How to Buy Small Farm Land Online

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about buying some country property. You know… your own piece of land… a place you can go to relax… or retire to. Maybe a small farm with horses, or chickens… maybe a goat… a nice garden. Or maybe you just want a little get away where you can relax and take in the view.

The Great Land Rush

Don’t PANIC! The great land rush hasn’t started yet. But stand by… because things are starting to heat up. While suburban and city property values are declining, you will find rural property staying quite stable or actually going up in value. As the saying goes “Once its gone its gone!” This is probably one of the last opportunities that we will have to own a decent size piece of land. Investors, companies and individuals are quietly buying up land as a hedge against our current recession.

Why Small Farm Land

Small partials of land make perfect sense for individuals looking for a place to raise a few animals, grow crops, or just have some space to relax. In fact most of the small farms in this country are only about 5 – 20 acres. This is a good size for an individual to manage on their own and still produce enough food to be totally self sufficient. It wasn’t that long ago that the country was made up of mostly small farms. Believe it or not there are still a lot of these small pieces of land left if you know where to look.

Searching For Your Property Online

Just about anything you can imagine can be found and purchased online. That goes for land too! The great thing about the internet is that you can actually get an idea of what your land looks like without ever leaving your chair. You can save a HUGE amount of time and money by first looking online. When I first started searching I could not believe the number of places there were to find land. In these next few sections

With all the places to look online the first step is to try to get an idea of what you want to do with your land and where you might want to live. This can be difficult because there may be a number of places that you might like to settle. Many times you will find places you never even considered looking at. I started my search by looking all over the United States to get an idea of what was out there.

The Basics

Don’t overlook some of the basics… is there water available? is there electricity nearby? Some people may want to have an isolated retreat, but know what you are getting into before that leap! When my wife and I started looking for our land we decided that we wanted to raise some animals and grow our own food. That meant we would need a reliable source of water. There are many places out west that are becoming quite dry and have to rely on community wells or municipal water supplies. In Colorado for example you require 35 acres or more to even drill a well. And you may have to drill down 400, 500, or even 700 feet to get a reliable source of water. Some people actually have to truck in water!!

Electricity should also be close by. If the nearest pole is a mile or two away it can be quite expensive to get a line to the house. Most people like the creature comforts that electricity provides and a connection with the rest of the world can be just as important. Be sure to check out the availability of phone, cable, cell phone signal, and clear shots to satellites, if you want to stay connected. Of course electricity and a connection to the outside world isn’t really a necessity… look at the Amish… they’ve been doing just fine without it!

Do you like hot humid summers… long cold winters… or mild year round temperatures? The weather has changed quite a bit over these last few years, with warmer temperatures and some pretty severe storms. I can remember as a child growing up in Seattle where the high would never get into the 80′s. No one had air conditioners in their homes or cars. Not any more! I went out there for vacation this last summer and the temperature was up in the high 80′s and 90′s!! And no air conditioning in the condo we were in. So plan for the future.