How did you find your homestead?

[SweetSarah]

My Goodness, land is expensive! Anything within our taste-range is way out of our price-range. I've heard of some people who get great deals by word of mouth, but we don't really know anyone in the country. We've been looking for about a year now and keep coming up short. So many of you seem to have it all. I'm just wondering how you made your dreams a reality. I stay at home with our two boys (1yr and soon to be 3) and my husband makes a pretty good living in his first civilian job since fulfilling his Army service.
Did you have to save forever?
Did you keep your eyes open and a great deal popped up?
Did you inherit your homestead?

Sarah
IN

[claytonpiano]

Our answer - buy in foreclosure, but be careful. Our house was a dump, but very fixable. We are still working on it, but we got our acreage for the cost of the land and it had 2700 square foot house and outbuilding.

[fitwind]

We first looked at price of land in different parts of the U.S. we knew that we would have to relocate to get what we wanted. We found Missouri to be that state and moved to an area then looked for about a year in half and found or dream place with 14 acres and a small home.

[Bitsy-Bet]

We bought my husband's great uncle's farm when he died in 1978 and have been here every since. It was used as a dumping grounds and took us almost a year to get it cleaned up so that we felt safe bringing our children here. The land was only a tiny fraction in cost of what it would be today. We have 200 acres but had to buy it piece by piece from all the different relatives that inherited a piece of it. We farm it with draft horses and do have a tractor. We tried to do things in small ways to keep the cost down.

[rosehaven]

we used Kentucky Housing Corp to get a loan for 100 percent of the loan, no money down, just paid closing costs. NOW, if you qualify they will pay up to $4500 of your down payment for you. THEY count overtime and that is why we didn't qualify for the FREE money $4500 since they don't use base salary they go by your W-2, But it is still a great program and you can lock in your interest rate. They allow up to 3 acres of land but they don't require a survey so ours ended up being 3.9 acres

Hope this helps you out.

[Hip_Shot_Hanna]

We looked online at realtors listings in the areas we were interested in for over a year, as we were in England at the time. The sale of our home in England enabled us to purchase our current home - a doublewide with about 1400 square feet, 3-4 bedrooms, 2 baths and 12.65 fully fenced acreage with pastures and huge oak trees.

Once we were here, we went looking.. most things in our price range were inadequate for our needs, or really sad little places. This was listed above our price range, but we made an offer and got it for $8,000 less than he was asking.

It pays to decide WHAT you want and what you really don't intend to do without. In our case, we WANTED a creek year round, but we also wanted to be near family. Family won - and we live three miles from a lake instead.

[Muskrat]

Inherited and then we bought adjoining property.

[big rockpile]

Found this place in a Magazine.But my first place was 100 acres with 6 Bedroom House.Me and my wife bought it by living off her wages,putting all my check in savings,plus what I made off second Job and Furs.

I had one place give to me by a friend.

I've only Rented one time.1971, $35 a month,3 room House,Chicken House,Garden spot.Next to a Creek full of Fish.

big rockpile

[Queen Bee]

1/6th Our homestead was left to us in a will. We purchased the 5/6ths back from his siblings (17yrs, later )and paid above market price, so no one could ever say 'they gave it to us/we stole it or any other the crap that comes along when dealing with family... They all had their own homes and had not done one thing on/to the property in 17+yrs. We asked and they jumped at a chance.

Go to the Agri. Dept., in the county you want or would like to live in --put your name out there. They can usually tell you if any are for sale..

[FourDeuce]

Originally Posted by SweetSarah

My Goodness, land is expensive! Anything within our taste-range is way out of our price-range. I've heard of some people who get great deals by word of mouth, but we don't really know anyone in the country. We've been looking for about a year now and keep coming up short. So many of you seem to have it all. I'm just wondering how you made your dreams a reality. I stay at home with our two boys (1yr and soon to be 3) and my husband makes a pretty good living in his first civilian job since fulfilling his Army service.
Did you have to save forever?
Did you keep your eyes open and a great deal popped up?
Did you inherit your homestead?

Sarah
IN

Hey! You do know plenty of people in the country. And plenty of us would be glad to help you in your search.

[Ravenlost]

Once our home in Dallas was paid off we started looking in the area. Hubby wanted to have no more than a 30 minute commute and we were looking for no less than 30 acres. Guess what? That doesn't exist in the DFW area!

We started thinking about relocating and decided on Memphis, TN. That would put us less than three hours away from my parents (I was wanting to move closer because my Daddy had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Colon Cancer) and five hours away from hubby's parents. So we started looking again.

I did a lot of searching online and we made a couple trips to Memphis to look at property in the area (TN). It soon became apparent that 30-40 acres wasn't enough to give us the privacy we wanted and we couldn't afford more at the rates acreage was going in Fayette County, TN. So, we decided to look in MS.

My online searching started again and I emailed a MS realtor who turned out to be a godsend. Dave would search for properties and email them to me. Then he would make arrangements with listing realtors and we would go over and spend the day with Dave meeting these realtors and looking at their properties.

It's funny...we made three of those trips and the very last property we saw on the very first trip was the one we ended up with. On that first trip we drove back out to that property after Dave had dropped us off. We walked the half mile through a hay field to the backside of the propery. As we were standing there a flock of Canada Geese flew over. It was PERFECT! I had my heart set on it, but hubby wanted to look at more properties. After all, we started out looking for 30-40 acres. He wasn't so sure we needed 96!

We bought the property in May, I moved into a rental house in Sept. and hubby transferred in Oct. Our house in Dallas sold in Jan. and we used that money on this place. That was four years ago. We had our house built and have been here two years now. I was right. It's perfect!

Here it is: http://www.funtigo.com/Ravenlost?b=2...9&p=start&cr=1 And after the house was built and we moved in: http://www.funtigo.com/Ravenlost?b=2...n=9&cr=1&rfm=y

Moral of the story...keep looking. Search online, find a good realtor, do what it takes, but don't settle. Find a place that feels right. It's out there.

[SweetSarah]

Thank you all so much for your responses. Please keep us in mind if you are in Indiana and see something nice!

Sarah

[TxCloverAngel]

I was just driving around in the country like I loved to do to clear my head (was going through a divorce) and day dream..
I had been looking, but had almost given up.

I drove by this place. there was a small sigh that said For Sale. (not a realtor sign, but one the owner bought and put up)

I called her.
We spoke and I explained that I could not buy anything until my divorce was final, so I asked her if she would consider doing a Rental for a few months. She did.

We put down $`1000.00 earnest money. (if we backed out she kept it, if we bought it it would go towards the home)

and 4 months later I bought it. Lucky she owner financed it to me. My credit was not good due to the divorce.

The lady I bought it from is my next door neighbor..
we are great friends.
all worked out perfectly.
God is good

[SweetSarah]

I realize this can be a sensitive subject but I am so curious what certain amounts of money will get you in different places.

[TxCloverAngel]

it has changed here lately (but not too much).
but when I was looking around here, (4 years ago)
it was about
$8-$12,000 per acre w/ no improvements
$12- $16 per acre w/ improvements.

We got 5 acres
w/ house
2 out-buildings/improvements for $80,000

[Tabitha]

Well we were lucky in that we knew that that is what we wanted all along. we lived frugally all our lives, saved every penny, did not keep up with the Jones', had second hand everything, when we had a little money we noticed the ads in Mother Earth News and checked out the realtors that advertised there. a couple were from my husband's home State. So we checked it out and found a place that nodded yes to us. we had the land, but it would be 15 years til we moved on it. We slowly built our house by ourselves and paid as we went.

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by SweetSarah

My Goodness, land is expensive! Anything within our taste-range is way out of our price-range. I've heard of some people who get great deals by word of mouth, but we don't really know anyone in the country. We've been looking for about a year now and keep coming up short. So many of you seem to have it all. I'm just wondering how you made your dreams a reality. I stay at home with our two boys (1yr and soon to be 3) and my husband makes a pretty good living in his first civilian job since fulfilling his Army service.
Did you have to save forever?
Did you keep your eyes open and a great deal popped up?
Did you inherit your homestead?

Sarah
IN

I am a realtor and was searching the MLS here forever! My budget allowed for only up to $30,000. So I had been looking weekly for a bargain. Finally a property was lowered from $35,000 to $25,000 and it showed up on the MLS. We offered them $20,000 for it and got it for $24,000. Not bad for 26 acres in an area that you can't find anything for less than $2500 an acre.

The trick is not to give up. Keep looking, and if it was meant to be, it will show up! Guaranteed.

donsgal

[donsgal]

Originally Posted by SweetSarah

I realize this can be a sensitive subject but I am so curious what certain amounts of money will get you in different places.

Bare land. 3 acres buildable (flat) 23 acres up and down (gotta love these Ozarks). We're less than 2 miles to the Lake. $24,000.00 for the whole sheebang.

donsgal

[Junkman]

We bought a cheap neglected house in town in a good neighborhood and started fixing it up room by room. Paying as we went. It took some time but we fixed up the lawn as well as the house. Meanwhile we would take country drives looking at land. We bought a REALLY run down place on a land contract until we sold the house in town. Took the money and paid off the land and started all over fixing up and hauling out old vehicles and debris. Our advice, dont be in debt to credit cards and save, save, save. Good luck!

[Alex]

This is looking out our log cabin's north-facining-100-year-old windows to our new 55 acre field last summer. We broke (first-time plowed) this logged part of our 160 acres, root-picked, disced, root-picked, etc and now have this beautiful field.

We are in northern BC near Moberly Lake, on an excellent gravel road. We put power in 700', didn't used to have it. It's inexpensive source of hydro-electric power from the Peace River dam, which is 50 miles away.



We found this land by good luck, just amazing, as has been said, God is good.

Good Luck,

Alex