# buying land, going off the grid.



## Mouse

I've been talking a lot lately with friends of mine about how we all woudl love to have some spot of land out in the wild to perma-camp on and live like monkeys or whatever

well, I kinda want to know how to go about buying land. This area of life is a total mystery to me. I'm no where near ready to go forth with such a project but it's in my nature to want to know too damned much too damned soon 

I'm looking for some first hand accounts. I know not a lot of people on here own much, if anything, but there may be someone whose done what I'm dreaming of doing one day.

any info would be great. I've been reading around online a bit but it's always far more interesting to hear things from real people who've actually done it.


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## IBRRHOBO

two things to look at: is it owner financed or bank and if bank is it va, fha or what. next, what's ur FICO score. if it's under 600, most banks won't fuck w/you.

depending on what part of the country you need to ENSURE you have water and mineral rights. check your title abstract 'cause if not you WILL be fucked.

check for how close/price for temp utility drop 

check for county ordinances on camping. i.e.; sanitary provisions. just because you buy/are buying doesn't mean you can shit anywhere. if you didn't own it you could.

if you're gonna build, buy land in a county that has zero code/zoning ordinances. where i have my land there are none.

consider mining claim on blm if ur not gonna build/be serious about staying.


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## Mouse

my FICO score is more than likely shit. haven't checked it in years. maybe my next step in life will be to pay off some hospital bills and get that back in order. 

but I was more hoping I could buy land in cash instead of taking out a loan. aren't there some places where you can buy a few acres for a few grand? or are these places totally not worth owning and hence the super low price? I'm not looking to own 200 arces or anything.. just a few, 3-6 seems good enough for me (I grew up on 3 in the middle of nowhere so I'm comfortable with that)


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## drunken marauder

At least in MI you can go to the Upper Pennisula and buy land hella cheap if you really feel the need to give someone money but there is hundreds and prolly thousands of acres just wide open.. But be ready for winter. Plenty of wood to burn and hunting and all that... BUt from what I have seen land is normally cheaper in 20 and 50 acre parcels.. If your looking at 3 to 5 acres its prolly expensive hunting property or about to be developed.


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## hartage

What you are proposing has been done countless times before. It is harder to do now as the population has grown and even "cheap" land isn't cheap anymore. 

The best way to test your idea is to find an existing commune that thinks along the same lines and try living there a while. Group ideas work but rarely long term. If you trace the path of the back-to-the-land people of the 60's and find out where they are today you would be dissapointed. Most of them have either died or melded back into the general society. Notice nothing much in between. Also if you take away died.... it only leaves melded back into society. 

The only long-term way you are going to go back to the land is if you do it by yourself. Supported totally by you so nobody else can change,challenge or otherwise muck up your efforts. This requires an income. Income means you will have to earn it from general society on way or another. Hence everybody's road ends in the same destination. Melding back into society.

Before you commit your credit and a massive portion of your life, try it first. Find a commune somewhere and live there a year.


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## mashedtaters

The 2 ways I know of obtaining land is inheriting it, or buying it, and land is expensive. Even cheap land is expensive. Then you must pay property taxes which is expensive. And about the Medical bills....I have like 35,000 dollars in medical bills from last summer(not kidding), I checked my credit a couple weeks ago and it hasen't effected my score at all. Now I've heard countless times that medical bills don't effect credit scores but was always weary of that suggestion. Can anyone clear that up?


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## Mouse

I know my hospital debt (small.. like 600) went to collections but I don't know if it effected my score any as I haven't checked. I know there are 3 scores that follow you, not just one, and I think health bills effect one but not all. not sure. something worth googleing. lol

I do owe some asshole college something they kept calling "out of school costs" which I refused to pay because they couldn't explain to me what such a cost is and why I had to pay it after they had already gotten a huge chunk of student loan money out of me. I think that may be bad for my credit. From what I've gathered from a few people, they waited... waited.. and then finally called and said "hey, I can give you this much, can we be done with it?" and they settled it for far less than they initially owed. 

but that's besides the point.

I do plan on doing this mostly on my own. I have a few friends that I know are interested but I wont even bother talking to them about it. This idea is obviously YEARS down the road. 

I grew up in the country, I know how to make it (for the most part) living somewhat off the grid already. I don't think me being able to handle it would be too much of an issue. I plan on doing some van dwelling in the years to come so I think that will help me get used to it as well. The Vandwelling will hopefully let me get my credit bacm in order as well (no rent, still working, more money, yay)

I dont want a communal life, hence buying land and getting the fuck away from everyone. lol


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## sleep

IBRRHOBO seems to be the right track as to what to look for. Also be careful some cheap land that is used for recreational purposes has home/land owners associations where you have to pay membership fees for road and shower house maintenance and adhere to their bullshit rules or be fined/kicked out or whatever.


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## Mouse

the more I read the more it gets insanely complicated lol. 

still, this is just another method for me to research so it's all good. 

damn theoreical hopes and dreams 

one day, I swear to god, one day!


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## hartage

Yeah, one day you'll buy land. But before that day comes you'll have to put up with the rest of us for a while. (job with general society).

Hey, there are custodian jobs where you take care of a facility way out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that could offer you solitude and yet still earn you bucks towards your own land.


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## WindWalker1970

You should watch the doc movie called Garbage Warrior. The guy buys 650 acres of land in NM and still can't build his Earthship homes without a lot of bullshit from the local and fed govt there.


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## mashedtaters

It's definately not impossible. I want to do the same thing one day. I want to start an organic farm somewhere. I'd like to do it in Oregon but I looked at farm land there and it's a lot more expensive than a lot of other states. I have some friends that live in Okmulgee that are farming now.


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## Mouse

WindWalker1970 said:


> You should watch the doc movie called Garbage Warrior. The guy buys 650 acres of land in NM and still can't build his Earthship homes without a lot of bullshit from the local and fed govt there.



oh that's depressing.

all the rules and regulations seem to get out of hand. that's def something I'll have to spend a lot of tiem learning about before I go into such a project. from what I've seen on all the sites I've looked at is big warnings about such events taking places AFTER you buy your lil spot on earth.


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## Mouse

hartage said:


> Yeah, one day you'll buy land. But before that day comes you'll have to put up with the rest of us for a while. (job with general society).
> 
> Hey, there are custodian jobs where you take care of a facility way out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe that could offer you solitude and yet still earn you bucks towards your own land.



def have considered that type of work for when I travel again. Maybe a park maint. person for the remote areas for a while to learn how to really rough it... then maybe some type of Redrum stuff later on. lol.


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## hartage

Mouse, good luck on your land buying plans. I wanna do the same thing but I've yet to figure out where and how I'm gonna pay for it and support it.


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## IBRRHOBO

personally, and this is if you have some real grit, i'd contemplate two choices. 1) sock back some funds and probably buy in New Mexico. liberal politics and zoning in the right areas; or 2) contemplate the land lottery in alaska. arrow could probably tell you more on this, but when glenn got his land up there you had to have the money to survey immediately. additionally, for any type of REAL construction you about have to airlift shit. you also only have 4-6 months to do it in due to weather. 

i've bought and sold over the years. if u ever get closer to needing real answers you have my number and i'll walk you through the game. some fancy 25 cent words are all that really seperate you from owning land.


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## Mouse

IBRRHOBO said:


> personally, and this is if you have some real grit, i'd contemplate two choices. 1) sock back some funds and probably buy in New Mexico. liberal politics and zoning in the right areas; or 2) contemplate the land lottery in alaska. arrow could probably tell you more on this, but when glenn got his land up there you had to have the money to survey immediately. additionally, for any type of REAL construction you about have to airlift shit. you also only have 4-6 months to do it in due to weather.
> 
> i've bought and sold over the years. if u ever get closer to needing real answers you have my number and i'll walk you through the game. some fancy 25 cent words are all that really seperate you from owning land.



very greatful for the offer!
I hope to maybe, hopefully, put funds away to at least get a good down payment on something, someday. But for now i'm gonna be working on getting my credit score on track.

alaska is def NOT going to be my bag. I hate the cold and I hate the dark. lol. 

I could handle NM, as long as it's northern. AZ is nice as well.


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## nivoldoog

hartage said:


> The best way to test your idea is to find an existing commune that thinks along the same lines and try living there a while. Group ideas work but rarely long term. If you trace the path of the back-to-the-land people of the 60's and find out where they are today you would be dissapointed. Most of them have either died or melded back into the general society. Notice nothing much in between. Also if you take away died.... it only leaves melded back into society.



true that, I wanna do that for a time... um... What about of instead of buying land. Find some forgoten gost town or something and just squat there... Something with water source, and then farming, trees... Just claim an old town or something. That would be cool... Just searched for a bunch of forgotten towns... But then thought "If they were truly forgotten, it would make it hard to google them.


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## Mouse

eh, I want to own it. that way I can do what I say, when I say it. I'm sick of being at the whim of everyone elses luck


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## hartage

nivoldoog said:


> true that, I wanna do that for a time... um... What about of instead of buying land. Find some forgoten gost town or something and just squat there... Something with water source, and then farming, trees... Just claim an old town or something. That would be cool... Just searched for a bunch of forgotten towns... But then thought "If they were truly forgotten, it would make it hard to google them.



You are talking about a LOT of work. Running a farm is no joke. You'll be up before dawn and work till dark if you want any chance of getting things done. If you don't own that land and you put all that work into it. A year later when Mr. Land owner comes around ALL your work goes down the drain. Never mind the money you put into it. Owning land really is the only way I'd be willing to put the work into farming it.

Hmm.... come to think of it.... I guess we are all just a bunch of people that want to become farmers.


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## Winter

Hey as far as those hospital bills go.............. what you can do is go here: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

You can obtain a free credit report once a year from all three reporting agencies.

Anything over seven years old has to be removed You can call the company and request it be done

For hospital bills.................alot of hospitals have whats called an indigent care program Basically if you're a poor fucker and can't afford to pay the bill you apply for the program and it is written off and removed from your credit. I had about 30,000.00 worth of hospital bills removed from mine last year


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## yarn and glue

Mouse, I primarily work on farms as I ramble around, so I've seen a lot of land for sale and worked for a few people who got their land cheap. Part of it is just being in the right place at the right time -- I know someone who got thirty acres of beautiful forest for a song, 'cause she was the ONLY bidder in an auction that was severely under-advertised. 

Highly recommend auctions for just about anything, not only land but old pick-up trucks as well . . .


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## Bullet

have you thought about buying land in another country besides America? I don't know anything about things like this, but it might be cheaper/easier/less restrictive somewhere else...?


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## Mouse

it's possible, but it'd be hard to go buying land that I haven't seen, but maybe one day I'll leave this shithole and buy some tiny piece of land in france lol


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## Wotan

Patience and perseverance. I had the off-grid dream and one step at a time and I'm on my way. Bought the land about 3 years ago and am getting ready for the eventual move off grid and retired. From full time city work anyway. There will always be plenty of work on the land. I found a few real estate web sites checked them everyday. All the while saving money. Eventually a perfect piece (for what i wanted) came up. Here is an American land real estate site I found on homesteading.org. I don't know how good it is. but it's good to start looking at what is out there and how much things are going for. Welcome to OzarkLand: Land Ownership made Simple and Affordable. But the best things is just to look in the affordable areas that you want in on. Good Luck.


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## nitepeepole

arkansas is dirt cheap. back in the 70s my grandpas read this book that said the world was gunna go all apocalyptic. he took that shit as truth and decided to move out to the middle of fukkng nowhere arkansas. yelville to be exact. 
he lived waay deep in the ozarks for about thirty years till he went crazy, said he was infected by a fungus and set his trailer and everything he owned on fire. 
now he lives in senior housing in carlsbad. and the land is out there but nobody wants it.
taxes suck. thats the number two reason i wouldnt buy property. the number one reason being i have no money.


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## Mouse

your reasons 1 & 2 are the hardest things to contend with, yep.


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## mikey mayhem

i just got back from the mesa in new mexico and went to a land auction. they were selling land from any where between 90 and 120 for a quarter acre. it was fun...kinda post apocalyptic and mad max feeling. Off the Grid: Life On The Mesa - Watch the Documentary Film for Free - SnagFilms we stayed with stan the pig farmer....coolest old man in the west.


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## Beyond The Sun

Someone posted this link in another thread (don't remember who), so I'm stealing it from them, but it's pretty pertinent to this thread too. Living off the grid in a simple cabin - full time!

There's a lot of info on this site. Of course, this is just one couple's experience, but it seems like they have a lot of good ideas and it's very thorough. 
Good luck with it. I totally understand where you're coming from too, I have similar ambitions.


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## Angela

I've also thought about this from time to time over the years and have always decided against it since I can still find plenty of land to squat on. I still think about doing it in the future however at some point. Every state is different when it comes to land ownership laws, regulations and zoning. So it's definitely best to be well versed about a specific area before you even consider buying. Laws, regulations and taxes can vary even from county to county though so it's definitely best to find out specific information about the area that your considering before doing anything. If you do decide to buy a chunk of land, it's usually to your advantage to get something that you can afford to buy in cash as the price will be lower or the terms better if it's a private contract deal.


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## fluke1986

okay, so there is this thing called "squatters rights" or "adverse possession". Im not really sure if it is 100% true but from what I hear, according to this law if you squat on a piece of land for a certain amount of years (somewhere in the range of 7 or 15) you can claim that land as your own. It has to be WITHOUT the consent of the owner of coarse and I think you might even have to build some sort of structure. And it all probably depends on what state this land is in. For all I know it could even be outdated. but it doesn't hurt to do a little research, right?


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## creature

try ebay. no fucking kidding.

get a shitty camper.

g'luck


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## nivoldoog

Welcome to OzarkLand: Land Ownership made Simple and Affordable.

check it


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## jon

Adverse possession is ass...

Pretty much anywhere (any where that has it any way) needs to be open notorious and without consent and you have to keep up the taxes, in MA it's got to be continuous for 20 years...

So bust your ass pay the taxes any 19 years 11month later you get served eviction papers...even after 20 years then if the "real" owner comes back you get to go to court to try and prove all this shit, no thanks...


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## veraladd

if u ever figure it out take me with


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## nuckfumbertheory

Buying land w/ no house is a big pain. You're going to have a hell of a time financing. Unless you've got the cash money you're going to have a hard time. And then yes you're going to have to deal with the government about breaking ground on your land. Personally I think you're probably better finding land that isn't being used and start building on it without permission. Just go around the red tape and you can do a lot more faster.


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## anne

I regularly check landsofamerica.com, landandfarm.com, and landwatch.com but I don't know how good those sites are for buying small parcels. I'm hoping to pay cash for 100+ acres in the middle of nowhere in about 5 years. That way taxes will only be a few hundred dollars per year as long as nobody finds out we're building on it.


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