How long did it take for you to find your homestead? I see so many folks who say they've searched for years to find their homestead. Maybe we've been exceptionally fortunate or else we're not very picky but in the last 29 yrs the longest we've ever searched for a place is 3wks, although in two places it took another month to get possession!! The shortest property search,offer and possesion was the current one. While living in WI I called a real estate agent here, told them exactly what we wanted: a certain county, a yr round creek, hills, many trees/forest, price range, amount of acreage and it had to be remote. The real estate agent told us about two that fit the bill and we told him we'd be down in 3 days but while still on the phone we arranged to gave him $500 earnest money on the most likely of the two properties. I got the name of the local bank, called and had it put into an escrow account. We were here 2 days later instead of the planned three, looked it over, stopped at the courhouse to check the title & easements situation. Went to the bank with all of our papers for a loan, sounded like it would go through so we placed an offer on it contingent upon financing being approved. The loan was approved 2 days later contingent upon a title search & appraisal. We were lucky, the appraiser came out the next day and the title search came back fast too. It's great to work with a small, hometown bank!! The people were anxious to move out of state so we took possession 2 wks later. So, from the initial phone call less than three weeks had passed. For those still searching; write down all the important things you want vs need, make a lot of calls & always believe that dreams do come true and sometimes quite quickly.
We picked out our place with the view that we were going to be here the rest of our lives. So, with that in mind we spent about 8 years of vacation times( 2 weeks, twice a year) researching the areas that we were interested in. After ruling out many places in the west for one reason or another(too far from the ocean. Poor roads. Too much traffic. Too hilly. Too many taxes. Cost of living too high...etc. etc.)we concentrated on the area here in Oregon we had narrowed things down to, and finally sold the property in Vegas, put everything into storage(except the dog..LOL), loaded up said dog in the pickup and with a fifth wheel attached, headed up here to find a specific place. That took a few months and a couple of thousand miles of looking. I insisted on a place far out of town with absolutely no close neighbors, and permanent water..either a river or lake...a good view and lots of woods. My dh insisted on flat land with very good roads, a barbershop chorus close enough to get to rehearsals, and good hospital and health care. We did good! LOL LQ
When we started lookin' , this place was the first place we saw. I told DH, I wasn't getting, the First place we looked at. Soooooooooo, we looked for 6 months, but DH always managed to drive by the "first place" each time. He wore me down and we bought the FIRST place. Been here 10 years and have loved it completely. lacyj
First saw your post subject, thought it was...How long does it take to find your homestead...(like if you were travelling to my place, and had directions, and how long would it take you to actually negotiate the last two miles from the pavement) and my answer was going to be usually a couple hours. Most people stop, turn around, try the better maintained road, get lost several times....if I'm outside, I walk up to the road, seeing if it's somebody I know, or if they're just lost. I homesteaded a family parcel that'd been in the family for 5 generations. Bought surrounding lands to consolidate my claims. Worked out the land dispersals with my siblings years ago, and when both parents passed away, there wasn't any quarreling.on who got what.
texican, :haha: Each of the places we've bought we thought was the 'one'. We still own our first true homestead/farm & I still feel is the 'one' (as of Oct 4 we've owned it for 19yrs) and someday I hope to move back to it. Until then I just keep improving this homestead with an eye towards going home once hubby retires or I finally get tired of the infernally hot summers.
Our biggest problem was the down payment. Everytime we got some money put aside, something major would happen and the down payment would vanish There were medical bills, adoption, recessions with layoffs, and so forth. Also, because DH commutes to a city we were looking for land that was less than $10,000 an acre and such parcels were very hard to find. Land is expensive close to a city. We were finally able to buy 5 acres that was inexpensive because city water would not go in for 3 years. But, it has a spring-fed creek that pretty much runs year-round. :haha: The house will wait while we get some usefull things put in, like a culvert, blackberries, asparagus, fruit trees, possibly a barn, honey bees. and so forth. I want to build up the savings account again before we do anything REALLY major. I expect there will be OTHER unexpected major expenses over the next few years, and it is wise to have a bit put by. Best of all, it is only a 20 minute drive away and I had been looking for land that was an hour away because I thought it was all I could afford!
