What to Look For in Homestead Land
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What to Look For in Homestead Land
There is no “perfect” homestead land to buy, except the one you create. However, there are a few deal-breakers when it comes to buying homestead land, and other factors that are nice to have but can be changed by you. I have prioritized my deal-breakers, but they will be slightly different for everyone. In today’s market, you have to buy the property within your budget that has the most deal-breaker attributes. Here is my list:
Deal-Breakers, Ranked by Importance. These are things you can’t change on a property, or are very hard to. If a property did not contain some of these, I wouldn’t buy it:
1. Good Access- If you can’t get to the property, I see no reason to buy it.
2. At least 3 water sources and rights to them (water rights)
3. That the house, buildings, and garden area are not in a flood zone.
4. Electricity already on property, or close enough that you can afford to run power lines to it.
– A house already on the land
– Land with no restrictions on livestock, buildings – definitely not in a HOA
– No covenants
– No nearby pollution sources: Nearby coal mining
– Property not bordering a large power tower or cell phone tower
These are the niceties: Things you can probably add later or that are of less importance
– A mix of arable land and woods (I personally find the arable land to be preferable, because it’s easier to turn open land into forest than forest into pasture)
– Within a 1 hour drive of a city with a grocery store, hospital, etc.
– Good sunlight exposure (from the South or East, unless you live in a desert (which I wouldn’t recommend) where you would want a Northern exposure)
– Mineral Rights (no fracking under land)
– Ideally, the house on land is relatively new. Old houses often need a lot of expensive repairs
– For a family of 4, I would recommend you buy a least 20 acres
– Property zones agricultural/residential
– Flat, gently rolling land
– Loamy soil that is deep, has few rocks, is fertile, and has good drainage: This only matters if you plan on farming for a business
– Working well pump
– Land not in a frost pocket- bottom of valley
– Adjacent to public or private forest land
– Wood stove in house
– No noise pollution
– No large creeks or rivers bordering property (threat of flooding)
– On high ground – top of hill for example – for defense
– Not near an interstate
- This discussion was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by Susquehanna-Homestead.
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