Since we’ve discussed the in’s and out’s of the bare land purchase, now we’ll talk about finding land that has already been developed. By developed I mean, a property that has had a significant amount of improvements that may or may not include a home.

   When searching for land that has already been developed with anything from utilities all the way up to an existing home, the advertiser will have done a lot of the work for you. When a land seller has made any significant improvement they will reflect those in their ad as well as their price.

   As we’ve covered previously, there are land developers that will purchase a larger tract of land with the specific intention of dividing the property into smaller parcels. Each developer and development is different, some will just divide the land and sell it bare, while others will extend the utilities before marketing the land for sale. Others still, will proceed to build homes on the land and sell the completed project as basically a new subdivision of homes.

   For the purposes of our discussion here, developed land, we’ll stick with developments that fall short of dealing with an actual neighborhood subdivision. As a prepper land asset, those neighborhoods may indeed be a valid investment but more often than not they will not be what the “Prepper” would be looking for.

   As a minimum our developed land would have to have the utilities on the property. This in many cases would only be the grid power, as most properties outside the city limits won’t have water or sewer available. When you’re conducting a land search, especially a rural land search, grid utilities are far from common or gauranteed. The fact that a property has a power line extended to the property, is a big asset when it comes to knowing what your options are really going to be.

   In many cases the fact is utility power is far to costly for an individual owner to bring in. Even if you would ideally be hoping to have an “off grid” cabin or homestead, the power being available is definitely worth a premium. As an investment, at least in the long run, the grid power option will give you more marketing options and a higher selling price, if and or when you are trying to sell your land investment in the future.

   Water and sewer are the other 2 main utility developments. Unless your interest is in investing inside the limits of a small town, you will not find water and sewer lines on the land you’re looking at. Beyond the light of the city, water wells and septic tanks are the norm. The cost of these 2 improvements would be the same whether you are buying bare land to develop yourself or a property that has had some developments already completed.

   It would be uncommon to find a piece of land that had grid power but didn’t already have established access also. This may mean nothing more then a dirt track to the property line or possibly a piece of land that has county road frontage. As an investment, this established access is an advantage. While you as a prepper may hope to be off all by your lonesome, far away from the flow of zombie hordes in a post apocalyptic scenario, your future buyer may not share your desires. I certainly can’t tell you which goal is more worthy but I am prepared to tell you that just like most of your spouses, a future land buyer will appreciate the accessibility and pay you more for the privilege.

   A property that has a driveway (access) and utilities (power grid) will command a higher price. How much higher the price will be is something that will differ from location to location. Without looking at specifics, it would be impossible to give you a firm example of what would be a fair price increase for these options.

   I can give you a feel for what I paid to have these improvements done for me at our BOL. The existing power line was about 2000′ feet away, down at the county road. Actually, the power was on the far side of that county road, which added to the cost for bringing it across. To make this long story much shorter, myself and 3 neighbors split the cost of extending the line and each paid roughly $7000. The driveway cost me in the neighborhood of $2500. That was for dirt work and a decent amount of base rock to cover the 400-500 feet from the private dirt road through my community up to what would be our future homesite.

   So, let’s just call it $10,000 for those improvements, at our very specific location. I doubt that any of you will find the ability to get this work done for very much less than what I paid. Just consider the amount I would have had to pay for the power alone, had there not been several neighbors
willing to split the cost.

   You’ll need to keep these cost factors in mind when you’re evaluating properties. It does get a little bit more simplified when you’re looking at a more developed piece of ground. If you find a property that has already had a well dug and a septic tank installed, you will often find a driveway all the way to an improved future homesite as well. All of this work may or may not be to your liking as much as you may have laid out the land differently if you had made the decisions. The real benefit here is that the developer has removed one of the biggest stumbling blocks – THE UNKNOWN! Even when you’re very familiar with an area, the costs of improvement can be difficult to estimate.

   I’ve shared in the past about my near financial tragedy when we dug the well at our BOL. Again to make a long story short, we had dug a well on an adjoining property a number of years earlier that found good water at the 300 foot level. This depth was consistent with what neighboring properties had found as well. Needless to say we were shocked to get the call from the well driller when he had still not hit water on the 3rd day at a depth of over 450′ feet. This well was nearly within sight of the previous well and at nearly the same elevation??? We had come this far and had little choice but to continue digging. The elusive water was finally found in a much deeper aquifer at just past 600 feet. While this aquifer was smack dab in the middle of a sand strata, which I’m told is excellent for filtration, it cost us almost exactly $30,000 to get the water running. The previous well had been what at the time seemed terribly expensive at a cost of $13,000. So, my point is, even with first hand experience in the neighborhood, I was radically off in what my estimates were!

   Another “improvement” that I see regularly when I’m looking at land listings or other land related advertisements is, fencing. Who cares about fencing you say? Lots of folks are concerned about fencing… While most of the fencing that urban and suburban people are concerned with is in reference to privacy and or keeping dogs on the correct side of a particular property line. In the country, the land that is advertised to be “fully fenced” or “fenced and cross fenced” is something that concerns the people with livestock. The ability to purchase a piece of land that is already setup for their horses, cows and or sheep, goats, etc is of high importance.

   Fencing, depending of course on the size of the land, isn’t typically as expensive of an improvement as that water well or septic system or even a driveway, it does add to the costs of development. It will be important to know the condition of the fences, as many fences are installed and then left to degrade over the years. There’s a big difference between a recently installed or at least properly maintained fence and something that was strung up 30 years ago and does little to control or prevent access today! Don’t underestimate the value of a good fence. If I had had my BOL fenced I believe it would have definitely improved my chance of not being burglarized these last couple of years. There is just something that changes in a criminals mind when they have to jump or cut a fence. It’s much more difficult to explain how you happened to be caught on the wrong side of a fence as apposed to having just wandered in while out on a nature walk… It would also be my opinion that a jury would see the property owners rationale of feeling threatened when a criminal had already had to be trespassing and likely have conducted property damage before being confronted by the land owner – just saying!

   In an earlier post in this series I mentioned the availability of telephone and internet service. I won’t hit those points again other then to say, keep them in mind not only for yourself but for a future buyer of your land…

   I’m sure that there will be additional improvements that you’ll each find when you begin your own searches. This basic list is what I consider the core for you to consideration. Tomorrow we’ll get into the specific of finding properties that have the actual home already on the land. I think that there is a valid place for these properties and of course I have a lot to say on this subject so stay tuned!

You might also be interested in reading the following posts in this series -

   The Ultimate Prepper Asset – Land

   Your Land Search

   Your Land Search – Family Concerns

   Your Land Search – Economic Activity

Your Land Search – Dollars and Sense

Prepper

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Evaluation Case #3

2 adults -

Financial resources -       $40,000 Savings account

                                             $3-5,000 in checking account monthly

                                             $3,500 monthly combined pension and SS income

Additional Background information provided – We are a recently retired couple that have discovered the need to get prepared later in life. We feel like we are on the right track but hoped you would give us your opinion and we are comfortable allocating the agreed on $1000 dollars to fill whichever holes you determine are most needed.

Food – We adopted the store what we eat philosophy that you advise. Currently we are at the 2 month level and are gaining ground with each weekly shopping trip. I should clarify that I’m referring to our grocery store food. We tend to eat a good deal of fresh food and don’t have a good way to store much more then a week or 2 at a time of our veggies, etc.

We have focused on bulk purchasing our dry goods and try to find alternatives to our fresh stock wherever possible but haven’t been particularly happy with canned goods.

Water – Our home is on a deep well and so we have a nearly unlimited supply of water, as long as the power stays up. We also have a medium sized swimming pool that my husband believes we could use for drinking also.

Shelter – We are home owners and I mean that in the true sense of the word. We paid our home off prior to our retirement. We live outside Sacramento CA.  so our property taxes are on the high side but we can afford them on our pensions without struggling. The housing market isn’t great but we don’t plan on moving unless or until the time we can no longer physically stay here.

Security – My husband owns several firearms. He used to hunt many years ago and still has his hunting rifle. It has a spotting scope mounted on it as well. We own one handgun, a revolver in .357 magnum. Also, there is a shotgun. I believe it is a police model of some sort. It is not a style with a long barrel, like for hunting ducks.

My husband thinks we are doing alright for ammunition. I understand that we have several hundred cartridges for the rifle and handgun and I counted 5 boxes of shotgun shells, each box was full and held 25 shells. I also found 10 boxes of 5 shells each that are for home defense.

Threat(s) I’m most concerned about – We are concerned about the way our government has been spending our tax dollars and running up the national debt. It doesn’t appear to us that it can continue for much longer and then we will all be facing a situation like the European countries are but probably a lot worse. It would seem that being prepared for something to happen would be really good no matter what happened.

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Financial Reserves – I’m conflicted about your financials. On one hand you have a fair amount of money put away but it doesn’t appear to be enough to retire on. However, you do have a nice income from your pension and social security. As long as nothing goes wrong preventing you from receiving your checks, you should be fine.

I would recommend adding a degree of diversity to your savings in the way of metals. A stash of silver, maybe 25% of your nest egg, would be good to see. I wouldn’t recommend using this particular $1000 allocation to start the metal stash but would just withdraw something around $10,000 from the $40K and purchase your metals anonymously with those funds. The US dollar very likely will see appreciable inflation over the coming years and the price of silver should keep pace with the inflation and give you an option for maintaining a portion of your nest egg in tact. If you can locate enough silver fast enough, you may be able to take advantage of the current suppressed price!

Conventional wisdom would say that my suggestion of 25% of your savings going to metals would be too high. I want to point out that the equity in your paid off home counts in the equation and so roughly $10k in silver is not nearly as much as it may seem at first glance.

I’m a big fan of “junk silver”, pre 1965 silver dimes, quarters and half dollars. I suggest your stash be a variety of these different coins to leave you plenty of options. Silver is a great store of value and in these small increments, you maintain a very barter-able currency if the need should arise.

Food -  Keep up the food purchasing program you’re on now. I’d like to see you stick with that until you get closer to the 6-12 month range of storage, depending on your own comfort level.

As far as fresh foods… I want to encourage you to start growing your fresh foods. Put in a garden, plant fruit trees and establish some permanent vining crops. Living in the Sacramento area, you should have a nice long growing season, with a little help you could be growing your greens all year round.

I had an uncle that lived in Sacramento who had highly productive grape vines, pomegranates and figs. I don’t recall what he did as far as a garden was concerned but those permanent crops did very well and produced a lot of food annually with little to no inputs from him.

Water – I like your setup. A deep water well can only be beat by a shallow well but hey you got what you got! My concern about your well is powering it when or if the power’s out.

My well at the BOL is just over 600 feet deep and requires a heavy power draw to get the pump running. To start the water flowing, I need 6500 watts and then it only draws 2600 to stay running for the duration. My suggestion to you would be to, one,  purchase a suitably sized generator. Two, have an electrician help you get your electrical panel configured with a transfer switch.

While I’m not a big fan of the swimming pool, I envy you in the amount of water that you can conveniently store. 1000′s of gallons of relatively clean water right out your back door is a huge blessing. Develop a plan to harvest that water into a drinkable form. I would recommend purchasing a quality gravity fed water purifier. Something along the lines of a Berkey water filter system. These units sit on the counter and will provide plenty of filtered water for drinking as well as cooking. The manufacture claims that each set of filters is good for around 6000 gallons of water. Obviously the waters clarity will play a big role in how long the filter elements would last but with pool water, I would suspect they would get close to the manufactures specs.

Shelter – Congratulations on getting the house all paid off, that is quite a feat! The only thing I would be curious about and you didn’t mention would be how you’re set for camping gear. Being located in a relatively mild climate, I think you’re sitting nicely overall but a set of traditional camping equipment would serve you nicely, in case of a grid down event.

A sleeping bag for each of you at least. An extra bag or two could be a good idea, you never know if you might have guests. A camping stove and lantern and you should be set with the bare minimum. I would also be sure to choose a matching fuel source for both the stove and lantern. Such as both in either propane or Coleman fuel, white gas… I personally would suggest going with propane, the fuel never gets old and will always be ready when you need it!

Security – I like the firearms selection that you mentioned. I’m alright with the level of ammunition you have stored too, as a minimum! You sounded as though you were not real sure about the guns or possibly not particularly familiar with them. Maybe I’m off base but if you aren’t sure of yourself with any of their operation and safe, effective handling, make a plan to change that.

Do you have an early warning  game plan? You didn’t mention how far outside of Sacramento you live. I’ll assume that you will be bugging in and in a far too urban setting to suit me. You might possibly consider getting a dog. I’m partial to the physically intimidating breeds but even a little purse dog will hear a threat before you do. Combine some motion activated lighting and maybe a driveway alert system, you could and should lower the chances of someone surprising you!

Threats - I concur that prepping is a very versatile endeavor and being prepped for one disaster is much the same as being prepped for most disasters…

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Ok, let’s spend some money – happily, this time it will be your money, not mine!

$500 - I want you to seriously consider getting a decent sized generator that’s capable of powering your well pump. I will also recommend having an electrical contractor come out to your house and work with you to develop a plan for tying in the generator to your house’s electrical panel. This job may cost you as much as $1,000-1,500. I’d like to see you consider spending these additional funds in the near future but not out of the $1000 we’re talking about today.

$300 - Water filter. I would suggest one of the Berkey water filters. The pool water could be a huge advantage to you but without filtering I would only use it in an emergency. If you shop carefully and stumble onto a great sale, you may even be able to secure an extra set of replacement filters for this $300 investment. The filters together are suppose to be good for up to the 6000 gallons but stocking replacements is always a good idea! 

$200 - Firearms Training course. I want you to go get some professional firearms training. You live in a fair sized city and I’m sure that you will find several companies offering courses for the beginner. You already have guns around the home and it is in your best interest to know how to handle them. Look for a course that will also address the basics of the laws surrounding the use of firearms in defense. 

Keep up the good work, you’re doing great!! “Keep on preppin’, cause preppin’ is the answer!”

Prepper 

You might also like to read these related posts –

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   What are the real hard numbers that you and your family will be dealing with to make your land investment? Are you under a budget, like the majority of the rest of us or do you have a blue sky unlimited price range? I’m going to assume that you’re in the same camp as I am and deal with the topic from that perspective.

   So, how much can you realistically allocate to this investment? Are you going to make it a primary residence in the near future or will it be just a chunk of land that will get developed over the long haul? Maybe you plan to buy a property with a residence on it but use the whole thing as a rental, at least in the short term? This is your investment and you have to decide how all the blanks get filled in. It’s my job and goal to give you all of the information you’ll need to accurately evaluate a property and pass on the properties that don’t fit your situation or are poor choices in light of the details that we’ve been discussing.

   You and yours will have to look at your personal finances and come to a satisfactory dollar amount that you are willing to use for your purchase. As a rule of thumb, I’ve found that the ideal property will always cost more then you would have hoped for but still a lot less then you might have originally thought.

   You’ll also need to determine if your investment will include and existing home on the land or if you’re going the bare land route. Obviously the properties with a home on them will cost considerably more then those that don’t. The silver lining is that the land with homes on them will usually qualify for a conventional financing package, where the bare dirt is much more difficult to get a loan for.

   In our discussions here on this topic I’ll make just my traditional protest against going into debt – “Debt is slavery and will rob you of the very freedom that we are all seeking!” However, when taking out debt, a land purchase would qualify for my very short list of reasons to bend my rule for a short period of time. I know many of you don’t take the same approach or at least not as hard a line as I do when dealing with the debt issue. Proceed with caution and please feel free to hit me up for more info on the in’s and out’s of the land financing game if this is a route you choose to take.

   Ok, did you come up with a number you’re comfortable investing in this project? I know everyone will have drastically different dollar amounts available to them to spend so I’ll proceed with the topic and you’ll each have to determine for yourselves what pieces of this puzzle will work for your situation and which one’s to file away for a later time…

   Congratulations, you have your first piece of your puzzle, your purchase price. Now, take your number and add in an additional 20-25% to find your search price search criteria. The additional percentage is to account for the difference between the “asking price” and the “contract price”, believe it or not but the land seller will not really be expecting to get their asking price. Some markets will have an even larger percent that the seller will have to drop their price to get an actual sale. Keep this in mind when you set your top price margin for searching purposes…

   Since the land with existing home side of this topic will be so much more involved, I’ll start with the bare land portion first and then work my way into the other as we continue this series.

   Land, pretty simple right? Not necessarily… Your land, even just bare land has all kinds of characteristics that you will want to understand to properly evaluate. What is the lands basic character? Is it wooded, pastured, fenced, north or south facing… See what I mean? This side of the property search is important because you can only do so much to change or develop a property after you purchase it and the cost of clearing a substantial area will add considerably to your bottom line! If you want a horse property and you find that you are looking at wooded land, STOP and go find the land that is at least primarily configured to your end product desires. In some areas this will require to look at much higher or lower priced properties. Lets hope that what you are looking for is on the lower end of the spectrum but either way, don’t waste a lot of time looking at properties that just don’t fit your needs.

   I’ll tell you from personal experience that it is very easy to get yourself to fall in love with that huge treed tract of land when your walking in what you can envision as being your own “woods”. If you know your spouse will never sign off on a wooded property because they dream of having horse property – just stop while you’re ahead and look at the land thats a better fit, you’ll fall in love with that too! Your time is valuable, so don’t waste it dreaming with your boots on the ground… Dream on the computer from the comfort of your home, spend your time in the field wisely, you may spend months or years finding that perfect place, plan accordingly since the land you’re looking at is most likely a distance from your current home.

   When we refer to bare land, it indicates that the land for sure doesn’t have an existing dwelling but in addition to that, it will typically mean there are no added improvements either. Improvements are things like power, water, phone or sewer lines onto the actual property. The land may have “access” to these items and the advertising will usually indicate if thats the case. If you’re reading a news paper ad and it refers to the land as utility power accessible, this will mean that at best there will be a power line along one side of the land or possibly have a power transformer box at one corner. These “accessible” properties are going to cost considerably more then the one’s that don’t have utilities that close. If you’re looking a bit of distance out into the countryside and the ad doesn’t mention the disposition of utilities or is priced extremely low, you can just about bet that utilities are not currently available and will probably NEVER be available at any reasonable price.

   Let me encourage you to always discount anything the seller or their real estate agent tells you about what is “planned” for utilities in the future. They are focusing on a very optimistic view of what they hope will happen. For all intents and purposes, unless you see the utility company trucks digging in the area, IT AINT GONNA HAPPEN! If you do happen to see some sort of county utility or rural utility truck even in the general vicinity, stop and ask them anything and everything you want to know about the utilities. I would also take advantage of picking their brains about the overall area in general. These workers are more then likely locals and will be able to tell you lots of historic information as well as where the meth heads operate and possibly even where the bodies are buried… They know it all and if you ask nicely they are sure to share that knowledge. If your narrowing down your search to this particular area and will be in the area overnight, which I recommend, I would offer to buy the guys a beer after work and see what they can tell you! Solid information from the locals could be a key factor in whether you end up wanting to buy in this particular area…

   Bare land, may or may not include improvements like driveways onto the parcel. Usually, I would expect to find a road along one side of the parcel or possibly to a property corner. If the advertisement you are looking at talks about driveways or access roads and “Homesites” already identified, you are probably looking at some sort of rural subdivision. These can be a decent value but you will have neighbors and they will be closer then you think! Usually, these subdivisions are in size range of 5 acres but may be found up to 20 acres, depending on what the local zoning requirements are. I wouldn’t rule these properties out but please do your due diligence and investigate all of the details. The properties will be higher priced because of the development that has already taken place for you. This may or may not be a huge advantage to you.

   There will certainly be CC&R’s and some form of homeowners dues on the property as well. While worth considering, be very wary in getting involved with this arrangement. Some of the intended benefits you might be looking for could be “against the rules” on these properties. For example, you won’t be doing any target shooting off the back deck… The annual homeownership dues will also add to your cash outlay and will need to be considered in your family budget, don’t let anyone “sell” you, read the fine print and go into this type of arrangement with both eye’s open.

   The beneficial side of these “rural subdivisions” is that they are usually a good indicator that the area is growing. This may or may not be a good thing for you but it is a solid indicator. Land development is expensive whether you do it yourself or purchase with it done for you, the seller wouldn’t have gone to the trouble and expense if they didn’t believe there was a demand for the properties.

   To wrap up the particulars that are specific to bare land, let’s address the financing. Can you pay cash? If so, do it! Cash will get you the best possible deal and you will have the widest range of properties to choose from if you aren’t having to involve a financing contract.

   When it comes to financing bare land you’ll have at most 2 options. Bank financing or seller financing. Bank financing will not be cheap and will require you to bring 50% of the purchase price to the table as a down payment. The interest rates for bare land will also be in the neighborhood of 10-12% for a term of 10 years. Of course a few of you will email me with the details of some unheard of great terms you have gotten to purchase your land and I won’t argue with you but typically a buyer will find my example to be accurate at best. Many properties will not be conventionally financeable at all, leaving you to pay cash or work out seller terms.

   Seller financing terms will usually be similar to what I’ve given as an example of bank terms. If the seller is selling multiple parcels or is the developer of that rural subdivision, they many offer you some outstanding terms but don’t get starry eyed into making an uneducated buying decision. The price of the land is determined with the sellers work and easy terms built in… You will also not be “required” to get an expensive property value appraisal. While this is nice to not have a $500-600 appraisal to pay for, it will be very easy to over pay for your land when the seller does you that “favor”!

   Be wary about any terms you agree to. Any improvements that you make to the land will become the sellers or the banks if you were to ever fall on hard times and be unable to complete your contract. Do lots of research before you make a decision.

   Bare land can be a great deal if your plans are such to allow you to spend a number of years and many dollars creating your dream from the ground up! Next time we’ll get into the important details of the properties that have already been developed…

Prepper

You might also be interested in reading the following posts in this series -

   The Ultimate Prepper Asset – Land

   Your Land Search

   Your Land Search – Family Concerns

   Your Land Search – Economic Activity

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I hope you’re enjoying the land search topic we’ve been covering in detail the last couple of weeks. If you are interested in the things we talk about here at Preppernation, SUBSCRIBE to the email updates d I’ll let you know whenever I add content to the blog. Thanks Prepper

   So how do we make a living out there on that land, if the opportunity came to move there full time? I ask myself this very question each and every day! Some of you might think that this segment isn’t for you because you don’t plan on living on the land full time… All I can say to that is – plans change brother and you need to consider all angles when making your decision. You may not have the need to make money from that location but remember this is an investment at it’s root and you may want to sell the land at some point in the future to someone who does need to consider making a living.

   In our modern world, we have come to rely on a lot of infrastructure to be always available. In the country and rural areas in general, this is not always the case. I’ll use my personal land experience to show you what I’m talking about. Keep in mind that time changes everything and I’ve been working with this same piece of land and it’s general vicinity for nearly 20 years.

   A long time ago in a reality far far away, cell phones were in their infancy. A young Prepper had a big blocky thing to be sure his wife could always call and reach him in an emergency. Sound familiar… Now of course we all use these slim little gadgets for just about everything and even make a phone call on them from time to time. Cell phones are great and the coverage area’s are always changing, usually for the better. You might assume that cell service were almost a guarantee these days. Not so!

   Currently my cell provider is Verizon, I guess they have been for about 8 years… The reason is because Verizon kicks butt!! NO, the reason is that Verizon is the only carrier that can reliably get me a couple bars at the BOL. Since I literally talk for a living, I HAVE TO have this service or it would cost me dearly on the bottom line. If I couldn’t get cell service, I would be put into a financial hardship situation or have to cease going to the land on any regular basis.

   Is my situation unusual these days? I don’t think it is. Many, many people have to use their cell phones for work and the thing is turned on 24/7 whether they like it or not.

   What else do we depend on to keep our business going? The Internet of course has to come in second only to the cell phone. I know you’re thinking that I’ll tell you another sad story of having internet issues at the BOL… and you’d be correct! The only internet that I can currently get out in the toolies is again through a Verizon device and it works very poorly! Just this last weekend I saw that Dish Network is going to start offering an internet package via satellite, I’ll run a risk here and assume that I may be able to get on their system. The service quality is something that will remain to be seen but hey it might work.

   There are other satellite internet companies out there, right? Well yes there are but that doesn’t mean they service your particular area or are taking additional subscribers… Yeah, Yeah, I asked myself that question too? How can a satellite internet service not have coverage in an area… You got me but those beams of whatever they are coming down from the sky either do not get to my neck of the woods in one companies case or they are already overloaded and are not taking new customers in the other companies case… Where does that leave me, it’s not like I use the internet to do business, just to post on my blog, right?

   Unfortunately, I do require internet access to conduct business but even with reliable service at the BOL, I would still not be able to do much in my line of work due to having to actually meet with my customers face to face, thus keeping me in the city for the time being… Sad for me but internet may be the linch pin in everything you do, so finding a property that has the level of access you require is a must! Don’t settle for less and believe the good intentions of the salesman that tells you that service will be available in your area 6 months from now… I’ve been down that road for a decade and the companies are still singing the same tune.

   I’m sure there are lots of infrastructure elements to all of your vocations and businesses that I wouldn’t even begin to understand but you should all expect that if there are things you would require to work from the sticks there are other folks with similar situations.

   Do your research and be sure that everything is as it seems. Don’t take anyone’s word for it either… “Trust but verify”, sometimes we can’t even trust our own eye’s. For instance, I saw a UPS drop box on the corner of Main Street in my little country town… You’d think that I was safe to assume that there was UPS service in that town, the same as it is at home. Wrong! There is UPS service but it is not the same at all. At home in the city I can drop of a package as late 6:15, not more then 10 minutes from my home or office and it will go from Seattle to New York by about 9:30 the next morning, for as little as $9.50. Truly amazing when you think about it…

   In the little country town, I made the mistake of dropping a package in that box and thought it would beat me home the following day. I of course did this to accommodate a customer and was not happily surprised to find out that it took 3 days for that envelope to arrive. The brown drop box looked the same as any others do and the big brown truck I had seen around town was identical but the service area is different and they only service the town twice a week. Unfortunately, I do a lot of overnight couriering in my line of work and this is another thing that would prevent me from running my existing business from that small town!

   Maybe I have this section backwards and should have brought up regular old employment first, rather than spoken to the business owner crowd. I’m guessing that I overlooked that point because there is so little to discuss. The employment opportunities in a small town are exactly that SMALL. Few jobs are newly created in the small towns and those that do exist usually go to the core group of locals. I’m not saying this in anyway to begrudge the locals as this is the way things should work. If there isn’t enough to go around then what there is should fall to the people that have the deeper ties to the community.

   It is common knowledge and so I feel safe bringing it up in this forum as well. If you’re thinking of moving to the country, bring your job with you. At no other time in history has there been such a strong ability for the worker to tele-commute, this is in our favor. In our favor at least if you are the type of person, like myself, that wishes to move to the sticks.

   Tomorrow we’ll head into the dollars and cents issues of the purchase. These economics are just as important as the economics of making a living. Most good financial planners and assuredly all real estate investors will tell you that you make your money when you buy. This is just an example of how important it is to find or create a great deal going in to the transaction. If you can accomplish this feat, you will have far more options going forward.

Stay tuned and whatever you do – keep on preppin’, cause preppin’ is the answer!

Prepper

Check out these related posts -

The Ultimate Prepper Asset – Land 

Your Land Search 

Your Land Search – Family Concerns 

 

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   Welcome back, yesterday we brought up a lot of the considerations that need to be addressed before you actually get out in the trenches to find that special land to invest in. Some of the questions are fairly lengthy and so we need to dedicate more space to them and once they are covered adequately, we can move on to the more physically rewarding part of quest.

   I listed several questions at the end of the post yesterday but the most important one for any of us in a relationship would be where does our spouse want to buy land. I’m no wuss but I am a firm believer in the “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy” school of thought. I realize that the shoe is on the other foot sometimes and the wife is going to be having to convince the husband but I don’t think the approach is all that different, see what would please your spouse and work toward that goal when narrowing down your proposed search area.

   If you’re single, you have a separate set of challenges but obviously you won’t need to get spousal approval. As a side note, if there ain’t a ring on a finger then I wouldn’t spend to much time worrying about what a girlfriend/boyfriend desires…

   OK, you and your spouse are now on the same page, right? What else did we need to ask ourselves… How about family composition? Do you have children at home? Will you in the future? What about grandkids that are going to need the benefit of your wisdom? In general, think through the logistics of these family members. It would be great for grandparents to be next door but that seldom is a reality either. You may be the parents that need to consider how this purchase and possible move would impact your kids relationship with their grandparents… works both ways!

   Let’s keep this train moving and say that you have spousal approval and your kids are on board with the move. In this example, we are going to say the kids are still with you and not out of the house yet.

   What are the requirements that they have? Are you going to be so far out that homeschooling is your only option? If that’s the case then nothing more needs to be said. However, if you are thinking schools are still in their future, better check on these concerns as you are looking at each local. Does little Billie have serious allergies that require him to be in the Dr. office regularly for shots to keep the anaphylactic boogie man at bay? Again, this is not a huge hurtle but just something that you need to plan for.

   Are you finished having children or just starting out? Is you wife planning to go the home birth or midwife route? If the answer is no or you will be possibly accommodating a prenatal routine that requires a lot of trips to the, or worse a particular, hospital… See where I’m going here? All of these things can be worked around but any one of them can turn what would have been a great opportunity into a bone-fide nightmare.

   As an investment this land will probably be something that will be developed over a period of time and so the temptation will be there to minimize the smaller details. Don’t fool yourself, what seems like a time far off or just a small detail will arrive at your doorstep before you know it and might come back to bite you if you fail to plan accordingly.    

   We’ve covered education, hospitals and grandparents…  What about church, I may have these priorities out of order but needless to say if finding a church will be on your to-do list if and when you were to move to the land, better check into that now. I choose to believe that a lot of people actually spend time finding their church and don’t necessarily just go to the place with the organ down the street out of convenience. You may be like my wife and I with a list of things that we would be looking for in our church, a little research now could save you a lot of commuting in the future.

   If those children of yours are planning to have any involvement in sports or other social outlets, keep those issues in mind as well. While I certainly wouldn’t make the children’s social agenda a top priority, I would keep it on the lower part of the list, unhappy children are much like that unhappy wife… Plan accordingly!

   Back to the how far out question. Are you willing to live in the boonies, I mean all of you? What about just a small town someplace? Each of us have our own list of non-negociable items but keep your mind open to other opportunities then what you might initially have. Many small towns have larger lots then there big city counterparts. Sometimes the outer edges of a small town will find you on farmland of varying amounts of acreage. Many of us are concerned about the Golden Horde of zombies that will be out to get us for their stewpot after the collapse but lets be realistic, an acre of farmland just outside a small rural town is still the boonies!   

   The small town angle might be a good compromise? I did say might be so don’t get all off-grid or nothing on me! The small town would have the advantages of being close to medical services, fire departments and schools, if those are items that you previously had to add to your considerations list.

We are just starting to scratch the surface of all of the things wanted to discuss. In the next segment we’ll get into the economic considerations…

Stay tuned -

Prepper

Check out these related posts -

The Ultimate Prepper Asset – Land 

Your Land Search 

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