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8 Things You Need to Know When Buying Homestead Property

There’s a big movement happening right now with people who are looking to leave the city life behind and make the leap of moving to the country, but making the move too quickly without the proper planning and due-diligence, can spell big problems for first-time homesteaders.  

In this episode, Carolyn and Josh walk through the 8 essential things you need to look for when buying a homestead property. What are the deal-breakers and contingencies you need to consider before you commit to buying and how do you choose a property that will cater to your long-term needs and set you up for success and not regret?  

In this episode: 

  • Why are so many people making the move from the city to the country and how is this affecting the real estate market? 
  • What are the deal breakers and negotiation points you need to consider when looking at a property?
  • How choosing the wrong property can lead to a lot of unexpected costs and time away from actual homesteading. 
  • How to slow down and methodically choose the right place that fits your long-term needs, rather than reacting too quickly. 
  • How they wrapped up another successful county fair with some first-time wins. 
  • What are some of the practical uses for sheep, what types of breeds do they have and how hard are they to actually care for?  
  • It’s green bean season and the joys of “snapping.”   

Resources:

MadeOn skincare products 
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More Resources for the New Homesteader

Josh: Hey, you guys, this is Josh.

Carolyn: And Carolyn.

Josh: With Homesteading Family. And welcome to this week's episode of the Pantry Chat, food for thought.

Carolyn: This week, we're going to be talking about the eight things you need to know when buying homestead property.

Carolyn: This episode of the Pantry Chat podcast is sponsored by MadeOn Skincare. MadeOn specializes in skincare specifically for dry skin. And they use as few ingredients as possible to get the job done. You guys, this is the type of skincare I would make myself if I had time to make it in my own home. And the great thing is Renee even shares her exact recipes with you. The Beesilk Lotion Bar is my go-to lotion when my hands get dry and cracked. And it's only made with three ingredients. Renee created it when she needed something to fix the splits in her fingers, cracks in her feet, and then she found out that it also worked great on her son's seasonal eczema. Go to hardlotion.com/homesteadingfamily to find out what Josh's favorite MadeOn products are. And also use the code homesteadingfamily for 15% off today's purchase.

Josh: All right. So today we're going to be talking about the top eight things we think you need to know when buying a homestead property. And this is specifically on buying a property, not relocating.

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: We just did a Pantry Chat not too long ago on the overall relocation. And so that's a little broader topic. We're going to dive in here today on some essentials to focus on when you're actually buying a piece of property.

Carolyn: Yeah, this is really important. There are a lot of people buying new pieces of property right now. They're getting out of the city, looking for land in the country, looking for a home in the country.

Josh: Oh man.

Carolyn: It's kind of a really big movement right now.

Josh: I was just reading a statistic where in New York City alone over about three months, 420,000 people have left. And that was just an example. We're seeing that all over the country. We're feeling it here in our area, people moving in. And I know a lot of you in the country are seeing that. So it's very relevant right now. People are looking at land, looking to relocate and buy new property.

Carolyn: Now, if you're one of those people, this is such an important topic, because if you get on a piece of property that's not set up well for homesteading, you're going to have problems for a really, really long time. So it's great to take these things into consideration. Make sure you get the property that's going to work for you and for your family longterm.

Josh: And even if you're not relocating to a large homesteading property, even a suburban lot or somewhere where you're getting away from the city and away from the density, all of this still applies. So it's really important, even if you're going small scale.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: But, hey, before we get into main topic today, we always throw a little chitchat around and answer a question. So what is going on with you? What are you up to?

Carolyn: The green beans are here.

Josh: Yeah. They are.

Carolyn: It's green bean season. I've got about 17 quart jars of green beans cooling back here that we just canned last night. And so we've got that first pickings.

Josh: That's the first batch. That's just the start.

Carolyn: Yeah. And so it's going to be about every third day for weeks now that we're going to be up there picking green beans and then canning them and eating them. So that's going to keep us hopping for a while, which is fun.

Josh: I love it.

Carolyn: I love green beans. I love the process of green beans. Maybe it's kind of a romantic picture of sitting in a rocking chair, snapping green beans, watching the kids play. It doesn't always actually play out that way, but in my mind it does. So I really like them.

Josh: Well for a couple of Type A personalities, it's a great place to get something done, but be relaxed because especially at the end of the day so.

Carolyn: It's a good way to go.

Josh: So yeah, that's often [crosstalk]

Carolyn: And you know what was really special this round of green beans is Great-grandma Jeannie has moved in with us.

Josh: Yay.

Carolyn: And so she helped me snap green beans the whole evening, just the other evening. And that was just really special time getting to sit and snap green beans with her. You jumped in. Multiple people jumped in so. It was really fun.

Josh: Yeah. Multiple generations snapping green beans.

Carolyn: It was really neat. But then we just finished the county fair, too.

Josh: Yeah. We did. That was fun.

Carolyn: Oh yeah. The kids turned in... I don't know, a dozen something different entries between them.

Josh: Oh, we had jellies, jams, carrots-

Carolyn: Flowers.

Josh: Multiple flowers, a bunch of drawings-

Carolyn: Lego creations.

Josh: No animals, but yeah, a lot of different stuff, garden stuff.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: And they did great.

Carolyn: They did really, really well. We ended up with a couple of best in classes and a reserve grand champion for their hollyhocks.

Josh: For the hollyhocks.

Carolyn: Flowers.

Josh: Very cool.

Carolyn: So anyways, that was really fun. That's always a fun moment. It's kind of stressful getting everything turned in and done on time, but it's always really rewarding. And the kids get a lot out of participating. Oh, butter. We got best in class for... Brianna made butter.

Josh: That's right. Sure did.

Carolyn: That was really good.

Josh: That was the new one. Yeah. We don't think we've done a butter entry before.

Carolyn: We haven't. Yeah.

Josh: Yeah. It was fun.

Carolyn: Anyways, it was a lot of fun. What about you? What have you been up to?

Josh: Well, maintaining the garden. It's August and so it's finally hot here. So we're having to make sure we're keeping the water going and keeping ahead of the weeds, which is going well. And miscellaneous projects. We've got the addition we're starting, so working on that. Framing's going to start soon and a buddy of mine's coming up to help us with that.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: So we can frame that up ourselves. And firewood, just starting to get the firewood logs stacked up here near the house so we can start bucking them up and getting them ready for winter. It's hot right now. Winter's about the furthest thing on our minds. And it's hard to think about firewood. But here in North Idaho it's actually not that far away. We are probably less than two months from our first fire.

Carolyn: Yeah. Well we often have our first hard freeze mid-September here too.

Josh: Frost-

Carolyn: At least a hard frost.

Josh: A hard frost. Yeah. Yeah.

Carolyn: And then so it's not long before it's cooling off so.

Josh: Yep. Yep.

Carolyn: Really good.

Josh: Cool weather's coming. I'm not quite ready for it yet. I need a few more dips in the water.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: A little more sunshine.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: But it's coming so we've got to get ready.

Carolyn: That sounds good.

Josh: Okay so-

Carolyn: All right. We have-

Josh: Before we jump into main topic we were going to answer a question here.

Carolyn: Question of the day.

Josh: Do you want to take this one?

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: We can both answer it, I think.

Carolyn: Okay. All right. Sue [McGarry] on our last Pantry Chat, the apartment to 40 acres, says, "I have a question. Why sheep? What are you doing with the sheep? Selling wool for fiber? Eating the meat? I'm curious because I started with sheep and I always wonder what the practical uses." Oh, because we started with sheep.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: "I've also heard that they're a bit difficult to keep healthy." So she goes on with other questions regarding that same thing, but good question. Really good question.

Josh: Absolutely. Well, one, we like a well-rounded food supply.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: Two, sheep have a good place. They graze different things.

Carolyn: I'm sorry. Meaning that we like to have different meats to choose from when we're [crosstalk 00:07:16]-

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: Out of the freezer. Right?

Josh: Yes. Absolutely. Right.

Carolyn: So we like to have different types of foods.

Josh: Exactly.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: They're also have a different impact on the land and they graze different plants than the cattle. So they're very beneficial in a holistic system.

Carolyn: Yes.

Josh: What are a couple of reasons... I know you like sheep and that leads into the sheep that we have.

Carolyn: Yeah. I like the wool. I like the fiber from them. And we do actually get them shorn. You can shear them yourself. We have never developed that skill, I guess, ourselves or the equipment that makes it doable on a scale that we would need to work on.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: So we bring somebody in, he shears twice a year for us. And then at least a portion of the wool I send to a local fiber mill that spins it for me, turns it into yarn, so I can knit with it all winter or do different crafts with it. So I love that the sheep are dual purpose, depending on which type of sheep you get.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: Sometimes triple purpose. And so we can get the meat and we can get the fiber. We just love lamb. I know a lot of people feel like it's very gamey flavored. And then they'll come and have lamb at our house and they'll go, "Wow, I didn't know it could taste like this. This is so good."

Josh: Didn't know it could be this good.

Carolyn: So it's very, very delicious when it's raised well and raised on grass.

Josh: Right. And they can be difficult to care for, but they don't have to be. And that's too much to go into right now, but you can find breeds that are very hardy.

Carolyn: Yes.

Josh: And you need the right breed for your land. And so we've chosen breeds that are very easy to take care of. They tend to be a little more skiddish, a little more independent, but they're very low maintenance. So you just got to research your breeds. If you're thinking about that, find out what's right for you.

Carolyn: So people are going to ask about that though. What breed do we have? We have Icelandic, but the Icelandic wool is not next to skin wool.

Josh: Yeah. It's pretty itchy.

Carolyn: That's because they have hair and wool. But it's a very, very tough, very durable. So it's noted to be used for things like carpets, for rugs, for crafts like that that you need something that's going to be very, very durable over clothing.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: But then we also have Gotlands which have very, very nice wool for next to skin uses. So that would be like a Merino type of wool, so you can actually put that right on your skin. So it's nice for things like beanies or sweaters or shirts or whatever you want for that.

Josh: And the Icelandic really provides the low maintenance, the hardiness. The Gotlands provide the wool. And we are looking at bringing in another breed. I don't know what yet, because we'd really like to increase the size a little bit. For meat production, they're a little small. So just a few things to consider there.

Carolyn: Yeah. Great question.

Josh: Alrighty. Well, we better move along and get into topics. And eight things that you really need to know when you're buying a homesteading property. These are just things that are important. Not about relocating, but more about just buying property and setting yourself up, getting started on a homestead.

Carolyn: Right. Good. So the first one is access.

Josh: That's right. And this is one a lot of people don't think about. And there are about three parts to access. One, there's the legal part. Most people understand that, think about it, but we have seen people buy property-

Carolyn: And they can't get to it.

Josh: And not look in the access. Find out they don't have legal access. That's what title searches are for, title reports, title insurance. You need to make sure you have proper legal access. But that's usually where people stop.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: They don't really consider some of the other issues. And especially when you're getting into rural country, access may go through somebody else's property, it may go through national property, it's sometimes gets longer. And so then there's a lot of logistics of maintaining that access-

Carolyn: That can-

Josh: And what happens to the road through different seasons of the year.

Carolyn: That can cause you a lot of problems for getting in and out of your driveway.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: Maybe during mud season or snow season. And it can also cause a lot of expense to get your road usable.

Josh: Absolutely. So you really need to think about that. That ideal property out in the country with the long dirt road, which I always wanted and we've lived on, we've had over two miles of dirt road at one point. And that can be really neat, but if you're not ready to deal with it, to deal with your neighbors. Who's responsible for what section? Who's doing what? What are the conditions like? How often does it wash out? How often do you get snows that you may not even be able to plow? Who's going to plow? All those things you've really, really got to consider along with the cost of it. And make sure and factor that into the overall cost and plan because you may have to do road improvement. You may need a tractor.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: You're going to have neighbors that have opinions about how to maintain the road. If you're sharing it with somebody, that's a whole nother discussion that's part of access. So all these things need to be considered very, very important. Because if you don't have good access and you can't afford to, or physically maintain good access, it doesn't work. And we actually saw a family not too long ago up here buy 80 acres, beautiful land. I would love that land. We considered it when we were shopping. And they were selling it because of the access issues. And I mean, they were a serious hardy family, knew how to make it out there roughing it. But the access just became too much, the issues with it and all of these things.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: Had a play in it, and they had to give it up.

Carolyn: So let me take this to a really practical level. If you're looking at property and it's got some long driveway and especially if you're saying something like, well, all we have to do is put a road in, go get an estimate for that driveway before you purchase the property, because it could be astronomical.

Josh: And talk to neighbors or people in the area to know what is the maintenance going to be realistically. Find out that plan so you know what your costs are, what equipment you need and just what you're going to deal with. There just may be times where it's not passable or it's a lot of work before it is passable.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: And you got to be able to deal with that.

Carolyn: Good.

Josh: Okay. So number two is water.

Carolyn: Yes. This is really important, especially if you're going to be growing anything, right?

Josh: Yeah. Well, growing anything, washing anything, drinking water.

Carolyn: Drinking anything.

Josh: This is one again that people tend to overlook especially when you start to get out into the country. You'll have a piece of land. It's out there a ways. You're really excited. It doesn't have municipal water. Of course, that's kind of a no brainer if it's got municipal water, but you may want to back up, you may not have municipal water. And I've seen a lot of people buy land without water on the idea that this is a good place to drill a well, or you can develop a spring. That is a bad, bad deal. Don't do that.

Carolyn: So what would you do? If you're looking at a piece of property, you love the property, but it doesn't have a well on it, you think everything else fits and you want to make an offer on that property. How would you handle that?

Josh: You negotiate the drilling of a well into the price.

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: Even if it has to increase the price, do it in the sale negotiation but it's contingent that you get water.

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: And you get a certain amount of water, whatever you think your need. I mean, a minimum of five, six gallons a minute you should have. But that all depends on what you're doing and family size and everything you're going to do. But negotiate that in so that if you can't hit water for a reasonable amount of price or have the owner do it, then you can step away from that property. I've seen people drill multiple wells after buying a piece of property and sink tens of thousands of dollars into the land and not get water, or have it be so expensive that then they're curtailed on other things they need to do before they hit water. So have that worked out. And of course you might have a spring on hand. That's great. You need to know the reliability of that over time. And what's the infrastructure or what's it going to take.

Carolyn: You also need to know who has the rights to that spring.

Josh: Yes.

Carolyn: This is very important because just because there's a spring on your property does not necessarily mean you own all the water rights.

Josh: Right. And every state is different as well.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: And we had to deal with that in buying this property.

Carolyn: Yes.

Josh: And it had great water, has great water, but we did have to negotiate and work out the rights.

Carolyn: Yes.

Josh: Make sure we had that secured. Of course, some other areas you may be going off grid. You may be working on water collection, which can be great. But again, those are expensive systems. And so have a plan, know what you're going to do and have the water worked out if you can before you buy the property. Don't rely on what might happen in the future. That's just could be devastating.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: And this is in order of priority. Access is your first priority, then water. And, of course, next we get to power.

Carolyn: Yes. Good.

Josh: And there's regular power, municipal power. Right? Or off-grid. We recommend, especially if you're new to this way of life, don't start with off-grid. We haven't even gone off-grid yet. We're going to, but there's a lot of other things that are more important and you can have a lot of backup systems.

Carolyn: You can end up chasing around your off-grid systems so hard trying to make them work, trying to maintain them, trying to just get through your everyday life, working with your off-grid systems that you end up not having the time or the ability to actually develop the skills you need to truly go off-grid and cut all of those systems too. So it's been very important to us to develop the skills first to where if we go off-grid, it's not a big deal. Or if the power goes off, it's not a big deal. Right?

Josh: Right. Yeah.

Carolyn: So approach it from being able to save your time to work on the skills first.

Josh: Yep. And one more on this. So say you're buying rural, a lot of times with rural properties, there may be municipal power available, but it's not on the property yet. And you may be told it's close. Close is relative. And so you need to know when you're looking at that property, where is it? You've got to go to the power company. You need to find out all the costs associated.

Josh: I have built a lot of homes on rural property and we've built several of our own in developed places. And even on this place and building mom and dad's house, I made the mistake of relying on what a few contractors told me. And it ended up costing a lot more because it just couldn't work the way we thought it could. We knew where the power was in the [inaudible 00:17:24], but we didn't get the power company out there until later. And it became a different deal. So anyways, do all those things before you buy the property, make a contingency in your offer if you have to, but make sure you have a plan and you know your costs. Because that's another cost that can get way out of hand. And all of a sudden, by the time you get through that, your budget's getting eaten up or you've got some things that are very hard to overcome.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: So you really, really... You've got to have those things worked out.

Carolyn: Okay. Now this next one may be a little bit controversial to some people because I think we all have this romantic image of moving out. Maybe the next few actually are maybe a little controversial, but moving out onto this piece of land and building our home and the log cabin from scratch.

Josh: It's a beautiful dream.

Carolyn: It's a beautiful dream but.

Josh: But be careful.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: And so we would advise you really not to buy raw land.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: You're going to be dealing with some of these other issues that we're already talking about, but then you've got to build a house on top of it.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: That's a whole nother journey. And there's so many skills, there's so much to do. Trying to build a home, develop the land, gain skills, grow food. You've only got so many hours in the day and honestly, it doesn't even matter how much money you have. You can even only hire so many people and do so much at one time-

Carolyn: Absolutely.

Josh: Even if you had those kinds of resources. So be very, very careful. And we would recommend that you don't start buying raw land. Buy a piece of property that's got a home on it. That is good, it's in good shape. I guess we'll talk about that in a second.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: It's just a lot to do. So look for a home that meets your needs in a piece of property.

Carolyn: Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that goes hand-in-hand with the next one, right? Which is those old farmhouses, 100 year old farmhouses. They're beautiful and they fit right into it [crosstalk 00:19:14].

Josh: We almost bought one.

Carolyn: We almost did. We were looking at a house that was built in 1902.

Josh: And it was a farmhouse. It was set up on 100 acres.

Carolyn: Absolutely.

Josh: It was beautiful.

Carolyn: I think that the best piece of advice I heard about this is the best way to have an old-fashioned farmhouse is to buy a new house and remodel it to look old. Because old houses come with a lot of problems.

Josh: Absolutely. They come with a lot of baggage and there's another expense. Right? There's another expense that starts to stack up. And so be very, very careful when you're choosing a house. You want to make sure the house is in a good location on your property. One of the things I tell people is try not to go too far from your main access, wherever the property line is and the road is. A lot of people want to be tucked in and you want privacy. But the farther back you are, the more challenges you have with getting to it and whatnot.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: So pick a good location, good orientation. Try to get a home that's got good orientation to take advantage say if you're in a northern climate, southern western solar exposure.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: Different things like that. Make sure it's in good shape. You don't... I mean, you're going to have repairs. You're probably going to have things you want to do. You might want to find a deal on a fixer upper. That's great, but make sure it's doable. And this is where you really want to get a home inspection.

Carolyn: Yes.

Josh: Again, I've built homes, all my life, managed property. And I still want a professional home inspector because he comes in and he does that every... Or she, and does that every single day.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: And so they're going to find things that you might not find, and they're at least going to help you have a realistic perspective of what the home needs, the condition that it's in and make sure that you can handle that.

Carolyn: Right. Absolutely.

Josh: All right.

Carolyn: Good.

Josh: Well, so next we get into... You've got your home, we get into infrastructure.

Carolyn: Oh. This is very important.

Josh: And whether to buy property with infrastructure or put infrastructure in. And this is not quite so much a do or don't because it's a challenge to find the right balance. It's nice to have infrastructure, but old infrastructure can need a lot of money, too.

Carolyn: Well, and I think right now there's a lot of people wanting to move out to the country, wanting to start gardens, wanting to start chickens, maybe raise some meat, maybe have some milk goats. And there's this sense of urgency that people are feeling right now of like, wow, our food system is a little shaky right now.

Josh: Yeah. We're seeing the weaknesses in it.

Carolyn: The world's a little shaky right now.

Josh: Absolutely.

Carolyn: Let's get out there and start working right away. And, again, there's only so much that you can do in any day in any year. There's only so much that you can accomplish. Having good quality existing infrastructure just moves you ahead, honestly, probably a year or two, because you're not back there building the chicken coop or fencing the garden or all of these basics. You're moved ahead to where you can just jump in and start working. And that is really, really important timewise.

Josh: But make sure that the bare bones... It may be fixer upper, but make sure that the bare bones are solid. Because some of those old properties, things are falling down. They look really neat. They look really cool. But all of a sudden you get in there and start using them and you find they need major, especially structural renovations or roofing renovations.

Carolyn: Right. Which does not save time in the long run.

Josh: Right. Right. So if that's the case, then maybe you can build your infrastructure over time. You just really got to look at everything really carefully obviously. And if you can find it, great. Some other good infrastructure, if you can find homes that have shade trees in the right places. If you look at the old farms, they didn't have electricity, they didn't have air conditioning. They learned how to put trees in the right place that created shade in the summer, let light in in the winter, maybe provided windbreaks. So if you can find something like that, that's a real, real asset.

Carolyn: Absolutely.

Josh: And consider that's very, very valuable than starting from scratch.

Carolyn: All right. Then the next one is to be careful about how much land you buy. I know right now everybody's like, "I want 100 acres out in the country." Right?

Josh: Nice. Right.

Carolyn: It does sound nice. And it sounds nice to give yourself some room around you, some padding, especially if you're coming from a tight city.

Josh: Yep.

Carolyn: But the reality is having too much land is actually just as crippling as having not enough land.

Josh: Well, the more you have, the more you have to take care of. 100 acres fenced is great, but you've now got 100 acres of fencing that you have to repair or maintain.

Carolyn: Yes.

Josh: And that list goes on and on. So make sure you buy within your means or at least if you're going to buy larger land, make sure that it's set up in a way that you don't have to jump in and do too much or make too much plans. You can start with your local zones. We call them in permaculture, your zone one, your zone two. Get a handle on things. And the rest of it can just sit, and you can grow in time. Or-

Carolyn: Okay. So the zone one, zone two meaning the stuff right around your house. Right there close to you.

Josh: Right, right. Closer to your reach that takes less movement to maintain, improve, develop, whatever you're doing.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: And if you go and buy 100 acres and the fences are kind of falling down and you go and put cattle on there and you're having to chase fence for the next two years, and then you can't deal with the problems with your new house or your garden or whatever, there's a million things like that that happen. So don't bite off too much. Start with what you can handle. And either buy a smaller piece of property or buy a piece of property that the larger areas can wait and don't plan to go into them until you get your closer zones under control and manageable.

Carolyn: Now I think it's really important to note that you can grow a huge amount of food on a very small amount of acreage if you have good acreage.

Josh: Yes.

Carolyn: You do not need 40 acres. You don't need 100 acres. If you are a small family, a couple acres, you'd be amazed at how much food you can grow on just a couple of acres.

Josh: You really can. And even the right five acres, you can put a few animals on it. Even a larger animal, like a dairy cow. You've got a few acres of pasture. It depends. You got to weigh all that out. But as Carolyn's saying, you can do a lot on little if you manage it well, take care of it well, and it's the right land, which gets into the last one here, number eight.

Carolyn: Which is to make sure you're buying land that's appropriate for the activities you want to be participating in as a homesteader.

Josh: Right. There's not a right or wrong answer as far as what's the right kind of land to homestead on.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: We're all different. We have different interests. We have different resources. What are we going to do on the land? Are you going to be gardening focused? You going to be animal focused? Maybe you're going to have a small garden and you're going to blacksmith or you're going to do something else. And maybe you love wood and you want some timber. So make sure it fits what your plans are and be realistic about what you can do and get the right land that's appropriate for that.

Carolyn: I think that in summing up all of these points, but the big thing here is don't react in panic to the current world events and go out and just grab the first piece of land that you find.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: Right?

Josh: Cheapest thing you find or the most romantic, beautiful thing you find.

Carolyn: Right. We've spoken to a couple people who are looking for land right now and the houses, the properties are selling so fast that they start to feel like they've got to scramble and make a really quick decision as soon as something comes on the market.

Josh: Yeah.

Carolyn: It is better to slow down, stay where you're at for a little bit longer and make the decision that's going to serve you longterm with a little bit of extra planning, a little bit of counsel from getting estimates for things, talking to the right people than it is to make this quick change and end up on a piece of property that you're going to wish you hadn't bought in a few years down the line.

Josh: Absolutely. And just kind of picking up off that as we start to wrap up, we did a video not too long ago that has a broader discussion of relocating and a lot of the other elements you want to consider. So you can go check that out to dive in a little bit deeper.

Carolyn: Absolutely. Yeah. But buying a property in the country is a great thing. It can be a wonderful, amazing experience.

Josh: Oh. Yeah.

Carolyn: And if you set it up correctly, it can really help you to just have a great, I guess, foundation for the projects that you want to do, and for starting to fill your pantry, fill your freezer, do whatever it is you want to do on the homestead.

Josh: I have at least one more I just thought of.

Carolyn: Oh yeah.

Josh: That's really important.

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: Find out and get to know about your neighbors.

Carolyn: Oh yeah.

Josh: Go talk to them. Know who you're living around before you buy a piece of property. And just get a feel for them. Talk to them, ask them what do you think about somebody moving in here. And it's a good time to show some interest in them and find out about the access or water in the area and all the different things you want to know. Make sure and get to know your neighbors first.

Carolyn: Yeah. It's really good if you're looking at moving out to the country to take them a pie or something when you go to ask them. Take something as an offering. That's always a good way to start. But, hey, I have a question for you. We don't have soil on this list.

Josh: No. We don't.

Carolyn: Isn't soil really important if you're going to move to a piece of property and you want to grow things?

Josh: Did I say that? Did I say soil is really important?

Carolyn: Well, maybe it's dirt.

Josh: So in general, right? If you know us, you know I'm always talking about soil and how important soil is. So that is an excellent point.

Carolyn: Right.

Josh: Because soil is very important. But unless you're working on a commercial level, which is not what we're talking about here, then, yeah, you really want to get in to soil profiles and understand if you're doing particular type of larger scale agriculture. But for most gardening and even small scale grazing, you can improve the soil.

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: It's a lot of things you can do ecologically, biologically to improve your soil and grow a better garden over time. Takes time, takes resources. And it can be a consideration. You're right. But it's not in the top here.

Carolyn: Okay.

Josh: Because you can work with a lot of things if you're not commercially minded.

Carolyn: So-

Josh: If you're going to do a larger scale, then that's a different discussion.

Carolyn: Unlike some of these other things on our list, soil is not permanent and you can adjust it over time. You're not going to fix access issues or water issues.

Josh: Right.

Carolyn: But you can fix your soil. So it's not so important to choose a property based on the soil.

Josh: It's not. Yeah. It's not that high up on the list. If you can get there and you can include that in the property profile, that is a great thing. That's a wonderful thing.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Josh: But like you said, you've got some more flexibility there where some of these other core issues, you just don't. And it's a deal killer if you don't have some of these things worked out.

Carolyn: Great.

Josh: You guys, been great hanging with you.

Carolyn: And we will be talking to you really soon.

Josh: Thanks for listening to this episode of the Pantry Chat, food for thought. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and review.

Carolyn: To view the show notes and any other resources mentioned on this episode, you can learn more at homesteadingfamily.com/podcast.

Josh: We'll see you soon.

Carolyn: Good-bye.

A man and wife smiling.

Welcome to Homesteading Family!

Josh and Carolyn bring you practical knowledge on how to Grow, Cook, Preserve and Thrive on your homestead, whether you are in a city apartment or on 40 acres in the country. If you want to increase your self-sufficiency and health be sure to subscribe for helpful videos on gardening, preserving, herbal medicine, traditional cooking and more.

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