Effingham County -- A Little Country With Your City

 From time to time I get buyer clients who love downtown Savannah but don’t want to live there. They want a little bit of country with their city. When I first started in real estate here in Savannah it was fairly easy to find 2 to 5 acres in Effingham County, about 40 minutes from Savannah, to build on. But things have changed in the last five years or so.

Most landowners don’t want to break up land into 2 to 5 acre lots to sell, they want to sell large chunks of land to developers who are building subdivisions throughout Effingham County, which is made up of the towns of Rincon, Springfield and Guyton, with smaller communities here and there.

This makes it difficult for people who want a little privacy out in the country. One option is to find a seller who has a mobile home on acreage.

Many people, years back when you could buy 2 to 5 acre lots, bought these large lots and put mobile homes on them with plans to build their dream house later on. For whatever reasons, some never built the home and now put these properties on the market for sale. There is usually not much value in the mobile home, but they create an opportunity to buy the properties and either remove the mobile home, sell it, or use it as a rental property.

It’s not unusual to ride along the many roads going through Effingham County and see $600,000 home right next to a mobile home, then several more expensive homes, then two or three mobile homes.

The value in these properties is in the land and it pays to know the land value and the value of sewerage and electric hook-up before making an offer to be sure the seller is not adding in value for the mobile home. Mobile homes are like cars, they depreciate and at some point have no value and are a cost to move.

You also need to do homework on the land itself to make sure most of the property is not declared wetland which is useless except as a buffer from your neighbors. Once you have determined the true value and you make the deal, it is a great choice if you like your privacy and enjoy the environment of beautiful hardwoods and flora. You will even see some neat critters here and there.