy, similar to what Napa wine country has in California. This means the land is protected so developers cannot come in and create multi-unit condos, apartments, etc… nor can they bulldoze farmland for suburban like housing developments. This means that Palisade will remain farmland with our beloved orchards, vineyards, and horse farms as the dominate features of the area. This is one of the reasons why we are focusing on Palisade, the downside to this upside is that it makes finding a property more challenging.
Other areas we contemplated early in our search included Clifton, a small town located right next to Palisade, and Fruita another small town but further afield located on the other side of Grand Junction. Clifton, Fruita and Grand Junction do not have the same land protections that Palisade has which means that if we bought a property in those areas, we could at some point find ourselves being surrounded by development. Some areas within Clifton don’t have the best reputation which was a factor in our decision. There is an area referred to as the ‘buffer zone’ that is located between Palisade and Clifton that could have potential. If we found ourselves still looking for a property 12 months from now, I might revisit the ‘buffer zone’. Given that my company name is Palisade Posh, I’m more interested in and motivated to find a property with a Palisade address.
If a parcel of land in Palisade has never been subdivided, you can subdivide it once with one section being less than five acres, otherwise land can only be divided in five-acre blocks. There are of course properties that are for sale that are less than five acres which means that they were at one time part of a larger parcel of land. What we are finding is that the smaller the acreage often the higher the price because these parcels of land are so few and far between.
If the property has some acreage to it, you also want to make sure it has water rights, especially if you are planning on growing things on the land, like for example our Boutique Farm. There is dry land available, often it is more affordable, but it does not have water rights which means that growing a garden or small farm is more challenging if not impossible. It would be more expensive because you’d be using public water (Ute Water Conservancy) to do it and that would be pricey and possibly not allowed. Because I want a garden with a small orchard, the dry land is not a viable option for us.
Another option we considered early on was purchasing raw land and build on it from the ground up, meaning build our house, the Airbnb, the barn art studio as well as the gardens and orchard. After crunching the numbers which included the cost to put in septic, run electricity, and water and then the actual cost to build, it proved to be too high in cost and we abandoned that idea all together. Our goal is to find a property with acreage that has a house and other outbuildings or structures on it, like a detached garage, barn, or workshop.
There are also rules and regulations regarding primary and secondary residences on a single parcel of land. Palisade proper also has a limit to how many Airbnb’s can be within city limits and has a wait list, a long wait list from what I’ve heard from the locals. Outside city limits there are no Airbnb restrictions. However, the primary residence must be larger in square footage than the secondary residence. My plan for the Airbnb is that it would be somewhere between 700 – 900 square feet, therefore I need to make sure the main house is larger in square footage and the property is outside Palisade city limits. Our current focus is on East Orchard Mesa, ideally somewhere along the Wine Byway which is a loop that takes visitors past many of the wineries in the Palisade area. It is a beautiful area, surrounded by vineyards and orchards with an occasional horse or two in an open field. The views are amazing on East Orchard Mesa. My friend Laurie can see Mount Garfield, the Book cliffs, Grand Mesa, and the Colorado National Monument from her property!
Given what we learned from the sale of our house, we are going to ‘try’ and keep an open mind. Based on what we’ve seen while looking with Laurie, we will most definitely be purchasing a ‘fixer upper’. That said, our starting criteria that will guide us in our search includes:
Two or more acres of land (if the property meets all the other criteria, we will consider one acre, but anything less might prove challenging for us to accomplish all we want to do on it.)
Water rights (preferably with a working pump on the property)/No dry land
Primary residency has a foundation (homes with foundations make renovating more viable as the foundation can hold the added weight of dry wall, tile, and hardwood floors …)
Other out buildings on the property (these can vary from a shed to a detached garage, barn, or pole barn, etc.…)
Outside Palisade city limits
East Orchard Mesa/Wine Byway (ideally)
Views (this could include views of the surrounding mesas and mountains and or orchards and vineyards)
Reasonable distance from I70 and the railroad tracks (my goal for the Airbnb is to create a relaxing destination so avoiding noise pollution is an important aspect to take into consideration)
We have secured our prequalification letter (that is something they require in Palisade prior to you starting a property search) and we’ve given our realtor, Laura Black, from Fruit and Wine Real Estate our maximum budget and our general list of criteria. Weather permitting, we will head to the Western Slope over Martin Luther King weekend to officially start our search!
Postscript: Tammy Craig who owns this Real Estate agency also happens to be an artist and owns Craig Gallery where I often show and who also carries some of my artwork on a regular basis.
