Hangar Homes

MooneyDriver78 said:
Is there a way to see all hangar homes for sale? Seems like you have to specifically look at each airport, figure out if it’s an airpark and use zillow to show a map view.
I found a couple of websites but they weren’t updated.


Tom
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Not necessarily homes for sale, but livingwithmyplane.com has a web page for airparks, and I found this:
https://azpilots.org/pilot-info/airparks-of-arizona
doing a dogpile search.
 
Fallsrider said:
That might explain why there are still lots for sale all this many years later.

Part of it could also be that there is a very limited market for this type of neighborhood, I'm sure.

That's too bad that it worked out that way for your friend.
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We're 100% soldout here at NC26 and have been for six or seven years now. Some of the properties (like mine) have turned over at least once. However, we don't dick around with the property owners by telling them we're putting in a grass strip and then unilaterally assessing them to pave the runway via a contract let to an associate of ours.

There were some other goofy things on the Douchy. The septic arrangments were a bit hokie in my opinion.
 
How is the noise? If you are coming back at 2am, are you rattling windows and waking up neighbors?
 
And what are the yearly property taxes?
 
flyingron said:
We're 100% soldout here at NC26 and have been for six or seven years now. Some of the properties (like mine) have turned over at least once. However, we don't dick around with the property owners by telling them we're putting in a grass strip and then unilaterally assessing them to pave the runway via a contract let to an associate of ours.

There were some other goofy things on the Douchy. The septic arrangments were a bit hokie in my opinion.
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Didn't know that about the runway, and I don't remember what the septic situation was.
 
charheep said:
How is the noise? If you are coming back at 2am, are you rattling windows and waking up neighbors?
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At my airport it’s generally no worse than highway noise, and much less frequent. Coming in is usually pretty quiet, and people are leaving at late hours almost never. Once in a blue moon the ag-cat will take off at daybreak to do some crop dusting, and that’s pretty loud, but it’s not that often. Even less often is when a citation or Pilatus stops by. The whole neighborhood goes out to see it.

I love the sound of a prop cranking anyway, so I probably wouldn’t notice even if it was bad.
 
Planes coming are no bother. Planes leaving might be, depending where you are relative to the departure end. My long prop Cessna won't make many fiends but mine isn't the only one there.
 
I’m on 8NC8. Just landed tonight on lit grass after 10 days in the Bahamas.

Had to reposition the plane, twice, before departing because of issues with a wet field in winter. Rain and winter don’t mix well. On the other hand, operating from an airport 20 minutes from home was unbelievably challenging for this spoiled pilot.

I built a home and an separate hangar 20 years ago at a airport with a muddy strip, no fuel and only 50% of the homeowners on the strip actually fly (!!??).

Well, the grass is fully in now, we have a private fuel tank but only 50% of the homeowners with direct runway access use it. Go figure. But about 50 planes parked under shelters pay most of the rent.

My sense is there are a lot of different deals and situations out there. Living with your plane allows for an aviation lifestyle that most can only dream of.

I like a separate home and hangar - that’s just me. A paved strip would be nice but its all about $$$.

You can’t build a big enough hangar. Fortunately I was originally envisioning an assembled 50’ span sailplane. Instead I house an RV10, a shop to build it, a mosaic studio for the mate, a small boat, an old car, and a basement on top of the shop.

Go for it if you can figure out how to get it done... you won’t regret it!


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I have a related question. When you decided to move to an airpark, did you pick the location first, then find an acceptable airpark, or did you have a list of criteria an airpark must meet, then pick the location around your airpark criteria?

Someone mentioned a "thru the fence" airpark as being ideal. I found one on Barnstormers, but I'd guess they are rare. I'm not in a hurry, just gathering information.

Also, what about fuel, and lighted approaches?

Is your cost per gallon for 100 LL comparable to what you pay for it at an FBO (or is that where you get it when you have your own fuel tank? My guess is the refiners wouldn't care to bother with someone who buys 100 gallons at a time.

Also, how important are lighted approaches, and what does that mean? I've seen grass strips with no lighting whatsoever, so you have to eyeball your approach. Then, there are the ones with PAPIs, so you can more adequately stay on the glide path. Finally, I've seen runways with rabbit lighting, along with PAPIs.
Thanks for your experiences and thoughts.
 
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For me it was the best location balanced with price. If I wanted to spend $1M plus I could have found a hangar house closer to work. For half that I could get a better property in a better flying environment out of the city but it added 45 minutes to my commute. My quality of life at home outweighed the inconvenience of the drive and I saved $500K. In truth I never went looking. The house found me.
 
We were actually looking at TTF when such was suggested at a local airport that had residential lots backing up to it. Never managed to get the airport and the county zoning straightened out and then the FAA is REALLY anti-TTF for any place that gets federal aid.

We just lucked into the airpark we found. It was a nice lot, good airpark, and in a place we didn't mind moving to.
 
Well I just moved (Jan of 19) to a house on 0TX1 (Near Granbury, TX) my house is on the west side of the runway, we have fuel, a lighted runway, and a GPS approach and I got in for a lot less than $400K.

As for looking for places I personally took the approach of listing my Minimum requirements and leaving the location pretty much open. (I did exclude a few places like CA (Tax), FL (Just don't like it), and the North East states (Tax and Weather).

My Minimum Criteria were:
1. Capability to fly year round.
2. Descent property Tax
3. Good internet (As I work remotely)
4. Somewhere near a major metropolitan area. (Max 1 hour) I like my city amenities.

Taking those I looked all over the country and found a few things that matched and then did the research and looked at ready made properties and lots where I could build. The biggest concentration of stuff I found was clustered in AZ, NM, TX and SC, NC, TN with some stuff poping up around in various other places like WA, IL, WI, OK, AR.

Then we narrowed that down using secondary criteria and eventually found a place, it did take 6 months of looking to find the right one but it worked in the end.

Just FYI if you are looking sub $350 finding something is difficult but possible, from $450 to $600 it gets easy and you have a lot of choice, anything above that figure pick pretty much what you want (Excluding a few "Exclusive" airparks where you need $1.5M or more)

Happy to discuss my experience in more detail if anyone is seriously interested just pop me a pm.

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Its not the acquisition cost, its the continuous costs.

How bad are property taxes?
 
flyingron said:
We just lucked into the airpark we found. It was a nice lot, good airpark, and in a place we didn't mind moving to.
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It really seems ideal. I've always loved the idea of living at an airpark, but I felt they tended to be a little too far out of the way from a metropolitan center (as a city boy, I don't necessarily need to be *in* the city, but I'd like to be close). Yours is close enough to Charlotte, and in a really pretty area to boot. Maybe one day!
 
Bill Watson said:
I’m on 8NC8. Just landed tonight on lit grass after 10 days in the Bahamas.

Had to reposition the plane, twice, before departing because of issues with a wet field in winter. Rain and winter don’t mix well. On the other hand, operating from an airport 20 minutes from home was unbelievably challenging for this spoiled pilot.

I built a home and an separate hangar 20 years ago at a airport with a muddy strip, no fuel and only 50% of the homeowners on the strip actually fly (!!??).

Well, the grass is fully in now, we have a private fuel tank but only 50% of the homeowners with direct runway access use it. Go figure. But about 50 planes parked under shelters pay most of the rent.

My sense is there are a lot of different deals and situations out there. Living with your plane allows for an aviation lifestyle that most can only dream of.

I like a separate home and hangar - that’s just me. A paved strip would be nice but its all about $$$.

You can’t build a big enough hangar. Fortunately I was originally envisioning an assembled 50’ span sailplane. Instead I house an RV10, a shop to build it, a mosaic studio for the mate, a small boat, an old car, and a basement on top of the shop.

Go for it if you can figure out how to get it done... you won’t regret it!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
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I looked up your airpark. Around here, it seems like you have to have a golf course nearby every airport, and your airpark butts up against one. Even better, you're a block from the medical center. That's got to be a plus.
 
In TX property tax is actually quite reasonable, it varies from county to county but on an approximate $300K house it's about $2700 per year with a homestead exemption, and it's not only real estate Tax, no state income tax, and sub $4 per gallon Avgas.

Oh and we have a golf course included in the HOA if you are into that sort of thing.
 
you lost me at HOA.

I'm better off buying more land and putting in my own strip.
 
Shared maintenance requires a HOA. You'll swallow that pill all by yourself. I'd like a non-paved runway myself but as it is the grass next to our paved runway works and somebody else mows it. Maintained pavement will be nice for wheel skis.

My taxes are equal per value to my old house.
 
HOA has it ups and downs but if you read the rules ahead of time, most are common sense. And yes having the HOA means that for a relatively small amount of $ monthly (A lot less than hangar rent) I get a maintained paved strip with lights and a GPS approach. I'd say that's a good deal.
 
Bill Watson said:
I’m on 8NC8....
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I looked up your airpark. I had no idea there was one in that area, and it looks like you're really close to the lake. We're up at the lake occasionally, because we go camping up there. My son and I will be up there this weekend. I watched a couple of YouTube videos of people flying into your strip, and it looks like a pretty neat place.
 
Stewartb said:
Shared maintenance requires a HOA. You'll swallow that pill all by yourself. I'd like a non-paved runway myself but as it is the grass next to our paved runway works and somebody else mows it. Maintained pavement will be nice for wheel skis.

My taxes are equal per value to my old house.
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I'd rather spend a couple hours every 7-10 days mowing my strip than have to worry about whether or not I have my garage door open at 10am on a Saturday lest I be fined.
 
I wasn't actively looking for airpark property at the time, but I've always been interested and was kinda keeping an eye out. One day I just happened to see an article about Holley Mountain Airpark and found their website. I liked what I saw and put a deposit on my first lot (the one that's for sale now). Eventually the lot I built on came up for sale and I jumped on it.

Fuel being 5 miles away is a non issue. Right now it's $4/gallon. A place about 20 miles away will give a discount to us. I have yet to get their discount card though.

Having an approach is a bonus, but I've never used it myself.

Lights are also a bonus.
 
EdFred said:
I'd rather spend a couple hours every 7-10 days mowing my strip than have to worry about whether or not I have my garage door open at 10am on a Saturday lest I be fined.
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I looked all over the by-laws and covenants for Holley Mountain Airpark. I can't find anything that restricts when I can open my doors.

Actually, I typically agree with your sentiment on HOAs, however in the case of an airpark I fully accept them. Those fees pay for the maintenance of the runway and taxiways, as well as the electric bill for the runway lights. All the stuff your local airport takes care of and charges you via hangar/tie down rent, landing fees, etc.
 
EdFred said:
I'd rather spend a couple hours every 7-10 days mowing my strip than have to worry about whether or not I have my garage door open at 10am on a Saturday lest I be fined.
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All that would draw in my neighborhood would be visitors and the only visitors that'd see my door are neighbors walking by. A socially active airport community is a good thing.
 
Our new LED runway lights at M94.
knoYK0.jpg
 
Stewartb said:
I moved to a hangar home last month. Empty nest. Time to downsize the house. I walk out the kitchen door to a finished 55 x 60 hangar with a 50 x 14 door. The house has two bedrooms and two baths. The hangar has a lounge area and a half bath.
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Yeah, seems like most hangar homes are huge (i guess to hide the hangar?), I liked one your size...but I not going to live in Alaska.
 
Salty said:
... I love the sound of a prop cranking anyway, so I probably wouldn’t notice even if it was bad.
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Yep, I grew up inside of the traffic pattern for KAKR, love that music. Trying to convince the S/O that a Florida airpark would make a nice retirement location.
 
I like to sleep in so I would be ****ed off at the guy cranking it up up at 6 a.m. My Saturdays begin around noon.
 
The problem is any airport close to civilization has a waiting list for hangar space, otherwise I would ok with just living close to the airport.


Tom
 
I'm not ready to buy, or build, but I was poking around the internet and found this 160 acre ranch that backs up to 14K acres of BLM with grazing rights, and a 1250' dirt strip, all for $695K. It's in Salome, AZ.

http://www.airporthomesandhangars.net/listings/details/salome-/5573252/1231792/htmlfile_348226.html/

I'm sure my wife would literally have a cow if I went home and said, "Honey, I want to be a cowboy again. I found this great ranch in AZ. It has its own dirt strip, and a nice hangar. Oh, and the house is pretty nice, too."
 
We don't fine people for leaving their garage door open. About the most progressive thing we do is to enforce the covenants about people paving their driveways (our roads are our taxiways so we don't want dirt and other fod tracked on them). We also had to run off someone who was not a resident who left a plane for extended periods on the property. The HOA handles maintaining the common areas, including our roads (we can't dedicate them to the state and still drive planes on them), The most aggressive action we have had to take was one owner that had NEVER paid dues (or it turns out property taxes) on his lot.

If you've got 15 acres available for you, then by all means put in your own runway. I'll tell you it's more than cutting down a few trees and mowing it. Me, I'll take my share in the community.
 
We lucked into our place. I was moving to this community for work and hadn’t even considered an airport property. However, it turns out there was an airport property that just came on the market that met ALL of our other house criteria (and we had a pretty extensive list) and had the bonus of being on a grass airstrip with a hangar in the back yard. For me, it was a God thing.
 
MtPJimB said:
We lucked into our place. I was moving to this community for work and hadn’t even considered an airport property. However, it turns out there was an airport property that just came on the market that met ALL of our other house criteria (and we had a pretty extensive list) and had the bonus of being on a grass airstrip with a hangar in the back yard. For me, it was a God thing.
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Just about the same here except that we found an open lot we had to build on which was the right situation for us.

People seem to view HOAs the same as guv’ment, that is, something that is always a bad thing. It’s more about managing how people in the community will work and live together. If that seems intolerable, a wholly owned strip and homestead probably makes sense.

I serve on our HOA. But in my case, the HOA is only concerned with everything other than the airport. The airport is privately owned and homeowners with runway accessible homes have deeded access to it. The point being there are many different configurations possible for these types of ‘hangar homes’. The key is to search, ask and investigate.

Having moved from NJ back in the 80s-90s when we were losing an airport a month to development, I was very fearful of buying into a situation where the airport might disappear. In ‘96 when we bought in, the airport was in poor shape and the non-flying children of the owners were in charge. But the strip itself was up against a water supply reservoir where further development was prohibited - no new subdivides off the end of the runway!

Ironically it soon became clear that our original destination, in or around Chapel Hill and it’s airport, was in jeopardy due to new subdivisions and noise complaints.
(The subdivision close to KIGX in this image was not there when we moved into town, nor were the pine trees in that quadrant of the airport - guaranteed noise and disturbance complaint where I came from)
4cfb9116ee0fa6361d44da7a837b00ca.jpg



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MtPJimB said:
We lucked into our place. I was moving to this community for work and hadn’t even considered an airport property. However, it turns out there was an airport property that just came on the market that met ALL of our other house criteria (and we had a pretty extensive list) and had the bonus of being on a grass airstrip with a hangar in the back yard. For me, it was a God thing.
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I agree,, the best hangar/airport home is a nice house in the corner of a very smooth meadow that you own .
 
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