# Beginners looking for homestead land



## Weeping Willow (4 mo ago)

Greetings all, 

My husband and I are noobs searching for land to install a manufactured home on in Utah. Like, we’ve never even purchased a house before. I’ve been looking at the master plans and zoning rules of each county, is that a good starting point? 
We were really interested in a lot in rural Sanpete county, but they have a lot of zoning rules, I don’t know if they are normal or not. Also it turned out to be in an HOA which was a dealbreaker. 
Examples of zoning rules: 
No more than 3 dogs, up to 15 with a commercial license
Accessory buildings must be of similar architectural style to the main building and no more than 100ft away. 
Etc. 

I’m confused because when people online talk about homesteading they rarely talk about zoning, but that’s the issue we keep running into. 
Also if we find a nice piece of land with rights and ok zoning rules, and if it already has a house I’d consider that.
We’re looking at Carbon county now. 
So I’m looking for some general direction due to feeling overwhelmed. We would of course like a nice balance of city to country, but most of those lots are out of our price range. 
It seems Utah may not be ideal for homesteading, but we’d like our first home to be here since we have family here. Perhaps in the future when we’re more familiar with another state, we may move there. I might be able to purchase land from family in Cassia county Idaho (southeast) but that’s uncertain. 

I also saw some people have found property here on Homesteading Today, how would I search for that?


----------



## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Zoning is one of the top things to consider when searching for homesteading property. I have warned many newbies about checking zoning regulations before buying. 

I know about Ohio zoning but no other states. You have to look at state, county, township and city regulations. If possible, stay outside of city limits. Look mainly for farming, crops and livestock regulations. Garden and accessory building regulations are also important. There are areas where you are not allowed to have vegetable gardens in a front yard. 

Never buy into an HOA or a gated community. My stepsister found out the hard way that gated communities are not as nice as they pretend to be.


----------



## Alice In TX/MO (May 10, 2002)

Zoning is (around here) a city, village, or township issue. Most counties don't have "zoning." Utah may be different.

Go to the county courthouse and ask.


----------



## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

First thing to do is define what your intentions are-- Are you just looking to get out of an urban setting or are you planning on becoming preppers in order to survive any of the social/economic/political/environmental calamites that are looking more and more likely with each passing day, or something in between those two extremes?...Putting extraneous constraints like "wanting to stay close to family" limits your choices....Keep in mind that The Mormons chose Utah because nobody else wanted it.

If looking to be preppers and self-sufficient, water, soil and growing seasons are to be considered first.....

You'll also find that a property with well, septic and a house already in place-- not to mention fencing, driveways and outbuildings-- will be a LOT cheaper than buying undeveloped land and putting in that stuff yourself.


----------



## Henrykjr (4 mo ago)

All good advice here.....zoning is #1

If you can find property zoned AG (agricultural) you will have access to USDA loans.........

There are tons of ins an outs to homesteading.....there are also a ton of youtube videos on the topic.

Make 100% sure you have a clear idea on what you are going to use the property for.......buying the wrong the land is super costly......

HK


----------



## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Another item to avoid at all costs is the dreaded easement. Lots of folks think they are a good idea - unless the easement is across their own property.

Easements are miserable. Don't buy a land with easements, and don't grant easements across your land. They mostly bring trouble and hard feelings.


----------



## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Most properties in Ohio have utility easements on the road frontage. You have to pay tax on the property but you can't do anything with it except mow it because the utilities, county or township have first rights to the usage.


----------



## Pony (Jan 6, 2003)

Danaus29 said:


> Most properties in Ohio have utility easements on the road frontage. You have to pay tax on the property but you can't do anything with it except mow it because the utilities, county or township have first rights to the usage.


That's not the easement of which I wrote. We have those here, too: an easement to the county and electric company, 15' from the middle of the road on to our land. 

The kind of easement I'm thinking about is where someone gets access to cross your land. We had a nightmare of an easement on our WI farm. Swore then: Never again!


----------



## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Some utility easements can be nightmares too. I can't remember who it was that had problems with an old oil company easement. It's good to check for all of them, just to be sure what you have.

I keep forgetting that in some states mineral, oil, gas and water rights do not automatically come with the land. I don't know how you would check for those.


----------

