Are we crazy???

Sounds like you have put thought into this, so I think you'll be fine. I'll repeat the above comments on learning the codes requirements for building. I would also caution you not to buy a piece of property without finding out what type of sewage system it is approved for. That can run you tens of thousands of dollars, or worse - not be permissible at all!
Good luck!

Hire a forester to inventory the trees, mark the ones to be cut, put the job out to bid, have stipulations in the contract about cleanup, and his work will pay for his fee, plus get you a lot more money.

Can you get the price down on the 31 ac? That seems like a bit over priced.

Have you had a timber buyer look at the forest to see how much they would offer?
Is any of the land cleared?

If you sell the timber do not let them log it with the big machinery. It ruins the rest of the smaller timber and also the land. We didn't have a choice on the 160 ac we just purchased. The owner did the timber before he sold it. Talk about a mess. There are ruts that are over 6 ft deep. Hubby is slowly going through and filling them with his back hoe.

Generators cost a lot to run each day. Our electric was out from 8:00am to 10:00 pm recently and it cost us $40 worth of gas to run our generator.

I know a family that bought a place in the sticks as I call it. They did without electricity for over 5 yrs. They had a propane fridge. They built a small log cabin to live in. They finally got a loan and had electricity put in. Cost almost as much as you stated yours would.

To do this you have to be strong and able bodied. Hope all goes well for you

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When we bought our land we were not able to log anything until the land was fully paid for. This protected the owner in case we took all the timber and then defaulted on the loan. Make sure you are allowed to log before you start cutting. Get it in writing form the owner or whoever holds the note.

What is your zoning, are you very sure that you can even build? I'd be a little worried if there is no one living out there at all.

Here you can not live on your land without approved road (graveled, trimmed for fire, engineered for grade, ect), approved and installed septic system, electricity with heating available for all rooms, and all plumbing done. You can not bulid as you go, you have to have your final before you move one little box. Don't forget there are minimum sizes as well (I think 800 sq.ft. here). I live in a very strict county as you can tell. I hope yours is a little more linient!

Anyways, I am certainly not saying don't do it, just be prepared. I would suspect those of us that say stuff like this learned it AFTER we bought the place! Lessons the hard way.

JMO, but also as one who started out with a cow pasture about 6 years ago, but I think you are moving a little too fast without enough thought.

How old are you?
What is your physical condition?
Been married how long? (This will be guaranteed strain on relationships)
Other people have brought up...Can you log before it is paid for?
How much can you get for the lumber?
Zoning?
Water....Hauling gets old real quick. Once you have it home, how do you move it around? Heat it? Keep it clean? Can you drill a well? Have you spoken to a well driller? What was his assessment? Pick a driller who has been in business many years, he will have a larger experience database.

Sewer....Again you can do without. Many have, but again it is a strain and you have to be really motivated. Can you put in a septic tank and laterals? Again Zoning? Who has to put it in? Can You do it yourself? Cost? Talked to a sewer installer?

Electricity...Bunches of questions? Starting with Solar: How much experience do you have with solar energy? How much experience with electricity? Tools? If it is all trees, how big of an area do you have to clear to get a solar opening. How small amount of electricity are you willing to accept?

Not to be trivial, but phone? Internet? Road maintenance? If still owned by the county will they maintain? Not owned by state or county, who owns it? Are you sure you have access? If you are solar, you are probably also using propane for ref., cooking and water heating. Can you get a propane truck in? Will they come?

Tired of typing and I have only covered the first 3 months so I'll quit shortly.

I don't want to rain on your dream, everybody needs one. Just don't let your dream obscure reality. I just want to make sure you have thought this through. I believe you asked a sincere question, and I have tried to give you a sincere answer, but it is JMO.

Good luck what ever you decide!

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I think this sounds sort of like what we did back in the 1970s--we bought vacant land, decided to build and pay as we went, and put in a wind generator for all of our power due to the cost of having the utility come in. Remember that the money spent on solar or wind electric is like paying for your electric bills up front, for years to come, so you can really afford to pay more for a solar electric system than the utility would charge for bringing in power, because they will send you monthly bills forever, too.
Do some research on solar and wind power. Check out the National Solar Tour this weekend (October 4th). http://www.ases.org/index.php?option...id=58#Kentucky

Go to energy fairs, talk to people in local or state solar organizations, find and talk to people with off-grid solar and wind systems. These systems work, and your potential situation is one of the best for renewable energy systems.

By the way, our wind electric system and solar electric are still working fine, and I expect them to be working well in 20 years and in 40 years, too.

I'll echo what Watcher said. I've watched friends and family both get good deals on raw dirt or farmland, but then the expense and difficulties took place.

Financing for the dirt was remarkably difficult to obtain. Oh, you could get interestingly expensive bridge loans and such, but a farm loan for a farm wasn't available even through the farm agencies. All parties eventually ended up at BOA, as they were the only bank that had financing for raw dirt.

Then came the fun of trying to place a house where you want it. Nixed that in the bud, the governments did. The house will be placed where they want it, your input is not needed or desired. Same the septic and the driveway. Don't like it? Sell to a developer and leave, please do. But only after you pay the impact fee, the assessment fee, the evaluation fee, the documentation fee, the filing fee, the hearing fee, the inspection fee, the engineering fee, well, you get the drift. And I didn't make a single one of those fees up! There's a number of others as well.

Everyone finally got their houses and farm or farmette, but it cost a whole lot more than was expected, took years longer to occupy than they'd planned, and nothing was placed the way they wanted it.

Raw ground sounds wonderfully romantic, in reality, it may not be. A developer has leverage and connections to get what they want, you don't have either.

wow, i'm excited for you. We are in the same position and found it will be cheaper to put in solar than have the power company come out. Plus we want to be off grid anyway.

Look into water dousing and well pounding, might save you some money on the well. Also, there are lots of sites on home made water wheels for hydro power and see if a ram pump would work for. I kind of skimmed the responses, so I don't know if you have running water on the property.

We found solar panels used (yes it's possible) but we looked for a year, just checked craigslist every day. once they are posted, they are gone almost immediately. You could also maybe setup a simple rain capturing system to wash and shower with. There are easy ways to heat water using either a solar cooker, fire, or simply putting them in plastic bottles and laying them in the sun.

I think you'll do just fine. Good luck and congratulations!

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Our website promoting the use of Missouri Herbs. www.MissouriHerbs.com

Okay, lets see if I can answer some questions...
The land is zoned farm land. It is a tract 2 on the farm. The front is being auctioned off and we are getting this before the auction. There are easements on the deed to use the road. There were no easements for utilities and they have to be in place by the closing or the deal is off. We would have to have a septic system. The amish live right down the road and we actually looked at one of their places. They had a pole barn type house with septic and water. No power of course. So where we live you can live in a pole barn structure. (we also have some friends that live in one) Phone will be a cell for a while. I assume I will have to push and push to get the county to upkeep their road but I may not win that battle. Timber.... I am borrowing the money from my bank so they will allow me to have the timber cut. I have already discussed this with them. We have had people look at the timber there that has had their place logged and they said we have marketable timber. We are waiting for a timber guy to call us back. I am going to make phone calls today to make sure everything we want to do is doable. If not then we will buy something else.
Susie

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IT STARTS WITH A DREAM...

Not necessarily. I had timber took off my property and the only 'mess' was the tops. These could have been cut up for a lot of firewood but I had them pushed into piles and the wildlife loved them.

Now this was selective cutting so if you are talking about clear cutting you are correct.

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Remember, when seconds count. . .
the police are just MINUTES away!

Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. . .Davy Crockett

But is it buildable farm land or only farm land? Have you gone down to the County to ask them what they are going to require from you to live there? It's not that you can't live in a pole barn type structure here you just have to have it properly engineered and built. I obviously live in a very regulated County and I'm sure your's is not as strict as mine. Just things to check on. Nothing good comes from going into a deal with your eyes shut, just get all your information BEFORE you buy.

Okay, I got really scared after talking with everyone and also found out that it would cost more for water than the power so we decided to not buy it and go ahead and buy the 9.6 acres that we liked before and it has power, septic and water already on it, with a creek. And it is on a one lane road that the county paves. So Thank You everyone who helped me think this through.
Susie

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IT STARTS WITH A DREAM...

9.6 acres is nothing to sneeze at, its big enough for a family to be self sustaining and you won't have the major expenses for; power,water, sewer (or rather they'll be in your initial loan and you won't have to pay seperatly or wait for them to be done or worry about how much they'll end up costing.
Congratulations, keep us informed hows its going.

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Apocalyptic and Survival Fiction - Readers and writers welcome

Folks have already told you a bunch of this, but I want to echo what was said about alternative energy. To run a very energy efficient but otherwise typical modern house you'll need about $30k for the electrical system, and forget about air conditioning. It's easy to spend way more than that. You'll also have to use propane or wood for cooking and heating and water heat (or solar water heat).

I was quoted $30k to run power to my place and researched alternative to death. Fortunately a coop bought out the power in our area and gave me a more reasonable connection cost.

Getting a well and septic put in wasn't so bad for me, I paid a total of around $7k complete for both systems installed and running, including plumbing up to the house, the pump and pressure tank, wiring the pump, etc. My well was a couple of hundred feet. Your costs will be completely different, of course, for your own area.

Dirt roads can be a big pain, too. They're not maintenance free!

If you love the remote place, by all means do it, but crunch your numbers very carefully first! Identify every possible cost and be sure you haven't been optimistic. It would be a real drag to find out after you've bought the property that you can't afford to make it habitable in a way you'll enjoy!

Congratulations on your purchase!

You never realize how important water is until you don't have it and you are never guaranteed water until they actually drill that well. Down the line good luck ever selling a place without water. I don't think anyone should buy a place that doesn't have at least a good well put in by the sellers (JMO).

You will be very very happy with that county paved road come winter. Keep us updated on your progress and pictures!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
9.6 acres as someone else mentioned is nothing to sneeze at. It will certainly provide you with enough to keep you busy for some time to come. And enough land to keep you in a sustainable agriculture position for many years.

Again Congratulations and all the best.

ETA: Yeah, we want pictures!!

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Consider horse logging if it is available in your area. They can log selectively, without ruining everything else that is in the area. The trees you decide to keep will not be killed by the impact of the heavy machinery, and the land will not look like it has been distroyed when they are done. They are not as fast as the large machines, but that may not be a problem for you.

Good luck.

Peace,
Cathryn

I'm still looking for a place to buy, raw/wooded land or partly cleared, no house. If I get a big enough place, I plan to clear 4 or 5 acres for a garden and pasture. The rest, I will cut out the scrub and maybe plant more trees.