Land Lovers: Factors To Consider When Buying Property

WORDS BY AL BROWN

OWhere’s the water: The No. 1 enemy of a lot or house is water. Therefore, drainage and elevation come into play. For drainage, look at the subject site and also the adjoining properties. Are they draining towards the “dream lot?” Look also at the street drainage. And are wetlands present on the site?

Over the years, I have helped hundreds and hundreds of people buy land, mostly single-family building sites, and that will be our focus today. Most times, a buyer sees a site with pretty trees and says, “That’s the one!”

I walk them through a number of other factors that must be considered. Here are some of them:

What’s the elevation: While everything to the untrained eye looks flat in Glynn County, we do have elevation, subtle as it may be, but very important. A foot or two can make a big difference. The bigger question: Is it a low lot? Ask for the elevation of the finished grade. It will be given to you in MSL (Mean Sea Level).

Preferred exposure: Is it westerly? Easterly? By exposure, I mean the direction the back of the house faces. After all, the rear of the property is where you spend most of your time outside. To stress the importance of this factor, let’s take, for example, a marsh front site. If the house has a westerly exposure, and you are living here full time, you know how hot July, August, and part of September are. That afternoon sun, at times, can be unbearable thus rendering your activities on the deck, terrace, or pool very uncomfortable. This is when “sun management” comes into play with the use of wide overlaps, porches, and tree canopy to provide as much shade as possible. An easterly exposure for this same house doesn’t have this problem since the house itself provides a sun blocker. A point to consider: If you primarily only spend winters here, you welcome the warmth of a westerly exposure.

Site within a neighborhood: The location of the site within a neighborhood. Does it give you the privacy you may seek? What about light pollution from street lights, traffic, or a cell tower?

Location within the community at large : Do you want the energy, vibe, and activity of a higher density area or do you prefer privacy? The issue of traffic is not to be forgotten either.

Zoning as to the site: What are the trends? Is commercial encroachment headed this way?

The life stage of the neighborhood: Neighborhoods (and cities, too, for that matter) go through three cycles: growth, stabilization, decline. I’ve seen some complete the cycle in a very short time, others take a long, long time and get settled into one stage. Warning signs in the neighborhood: unkept yards and houses, an abundance of rental houses, foreclosures.

Covenants: Are there deed restrictions and enforcement of architectural standards? Too little or too much restriction can be a negative.

Lot size: Is the site large enough to build within the setback area and home size maintaining a sense of scale and proportion?

Easements: Are there utility or drainage access or other easements impacting the site? Get a survey and title work before closing.

Utilities: Is there public sewer or is a septic tank system required? Public water? Gas? Cable TV?

Private clubs: If there is a private club involved? Check out the financial stability.

Trees: Their type and condition. Do you lose the most important one(s) in the building envelope?

In the end, I ask : What is most important to you? What is your deal breaker? Okay, now let’s go put our boots on and do some walking.

Al Brown is the owner of Al Brown Company, 60 Cinema Lane, Ste. 120. St. Simons Island. He has been in the real estate business for 50 years. For more information or to arrange an appointment, call 912-268-2671 or email albrown@albrowncompany.com.

Memory Care

Frederica’s Academy’s Mary Ford Fitzjurls has donned No. 10 jersey on the pitch, No. 45 on the gridiron, or even the occasional cross country uniform. And while she’s obviously a sports fan, her first love will always be soccer.

“I started playing when I was 3 for the U4 team, and my dad was always my biggest supporter,” Fitzjurls says.

“He would take me and my brother out (who’s two years younger) and just practice with us, since we loved it so much. I just kept progressing with it and played with the boys team when I was around 8 because we didn’t have a girls team my age since there was really no one around here that played. I joined the girls team that were a little older than me and that’s been my soccer path.”

That path led her to becoming a starter for the Lady Knights as an eighth grader and earning a semi final spot in the GISA soccer championships. Fitzjurls says soccer will always be her No. 1 sport even after adding two new activities to her schedule.

Joining the JV football team on a whim to be the place kicker, Fitzjurls recalls when the varsity head coach Brandon Derrick went to the storage room and picked out a random jersey. Fitzjurls stuck with No. 45 and the sport when she was advised that she would have an open spot on the varsity team.

Having fun with the sport, Fitzjurls didn’t know how nerve-racking it would be to execute an onside kick when she first learned about her role.

“I had never done it before. I didn’t have to do them in eighth grade, but this year in practice Coach Derrick said hands team and I honestly didn’t know what that meant. But when he explained that I was going to onside kick and I just thought why not. (Assistant) Coach Bo Yeargan told me that I should just back straight up off the ball,” she says.

“In soccer you use both feet, so I was used to using both and when he told me I should just go straight back off the ball and then I could choose which side I would want to go. I would trick the other team and sometimes my own teammates, whichever side I decided to go to and kick. I don’t know, I guess I have a thing for onside kicks. I hadn’t really practiced them before that.”

Balancing two sports at once, Fitzjurls got caught up in a last minute addition when she joined the cross country team to simply help out her best friend.

“I keep getting caught up in these things where I join on the spot,” Fitzjurls says with a smile.

“My best friend, Maggie Dorminy, is a really good cross country runner and she asked me one day after school if I wanted to run with her for the region meet because they needed three extra people to run. So three girls from my grade — me, Brianna Kohlhof, and Ryan Hoffnagle — we all just went out there and ran. I wasn’t expecting to do well at all. I was just trying my best out there, but we had Kaitlyn Sunderhaus, Megan, and myself place all-region, so that was really cool.”

Garnering such success in a sport that she wasn’t planning to join, Fitzjurls says the atmosphere of being at Frederica Academy has allowed her and others to try everything.

“For cross country, Coach Nash was telling me that I should totally do it. Coach Derrick told me after my eighth grade season that I should keep doing varsity. Coach Gabe was my coach for travel soccer and he told me that I should play varsity (as an eighth grader),” Fitzjurls says.

“They are really welcoming and at the same time whenever you join a team you have friends on the team from school, so everyone encourages new girls if they want to come out and try it … they always say yes you should. It’s a good friendship.”

Fitzjurls questioned how one student can stay at the top of their game while playing two sports in the same season. She soon realized the effort pays off.

“For the fall season of travel soccer and football, I would go from school straight to football practice (4 to 5:30) and then I would have to leave early after special teams and go to Jekyll for soccer practice and come home at 9 p.m. and do homework,” Fitzjurls says.

“It was definitely challenging, and I had a lot of nights where I had to stay up late and I was wondering if it was worth it or not to be so busy and have to work so hard to stay on top of things. But, then the next day as I’m in football practice and soccer practice again, I knew it was worth it. It brought a lot of joy. It was definitely worth it in the end.”

Having three sports checked off thus far as a Knight, Fitzjurls plans to add another one.

“I think I’m gonna try track this spring and see how it goes,” Fitzjurls says as she laughs.