One type of buyer we have the pleasure of working with here in the Texas hill country is what we like to refer to as the “town and country” client.
Generally speaking, these clients tend to live and work in one of the nearby metro areas (San Antonio, Austin, some even come from as far away as Houston or Dallas/Ft. Worth). What many of these folks seek to do is to streamline and/or downsize their city life and cash in the saved expense and equity on a peaceful place in the hill country.
Fortunately for these clients, there are rural developments sprinkled about the hill country whose acreage tracts are covered by a blanket agricultural tax exemption. This exemption applies when a developer subdivides a larger ranch into smaller tracts of 10-30 acres whose restrictive covenants preserve the majority of the development acreage for agricultural purposes.
Restrictions on perimeter fencing and allowances for the fencing of smaller parcels within each tract, allows the developer to lease the "open range" to one of the many cattle ranchers whose ranch may border the development.
The herd has free reign of the non-fenced area of the larger development and the tract owners within the development enjoy the benefits of owning sizeable tracts of land for which they pay minimal taxes (except for the one acre on which the residence is placed).
So, even if the actual tract owned is only a few acres, when these folks head for the ranch, they are really headed for the ranch.
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