# Looking to buy homestead question



## GabbyLove (May 15, 2013)

My family and I are looking for land to buy for off-grid lifestyle. We have read alot on off-grid lifestyle for the past few years. I however am concerned about how to accomplish our dreams and goals. We do not have alot of funds to spend on the land. We are wanting to purchase around 40 acres, I would love to have trees on the property and some kind of stream or water hole for water sources besides a well that we will have dug. We plan on raising livestock as well as smaller farm animals, chickens, turkeys, ducks, goats, etc.... we have found a few places that look like what we are looking for.....my question is this.....


We have 7 children, 2 are at home. We are hoping that in years to come that if each child would like to reside on the land we would help them build their homes. I have never bought land before so what do we need to look for to be able to do this? To make our land a multi family working farm/ranch unit?

Any suggestions would be awesome!!!!

Thank you so much in advance.


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## acraig (Apr 26, 2013)

I don't have any answers for you, but I'll be keeping an eye on the responses as this is my dream/plan as well. Including a small place for our parents to retire to close to the family.


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## Bellyman (Jul 6, 2013)

There are a few things that came to mind.

Do any of the 7 have any desire to live on a multi-family homestead? If none of them really do, then it's not an issue. If they all do, then you'll have some things to figure out.

If you do want to have a multi family homestead and you want to "help" your kids build their homes, who owns them? It's an important question. Will they want to build their homes on someone else's land? And if they do, how will they not end up with the mess of "undivided interest" in the 40 acres and it's improvements? Are you willing to subdivide the acreage for the ones that want their own place? 

I don't ask those questions to be unkind. My wife's family went through something similar a few years ago and it was a real mess. Lawyers were involved. Feelings were hurt. It wasn't a good thing. It all sounded great at the time... 50 years ago... but it didn't work out so great. Most of the land ended up being sold off and only a few acres and one home remains of the original farm. 

You might already have this all figured out, and if so, great! Multi family homesteads can sometimes work really well. (Think Amish.) 

Best of luck, sincerely! I wish you only the best.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

I'll chime in as I am in Real Estate (Broker). If you ever wish to have more than one home on any size property, it should be zoned with more than one tax parcel number OR be zoned for more than one home, based on acreage size. If the latter, I'd recommend applying for the property to be split into multiple parcels. This way, a parcel could be deeded to each of your children (the ones who want to build homes there). The County can be contacted about this process.


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## thestartupman (Jul 25, 2010)

You do not mention what state you are planning to buy land in. The state you decide to live in, would have a lot to do with the answers to your questions. I lived in the PNW, and everything is so regulated by the government their that you will have a hard time finding property that you can put more than 1 home on. I really doubt you could find 40 acres any where in the PNW that you can have a farm, and 7 homes on. I now live in MO, and I have 80 acres and I can put pretty much as many homes on the property as I would like. There are other states that still give freedom to people to do what they want with their property. Make sure you do research ahead of time. Even counties in the same state can have different rules for what can be done with your property.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

thestartupman said:


> Even counties in the same state can have different rules for what can be done with your property.


 Bingo, that is why I recommended the County be contacted regarding the property.

Otherwise, good points to pass on, as every State and every County has differences. Despite that, knowing what those differences are is critically important. Myself, I would never put multiple homes on any size property, without legally separating each parcel the home was on. In the future, that would take care of any hassle selling the parcels separately. Otherwise, an Attorney could be sought to put together the resulting parcels in trust.

I know a family who put a property in trust, owned by four adult children, and was barred from ever being sold or separated. It has a wonderful beach house and bunk house, waterfront, is maintained beautifully, and no issues have resulted in the ownership (which will pass on to each generation who follows, according to the trust).


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## GabbyLove (May 15, 2013)

I thank you all so much for your responses. Things were mentioned that I did not think about. Yes for now it all sounds absolutely wonderful, yet I did not take into consideration about 50 years or so from now. I would like to keep it as family land when I am gone, I am in my mid forties now so I pray that fifty years from now my family would keep it all in our family. Our goal is to buy property within the next two years, two of my grown children do want to join up as soon as property is bought, the others are playing around with the idea of having a vacationing place. I still have two at home ages 15 and 10. My husbands brother is renting off the grid and we would like to offer him 1 acre to build a house upon in return helping us run our small self sustaining farm and animals. The thought of some day something happens and this piece of property be torn apart just breaks my heart. 
We have not decided where to buy the property, I have been looking all around. My husband is a pilot and will keep his job so we have the freedom to choose wherever he will be based out of or further since he can hop flights to his home base.
I have many properties that are 'tagged' that we are thinking of, just trying to get our ducks in a row if you know what I mean.
We currently live on 1 acre of land with ducks, chickens, goats and future pigs. However, we are so limited here. Which is why we have decided to upgrade our little homestead to larger acreage where our children can join us.

So parceling would be a good idea however I would want it wrote up in a way that it can not be sold, that it is to stay in the family.


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## GabbyLove (May 15, 2013)

thestartupman said:


> You do not mention what state you are planning to buy land in. The state you decide to live in, would have a lot to do with the answers to your questions. I lived in the PNW, and everything is so regulated by the government their that you will have a hard time finding property that you can put more than 1 home on. I really doubt you could find 40 acres any where in the PNW that you can have a farm, and 7 homes on. I now live in MO, and I have 80 acres and I can put pretty much as many homes on the property as I would like. There are other states that still give freedom to people to do what they want with their property. Make sure you do research ahead of time. Even counties in the same state can have different rules for what can be done with your property.


I have often thought of Montana, however concerned about the growing season there. Do you live off the grid and how long is your growing season?


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## GabbyLove (May 15, 2013)

Or is it MO for Missouri...so sorry I get those two states abbreviations mixed up a bit.


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## tarbe (Apr 7, 2007)

GabbyLove said:


> Or is it MO for Missouri...so sorry I get those two states abbreviations mixed up a bit.


He is in Missouri.

And yes, the growing season is rather short in Montana! Depending of course, on what you are used to.


Tim


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

unfortunately property that is passed down to many owners does not work well. We have had that several times and in the end they have had to be sold or sold to "one" of the members with the one buying out the others . collecting the taxes and insurance is just too hard to get everyone on board. Have a great family meeting spot and then sell it and give everyone their share so no fights start. BTDT

properties always have spots that are "better" than others and that causes problems as well as the selling price of the parcels may be less for some.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Just something I noted... You said you don't have a lot of money for the land... 

Not sure if that also includes not a lot of money to get set up or not.. 

Setting up to live off grid is usually not cheap, Especially if there is no well or spring on the land.. You'll have to spend a lot to get set up with water.. It's really no cheaper than having city connections put it.. and some times, it will cost you a whole lot more if you have to drill deep for water, or put in a really large septic system like you'd need for a family of 11... 

Then there's the solar electric system... way not cheap... 

Just pointing these out, so that while you're shopping for land, you consider trying to find land that has a well or spring along with a septic already in place..


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## Cookie2 (Feb 21, 2014)

Based on what you have posted, I'll recommend what we're doing. We have a on-grid house on property in a county that has no zone or building ordinances. We'll be building an off-grid cabin on the land. The cabin will be a "bug out" option, a guest house and perhaps a place for my DD when she becomes an adult. We'll spend increasingly longer periods of experimenting with and learning about off-grid living. If we can (we're the same age as you, perhaps older) we'll transition our current house off-grid completely. I admit, air conditioning might be the last to go - LOL!

Anyway, when it comes to selling the property later (you or your heirs), having an on-grid option plus water service and other utilities available, could be handy.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

Our place is probably too pricy but is on the lines of what you want - 3 parcels that are 20 acres each and the county allows two homes on each parcel for a total of 6. You could share the well for a few of your houses but each would need to have its own septic syatem. 

I'd suggest that you buy something that is already subdivided to fit your needsi as rezoning and subdividing can get expensive and the outcome is not a sure thing.

Our web site is: offgrid150.simpl.com

Good luck!


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## farmgal (Nov 12, 2005)

You can cut property up all you want where I am. But I would not do it until the person is actually going to use it. As in New York you get what's known as the star discount on the property that has the house. Once you chop it up you do not get the discount on the parcels. But you can chop it up at anytime, so here I'd wait. So research the laws where you plan to reside.


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## Gray Wolf (Jan 25, 2013)

Laws and building codes change. Seldom do they become less restrictive. I've seen land that was zoned for one house on a 1/2 acre lot be downzoned to 5 acre minimum and peoples dreams crushed. I've seen useable land reclassified as wetlands and rendered un-subdividable. I've seen "impact fees" required to create a new building lot exceed $30,000. I've seen too much change and too many disappointments and losses for people who wait for the future while betting the present laws and codes will still apply.


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## GabbyLove (May 15, 2013)

I love your homestead Grey Wolf! Thank you all again for the comments. I know that it can take up to 20,000 to set up solar so we have counted that in, still not completely sure how much a well will take to dig, thinking maybe 10,000. We are looking for affordable land and have found a bit for around 20,000 for 40 acres. Not sure where we are deciding on going yet. We are excited to start, however still working on our little hobby farm now. Our goal is to be ready within 2 years. Planning on working on aquaponics gardening this year in our garden and working out the kinks over the next year. 



Sounds to me that separating the land will not be one of our goals at the beginning, my eyes are open, however, it will be something we will be looking into later on. 

Any suggestions on land is definitely appreciated!!! Learning alot about different zones, as previously mentioned, never just bought land before, so there are a lot of different aspects to look at. Thankfully my DH used to be a real estate agent and knows alot of the lingo that I am clueless on.


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