Land for Homesteading

[MichaelB]

I am interested in finding a place to settle. My wife and I are looking for land to live in Oregon or Montana. How do we go about finding a place to go?

We are intrerested in building a totally green homestead with Yurts.

Help please?

[Windy in Kansas]

Welcome to the forums newbie--if you don't mind me calling you that. If you do, my apologies.

Personally I would decide what I wanted to do with a homestead. Will you need large open spaces with good soil for market gardening, just gardening, for small acreage farming? Will you need or want considerable timber for future building when the yurts start to weather and you long for a more permanent home? What are you desires for climate?

Match up your needs to a particular area of interest and then look for online real estate ads, realtors, newspaper listings of property, etc. Here is a place to get urls for on line newspapers. http://www.usnpl.com/

Personally I would want to look over an area before deciding to settle there, but perhaps you wouldn't.

Again, welcome. I'm sure others will chime in with other answers.


http://www.usnpl.com/

[MontanaVet]

Here is some listings in Montana:

Big Sky Realty

Northwest National Real Estate

Stelling & Associates

United Country Real Estate

Cabela's Trophy Properties

[ET1 SS]

Just beware of over pricing and high taxes.

[turtlehead]

I'd also check the "for sale by owner" sites. In this economy, there are probably quite a few people trying to avoid spending 7% commission to a realtor.

Windy gave you great advice. You already know some of what you want to do with the land, and maybe you've considered the other factors too, but just in case you haven't, I'd add the following to Windy's considerations:
Woodlot for firewood
You say you want to build "totally green" so you'll need to find out if the target property can support solar, or hydro, or wind.
I'd check, too, on incentives for alternative energy; it's very expensive and some areas have handsome incentives for investing in it.
What kind of animals might you want, if any? Do they need room to graze?
Will you want to have pastures for haying, or will you buy your hay?
Do you need a pond or a place for a pond?
Is the land raw or are utilities already available? This can add tens of thousands to the final cost.
Check regulations about septic, rain water catchment, etc. before you buy.
Will you need a barn? Is one already on the property? They can be expensive to build.

[YoYoDog]

http://www.standeyo-cart.com/Product...ductCode=PPUSA

Im not selling this or have any vested interest in this cd but in the process of looking for my "perfect homestead" I ran across this.

It has maps that you an see what is around the areas I'm concidering on buying. Sun, water, wind, nuclear power plants, abandoned mines, lightning hits, you name it, there is a nationwide map by state. Some of the other stuff he writes makes me think he is a bit of a wierdo but the raw data is a really good resourse.

FYI,
Dan

[Cara]

If you need to watch your $$$, go for eastern Oregon...way eastern. The wet side is EXPENSIVE. It's the prettiest place of anywhere to live, but too rich for most homesteaders blood. We just rent and stay because it's where all the family is.

[Freeholder]

Eastern Oregon is DRY. A lot of it is also flat. Often wells can be hundreds of feet deep (or over a thousand, depending on where the land is). I live in Eastern Oregon, am not trying to discourage you, but I think you'd better make a couple of visits to the areas you are considering and see what you are up against. Definitely don't buy land sight unseen! I keep seeing parcels in our county up on eBay -- people buying from a distance don't realize that those parcels are either EXTREMELY isolated (not necessarily a bad thing, but you've got to figure the cost of gas to get to town once in a while), or they have no water. One area has a community well because it's nearly impossible to get water in a private well there.

Oregon also has some pretty stiff building requirements, and a state-wide building code which is enforced. (Too many Californians have moved here and over-regulated the place.)

I've lived on both sides of Oregon, so if you have any specific questions, PM me, and I'll help if I can. I like where we are (near Klamath Falls), but love the Coast, where I was born.

Kathleen

[EarthSheltered]

YoYoDog, have you purchased this CD? It certainly looks informative, but I hate to spend the $$ if its outdated, or not what it is touted to be.

[EarthSheltered]

but we are also looking to homestead when hubby gets to retirement age in about 10 years. We are open to any part of the country as long as it has a few specifics:

Not near the coast.
Not near urban areas
Prefer an area with Deciduous trees
We love the mountains, so near to them would be great
Some of the land must be farm friendly (IOW, must be somewhat flat)
In a state that has a reasonable tax rate

We currently live in PA. I love where we live (surrounded by State Forest) but the welfare and state pension crowd is getting out of control. We now have to not only give state pensioners (and legislators) a COLA every year, but also have to make up any shortfall in the pension fund caused by a fluctuating market. Since no one makes up the shortfall in MY self-funded pension plan, I resent that. Some of these people are retiring at the age of 45, with FULL benefits. I can foresee the taxes only going higher.
So we are ready to start looking elsewhere. Just not in a Nanny State!

Advice like that given by Blue Juniper is very welcome

[Nevada]

I suggest that you buy land in a place where you can pay cash. With no mortgage and a declaration of homestead on file, about the only way you can lose the land is through the IRS or child support.

I bought my land in NE Nevada. Land is embarrassingly inexpensive here, and the water table is shallow (100-150 feet) and prolific (20 to 40 gpm). I bought short acreage (2.25 acres) about 10 miles east of town (Elko, NV), due to my living situation. It's in a subdivision (no cc&rs) with dedicated utility & road rights-of-way. It's close to pavement (~1000 feet) and power was next door. Still, I got the lot for $1,000.

About 100 miles east of here here is a community called Montello, NV where you can find long acreage (10 to 640 acres) for a song, still with good water. You should be able to pick up 40 acres for $5,000.



You probably won't find power for that price, but if you are planning on building green anyway that won't be a problem.

You can find land in this vicinity on eBay, but I used to be an eBay land vendor and I can tell you that you can get land a lot cheaper on your own. Just make offers directly to property owners for the assessed value. Those records are available on the Internet for this county.

[solidwoods]

Fentress Co. Tn.
Depends on what you bring with you because they aint no jobs here, but low prices/taxes, good weather (you can't buy weather) fertile land.
jim

[YoYoDog]

EarthSheltered -- Yes I have it. It is dated 2005 so I dont think its too old. Most of the data is kind of static. Its just a good place for info at one stop if you are willing to pay the relatively high price.

Dan

[Dar/Steve in NY]

Nevada--isn't the annual precipitation really low in that region? I would think homesteading would be difficult in an area like that.

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Dar/Steve in NY

Nevada--isn't the annual precipitation really low in that region? I would think homesteading would be difficult in an area like that.

While it's true that we're in a rain shadow created by the Sierra Nevada mountains, it's also true that we're in the Great Basin. Of course a basin is a geological region with no natural outlet to the sea. In other words, when it rains in the Great Basin, it stays in the Great Basin. That makes it possible to have a good water table with only marginal rainfall.

The particular region around Montello, NV also sits at the foot of Pilot Peak, which creates natural springs and streams as snow melts off. As you can see from the link, that region lies just west of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and was considered the oasis on the other side.

You can also produce a generous amount of water with solar power. Here's a well pump that can produce about 100 gallons/hour with 12 volt current at low wattage.

http://www.nemosolar.com/dcsubmersiblepumps/

[ET1 SS]

There are other areas of the nation where there is no shortage of fresh water, and no droughts.

[hotzcatz]

Why a yurt? Why not create a shelter using local materials? Unless the yurt materials are locally produced, how can it be green?

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Why a yurt? Why not create a shelter using local materials? Unless the yurt materials are locally produced, how can it be green?

'Green' is a relative term.

Less trucking of materials, less high processed materials, etc.

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by ET1 SS

There are other areas of the nation where there is no shortage of fresh water, and no droughts.

That's true, but we have the advantage of low land prices. $100/acre shouldn't be a problem around Montello if you're looking for 40+ acres.

But there are always trade-offs. There isn't much in the way of timber on most of that land, certainly not enough to build anything with. Montello is also 100 miles from a Home Depot. On the upside, the terrain is normally flat and parcels are easily accessible. There is also a nearby gambling center (West Wendover, NV) with quality hotels and dining, which are delightfully inexpensive. The last time I went to West Wendover I stayed at the Red Garter Hotel and paid $22.50 for a room (weekday rate, twice that on weekends). But you won't want to eat there (their cafe is inexpensive but not very good), you'll want to go to the Peppermill or Montego Bay buffets.

If you don't need much land and would be happy with just a couple of acres, you're probably better off buying close to Elko (where there's a Home Depot, WalMart, K-Mart, etc.) for $200-500 per acre, depending on power availability. There's lots of work in Elko, where you won't find much work near Montello.

[ET1 SS]

Originally Posted by Nevada

That's true, but we have the advantage of low land prices. $100/acre shouldn't be a problem around Montello if you're looking for 40+ acres.

But there are always trade-offs. There isn't much in the way of timber on most of that land, certainly not enough to build anything with. Montello is also 100 miles from a Home Depot. On the upside, the terrain is normally flat and parcels are easily accessible. There is also a nearby gambling center (West Wendover, NV) with quality hotels and dining, which are delightfully inexpensive. The last time I went to West Wendover I stayed at the Red Garter Hotel and paid $22.50 for a room (weekday rate, twice that on weekends). But you won't want to eat there (their cafe is inexpensive but not very good), you'll want to go to the Peppermill or Montego Bay buffets.

If you don't need much land and would be happy with just a couple of acres, you're probably better off buying close to Elko (where there's a Home Depot, WalMart, K-Mart, etc.) for $200-500 per acre, depending on power availability. There's lots of work in Elko, where you won't find much work near Montello.

Good points.

Around here the cheapest land that I looked at goes for $300 per acre. Forested with creeks. It can be found flat, or sloping or hilly. Power / phone / DSL / maintained paved road on the property line.

There may be local land for cheaper but it would likely not have road access and the Power / phone / DSL part.

What I bought is riverfrontage forest, but it cost more [$900 per acre]. and we are only 22 miles from major shopping and hospitals.

On my land I have a greater issue with too much timber. Thick dense forest canopy changes what you can do.

One issue here is that property taxes are considered to be very high. I pay about $1.05 per acre for taxes.