I'm so excited......Husband and I have come into a modest amount of money that will hopefully allow us to live our dream !!! We want to be mortgage-free (after ALL these years)...looking for a small piece of farmland, with a "Walton's" type old house anywhere in MO,TN,KY,AR,AL...pond, barn/shop of course....we have about $100,000 but would rather not spend all of it buying the property.Have looked at Realtor.com, etc...I know they are there, but I'd rather see if any of you already know of property that you can vouch for.We want as much land as we can get in our price range,but can fall in love with 5 acres just as well as 50 for the "perfect" place.Sorry,Brad,Maine is a bit of heaven, but just too cold for us brrrrrr.I'm practically dizzy with excitement!!!! Thanks in advance for your information !!!!

-- Lesley Chasko (martchas@gateway.net), April 01, 2000

Answers

Wow Lesley thats soooo fantastic!!!!! I live in California so thats probably out but my daughter says in some parts of Florida, where she is, their are still nice cheap spots. Thats warm. congrads....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkat@yahoo.com), April 01, 2000.

Hi, Lesley, We moved to the Ozark mountains a little over 3 years ago. Property prices are pretty good and we just love it here. About $100,000 would buy a nice piece of land here. As and example we paid $1,000 an acre, had a cedar log house built, just over 1800 square feet, had a 30X40 ft shop building built and a pump house-shed. Added a chicken house later. And spent about $110,000 and are now debt free. There are a couple of things you should know. Our well is over 600 ft. deep. But the water is wonderful and we have never run out considering we have had a drought the last 3 years. And it's VERY rocky. We built raised beds with rocks for our garden and had to have dirt hauled in for it. But the dirt was only $40.00 a load. Planting fruit trees was a challange, but rocks can be your friend. You can build almost anything with rocks. Property prices are much cheaper if you get away from the big towns. Say about 20 miles or so. There is a number of parcels of land avaliable with houses out building etc. If you do have to buy property where you need to build an out building, house etc. it's no big deal, no building inspectors, no permits needed. Lumber can be bought cheap from one of the many local sawmills. Also some of the nicest people in the world live here. As long as you don't try and come down here and change their world. Nice surroundings, our 13 acres are all wooded, except for what we had cleared for house, buildings, gardens, etc. I should also mention that we live in north central Arkansas near Mountain Home, in a little town with the population of about 600. We hardly ever go to the "big city" to go shopping, we go to another little town that has a population of about 1000. Mountain Home reminds us to much of where we used to live. And the town we live in has a general store/gas station, a small grocery store and post office. I hope this helps some. Best regards, and congrads! Kathy

-- Kathy O (cluckerhill@superiorinter.net), April 02, 2000.

Geat for you!Know settle down ,what are the pro and cons about each state ?Taxes on land , income ,cars ,grocerys , clothing? Which has the climate "and bugs" best suited for you ? Best land prices ?What about jobs ? Go to Americas job bank and check out each state.Is one going to be closer to family ? Write down a list in degrees of importance to you , go visit several areas .Once you know about where you want to be run an ad in local papers ,and post signs at stores and anywhere else you can .When everything falls together with ease , it will be the perfect place.I'm not trying to be a wet towel , I'm only talking from experience.I can't wait to hear what you find ! Know you may continue running around in circles and jumping up and down!Best of luck.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), April 02, 2000.

Lesley,

My advice is to spend a bit of your money really looking at the places you are interested in. We also homestead in the Ozarks and love it! We are in Newton County, and live about 25 minutes from the nearest big town (535 people there!). A web site that might help you find good info is http://www.mcrush.com/land

Ed French at Buffalo River Real Estate has been helpful to us and is good about helping you find what you are looking for. I am willing to send you a real estate brochure from the area if you want to email me directly.

Good Luck and have fun. Don't rush into anything. Kim

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), April 02, 2000.

If you're interested in moving just a bit farther west let me put in a plug for eastern Kansas. There is more here than the black and white segments of THE WIZARD OF OZ. Temperatures are bearable - not too many 100's in the summer and not too many 0's in the winter. Not as much humidity as AR or MO. No cottonmouth(watermoccasin)snakes - which is a plus in my book, bugs aren't bad either. Great people. Land prices are reasonable as long as you stay away from Kansas City.

Just a word about small town life: It will take 10 years before you will not be considered the "new people in town". That's not necessarily a bad thing, just don't take it personal. Small town life is very tight and it takes awhile to find a place in the community. But once you do - you are family. ALSO everyone is related somehow to everyone else so be very careful how you talk about other people. Just jump in, get involved and be prepared to explain who you are (again). I grew up in the city, lived in one for 24 years and have NO desire to return. Don't have my place in the country yet but small town life is pretty close. Sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into "101 things you need to know about small town life". HAVE FUN - the hunt is half of the fun.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), April 02, 2000.

Lesley!

How exciting! Whatever you do, I am *so* happy for you! The very best to you!!!

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 02, 2000.

We are living the small town life and loving it. We should start a discussion on the 101 ways...Maybe one day we'll get a larger piece of land...But for now, back to the issue at hand and at great risk of starting a political discussion, farms in Kentucky may be getting cheaper. Tobacco legislation is killing the small farmers here. We still don't know how it will end up, but it doesn't look good for all the little guys. You may want to keep that in mind for your search. Good luck!

-- Jennifer (jkmills@freewwweb.com), April 03, 2000.

Hi,

Might I suggest the panhandle of Florida? Nice weather, not too hot, not too cold. Depending on what you're after, check out the little towns along US 90 between Marianna and Pensacola.

Marianna, Cottendale, and then further west to Crestview are good places. Prices still low but areas are slowly growing. Not really any tourist area but about 90 minutes south, you're on the Gulf Coast.

Good luck.

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), April 03, 2000.

Lesley;

You may want to look at Iron County in Missouri. The land prices are great and a lot of the older farms can be found for a real good price. I would suggest that you take a long weekend and look it over regardless of where you decide. Good luck and congratulations.

Jim

-- Jim Tanner (tanner_jim@hotmail.com), April 03, 2000.

Thank you ALL so very much..including the kind folks who e-mailed me some good advice....Thank God that a job for me is no longer a pre- requisite..as long as we do not have a mortgage, I do not need to work.We will have some private income that covers all of our needs.I have spent the last several months looking at web sites, etc.Neil & I will be planning on hopping in the truck and checking out some promising leads in the next few weeks..Who knows????? Thanks again...now will you all be just as nice when I am posting lots of "chicken" questions in the future???? Of course you will !!!

God Bless all of you!

-- Lesley Chasko (martchas@gateway.net), April 03, 2000.

Lesley, Hey this is another plug for southeast Kansas. It is really beautiful here. You just missed the Redbud tour out of Sedan, Kansas. It is really cool, you drive down all these dirt/gravel roads around these tiny communities, I think Chautauqua, and Elgin [old cattle-drive town], are two neat little towns. We have rolling hills,valleys, streams,and abundant wild life. The people here are really friendly and curious, they will ask you many personal questions. The land and houses are still relatively inexpensive around here. Margaret Persinger is the real estate lady here, she is a very nice and helpful lady, phone: 316-642-6665. Oh Elk County is really the "Sticks", there are more cattle than people, and we like it that way, there are no McD's or shopping malls, just lots of scenery. also if you need to work you either work for the local schools or drive 20-30 miles to work. There are craft people who work out of their homes. It is not that far from the Ozarks, Tulsa or Wichita or Joplin if you have to get your big city fix. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), April 04, 2000.

Wishing you all the best!!!!!!! Don't make a hasty decision. If you decide to look in Alabama, make sure that you get a really rural area where there is not a lot of zoning and stuff to prohibit you from living you dream.....

I know a realtor here that you might contact. His name is Elwyn Thomas and he is also a state legislator here but I believe, and he hasn't proved me wrong yet, that he is honest. If you want to contact him e-mail me direct and I will give you his home number....

He has handled a number of farm properties in north alabama and has connections to a lot of other places and I would be glad to check out anything he suggests and e-mail to you...let me know if I can help...

If I was in your shoes I would hope that others would be just as willing to help me!!! Hope you are living your dream soon!!!!

-- suzy in 'bama (slgt@yahoo.com), April 04, 2000.