“These tracts are next to a MAJOR river, are they in the Flood Zone??”
Excellent question. We actually love excellent questions because it tells us that buyers are taking the time to make an informed choice when they purchase a property. That makes things soooooo much easier for everyone and we are always happy to help (with all questions, not just the excellent ones).
If you have owned or have ever researched property by a major river, then you are well aware that basically all rivers flood. Some people (unfortunately) have learned that the hard way. We have heard from more than one person who purchased a property on or near a major river (or for that matter on or near a smaller river or creek) only to later find out that there was no true “buildable” land on their property because of the river’s Flood Zone. Or worse yet, there has been at least a couple of folks we know about that built a home/cabin without knowing they were building in a Flood Zone. Then when the river flooded years later, their structure was badly damaged or even destroyed.
There is actually nothing wrong with having part of your property in a “Flood Zone”, so long as you know about it so that you are able to plan for it. In fact, when we are looking at river property and there is NO Flood Zone in the area we start to worry because that can often mean the property sits up on a high bluff or cliff. At a minimum it means that a property simply may not have good access to the river if there is no Flood Zone in the immediate area. In fact, if a property next to a major river does NOT have a large amount of mapped Flood Zone, then your only hope that it is NOT a “bluff property” is if there happens to be an enormous meadow or a huge field on the other side of the river, because in that case the enormous meadow or huge field will have to completely fill with water before the level gets high enough to begin to cover the land on the other side of the river. That is a rare situation indeed.
Even if you are the “Risk Taker” type and decide you want to build your home/cabin in a Flood Zone, the reality is that the County may not allow you to do it. If the County participates in the F.E.M.A. Flood Insurance Program then they may or may not be permitted to allow you to build within a Flood Zone, even if you want to do so. Also, if you build even a tiny structure in a mapped Flood Zone (and the County approves it) then you will likely be required to purchase Flood Insurance (through F.E.M.A. or a private insurer). By the way, Flood Insurance is VERY expensive. It can easily be 5-10 TIMES the cost of standard hazard insurance but the policy will generally ONLY cover you for flooding and you will still need to purchase standard hazard insurance.
What if you don’t want to purchase Flood Insurance? – Well, depending upon whether or not your County participates in the F.E.M.A. Flood Insurance Program (most do, but not all) you may not be permitted to build. If you ARE permitted to build within a mapped Flood Zone then there are a couple of HUGE downsides to doing so:
- The biggest “downside” (in our minds) is that you have built your cabin/structure in a Flood Zone! Eventually, at some point, there will be a major weather event and that river or creek will flood, and that flood will at some point get into your structure and do some major damage. Possibly irreparable damage.
- The second biggest “downside” (in our minds) is that the huge amount of time and money that you spent on your cabin/structure is likely to turn out to be a below average investment, if and when you ever decide to sell the property. When you list a property like that for sale you will actually get TONS of interest because people do definitely get excited about property on or near a major river. As you talk to the buyers and tell them about the Flood Zone, you will be filled with hope because a large portion of them will say that they do not mind the Flood Zone and that in the “unlikely” event of a flood they will simply repair the home themselves. But then at some point your buyers will talk to their bank about financing.
- If the buyers mention to their bank that the structure is in a Flood Zone then the bank will immediately let them know that they must obtain Flood Insurance (and maintain the policy) as a condition of the loan. On a $250,000 cabin (for example) the Flood Insurance premium might be from $7,500-$12,500 per year. That could add up to about $1,000 a month to the mortgage payment which will not be something most buyers will want to do (or be able to do) on a $250,000 cabin.
- If the buyers “forget” to mention the Flood Zone to their bank, then it is likely to come up at the last possible minute before the closing. Even the smallest of local banks will now order a Flood Report for any property within a couple of miles of a major river/creek. In fact, most banks order a Flood Report as part of the loan package, even if there is not a waterway for miles. At this point, your sale would be pretty much done for. Even if the buyers agree to purchase a Flood Insurance policy and the bank gets over being misled, it will generally take at least 4 weeks to get the policy in place, after starting the process of obtaining the Flood Insurance. Flood Insurance is VERY different from normal hazard insurance, in which an agent can often place a “binder” on a property on the same day that they give you a quote (so it would not even slow down your closing).
Generally, all of this means that if you ever want to sell your property (with a cabin/structure built within the mapped Flood Zone) your pool of buyers is MUCH SMALLER than it otherwise would be because you are now limited to only buyers who can pay cash for your cabin (which is typically less than 5-10% of buyers in the median housing market). A “cash” buyer will generally not have rules and regulations imposed on them by a bank. The buyer may still want Flood Insurance, but it is not an absolute requirement. Also, the fact that they are a “cash” buyer will generally mean that they have more available funds to pay for things like Flood Insurance Policies. Unfortunately, a smaller buyer pool means less real demand for your property (if people REALLY want your property but simply CAN’T buy it then that is not real demand). All of that adds up to the fact that your property will be worth MUCH LESS if and when you do sell it. Not cool and not fun.
Also, your land will be worth MUCH LESS irregardless of whether or not you build a cabin on it, because most land buyers simply will not accept a property that is all Flood Zone, because they know it severely limits what they can do with the property. Ouch. Again, not cool and not fun.
But don’t worry, after all of that Doom & Gloom we have good news. Very good news. In keeping with our long tradition of bringing you properties so unique that we can’t sleep at night because of our excitement….these tracts are the type of unbelievably rare properties that people spend decades searching for because…
….these tracts are extremely close to the famous White River AND these tracts have VERY LITTLE FLOOD ZONE with the majority of the tracts having no mapped Flood Zone at all!
It’s true! Look at the aerial map below which shows the mapped F.E.M.A. Flood Zone for this part of the White River:
On the map above, the light blue area is the mapped F.E.M.A. Flood Zone. This particular Flood Zone map covers only the area east of the centerline of the river, because the west side of the river is in a different County and has a different map panel. So, if you have watched the drone videos of the properties you have noticed the huge meadows and fields on the other side of the river (on the west side of the river). These meadows are a major reason why the east side of the river (where the properties are located) has such a small amount of Flood Zone. When the river rises, it must fill ALL of those meadows and fields on the west side of the river before it can even start to make an impact on most of the tracts within “The Tracts at White River”. Remember earlier when we talked about the rare situation that requires a huge meadow or field on the other side of the river, in order to reduce the Flood Zone on the opposite side? Well this is that rare situation. Although it does not show it on this Flood Map, EVERYTHING that you see on the west side of the river on this map is within the mapped Flood Zone. In fact, if we were able to zoom out on the map you would see that there are THOUSANDS OF ACRES of meadow and field in that immediate area, adjacent to the river. So, not only do these meadows and fields have to completely fill with water in order for the water to work its way past the east side of the river, but in the unlikely event that there is such a tremendous amount of water that it fills the meadows and fields and starts to flow past the east side of the river, the ENTIRE WATER LEVEL of the meadows and fields will basically have to rise an inch for every inch of water that starts to collect beyond the east side of the riverbanks.
That’s why when you look at the map above, the only mapped Flood Zone east of the river itself would be two creek beds on the east side of the river (Glenn Creek on the south and Rowlett Creek on the north). Because those creek beds are substantially lower than the rest of the surrounding land, if the water level in the river were to rise substantially you would begin to see it in those creek beds at some point.
On the map you will notice that Tracts 1-6 have a small mapped Flood Zone which runs with the wet-weather creek bed (shown as Rowlett Creek on the map). This is very common. Since there is really no chance you would build a cabin or structure in or next to a creek bed, this mapped area probably would not affect you in the least. If you look at the lower right corner of the development (at Tract 35 and Tract 36) you will see a similar situation where “Glenn Creek” has a small amount of mapped Flood Zone on those two properties. Again, whoever buys those tracts will almost certainly NOT be building a cabin in a creek bed, so they are not likely to be affected at all, by the mapped Flood Zone.
By the way, sometimes there is a little confusion regarding areas that are not in the mapped Flood Zone. Basically, you just want to keep in mind that the mapped Flood Zone is more or less designed to show what portions of the land would be affected by a very severe weather event that causes widespread flooding. It is NOT in any way designed to show you the only spots where you should not build. Here in the Ozarks we have many thousands of miles of small creeks as well as many thousands of live springs as well as ponds, small lakes and tons of other stuff that you would never, ever want to build on or next to, even though these things will not show up in any standard Flood Map. Just something to keep in mind.
So, to sum up the last several (very lengthy) paragraphs: You may never want to build a cabin, or shed, or structure of any kind on your property at “The Tracts at White River”, but if you do your property has numerous potential building sites that are not in the mapped Flood Zone for the White River, even though your property may be only a few hundred feet from the river itself.
Very cool, very fun. Enough said about that. Let’s get back to looking at these beautiful properties.
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