Howdy Ags,
I am finally going to buy some land in the country, and I have found some land near Spurger in Tyler County. I have a few questions and was hoping someone on here might be able to give me some contacts or costs. Here are the questions

• Need to drill a well. Any referrals or costs to drill one for drinking?
• There is electricity at the frontage road, but I want to put the house 500 to 1000 ft from the road. Any idea on the cost to run electrical line with poles that far?
• The property is heavily wooded except for about 5 acres in the front which has a lot of debris from the timber harvest. It was replanted with pine but I would like to keep it cleared. Any idea on costs or referrals to clear and level the ground?
• Finally, any referrals to dig a pond?

My realtor is not in the same county, so he doesn't have any information for me.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

Well is $20K to $25K. For 400ft to 500 ft.
Will be cheaper if you can get into good quality water much lower. Ask your neighbor how deep their well is and try to drink water from that level. Water well companies are usual very knowledgeable of well depths and water quality.

You may want to consider 5000 gallon rainwater harvesting if it is occasional use. East Texas has plenty of rainfall.

Have a sit down visit with the power company ( probably a rural coop) and ask about power line installation. Most are good people to deal with. They may require you to clear a right of way.

Land clearing will be $2500 to $4000 a day for a Forestry Mulcher. Plus potential a move in cost.
Dozer will be cheaper but you will have burn piles.

Pond costs have wide ranges based on soil and topography.
First determine how much refill capacity the site has before sizing the pond.

Have fun !

I am drilling a 725 foot well in Bosque county and all-in it will cost me $60k. Everything has gotten much more expensive.

I hired a forestry mulcher 2 months ago for $3k per day. Dozer work was about $1,200 - $1,500 per day. I have had both on my place at different times and I think they can both be useful depending on what you want to do.

Animal Eight 84 said:

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Well is $20K to $25K. For 400ft to 500 ft.
Will be cheaper if you can get into good quality water much lower. Ask your neighbor how deep their well is and try to drink water from that level. Water well companies are usual very knowledgeable of well depths and water quality.

You may want to consider 5000 gallon rainwater harvesting if it is occasional use. East Texas has plenty of rainfall.

Have a sit down visit with the power company ( probably a rural coop) and ask about power line installation. Most are good people to deal with. They may require you to clear a right of way.

Land clearing will be $2500 to $4000 a day for a Forestry Mulcher. Plus potential a move in cost.
Dozer will be cheaper but you will have burn piles.

Pond costs have wide ranges based on soil and topography.
First determine how much refill capacity the site has before sizing the pond.

Have fun !

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My second choice is in Cass County, and it was roughly $25k for a 600 ft well.

Definitely plan to harvest rainwater which would work for showers but not drinking water. Thanks for the tips.

Once I close, I will contact the local power company. I was just trying to ballpark it. My first choice has power at the road, but the Cass county was at least 1600 ft just to reach my property.

Thanks for the info on land clearing. Not a fan of burn piles but definitely a cheaper alternative.

I have two ponds in mind. The first is just a dig out on the front of the property for some livestock. The land has some elevation change at the back where it drops 30+ feet and rises back up within less than 200 ft and would make a nice deep water lake. It is a wet weather creek. I assume it would need to be engineered and not just dirt moved, so it won't be cheap when you consider the land clearing.

Thanks for the advice. I have some nice plans for the land, but I think the cost will curtail most of those plans

Mark

We put in a giant water reservoir and hooked it up to a pump for potable water at our place. Last's roughly the season or longer and is less than $100 to refill.

Not as sexy as a well, nor is it as expensive

If you are not in a big hurry (and you are not trying to take out huge trees) you could rent a dozer for a week and do this stuff yourself. You can usually rent for the week what some charge for 2 days.

Clearing land is not difficult at all. If you have some widow maker trees that need to come down, perhaps hire it out. Digging tanks is not difficult either. If you are going to place a dam on a creek, lots of rules could apply so you may need to talk with your county agent and consider hiring that out.

Lastly, closely consider how anything you do and how it will affect your neighbors.

thesassman said:

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Howdy Ags,
I am finally going to buy some land in the country, and I have found some land near Spurger in Tyler County. I have a few questions and was hoping someone on here might be able to give me some contacts or costs. Here are the questions

• Need to drill a well. Any referrals or costs to drill one for drinking?
• There is electricity at the frontage road, but I want to put the house 500 to 1000 ft from the road. Any idea on the cost to run electrical line with poles that far?
• The property is heavily wooded except for about 5 acres in the front which has a lot of debris from the timber harvest. It was replanted with pine but I would like to keep it cleared. Any idea on costs or referrals to clear and level the ground?
• Finally, any referrals to dig a pond?

My realtor is not in the same county, so he doesn't have any information for me.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

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As for the land clearing I can recommend LSJ Land Services @ 409-377-5353. Good people. They've done some work recently for my son and he was pleased.

thesassman said:

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Howdy Ags,
I am finally going to buy some land in the country, and I have found some land near Spurger in Tyler County. I have a few questions and was hoping someone on here might be able to give me some contacts or costs. Here are the questions

• Need to drill a well. Any referrals or costs to drill one for drinking?
• There is electricity at the frontage road, but I want to put the house 500 to 1000 ft from the road. Any idea on the cost to run electrical line with poles that far?
• The property is heavily wooded except for about 5 acres in the front which has a lot of debris from the timber harvest. It was replanted with pine but I would like to keep it cleared. Any idea on costs or referrals to clear and level the ground?
• Finally, any referrals to dig a pond?

My realtor is not in the same county, so he doesn't have any information for me.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

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You can certainly drink purified rainwater harvested from a roof.
A lot of people in the hill country have recently gone that route.

Used to be extremely common when my mom was a kid.

You will also need a long driveway gravel, asphalt or concrete which won't be that cheap for 500-1000 feet. We looked at moving a couple of years ago and doing many of the things you will be doing. After adding up the cost of the land and everything we would have to do we decided the best financial decision was to stay put. I wish you luck and get ready to open up that check book.

thesassman said:

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Animal Eight 84 said:

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You may want to consider 5000 gallon rainwater harvesting if it is occasional use. East Texas has plenty of rainfall.

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Definitely plan to harvest rainwater which would work for showers but not drinking water.

Mark

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I lived in the Hill Country for 12 years and our only water supply was rainwater.

We had a 25K cistern that was fed by the water coming off the house, and then 2 carbon rope filters and a UV light.

It was a great system and would recommend it to any and everyone living in the country.

As mentioned you are in a part of Texas that will receive a lot of rain and will keep your system full, so think big!

Cass County is a nice place to live. If I could I would go back. The power company is Bowie-Cass Electric. When I lived there many years ago Ed Hargett was the electrical engineer for Bowie-Cass.