Questions to Ask About Homestead Land for Sale

Got questions about homestead land for sale? I’d be surprised if you didn’t! Finding the best land for you and your family to turn into your very own homestead is a challenging process filled with questions. Today’s article covers FAQs about finding homestead land, properly assessing your needs vs. your wants, user-friendly websites, thoughts about building a homestead house, designing around elements we can’t change, and generally managing our expectations when it comes to this process. To help you a bit further, we’ve provided a free workbook to keep track of your notes, ideas, goals, and answers!

You’re going to have lots of points to consider and many, many questions to ask. We’ve tried to anticipate at least some of those questions and provide answers for you that will help you make this huge decision. You can find the best homestead land for sale, I promise!

Second of Two Articles About Homestead Land for Sale

The first thing to know is that this article is a follow up to our initial post: Vetting Homestead Property for Sale.

You will want to read this other article either before or after the one you’re currently reading. Why?

Because what you’re reading now is basically a FAQ (frequently asked questions) list for buying homestead land for sale. It’s a fantastic collection of information, but it’s only half the story.

There’s a lot more information in the other post about site data to look for, various elements that make a homestead desirable or undesirable, off site data like access and roads, and so much more!

This post is long in order to be thorough, so to help you keep track of the advice here and to work through the goal prompts, we’ve put together a short workbook that is provided FREE for our newsletter family. To join up and get your worksheets, just fill in your information below.

Helpful Homestead Land Resources:

Vetting Homestead Property for Sale

Take the Homestead Personality Test – Know your strengths before you start looking for land!

Planting Zones: Understanding Climate & Microclimates

Knowing Which Questions to Ask

To determine which questions we wanted to include in this article we:

searched common homesteading questions from the Internet
considered the questions we have had over the years
asked younger homesteaders what they are curious and/or nervous about
pondered factors in our current culture that are affecting homesteading (at least in the U.S.)

When we initially wrote the article, “Vetting Homestead Property for Sale” we ended up with over 7,000 words of material and advice. We were practically on our way to writing a short E-book on the subject!

For the sake of your time, and especially if you’re reading this on a cell phone, we decided to split up the information so it was more easily digested.

So, here’s your final reminder to read both articles for a more complete picture.

So, after you’ve read about finding and vetting homestead property for sale, you’ll probably still have some lingering questions rolling around in your head. The following sections cover some of those, along with their answers.

If you have a question on something we don’t cover here, feel free to leave a comment and ask!

Where is the Cheapest Place to Start a Homestead?

The real estate market changes all the time, so we can’t specifically answer this question in a way that will be relevant even one month from the time this article is written.

However, generally speaking, homestead property for sale is going to be cheaper in more rural areas. Municipal centers that have acreage will fetch a higher price per acre because they are closer to job markets and city services.

Even in rural areas from one end of the U.S. to another, you’re going to see a wide range of price per acre for homestead property. If a piece of property has a house already on it and if that house is move-in ready, expect to pay quite a bit more.

If homestead property for sale has water on it – a well, pond, live water, or even a seasonal creek – you can also expect to pay more for it. Likewise, if the land has access to electricity, the cost will increase.

If there are solar panels on site, the price will be higher. If you decide to make an offer on homestead land that has solar panels be sure to find out if they’re owned or leased before you do so.

Some solar panel contracts have very specific rules and regulation about their use, upkeep, and presence on your land.

Cheaper = “Undesirable”

“Undesirable” areas are going to be cheaper per acre. Some “undesirable” attributes for homestead land can include:

Extremely dry or extremely wet land.
Very hot or very cold climates; humidity in summer is also an issue.
Situated in a fire-prone area.
Downstream from manufacturing or commercial agriculture where potential for contaminates leaking onto your site are high.
Where soil quality is rocky, sandy, or densely full of clay.
Land that has no services or infrastructure – no water, power, sewer, outbuildings, fences (especially perimeter fencing).

I would like to point out that no place is going to be perfect! There are ways to mitigate all these issues with the application of permaculture design principles.

So don’t let the fact that no homestead property for sale is flawless deter you from looking and from eventually taking the plunge into purchasing. You can successfully deal with all the imperfections over time, and with hard work and quality design.

We talk more about what makes homestead land for sale desirable/undesirable in our sister article: Vetting Homestead Property for Sale.

Where Should I Look for Homestead Land for Sale?

There are a thousand ways to answer the question of where to look for homestead land for sale. Consequently, I’m going to pose a series of questions for you to think about. First:

Do you want to be in town, close to town, or far removed from town?

Homesteading in town can come with a higher level of regulation, less affordable land, and typically smaller lots for sale. Being close to a town can make commuting easier but you can still be caught in sleeper community regulations similar to the closest large town.

Some regulations to always ask about are zoning laws for livestock and growing food (including harvesting and processing), as well as CCRs (Codes, Covenants, & Restrictions), and HOA (Homeowners Association) rules.

Be sure you speak with an actual person in the county and city office and/or the HOA president or board members to confirm everything you find. Do not – I repeat, do NOT – take what you find on the internet as law or even rely too heavily on your real estate agent. Many agents just don’t know what questions are important to homesteaders.

Here are some things to get hard data on:

Can you grow livestock on the land? If so, how many of each kind can you have at one time, including babies?
What kind of housing is required? How far must it be from a fence line?
Can you harvest, or slaughter, that livestock on your land?
What was use laws are in place? Can you harvest rainwater? Can you dig a well? Can you use cisterns?
Are you legally allowed to sell product from your land (if you choose to do that)?
Can you grow vegetables and fruit trees? If so, can you grow them in the front and side yards where they are visible to neighbors?
Are laundry lines allowed? What about solar panels?
Can you place fences and gates where you need them?

Needs Vs. Wants

If I’m being totally transparent, I need to mention that we have never ONCE decided to move to a new homestead based on our list of dreamy homestead wants. EACH time we’ve moved it was a result of prayer and strong feelings that we needed to relocate to a specific place.

In fact, the idea of considering what I might like in any given homestead is so foreign to me that I had a hard time brainstorming what you might want to consider. While I encourage everyone to make this decision prayerfully (or meditatively, if you prefer), it’s still a good exercise to consider what’s important to you right now.

I’ve grown and learned new things on each homestead and have years of experience reminding me that I will learn amazing things anywhere I’m asked to homestead. Still, God cares about what we want, not just what we need.

Have some fun thinking about what you’d like and then just be ready to roll with the punches and adapt to your budget, your experience level, and any other limiting factor.

Also be a grown-up. Homesteading is very labor and brain-intensive – it’s a lot of work! You can kill yourself with all that work on 1/2 acre just like you can on 50 acres.

Make a goal to be realistic, grateful, intentional, and brave. These characteristics will see you through this process.

Best User-Friendly Website to Find Homestead Land for Sale

Zillow is a popular place to look at prospective homestead land for sale but I prefer Realtor.com. Here’s why:

The site is populated by realtors nationwide and the listings are up to date.
There are a lot of useful filters you can set on searches inside Realtor.com to narrow down your findings. For example, acreage range, price range, etc.
You can search by county, which comes in handy when quickly looking for listings of new properties for sale within the area you’ve been searching. Going town by town can take a very long time.
Signing up is easy and free, and then you can save your searches and also mark properties that are interesting to you. The site will send you a weekly update on your favorited listings.
Also, and this is probably the feature that is the most useful to homesteaders, most listing come with an option to click on a Google maps image of the property. You can then click on several filters within the map, INCLUDING water! Hit the flood filter and it will show you where water runs on the property and how deep.

FYI, there’s a photo tutorial of this process in the sister article: Vetting Homestead Property for Sale.

This is handy information to know if you want to avoid a flood plane but even more vital if you want to see where water moves on the property. This is key information for design and water conservation on the land!

Other Online Places to Look For Homestead Land for Sale

There are other sites for searching homestead land for sale in rural areas in your state or region. You can find them by keyword searching your state and words like farms for sale, homestead land for sale, etc.

Fortunately, homesteading is gaining in popularity and some realtors and brokerages are clueing into the fact that they’d better advertise for us!

You can also search For Sale By Owner sites, but use them with caution and double check what you find against the MLS. Anyone serious about conducting a real estate transaction should be prepared to pay to place their home on the MLS (the property list curated for real estate agents).

You can find legitimate 100% FSBOs (listing for sale by owner), I only advise that you exercise caution. Zillow.com also has a section for FSBO listings, FYI.

(To be perfectly frank, I love the idea of FSBOs and have had horrific experiences with realtors. I’m not a huge fan of the way the housing market is handled but it is what it is and you don’t want to get burned.)

Our Experience With FSBO

When we sold our last homestead ourselves, we were required by law to pay a broker to list our property on the MLS, which I would have paid to do anyway. This ended up confusing buyer agents who kept thinking the broker was our listing agent because his name was on the listing instead of ours.

Really, all that dude did was slap the house on the MLS, but our state required us to go through him to legally sell our own home.

Some regulations are flat out dumb BUT using formal channels that a buyer’s agent can easily work with streamlines the process and shows that the seller is able to conduct a grown-up real estate transaction.

You can also try word of mouth! If you have friends living in an area you’d like to homestead, have them ask around at church, in school groups, and in other community areas. Some people haven’t even listed their homestead property for sale yet and you might be able to connect with them and get a deal going.

How Do I Start a Homestead from Scratch?

With good design, you can build a homestead from scratch no matter where you are or how much land you have. Of all the design modalities I’ve studied regarding homesteading, permaculture is the most comprehensive while being the easiest to assimilate and practice.

We’ve included some permaculture education options in the article Vetting Homestead Property for Sale. To get an idea of what permaculture is, please read the following when you have time:

A Short Introduction to Permaculture

Permaculture Zones on the Homestead

Plan a Permaculture Homestead Layout

Homestead Goal Setting

Aside from the workbook we’ve provided for keeping track of the information you gather on homestead land for sale, another resource available to you when you join the newsletter family is our Homestead Goal Setting workbook.

(If you’re already a member, look for this eBook in the first section of the member library.)

This little workbook can help you brainstorm what it is you’d really like to do with your homestead land. It asks good questions that will get your mind working on realistic plans and goals.

If you’re starting a homestead from scratch or improving upon an existing homestead, we’re hopeful these resources will help you out!

Homestead Elements to Consider with Homestead Land for Sale

We cover these elements in more detail in the article Vetting Homestead Property for Sale because, as you’re weighing whether or not a piece of land if for you, you have to consider these topics in depth.

For now, here they are in brief:

Live water, which includes springs, creeks, and rivers. As I said, you pay more for water on the land.
Forested areas provide immediate shelter and grazing area for livestock and don’t need to be mowed, baled, or otherwise maintained by you. Forests take care of themselves.
Some pasture present is helpful, especially if you have livestock you’re bringing with you. It’s not a deal breaker if there isn’t any usable pasture because it can be built up and grown. To have some already on site already just saves time.
Outbuildings are very helpful to have in place already. Even if there’s a house on site, most homesteaders have equipment to house in something like a shop or barn. Chicken coops, goat pens, storage sheds, shop buildings, a wellhouse, or really anything with a roof and walls can be very nice to have.

Will You Purchase a Homestead House or Build From Scratch?

It often happens that you find the best homestead land for sale but it’s just land with no house. Other times it has a house but it needs extensive renovation.

It’s a given that if all prospective and practicing homesteaders were millionaires, the process of finding and purchasing THE PERFECT HOMESTEAD would be a simple one. If money is no object, all it takes is time.

For most of us, our budget is the first limiting factor when considering purchasing homestead land. The general rule of thumb is that your mortgage should be no more than the amount of money you can bring home in one week.

There are so many variables involved in this one topic alone that I thought I’d share our story and hope that it helps you consider a few factors that might be relevant to you.

Our Current Search for Homestead Land for Sale

We’ve bought, built up, and sold so many homesteads over the years. For the last three years we’ve been displaced after a land purchase deal fell apart after we’d sold our last homestead and then the worldwide health event hit and everything sort of went to pot.

As my World War 2 veteran grandfather would probably remind me, it’s only when you’re over the target that you take the heaviest fire. God can use these hard times to turn us into stronger, smarter homesteaders and He’s done that for us countless times.

Currently, we live in the Midwest (USA) in growing zone 6, but our weather is extremely variable. In February of this year, we had a daytime low of 20°F (-7°C) and a daytime high of 79°F (26°C). And that was in the same week!
We also have extremely hot and wet summers, ranging in the high 90°s (32°C and higher) with high humidity. We also have an average annual rainfall of over 40″.

Needless to say that, regulating temperature and water are high on our list of priorities when it comes to homestead property for sale.

What About a Homesteader’s House?

Remember when I mentioned that climate control is one of the things we have to seriously consider where we live? Another element to add to our concerns is that we don’t anticipate the power grid will always be available to us. In other words, we need to design a home or refurbish a house that can regulate temperature without the use of electricity.

You may not have this same concern or priority, but for us it’s paramount.

This concern lead us to a series of natural building classes hosting by an architect based in Pennsylvania named Sigi Koko who runs Down to Earth Design. Sigi hosts classes at her site and at others’ to teach everyday people like you and me how to build with cobb, clay plaster, and natural insulation materials like straw bales, and other natural products.

These materials have the ability to not only insulate, thereby regulating temperature, but also control humidity (an almost magical quality of clay).

We’ve had to save money, spend lots of time traveling and away from our family, take excellent notes, brainstorm necessary questions, and otherwise work out butts off to learn from Sigi.

These sacrifices have opened our minds and hearts to consider building or renovating in a sustainable way that we knew nothing about a few years ago.

Plan Around What You Can’t Easily Change – Like Climate!

I want to repeat how large a concern our climate is for our home building or renovating plans. The saying goes that the American South and Midwest didn’t really come into the 20th century until air conditioning was readily available.

Because summer temps and humidity are so severe, commerce would historically come to a halt during the day. So did everything else! It simply was too hot to be up and moving before air conditioning was in every home.

People had to wait until the early morning or late evening to do anything, and even then it was miserably uncomfortable. If health concerns complicated the issue, the summer became more than difficult.

If we anticipate a future with limited or no electricity, even if it’s only long interruptions in service, we need to find a way to design around this element we can’t change.

For us, the issue of a homestead home has come down to what kind of natural building we can undertake (we’ve decided on wood frame with straw bale insulation and finish clay plaster) OR how to naturally renovate an existing home with natural materials.

Ask yourself what you value the most and look forward into the next decade to try to anticipate if those values will hold up over time. Only you can make this decision for your family. Use your workbooks to brainstorm.

How Many Acres is Enough For a Homestead?

You can homestead successfully in an apartment, so size isn’t really a determining factor when considering whether or not you can homestead.

However, once we’re ready to start looking for homestead land for sale, the assumption is that we’re ready to take the next step towards sustainability by increasing our garden yields and raising our own protein (milk/meat/eggs). This will require more space than might be available in a typical city.

Many homesteaders are looking for small acreage; homestead properties for sale ranging from 1-20 acres, sometimes a little more. The problem at the moment is that these smaller acreages are more expensive per acre than larger tracts, so keep that in mind.

To get an idea of what you can fit on different size homesteads, here are a few real-life homesteaders examples:

The Frugal Farmgirl can give you some quality ideas for a one acre homestead.
From Scratch Homestead has a nice acre layout design – scroll down a bit.
Tiny Life can give you some visual examples of a 15-acre homestead.

What Does Self-Sufficient Mean to You?

With good design, you can become self-sufficient on an acre. You’ll also need to adjust your perception of self-sufficient, your eating habits, your bathing habits, in short everything you think of as normal.

Make a list of all the things you purchase from the store in one month.

Consider how you would produce each of these items.
Now consider fuel, electricity, water, and sewage delivery systems. How would you replace those?

To be truly self-sufficient may not be a goal we can reach this year, but we can make a good beginning on one acre and we will certainly be better off adjusting to this homesteading lifestyle rather than remaining where we are, entrenched in non-sustainable habits.

Also, beginning a homestead puts us in a position to share with and teach others. The more people who successfully enter our homesteading community, the safer and better off we all are.

How Do People Afford Homesteads?

This is a common question! The self-sufficient lifestyle may seem like the most frugal lifestyle, and it can be…eventually.

The truth is, self-sustaining homesteads require a great deal of planning, infrastructure, time, and capital (money, energy, more time, etc.). The reason for this investment is that our modern lifestyle hasn’t been modeled after the “home farm”, aka homestead, for several generations.

We have to start successful homesteads from the ground up in many cases. Like I said, this takes time and effort!

Here are a few things to start considering when getting your finances in order to purchase homestead land.

Save Money (Of Course)

Saving money and economizing our current lifestyle will be necessary for most of us. Unfortunately, the economy is currently presenting a challenge for many of us already, so we’ll need to tighten our belts even further.

To begin, calculate the amount you want to save for a down payment on homestead land. Remember, the interest rate on bare land is about double the interest rate on a home mortgage.

If you decide to get a construction loan to build a home, you can include the payoff for the land in the amount and adjust that high interest rate down eventually.

Regardless, sacrifice as best you can until the down payment amount is achieved and be patient.

Adjust & Manage Expectations

As you save, practice adjusting and managing expectations in all areas of your life. These skills are essential because you will have to sacrifice to find homestead land and then work it. No homestead is built overnight, so practice discerning between your needs and your wants right now.

Small adjustments you can make right now:

Prepare all your meals at home and make them from scratch.
To further facilitate this, make a menu plan and only purchase groceries from that plan – no extras!
Repurpose leftovers so that you eliminate food waste.
Preserve any food items that are about to go past their prime via freezing, dehydrating, canning, etc.

Be Open to New Ideas

Being flexible and open to ideas that you haven’t considered before can be of great benefit. For example, I never would have considered remodeling an existing home with natural materials like straw bales, cobb, and clay plasters until I learned about these amazing architectural materials.

Until I began learning about them in more depth, I really didn’t think they’d work in my climate. Because I kept an open mind and asked a lot of questions, now I’m convinced that this is the route my family will eventually end up taking!

Not only will these materials save us money on energy costs over time, but many of them can be sourced locally or even for free (clay, sand, straw bales, filler fiber, water, manure).

Bottom line: Never say never!

Share the Burden

This may not apply to all homesteaders but sharing the burden with a group or set of family members might turn your homestead land dreams into reality. More income streams equals more ability to cover a mortgage payment.

Also, when you join forces financially, you join forces physically. All hands working on the homestead make the burdens that much lighter.

Be sure to use professionals during the purchasing process when you have more than one buyer, so that everything is legal and expectations are clear and so that relationships are preserved.

For a more in-depth discussion of practical money saving tips in the homesteading lifestyle, grab your copy of The Do It Yourself Homestead which has an entire chapter dedicated to Homestead Finances!

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