Article on buying a homestead.

Comments

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Good article. According to this article, I'm on the right track. Now, if I could just get out and look at where I want to go.

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 989 ✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for the info!

  • Michelle D
    Michelle D Posts: 1,465 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I don't have time to read the article right now, but I definitely will book mark it. It sounds like information that will be great for me to have. Thank you for posting it.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021

    Great article. I need to read it a few times.

    Many of the items brought up are right on target. I have heard of many people that cannot have animals or even dogs of what would be considered farm land. I never thought of paths and small roadways as an issue.

    I have been looking for land in Ga, where my family is from. It has been a nightmare.

  • ltwickey
    ltwickey Posts: 369 ✭✭✭

    Me and my husband have been looking in TN and AL and are blown away at how difficult is... The market is definitely a sellers market....

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021

    I have been looking for property in Ga for close to 4 years. My one stipulation makes it more difficult but the biggest issue I have had, being out of state, they do not take me seriously.

    Another thing the one realtor does (I'm not sure if they all do it) is that I am farmed out. I want to talk to people and banks in the county I want, not in Texas or some other silly place. They did this to me a few days ago and I just plainly told them, my county - my towns or I come down and talk to the first people I see. I don't know why they seem to have to make it harder than it is.

    My family is from Ga and I want my mom to be down there and spend time with them while she can

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Denise Grant Maybe consider the Chamber of Commerce for whatever town or county that you want to live in. Writing to them may put you in contact with a local realtor that has an interest in promoting the area.

    My game plan for New Mexico is to take a week's vacation and go Airbnb in the area that I'm leaning toward. Pick the host's brain, talk to local people and soak up the atmosphere.

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021

    Goof Idea @RustBeltCowgirl

    I'll be down in Ga in May. I had hoped to be able to get more of a look at property before I go and get either a video tour or more photos. I want to gbe able to make up my mind asap.

    I wanted to have mom down there before another winter, they really do here in up here

    I am going to call my cousins and get their help too and I would not be surprised if I have a relative in home sales. My relatives founded a town way back when so I am related to many people in that area

    Yes, you really need to be able to taljk to people and get the behind the scenes info when looking for a home

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Denise Grant Your magic statement might be "I want to bring Mama back home for good". Family might jump on that bandwagon real fast. Plus they would know the friend of a friend who has acreage for sale.....maybe.

    In my case, I read the closest city newspaper, lurk on the one town's Facebook page. I thought I saw another one for the area. The permanent move is probably 3 to 4 years down the road. But if I can get property sooner, I will.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @RustBeltCowgirl We drove through NM last summer during our move and I absolutely fell in love with it. We stayed with great friends who were still the newcomers there after twenty years! It still seems to have a bit of the Wild West spirit there- some of the stories they told us belonged in a Clint Eastwood movie.

    But the beauty was staggering!

  • JennyT Upstate South Carolina
    JennyT Upstate South Carolina Posts: 1,273 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Great article, thanks for sharing @Megan Venturella.

    It's given me much to think about and consider as we're selling our house now and looking for that 10-30 acres here in South Carolina.😊

  • maimover
    maimover Posts: 359 ✭✭✭

    @Denise Grant my suggestion would be to find a realtor you feel you can trust, let them know you are serious and so your best to keep in touch. Any other help you can get from family/friends will help as well. Sometimes they may see something locally that a realtor may not be privy to.

    @RustBeltCowgirl one of the nurses that came for my disabled son, who was also married to a distant relative, lived in New Mexico for a few years. She said it was the best place she had ever lived and wanted to go back; her husband not so much...

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    Great ideas! Thanks for the info!

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    One thing I alwasy did before I rented and it would also work for buying is talk to the neighbors. They can share a lot of info on strange laws, zoning, water or flooding issues, etc...

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Another article on a homestead that just brings up pitfalls you may encounter along the way. Although this is more for when you have bought property it also helps to point out what you should be looking for and at when looking at property. I am really doing a lot of research on the properties I am looking at and its the first time in venture I actually feel good about what direction I am heading. My biggest issue has been distance and not to great realtors.

    https://www.homestead.org/lifestyle/homestead-rescue-homesteading-pitfalls-to-avoid-while-working-on-your-goals/

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @JennyT That’s where I am! In Lancaster! Where will you be looking?

  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    I know that when I am ready to buy my own property that I want a lot of acreage. I also want to look into off the grid living (solar panels, wood stoves, rain water collection, etc).

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    This has some similarities to here.

    Foreign owned land is certainly a thing. Immigrants from overseas paying too much for land...that is here. Potato growers (big farmers) drive up land prices. Some farm dealerships & chemical companies own a lot, some is by contracts where farmers couldn't pay their chemical bills. Oil & other minerals types of businesses drive up prices too.

    City folks buying to move out of the city quickly drive up prices to way beyond what it is worth, and it often results in destroying good farmland due to wanting it for their machines, hunting or subdividing. That is a huge problem here, and it got worse over the past year & a half.

    I fully and heartily disagree with that point she makes about subdividing. If you get land never subdivide it! That always drives up prices! It is the kiss of death.

    If you are watching in my province, you can often buy a full quarter, with a house & buildings for less than an acreage. Sometimes the quarter is half the price and still high for what it is!

    City folks know what their big house/condo is going to sell for and so then overpay for country homes because they can and/or don't care to find out what the land is actually worth. Often it is a "steal" in their minds (yes it was, but not in their favor). Often, any type of farming is not on their minds, but recreation is. This ruins the land for young farmers who could have otherwise bought a full property and started farming. It will never return to the state it once was because both have been overpriced & to combine them again (buy both) would be a real stretch.

    If a farmer subdivides a property, they can get double its real worth or more. It looks good on paper, and lines their pockets, but is very irresponsible and not forward thinking. In my opinion, it is very selfish.

    Often the excuse is that there is "no money in farming and the next generation isn't interested." This thinking is a lethal blow to farmland. This is why it often gets subdivided & how it gets into wasteful or greedy hands instead of into the hands of families that would invest in it heart & soul as a whole piece.

    Now, foreign & company owned land happens here. I hate seeing those suspicious ads. It is sickening. Often, they don't advertise for land, but buy up property that is already advertised. On occasion though, you still see the wanted ads.

    Rich in-country city people also "invest" because they see money, and hire someone to manage it. They will never ever set foot on the land.

    Some provinces have much higher land prices. Some areas of BC, Saskatchewan, and out east are bumping prices up as well. But, if you look hard, you might find something.

    Anyway, this is a big pet peeve of mine. It makes it difficult for us to find a piece of land (a quarter would make for self sufficiency for us...the 20 acres she talks about doesn't quite cut it when we have cows & need hay through the winter).

    Ah...I need to go do something else. This subject gets me a bit too worked up and brings out the opinions...😠

  • JennyT Upstate South Carolina
    JennyT Upstate South Carolina Posts: 1,273 ✭✭✭✭✭

    We were wanting to find something along HWY 414 north of Greenville but ended up finding a private sale of 10 acres that back up to the Middle Tiger River in Inman, SC. So not as far north as I wanted but this property has pretty much what we were looking for.

    I talk a little about it in another thread titled, I’ve found the property, now how do I…..I’d share the link but my tired brain just can’t seem to get it to work at the moment.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @JennyT Upstate South Carolina Congratulations! I’ll check out the other thread. 😊

  • Monek Marie
    Monek Marie Posts: 3,539 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @JennyT Upstate South Carolina

    With a river on one side of your property, do you have any flooding issues?

    We have a small amount of flooding on the lower field but it does not interfere with any planned property use and I have found ways to actually make use of flooding. It also adds unique and differnt plants to your property.