New to group, North Dakota

[Ladyfry]

The best part about the state is the people, no doubt. I have yet to find a state that I like better. I have lived in MI, FL, IL, TX, SD, and VA. I have also visited enough in WI to know I like it better here. I live out in the country, and we just moved here a year ago. All the neighbors (who have lived here mostly all their lives) have been very kind, and accomodating. I live about 45 miles North of Minot, so I am extreme north and central in the state. I love the school that my kids are in now. Also job opportunities are growing because the oil industry is growing. In all fairness I have a good friend who was from Washington state, who missed it very much. I think she missed the metropolis areas a lot, plus homesickness. But she also missed the weather in Washington, which she said was a lot better. Have you visited? Maybe that would help you make a decision. I don't know about how green the eastern part of the state is, but I do know that Fargo and Grand Forks (eastern ND, both) are a lot bigger than we are here around Minot and Bottineau. Hope this helps at all.

 

[rooster0209]

Quote:
I live in the South Eastern part of ND. I don't think the winters are as harsh as "outsiders" think. I used to live in OK and I the winters there are just as cold, except in ND we don't get all the ice as Okies do. The people here are really friendly. I live on a farm and enjoy the rural life. The cost of living is very reasonable and job opportunities are quickly improving. Fargo is 75 miles from me and that is plenty close

. There are people who actually carpool back/forth to work there. The small town near me is self sufficient with a decent school system. I say give ND a chance, I really love it here.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

My love for the state started when we got a ND travel guide in the mail, the pictures and websites I saw were amazing.

Ladyfry: the eastern part of WA is the better side, we have all 4 seasons, life is slower here. We get down to -20 in the winters and 105 in the summers. We get snow drifts so bad you cant leave the house and we get summer wild fires.
I have been to Great Falls MT which is on the plains and loved it and from what I have seen/read alot of ND is plains. One of these days in the next couple years I plan on visiting.

What about the price of housing? For example 10 acres of land here is about $50,000. A small chunk of land (less than 5 acres) with a house is over 100,000. What are the land prices there? Also what is the state min. wage?

Sorry for all the questions, it would be nice to move there in the next 3-5 years if everything goes right.
Michael

 

[Ladyfry]

Depends on where you want the land. Close to the bigger cities, and you are going to pay for it! If you are really interested go to this website.

http://www.realtor.com/northdakota/nbselnd.asp

You can easily figure out how it works, and you will have a great idea of how the prices are going nowadays. A word to the wise, if you are buying property, make sure that the mineral rights come with the property. In ND it is legal to sell the property without the mineral rights. Just make sure, unless you don't care.

Don't forget that getting loans is going to be harder for a while, with the markets having seizures right now.

 

[rooster0209]

Across & up the road from me is a house w/8 acres, large steel building w/concrete floor. The house does need some work buts its a decent house. The owners are asking $75K. It is in a rural area and right off the main "highway", surrounded by a nice shelterbelt.

I think min wage is $6.50 but I am not sure.

Here is another farmstead that I know is for sale in SE ND.
http://www.realtor.com/search/listi...7a857e52b&lid=1100887544&lsn=1&srcnt=1#Detail

some people try to get "big city" prices and others don't. The small town that I live near, the medium house range is $35-45K for 3 bedrooms, 2bath

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

Just wondering, what are mineral rights, and why would you need them?
Thanks for the links and info. That is one thing I like about WA, min wage is over $8

 

[Ladyfry]

Sorry it took so long to get back with you. My husband and I have been in the process of building a new, more ND winter friendly chicken coop, and we have hardly had time to breath, let alone play on the computer. HOpefully it will make for happy chickens!

Whoever has mineral rights to a property basically owns the minerals on the property. I believe that some of the minerals protected would be oil, coal, oil shale, gold, silver, rocks, sand soil, and more. It hasn't really mattered in the past, since the rights go along with the property, unless specifically stated, but now with the bakken oil reserve being hot on everyones minds, some people are selling land, but reserving mineral rights.

I, myself, would not buy land without the mineral rights, the idea bugs me (

), but I suppose to some people it wouldn't matter. I hope that you find what you are looking for in ND!

 

[zhinka]

I am in the badlands of North Dakota!!
Good to see ya!

 

[zhinka]

Mineral rights NEVER are sold hand in hand with the land, they are always a seperate ownership unless specifically mentioned in the deed. Do a deed search, for the most part the landowner does not own the minerals unless its mentioned as part of the land
Also water rights are not automatically sold with the land unless it is specifically mentioned.
I get paid alot of money to search deeds for people and 99% of the people who assumed they owned the minerals along with the land are sadly completely mistaken.
Surface rights are totally different then subsurface rights.

Especialy where I live in the badlands, alot of people assume they own rights to minerals and get upset when the ones who do own the minerals are allowed to drill on their surface property. I do not feel bad about this as it was the fault of the landowner in that they screwed up and didnt buy the minearl rights and I bought them and you bet I am sure going to have that land drilled lol.
Just thought I would clear this up.

 

[Ladyfry]

Okay, I did a little research, and what I found was, Mineral rights are sold with the property, unless otherwise separated. However, and this is a big however, if at some point in the preceding life of the property, the mineral interests were separated, you wouldn't see it in the normal deed. That would be how you are able to make so much money doing mineral rights searches. In my area of ND, it is very unlikely that the mineral rights were separated from the surface....just not that much activity up here. Anyway, that is how the abstract office was able to tell me that mineral rights go with the property unless they specifically separate them. They just didn't bother to tell me that if it were separated 50 years ago, they wouldn't know!!