Trying to find the perfect homestead property for sale? Let us help you brainstorm ways to vet the property before you buy! Get specific topics to research, a checklist of information to prepare for each homestead property for sale, troubleshooting advice and red flags to look for, as well as practical ideas for making plans. We’ve also included FAQs, as well as a free download to help you keep track of properties and data!
After over 20 years of homesteading and moving homesteads from state to state, here’s our best advice on how to effectively vet homestead property for sale.
We cover topics like gathering site data for prospective listings, financing, assessing the surrounding area of a parcel, as well as being honest about your goals, skills, and timeline.
For the sake of length, this article has been broken up into two segments. This is the first, and the second can be found here: Questions to Ask About Homestead Land for Sale.
However, before we jump in, I want to give you a piece of advice and I pray you’ll read it first and really listen to what I’m saying. I’m old and one of the benefits of being old is that you know stuff because you’ve experienced a lot of things. In another 50 years, I’ll be even smarter and so will you!
If you’re new to homesteading or new to the idea of finding homestead property for sale, please read the next section and keep it in mind as we move on to the nuts and bolts of this process.
Finding Homestead Property for Sale Begins with Patience
In the excitement of the idea of finding homestead property for sale and making it your own, you may be super excited to get started and get it done.
You may even be watching our national economics or cultural issues (in whatever year you’re reading this, those things are always an issue!), and feeling urgency to get homesteading right now, this minute!
Please hear me say this: The process of finding and vetting homestead property for sale is one that isn’t completed overnight. It is a process. And it’s going to take time even if miracles occur and your search ends more quickly than someone else’s.
There’s a lot of important education for you and your homestead family that takes place during the journey to find the best homestead property for sale. Don’t try to cheat yourself of these lessons by chaffing against the process.
Learn from the wall you’re trying to bang your head against – it hurts less and is a better use of your time!
During this exploratory time, you’ll need to be sure that your personal priorities and your ability to self-govern are well maintained. Keep getting up every morning on time, exercise, ponder/pray/meditate, study something uplifting, make a good breakfast, and take your vitamins.
You’re going to need your routine to stay happy and healthy while you go through this life event! Don’t forget the holiday, traditions, and hygge homesteading way of life that you’ve already established as you move into this next phase.
Further Reading When You Have Time
How to Make a Successful Homestead
A Brief Introduction to Permaculture
Plan a Permaculture Homestead Layout
Assessing and Vetting Homestead Property for Sale
There are a lot of variables and steps involved in determining if homestead property for sale in your desired area is the right choice for you. In this article, we’re going to cover the following:
- Assessing your strengths and weaknesses, assets and liabilities.
- The various elements of a working homestead – are they already present or will you need to build them?
- Picking an area in which to look for homestead property for sale.
- Collecting site data once you’ve found a property in which you’re interested.
- Other points to consider like land access and the surrounding area.
What Does it Mean to Vet Homestead Property for Sale?
Vetting is the process of investigating the background of someone before offering them an award, a position, or a job. We often talk about vetting political candidates before voting for them.
When we’re considering purchasing a homestead property, there are a lot of factors that go into deciding if the one we’re looking at will be a good fit for us and our family. No homestead is going to be perfect, but we can find the one that’s perfect for us!
Before we make an offer on a property, we need to do a lot of research and weigh what we find to make the best decision we can. You can rely on your agent to do their job competently (if you’ve vetted them before hiring them), but there’s still a lot of information you can and should discover for yourself.
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.
Start the Process of Considering a Homestead Property Purchase with Yourself!
The first thing to do as you begin this process is to do a self-assessment. Why?
Because in order to build a successful homestead, you’re going to need to build a good foundation. The foundation starts with you! You are the homesteader, so you’re homestead will become a reflection of you and your family.
In order to determine what kind of homestead property to look for and purchase, you need to already have a good idea of what you can and can’t build; what you can and can’t do. At least at first.
Ask yourself some simple questions and write down the answers:
- What are your personal strengths and liabilities? Your family’s?
- What are your assets; what are your talents, skills, experiences?
- What do you still need to learn and perfect?
We’ve included self-check sheets in our free download, FYI, but you can also just use a notebook and brainstorm together.
The Best Time of Year to Look for Homestead Property for Sale
This is just a quick note that, in my opinion, the best time to look for homestead land for sale is late fall after the leaves have dropped and there’s maybe even been some snow.
The reason for this is that it’s much easier to see fence lines, the siding of a house, the true state of a pasture, and more when all the green leaves and high grasses of summer have died back. You can also see the contour of the land much easier.
If you wait until deep winter, you’ll end up slogging through snow in many parts of the country. Likewise, if you end up looking for homestead property in high summer, you’ll be wading through ticks, chiggers, and hot, hot air. In my climate, it will also be super humid!
And, to be honest, the beauty of spring lies to you when you look at homestead property during the vernal season. Even the worst homestead property will look lovely as spring blossoms come on and the grasses get their first flush of green.
Don’t believe anything a homestead tells you in spring!
Homestead Elements to Consider When Vetting Property for Sale
Every homesteader has their own list of must haves when it comes to finding the perfect homestead property for sale. The following are a few elements that are important to us.
Are they on your list?
Live water, which includes springs, creeks, and rivers. You pay more for water on the land but because we are striving to be as self-sufficient as possible and have no intention of connecting to public water, this is an important point for us. We’ve educated ourselves in rainwater catchment, water direction with permaculture design, and various ways to repurpose gray water.
Natural forest is an important element for us, though it’s not always a deal breaker. We can plant native trees that will grow and thrive in our environment – it just takes time to grow them.
However, forests are ecosystems that manage themselves without our input and from which you can immediately harvest firewood and other useful items like coppice wood and mushrooms. Also, animals can be pastured inside woodland areas – this is called silvopasture.
When you first move, you don’t have a lot of time to deal with open pasture that must be mowed down, baled, or kept short with livestock. I don’t always have livestock to help with huge pastures when I first move to a new homestead.
A forested are means I don’t have to acquire livestock to manage pastureland until I’m ready.
Some pasture present is helpful, especially if you do have livestock you’re bringing with you. Again, it’s not a deal breaker because pasture can be built up and grown. To have some on site already just saves time.
Check to See If There Are Outbuildings!
Outbuildings are sooooo 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. Also, we often have livestock that needs shelter.
Chicken coops, goat pens, storage sheds, shop buildings, a wellhouse, or really anything with a roof and walls can be very nice to have. These buildings also come in handy if you’re setting up rainwater catchment with barrels, cisterns, or ponds.
Gather Data on the Prospective Homestead Property
Before you go look at piece of property in person, you should collect as much information about the site as you can. I usually use Realtor.com to gather most of this initial data.
Realtor.com has a listing of all the properties for sale on the MLS (multiple listing service). The MLS is the platform the real estate industry uses to compile and organize all the properties listed for sale in a given area.
There are other sites that list this data; Zillow.com is another popular one. The MLS does not include FSBOs (for sale by owner) and neither does Realtor.com, though Zillow does.
I simply find Realtor.com to be very user friendly and visually easy on the eyes. (Some real estate sites make your eyes want to cross!)
Helpful Homestead Land Search Features
Here are some other reasons why I like Realtor.com:
- There are a lot of useful filters you can set on searches inside Realtor.com. For example, acreage range, price range, etc. You can also add some keywords to your search.
- You can exclude pending sales and foreclosures from your searches, if you’d like.
- 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 water filter and it will show you where water runs on the property and how deep.
An Example Using a Homestead Property for Sale
To help you understand how to do this better, we’ve included a quick photo tutorial below. I’m going to use a listing for some land we have for sale in Ava, Missouri for the purposes of this tutorial.
This is a listing for 60 acres, no house yet. There is a driveway, house and barn pad cut, as well as the foundation for an old home.
(Please Note: If you’re looking for homestead property for sale in Missouri, please visit this link after you’ve found the water information at Realtor.com. This link only will put you in touch with our realtor who is very versed in what homesteaders are looking for.
If you request an agent through Realtor.com, you’ll be contacted by someone that I don’t know and can’t vouch for, just so you’re aware.)
How to Find Flood Data Using Realtor.com’s Google Map Feature
- First, navigate to Realtor.com and enter a search area – state, county, or town – and hit enter. This will begin your search for homestead property for sale.
- Next, click on a listing that looks interesting to you.
The property we have for sale here in Missouri in this example includes two ponds (one spring-fed), and a spring fed creek. When we pull up the flood plain data for this property, you’ll be able to easily see where the water is and how it moves on the property.
Realtor.com provides this information via a Google Earth image. Not all properties have this feature turned on, FYI.
Finding Initial Water Information
- When you click on a property, a page specific to that property will come up with all of the information available on that piece. This will include that listing agent’s description of the property (the details for which are provided by the owner), as well as photos.
- Click on the main photo on this page and a new page will open with (usually) multiple photos for you to peruse.
- Up in the left hand corner, look for a tab labeled “Map” and click on that. A plain map will pop up with roads and little boxes representing buildings.
- From this screen, click on the box labeled “Satellite” in the righthand corner. This will bring up the latest Google Earth image of the property. (You can also access this image via Google Earth if you have the address of the property.)
- Now, look down in the left-hand bottom corner and you will see a task bar of various information you can access. (For such a rural property as the one I’m using here, noise and light pollution aren’t going to be an issue, though those options are there.) Click on the “Flood” option to see what you’re really looking for: water!
- What this map now shows you in blue is the potential for flooding, including possible depth, that might occur on this site.
How to Use This Information
While this is helpful to know so you don’t build a structure in a flood plain, what this map shows a homesteader is where they can find live water like creeks and rivers, as well as where they can plan to capture, harvest, and direct water on their property.
Although there are far more in-depth searches I can do regarding water before purchasing a piece of homestead property, this initial glance is enough to tell me whether there is enough natural water on this site to peak my interest.
I know enough to know I want to at least visit the property with my agent. Remember, water is a very important factor in my search for homestead property for sale.
Is that true for you, too? If not, consider what is of most value to you. Make a list!
FAQs of Finding Homestead Property for Sale
Have more questions? The following are some commonly asked questions about finding and purchasing homestead property. If you have a question that we didn’t address in this article, please feel free to leave a comment and ask it.
We’ll do our best to get you the information you need!
Homestead Property for Sale Near Farms & Manufacturing
As a caveat to the section above, although there are ways to help your landscape recover from contamination, I would still be careful to investigate the use of the land that surrounds the homestead property you’re considering.
Herbicide and pesticide drift, chemical fertilizer leaching into your land during a rainfall, and potential pollution from surrounding manufacturing are serious issues to consider before you buy.
This does not mean that every agricultural field you see will be full of contaminants or that every local manufacturer will be poisoning the environment! Farmers and manufacturers are an important part of the engine of any economy.
- I’m simply suggesting you refrain from assuming anything; research and ask questions! If you have serious doubts, do a soil test before you purchase.
What Makes a Desirable/Undesirable Homestead Property?
The answer to what makes a desirable homestead property is going to be relative because we all have different values, goals, and limiting factors (like age and health). Here are some homestead elements to consider when determining what kind of property is best for you.
Homestead Water
We’re back to water again! For some homesteaders, the highest priority and first goal is water! We want a well, ponds, a live water source, or even a seasonal creek.
If nothing else, we want to live in a place with enough annual rainfall to ensure that we can collect enough for our water needs throughout the year.
Others of us plan to stay close enough to town to make use of municipal water.
I’m at a place in my homesteading journey where my priority is to be water sovereign, which means that I highly value live water on my land, high annual rainfall for collection, and also having a well.
My family willing to sacrifice the comforts of living close to a town in order to go farther out and find a land where we can be water independent.
- How do you feel about water access on your homestead?
To consider this subject a little more realistically, you may want to do a water audit for the home you’re currently living in. Getting a realistic idea of how much water you typically consume can help you make smart decisions when it comes to deciding about a homestead property for sale.
(This article provides access to free water audit sheets to make the process easier.)
Trees on the Homestead
Many homesteaders are very interested in keeping their own livestock and so they look for homestead property for sale with available pasture. Furthermore, they have criteria for the pasture:
- it should be so many acres
- it should have these various crops of forage
- so much of it needs to be fenced and cross-fenced for livestock
Others place a higher value on naturally wild and forested areas on the homestead. For example, if the homesteader has pigs they’d like to raise on silvopasture, then the woods are a must.
Also, if the homesteader plans to build a home from their native trees, then trees there must be!
Or perhaps they plan to heat their home all winter entirely with wood. Or create products to trade or sell from homestead-harvested wood.
- Which do you value more, trees or pasture? Maybe you’d like both in equal proportions?
One thing I’ve been considering lately is that, if you don’t already have livestock, pasture will require maintenance with a mower or tractor, especially if you live in an area with ticks and chiggers. High grass will spell high populations of these noxious insects that can adversely effect the health of people and dogs on the homestead.
Forests are ecosystems that manage themselves for the most part. In permaculture design, we classify wild or forested areas as zone 5, which means they’re the least managed of all the sections of the homestead.
In these areas, we can simply let nature do its thing without much interference from us. Please visit this article to further consider the use of trees on the homestead for firewood or other uses.
Access To & On the Homestead
For some of us looking for homestead property for sale, one of the most important things is to find land that is far outside the nearest city. We are specifically looking for something remote with a rural community that is smaller and simpler.
Some other homesteaders would like to be closer to municipalities for various reasons, though the most common is that cities have more jobs! Various other incentives include medical services, arts and entertainment, and educational opportunities.
- To which do you prefer access; the country or the city?
Other access concerns are more practical in that we have to consider the literal, physical access to and on the homestead property for sale that we’re looking into.
In rural areas, unpaved roads can range from every high quality that are consistently maintained, to those that are practically impassible. These difficult roads can be a huge deterrent to many people, especially because they cause a great deal of wear and tear on vehicles.
If the homestead includes many acres, this feeling can also extend to the pathways and roadways within the homestead.
Have you hear the phrase, one mans junk is another man’s treasure?
Some of us value the remote nature of the homestead property we’re looking to buy; others would rather be closer to “civilization” in order to have paved roads and easy access to their homestead.
How Do I Start a Homestead with No Money?
If you need to save money before you can purchase homestead property for sale, the best place to begin homesteading is where you are. Don’t put off developing a homesteading lifestyle with your family simply because you’re not in your ideal homesteading space.
- Read homesteading books. Real books with real pages that you can mark up, dog ear, and scribble notes in the margins. We certainly recommend our own book, The Do It Yourself Homestead.
- Practice what you learn in small ways; begin in the kitchen because food is generally pleasing and rewarding.
- Join a group of local homesteaders, homeschoolers, seed savers, foragers, fermenters, beekeepers, etc.
- Read more books and find a print or online magazine that will help you. Find your favorite bloggers and join their newsletters so they can contact you directly. Social media can be unreliable for consistent contact but if you follow someone helpful, check in with them often.
- Practice some more and this time, invite a friend to join you.
- Take notes on your successes AND your failures. Both are instructive. You think you’ll remember the details, but you won’t unless you write them down!
- Read more books and newsletters.
- Practice more skills by attending a homesteading-type conference in your area.
- Rest. Really, take a break and have some fun.
Branch Out For Homestead Education
If you’re single, try a WOOFER work opportunity, a local workshare on a farm or homestead, or internships with local growers.
I also highly suggest you take a Permaculture Design Course so you can purposefully and effectively design a thriving homestead on your new property. Don’t be intimidated by the words “design” or “course” because you can do this!
These courses, referred to as PDCs, include 72 hours of instruction and many programs are online. You’ll also need to complete a design project, but you’ll have lots of help and support.
- If you’re in the Midwest, I highly recommend Midwest Permaculture’s PDC. They have online and in-person options for instruction. If you don’t have time for a full PDC, they have a mini-course that will be helpful, too. Scroll down once you click this link for more information on their schedule.
- Also, Amy from Tenth Acre Homestead has a Permaculture course she runs that is full of helpful information, as well as smaller courses (including a free one!) that might be useful to you. Visit her course options here.
Don’t hesitate to get involved politically, too, especially on a local level. If your town prohibits backyard chickens, explain to the city council why that should change. Better yet, run for city council yourself!
The best place to make effective changes is at the local level, and positive change effects everyone equally well. If you’d like to be active in other ways, please consider the points raised in Amy Fewell’s article, which we’ve highlighted below in the next section.
A New Twist in Our Modern Times
Another price problem that modern homesteaders are running into is that large corporations are purchasing farmland in the U.S. at an alarming rate. This drives up the prices for regular people living regular lives who are only able to afford regular mortgage payments.
I didn’t notice this too much even eight years ago, but recently I’ve seen it happening even in our Midwestern state.
Homesteaders of America has an interesting article that explores the variables when considering a homestead property for sale and how to afford homestead land. This article was written by Amy Fewell of Fewell Homestead and includes some information and discussion on foreign and corporate land ownership in America.
Amy also challenges readers to get involved at the local levels of government to push back against this issue in ways they find appropriate. We don’t have to just accept that this is how it will be forever – getting involved is the American legacy, right?!
Finding Homestead Property for Sale is a Family Affair
While you’re building a homestead where you are and looking for new homestead property, be sure to involve your family every step of the way.
If owning your own homestead land is a serious goal for your family, then you need to think of finding the right place as a part time job for everyone involved. Each family member can help in their own way.
Mom and dad can educate themselves on financing options, the best locations to homestead, how to build a successful homestead, and other grown-up concerns. Be sure to share what you’re learning with your family, especially your children.
Kids can do their chores, have happy attitudes, and be supportive while sharing their ideas of what they’d like their homestead property to be like. Their energy and creativity is a real asset!
Grandparents and in-laws can offer advice on what to look for in a solid home purchase or any relevant experience on building a home, relocating to a new area, and building a new homestead/church/homeschool/friend community.
They can cheerfully engage in the good cause of focusing on the positive even if the idea of your family getting homestead property for sale may take them farther away than you’d like.
Vetting and purchasing homestead property is a homestead family affair!
Other FAQs to Finding & Vetting a Homestead Property
To wrap up this article, the following are some other frequently asked questions on finding and vetting homestead property that are highlighted and answered in the sister article to the one you’re reading now.
We’ve covered a lot of topics and questions and, for the sake of length and your time, we’ve put the rest of the discussion on the following questions into the article: Questions to Ask About Homestead Land for Sale.
This article discusses the following:
- Where Should You Look for Homestead Land?
- How Do I Start a Homestead from Scratch?
- Will You Purchase a Homestead House or Build?
- How Many Acres is Enough For a Homestead?
- How Do People Afford Homesteads?
- Where is the Cheapest Place to Start a Homestead?
We’ll see you there! Be sure to leave a comment if you have something helpful to share for other readers and/or you have a question we didn’t cover!
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