Difficulties/Considerations in land search

Hello everyone,

we have been looking for a plot of land or an existing property in the Rhine-Main area for some time. Over the course of the search (about 1 year), our preferences have certainly become more clear. At first, we wanted to live as close as possible to the nearest city, but now we prefer to live outside with a field-edge location in a quiet area.
Background:
My wife and I both work in Frankfurt, although she can do a lot of home office.
I grew up in the north (< 1000 inhabitants village, 4500sqm plot...), very quiet and spacious, no one could look inside anywhere and I miss that somewhat, but on the other hand I also want to build and maintain contacts.
On weekends we love nature and peace (walking, mountain biking), but of course we occasionally go to the city and enjoy city life for a few hours or even a day.
We love distant views; for us it’s somehow like a vacation. Only the question is whether the conditions with children will also bring happiness in the long run?

Prices:
Building land prices starting from 400 euros in the Aschaffenburg/Darmstadt area, and then everyone is staring at you on the terrace or inside the house. Therefore, we are expanding the radius a bit and would be around 200 euros per sqm. Financially, we are looking for up to 150,000 euros for the plot.

Surroundings:
Kindergarten and primary school are a must, further schools should be nearby as well as highway access. We have no parents here, we are both newcomers but have a good circle of acquaintances and friends here. However, we would like to continue having nice neighbors like we do now in our multi-family house, e.g. grilling together from time to time or something similar. We are not loners!

My questions:
How did you approach the topic of searching for a plot?
We want to have children and see advantages in a new development area, but also advantages in a rural environment (protected upbringing, lots of nature...) – what would you do without in retrospect, what do you miss?
What tips can you give when choosing the plot?

I hope I was able to give a brief insight into our "thought processes" and look forward to your suggestions!!

Hello,

we also have a long (3 years) search for a plot of land behind us.

In the end, we built in the small town where we both come from and have always lived.

We also considered whether the cheaper land prices in the surrounding area were worth the lack of infrastructure and the resulting driving, and came to the conclusion that we would rather spend more on the land and stay in our familiar small town with very good infrastructure.

However, it was not possible for us to be offered even one plot of land during the three years of intensive searching, because a large automotive supplier was building its new research center in our town and during this construction period all landowners hoped for rising prices and therefore did not want to sell.

In the end, we demolished a building from the 1950s that had been in the family and rebuilt the plot.

Our town is still rural in character - a big city would not have been right for us.

What we now appreciate about our established residential area is a well-mixed structure of residents (from babies to long-time retirees).

Regards,

Dirk

on the topic of basics of property search
Hello Karlstraße,
it is indeed a difficult decision - countryside or the city .... My advice to you is to think about how much time and how often you meet with friends during the week, maybe go to the gym, the cinema, the theater, etc. or spend other activities outside your home. Write down the times for this. And now consider how this leisure time can be managed and organized if you live as a family with 2 children in the village.
I do not want to discourage you from moving to the countryside! Just one thing to consider, the further you live from the active scene, the more often you (un)willingly sit in the car.
Own experience - 2 children back then, one in elementary school age, the other a teenager - a juggling act with a daily struggle! Now both are adults and I live in the city again!
Swimming lessons, music school, 2 x sports club - just an excerpt from my children's leisure activities. Everything is offered in the city!
So I was out 4 days a week for my children. Here is a brief selection of the program:
Daughter
Mon. 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm music lessons, departure from home 2:00 pm, arrival 4:00 pm,
Tue 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm swimming lessons, departure from home 3:15 pm, arrival 5:45 pm,
Thu, - gymnastics club 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm, departure from home 4:30 pm, arrival 7:00 pm
Son - Tue 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm sports - first take daughter to swimming then drop off son - return for him by bus,
Wed 5:00 pm to diving by bus there - 8:00 pm pick up by car
Sat. sports club - training - 10:00 am - 12:00 pm departure from home 9:30 am, arrival 1:00 pm
disco, visiting friends, cinema ....... 11:00 pm - 12:00 am pick-up service....
Sun. drop-off and pick-up service due to Sunday schedules/bus service

My son got up at 6 am, took the bus at 7 am to secondary school. With canceled hours and performance subjects at different times until the afternoon and 3 free periods in between - a real hassle! (other children went home in between....)
For this reason, I had long since drastically reduced my own "program" and I no longer felt the peaceful country life - except that our circle of friends was enthusiastic about where we lived and gladly visited us on weekends because of the quiet.....
I, on the other hand, wanted to spontaneously experience something in the city again with my husband. Just a quick trip to the Italian restaurant or to the old town - but honestly, when you have spent the whole afternoon in the car, it takes effort in the evening!
My tip to you: choose the middle ground to the metropolis! On the outskirts, in the next small town.
And if it really should be the countryside, just add the fuel money for 2 cars and at least 3 trips (there and back) per day to the purchase price of the plot.

Village life can be nice but also stressful. And whoever believes that parents form car pools for the children.... still has hope! In everyday life this is usually not marked by consistency.
I grew up in the village and I can remember that even back then it was stressful for my parents.... if you want to offer the children and yourself a bit more "life" than just the possibility to romp around in nature.

All the best for your decision wishes you
Rekam

We are both small-town people.
In between, we lived for a while in the countryside, off the beaten path. The next house was about 200 meters away. We left the house early by car and drove back in the evening. Contacts outside the house = 0.
Dresden would not have been suitable for either of us.
So now back to the small town (with everything you need daily) and less than 20 minutes to the old town of Dresden. Many young families live in the new residential area, and since you are constantly outside playing with small children, many contacts developed relatively quickly.

The only disadvantage is that the distance to the parents is already so great that you can’t just quickly call to ask if grandma can pick up the child from kindergarten or grandpa (recently retired) can look after the sick child.
Going out together in the evening is just as difficult.

As a Nordic rural plant with a then mediocre infrastructure, I moved over twenty years ago to a small town in the Rhineland near Koblenz. In between, for professional reasons, I also had the opportunity to experience Bavarian rural life. Infrastructure = laughable to non-existent. The next small town was Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It was better to go straight to Munich.

We finally bought and built again after many years in a rural community near Koblenz. The infrastructure in our area is excellent (three universities, various schools ranging from public to private, doctors, hospitals, swimming pools, shopping centers..... we live very quietly and the hustle and bustle of Koblenz city center (7 km) is only annoying once a year due to Rhein in Flammen.

Prices are not cheap, but we can accomplish a lot on the way from the office to home. The children have half-hourly bus connections to Koblenz. Clubs, kindergartens, and primary schools are available in every village or district, sometimes even multiple times.

We have not regretted building a little closer to the city. Our “Rheinseite“ has better bus connections to Koblenz than the other side of the Rhine or the Moselle side. It is also quieter here.

Hearten 's post and advice to look within yourselves. It doesn't help you at all to know my/our reasons for choosing the plot of land. Some don’t want/can’t have a second car, others have no children and want their peace and quiet. Here and there, people take the plot that is offered, others wait no less than 5 years because they fixate on two-story buildings. Usually, the market is not exactly full of plots in the area, and you have to take what is available. Make yourself a priority list and look within a large but manageable radius to see what is offered. Everything has its pros and cons, often you can’t weigh the nice neighborhood with the Italian around the corner – nevertheless, you can look inside yourself and check where you might feel more comfortable. You then gladly invite real friends to stay overnight and might see them more often than if they live next door; on the other hand, having a plot near work speaks in favor when it comes to time convenience. But then the proximity of a train station is also a reason. However, that train station is useless again if it’s not reachable by bike for a lazy person. I am a person who does not see everything negatively right away but takes the chance with a change to do something differently that could possibly enrich life. Put the pros and cons opposite each other and weigh to what extent it affects life drastically or promotes it positively. Children can adapt to the situation – however, they are offered more in a good infrastructure.