# woods water and a big garden



## illbhomesoon (Apr 7, 2015)

Im new to this whole forum thing. im researching for a move to the pacific nw in 2 years we are a party of 10, 2 families moving from sw florida. We want about a half hour commute to either portland or seattle for the nurses in our lives and a homesteadable property with land to hunt and raise a small family farm on the western side of either state. I see sooo many contridicting pros and cons of both states its very confusing. Wso dont have the noney to travel around searching for the best towns ect. So most is gonna be done online here during the research phase. Any and all feedback will be very much appreciated. Jimmy


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I hear a little alarm bell... Doing all he searching and finding on the web, and not having money to travel to look... If you're short on cash to go look at a property, then you are probably short for all it's going to take once you find a property.

My wife and I bought our place a few years ago, and the fat stack of cash we had, is almost nill now... Starting a homestead isn't a cheap endeavor.

You want to shop carefully, and visit your choice of property a few times if at all possible. Get a good idea of what its going to be like in the summer and winter if possible. 

We bought fast. Although we do like our property, there's things we would have done different, such as taken more time to find something little more along the lines of what we wanted. We should have traveled more to look more.... Just buying because it looks good on the web isn't such a wise idea. There are so many things to a property that one little thing can make it not so desirable, and if you can't see those things in person, you won't know until it's too late. 

Some times it takes a few visits to find those undesirables.


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## illbhomesoon (Apr 7, 2015)

Thanks for the reply, i realize we dont want to buy a property site unseen, our ideal situation would be to find the right area of the state to move to from Florida and rent for about a year, so we can search for the perfect place. Mainly trying to get a close to ideal locale to start.


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## illbhomesoon (Apr 7, 2015)

We did the site unseen thing going from Upstate NY to SW Florida due to wife growing up in Florida, 20 years have changed here for the worse.


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## GaryS61 (Feb 26, 2013)

"We want about a half hour commute to either portland or seattle for the nurses in our lives and a homesteadable property with land to hunt and raise a small family farm on the western side of either state."

A half hour commute to either city *is in the city *when was the last time you were in Seattle? Both of the cities mentioned are some of the highest priced real estate in the nation..............having said that well.... try Craigs list for the areas and start your search I have seen a couple of real nice off the grid places advertised in the mountains out side of Seattle but far far more than a half hour commute, and very pricey also. 

Good luck!


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## Oregone (Apr 28, 2015)

Iâd suggest you narrow down a medical facility in a town closer to a rural area than Portland or Seattle. I was born in Portland, and avoid Seattle due to itâs unchecked sprawl. Living in a temporary paradise 40 miles west of Portland (got my homestead for sale), Iâve not ventured far from home cuz itâs been so nice... But Portlandâs ruined, in my view. And the only good thing about the constant population influx is that my property valueâs sky-high.

Iâd look further down the Willamette Valley, toward Salem, or Eugene, Oregonâ¦ just donât tell anyone I told you so.. Both have large metro areas, medical facilities, and not âthat farâ from some countryside. But, that countryside comes at a premium! Mainly due to âourâ long-time landuse laws that created urban growth boundaries in which all towns must justify their expansion, with minimum parcel sizes in various zones outside. Thereâs sprawl, but itâs .._planned_. As I read about what can still be done in other states Iâm shocked and amazed...

Iâve friends from Florida (Miami and Daytona Beach) out near me, in the hills. Iâll sometimes visit them just to perk myself up as they love this State! The politics of the region can be weird; though the metro areas of WA or OR are an ever-deepening blue, the rural areas remain red.


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## Seeria (Jul 21, 2006)

Don't think you'll find much along the I5 of Oregon that is 30 mins from a big city. That traffic takes us more than 30 mins to cross in most othe I5 cities. You might find some around Grants Pass and Roseburg. Certainly NOT Portland. And those are very expensive land areas. Also highly regulated. 
Not much different with Washington, although, I haven't been there in over a decade so it could be worse now. 
Definetly do not do property site unseen. I've rented and leased a couple times that way and regret it to this day. I've been travelling around the Northwest looking for the right homestead for nearly six years now, and can tell you that once you get to that property that sounds fantastic, is the right price, etc, 9 out of 10 times now it has proven to be horrible. Glad I didn't lose money. 
Find the area you think you can afford, check with people online that live there, call the county clerks, etc, get to know the area--- Then move there, even if in a rental or in an RV. That seems to be the best way to get to know a place and the people. Puts you close to viewing land, getting involved with the community, learning the legal restrictions, etc. 
It isn't just the land that needs to fit you, it the the whole kaboodle. Laws, permits, community, neighbors, schools, government, churches, politics, etc etc etc

Good luck!


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## FarmerKat (Jul 3, 2014)

Depending on your financial situation, you may want to buy a property that will allow you get settled in the community while you look for the perfect place. Also, once you get settled in an area, you will have a better idea of where to look and what to look for. We moved from FL to TN. We are not our dream property, but we have enough space to raise animals & plant a garden (and learn to do it in this climate). We have been here for a year and a half and the "dream property" just came on the market. If we were in another state, we would not have been able to act on the opportunity fast enough.


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