My husband and I are a young couple(20s) with one toddler and we are interested a homestead. We want to purchase a piece of land with a house on it so that we can develop it. The thing is that I've been reading some of the posts here and a lot of people have sold a major asset to obtain their home in the country. We don't have any assets. We are renting and our budget is very tight. What options do we have? Should we wait until we are much older before we venture into the homestead life?

-- MelLucy in Georgia (MelLucy@hotmail.com), July 15, 2001

Answers

You can rent in the country (usually for less than in the city). Go and get started now! You can live the life without owning it. Have fun and enjoy the years while your child is still young.

-- Nancy (NAWoodward@lakewebs.net), July 15, 2001.

Now is the time to practice and learn skills that will help you later on. Start a garden. Take construction and small engine repair courses at your local Vocational School (most all of them offer adult evening classes for not too much money). Nearly every state extension agency offers a Master Gardener program, and many also offer a Master Preserver or Master Canner program as well. Go to the U-picks and can the produce you pick yourself. Learn to make jelly, jam, pickles. You can do a lot before you ever leave the city.

If you decide to make the plunge, you can rent for awhile, and if you're still certain, start looking for owner-financed rural property. It may take time but you can get find some very good deals that way.

Be sure you get the right type of financing, I can't remember what its called but basically you hold the deed and the owner has a lien on it. This protects you from having the property seized back if you happen to hit a rough spot and miss one or two payments. There are some unscrupulous people who will sell the same property over and over and over again, and if a single payment is even 24 hours late they will seize the property, evict the folks, and take advantage of any and all improvements made to make even more money on the next sucker. I know someone who lost their land, house, barn, and all the other improvements they'd made due to a single missed payment in the last year of their contract (the husband had suffered an injury at work and they missed ONE payment and lost it all).

Somebody help me out here, I can't remember what that type of owner finance deal is called or what the riskier sort is called either.

Get a copy of Les Scher's "Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country", its out in a new edition (2000). It will tell you all the ins and outs of buying rural property.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 15, 2001.

The best time to buy real estate is now. The second best time is yesterday. I know that's an old saw, but it's true. Look around at the prices at which some properties in your area sold a few years ago. How many times do you think "Boy, I wish I'd bought that back then?" You don't need to start with your dream home. Look at something with zoning that will allow what you want to do even if it's only an acre or so. Build some equity in that then 'trade up' to something more in line with what you really want. You can not save as rapidly as you build equity by owning now.

As to Sojourner's post, the more common type of seller financing to which Sojourner refers as being "riskier" is a land contract. The less common type to which he refers is a seller carry-back mortgage. Laws on land contracts have changed in some states (Indiana being one) to a situation where even a contract buyer is deemed to have equity after some point in the contract. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), July 15, 2001.

Some of us are slow learners, that is why we got started homesteading so late. Cities are an addiction. They are also expensive. Go small town and you will definitely make less, but you will have a simpler and less expensive life style. Homes in towns away from metropolitan areas can be purchased for about half to a quarter of what they cost in a city. If you have to stay in the city, get some type of second employment and use it to buy a small piece of land. It doesn't need to be the place of your dreams, just a way station to accrue some equity on the way to the place of your dreams. Otherwise, odds are, land will be going up and up and you will always find homesteading out of your reach.

-- paul (primrose@centex.net), July 15, 2001.

We did it in stages.............found the area we really thought we liked and spent a summer camping in campgrounds in the area and driving around looking. Decided what we were looking for and found a trustworthy realtor in a small town in the area we wanted and told him what we wanted. We bought bare ground because that was what we could afford. Spent summers on it and started garden site, planted fruit trees etc. while putting every dime we could into paying off the land. Had the well and septic put in, electricity brought in and lastly put our home on it. Other options are buying a real fixer- upper on a little land and building your "sweat equity". Others have suggested renting in the rural area which is another good option. Small towns often have decent housing for a reasonable price that would have room for a nice garden and perhaps even some chickens. Hope you can go after your dream.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), July 16, 2001.

Why a place with a house? Why not an inexpensive mobile home on a small tract. Be close enough to town so that you can take a plant job if you have to. Build it a little at a time. Add to the mobile home as you go and turn it into a house and home of your dreams. When your young, "Your just starting out with the promise and rewards of the dreams you carry into life", when your old "Your finishing up, with only the memories of the path you've traveled". If you have the dream and determination, you can do it.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 16, 2001.

I'm in the same position that you are in, and doing exactly what Sojourner suggested. I call myself and 'urban homesteader.' I plan to buy some land in about 5 years and slowly develop it, like Diane did. In the meantime, there are some very nice things about "homesteading" in the city. For example, I just found an unbelieveable deal on Mangoes at a large market, and made a tonne of mango curry (and tried freezing some, against the advice of my freezing books). You'd never find that kind of deal in rural areas around here. Plus, I take lots of night courses, which wouldn't be an option elsewhere. The goal is to perfect my freelance writing skills so that I can have an electric cottage and telecommute to the city from my homestead. I plan to go to fairs here about alternative energy sources (for heating and electrifying homestead) and to take a few courses in architecture and building, for when we move to the country (we want to build our own home) The point is that there are so many things you can get and do in the city that will prepare you for life in the country -- including a paycheque that will finance the whole operation. We are doing our best to take advantage of them while we're still young and are forced to remain here. Best of luck to you, emily jane

-- emily jane (emilyjanejenkins@hotmail.com), July 16, 2001.

I was 28 when we bought our place, and my husband 32. 5 years later we are still not middle aged and getting started on our flock etc and have a preschooler and a toddler to boot (thats why its taking so long to get started) LOL. There are a lot of places to rent in the country that have out buildings etc so you can get started without being stuck with a mortgage. So if you decide its not for you you can move without selling! If it is for you, you can start saving for your own piece of heaven while still living the life you want. We saved and scrimped to make a down payment and get a mortgage and things were very tight. Thats a universal woe. He works in the city and commutes daily while I spend his earnings on feed and fencing and animals etc..LOL Starting up is costly but once thats done we can relax a tad I think. Its not as if the barn will be going anywhere once its up..although we are building it so anything can happen.. Good luck and stop waiting for it to happen..MAKE IT HAPPEN!

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), July 16, 2001.

Perhaps are some people who would let you stay with them in a trailer or tent for the summer,where you could get the. feel of it.You have to want it bad I think,because without the dream ,the journey can be discouraging .There are people who have lived in tents and trailers while they build debt free.Your paying rent now,put some ads in papers to be caretakers of property or farms.We bought a house in 92 that was due to be bulldozed,we paid 62 thousand for 7o acres with a 5 bdrm house,no hydro,no plumbing no heat.We lost a business and had nothin.The value is now at 190 thousand,we have debt of 90 thous.Find some like-minded people to hang with,that helps a lot.(and some of the courses and stuff I e-mailed you about)If you lived near me I have a trailer and could use lots of extra help!!!!!Don't wait!!!!1

-- teri (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), July 16, 2001.

We bought 40 acres w/no improvements. It was a 15 mile drive from where we lived. It took us 10 years to get there and the house is still not finished. We never had a mortgage except on land(pd off in 10yrs.). I think if we had put a cheap trailor on it as soon as we bought it, we would have gotten much more done. Plus not pd. rent, saved time & gas$... Good luck!! DW

-- DW (djwallace@ctos.com), July 16, 2001.

I'm not sure it is entirely coincidence that most of the people posting here are middle aged. In my own case, it just took that long to realize that the 'good life', (chasing money to buy more than you need)isn't all its cracked up to be. If I knew 20 years ago what I know now, I would have saved every cent and found a place in the countryside to spend my life. Consequently, I am 38 years old and still living in a small city, wishing I was truly out there in the sticks.

It sounds like you are ahead of the game; learning to make do with what you have is good experience and does not come naturally. All of us had to learn some hard lessons before coming to our senses. The above advice is good; patience and taking small steps, learning all you can from books, homesteading websites will allow you the time to get your resources together. Just have some faith. God Bless.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), July 16, 2001.

MelLucky,

I'm sure you aren't alone. I'm 28 now, and my DH and I have a 17 mo. old. We live in the city on 2 acres, with rabbits, chickens, ducks, a goat, dogs, cats, and gardens. I think what's happening in our case is that we are gradually getting more animals than we can hide, and will soon be forced to move to the country so I can stop worrying every morning when the undressed roosters start crowing. (Gesh, and you always think you caught that one yesterday!) Farm type animals aren't allowed in the city, but we kind of grandfather them in a bit. If you take this route, be prepared to bribe your neighbors (or discover their own hidden chickens in their garage). It helps to have an old house in the family that nobody wants the space enough to live in and work on it. We fix it, we get it, that's the family rules.

I was raised on a farm, and I suppose that's why we are always heading more that way. My DH was raised in a medium sized city. After I started bringing animals into our lives, he warmed to them and the notion of less dependency on others and jobs to get by. We currently subsidize our animal addiction by selling produce by the side of the busy street on one end of the property. Sometimes we go out and build something (like adriondek chairs) to sell next to the tomatoes. I think of us as transitional self sufficients, even though we aren't rural yet.

I say when you get or make the opportunity, grab on and wait for the ride!

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), July 17, 2001.