Buying your piece of rural Oklahoma

Smart planning can help turn the dream of owning rural property into a lasting home.

There is something about a few acres that gets people dreaming.

A house tucked among the trees. Room for a garden, a few cattle or a shop. Space for children to roam. Maybe a porch overlooking a piece of Oklahoma that finally feels like your own.

More buyers are pursuing that vision. Ty Smith with Oklahoma AgCredit in Chickasha, has watched interest in rural property grow during his six years in lending. He sees buyers searching for tracts of five to 40 acres in communities such as Blanchard, Tuttle and Newcastle. He has also fielded more calls from people moving to Oklahoma from Texas, Colorado, Florida and California.

In southeastern Oklahoma, Choctaw Electric Cooperative is experiencing its own version of that growth.

The cooperative’s service territory stretches across a landscape that ranges from river bottoms to mountainous terrain. Its proximity to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, recreation around Hochatown and Broken Bow and the availability of rural land have drawn people looking for retirement homes, investment properties and a place to settle.

For first-time rural buyers, finding the right property is only part of the process.

Look beyond the property line

A home in a subdivision typically comes with infrastructure close at hand. Rural acreage can require the owner to think through electricity, water, septic systems, roads, driveways, fencing and other improvements.

Those costs can add up fast.

“Once we close, you’re just getting started,” Ty said.

He regularly talks with borrowers about expenses they may encounter after buying, from running electricity or water to drilling a well, building a road or repairing fences.

The same planning applies to electric service.

Choctaw Electric Cooperative CEO Kooney Duncan encourages prospective buyers to contact utilities before purchasing property. Existing electric infrastructure may be nearby, or extending service could require a significant investment.

“If the infrastructure is not close to that piece of property, it can cost several thousand dollars just to get the power to where its needed,” Duncan said.

Building new electric lines can also require easements across neighboring property, right-of-way clearing and coordination with county or state entities. That takes time, making an early conversation with the local electric cooperative especially valuable.

Duncan recommends taking the same approach with water. Determine whether rural water service is available or whether the area will require a well. Consider where a home, driveway and utilities will sit before construction begins.

“Ask questions and ask questions prior,” Duncan said.

Know what the land will require

Financing acreage can differ from financing a house in town, too.

At Oklahoma AgCredit, qualifying agricultural real estate loans generally require a 20% to 25% down payment, compared with the smaller down payments buyers may encounter with conventional residential mortgages. Borrowers may use cash or equity in another property toward that requirement.

Smith also recommends understanding how the property will be used. Some buyers plan to run cattle or grow crops. Others may lease land to a local producer. Buyers should also understand details such as floodplain status. If a financed structure is located in a floodplain, federal law requires flood insurance.

For those building a home, Duncan recommends thinking beyond construction costs to the years of ownership ahead. If the budget allows, he places insulation high on the priority list because heating and cooling account for a major share of a home’s electric use.

“The more efficient that you can make your home, the more that you can eventually save on your electric bills for the next 30 years,” he said.

For all the financial calculations and infrastructure planning, rural property carries something harder to put on a spreadsheet.

Ty has seen buyers cry at closing as a long-held dream became theirs. He has also watched sellers struggle to part with land held by their families for generations.

“There’s something about rural land that just tugs at your heartstrings,” he said.

Duncan understands the draw. Living in southeastern Oklahoma, he sometimes sees his home through the eyes of newcomers who are discovering the landscape for the first time.

“We get to live it every day,” he said. “You don’t really appreciate it until you look at it through the eyes of these people that are wanting to come here and enjoy the same things that we get to be a part of.”

That piece of Oklahoma may begin as a dream. Asking the right questions early can help turn it into a place worth calling home.