The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: fixie on August 13, 2019, 09:03:52 AM
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Would you purchase land that is directly on the Canadian/US border...US side? Why/why not? What are some concerns you would have that might lower your offering price or lead you to not purchase?
Info: semi-rural land, light to heavy forest, some pasture. No roads on US side, boundary road on Canadian side.
Concerns I have identified
1. Law enforcement activity
2. Drug trafficking(unlikely
3. some jerk wanting to build a wall
4. eminent domain: ie. gov't building radar towers or sensor platforms
5. drones/aircraft activity
Thanks for your thoughts!
-fixie
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why would you want to buy this land?
That question would dictate your plan's resilience to the issues you listed.
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Hell Yeah!
Then when the climate crisis worsens and all the US coasties and southerners try to find land that isn't flooded or too hot to live on, you could just walk over the border and squeeze into Canada. Honestly, with everything that scares me about the US today, I'd find some solace in knowing that I could just sneak into a country with a little more sanity.
Okay, so I wouldn't really spend money for this, but I'd feel great if I had a friend with this property!
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As a Canadian living not too far from the US border, I'm wondering if you actually want/plan to live there, or just own the land, in case of ......... what, exactly? Depending on where this land is located, one potential concern would be a Roxham Rd situation, where illegal immigrants are passing through/near your land to get into Canada. By the busload. Not very likely, but the possibility is not zero either. There was a similar situation in my province, but lesser numbers, a couple of years ago. And if Trump gets another term, who knows ......
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The last time I was up on the Canadian border in a rural wooded area I think the fence was either a couple of strands of barbed wire or maybe normal chain-link. Either way, something that you could get over in a couple of seconds. That was probably 15-20 years ago but I would say the odds are low that anyone would use this particular sliver of land along the border as the place to try and cross illegally or do something else.
It's a possibility though so I would expect to get some sort of discount just for the possibility of future legal issues - however small that possibility is.
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Drug trafficking is supposed to still have a lot of activity. Some teenagers moved 7 tons across the border 15 yrs ago. Probably tougher now, but when there is money involved and billion $ cartels involved they find ways.
https://nypost.com/2014/04/17/nerdy-teenager-turns-weed-kingpin/
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Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Yes, I would be living there. It's an ideal piece of land for what I want to do except for the border. No fence, and the road on the N end is Canadian. Only thing stopping somebody from crossing there are some vicious blackberries about 25 yards wide. Not really worried about nerds crossing with weed, as you can get it cheap w/o penalty or risk in the state.
Nobody addressed drones, eminent domain, pernicious enforcement activities and other surveillance, so I suppose those things do not bother you. Those are the highest concerns on my list.
Climate change: I actually work in this area, so I know there is essentially no escape. No technologies are going to save us, and any significant reduction in CO2 and other GHG have a catch 22 effect. See "Aerosol masking effect" if you do not believe me.
-fixie
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Nobody addressed drones, eminent domain, pernicious enforcement activities and other surveillance, so I suppose those things do not bother you. Those are the highest concerns on my list.
-fixie
This stuff might be a worry if you were bordering Mexico, but I really haven't heard of such issues on the Canadian border. Not something I would let prevent me from buying if it's otherwise what you want. You could contact the local police on either side of the border and the nearest customs crossing for more info about these things if you're really concerned.
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I think it would be really cool. Build a house that is on both sides of the border. Paint a line on the actual border on the floor. Stand on one side, jump to the other, jump back.
There's a town with a library built across the borders like that. And there's a line on the floor.