Homesteading can be a tempting lifestyle, particularly in today’s high-cost world.
You live off the land, eating homegrown produce and eggs from hand-raised chickens. You drink milk from your own personal dairy cow, and you may even have a power or water source that’s completely off the grid. In short, you’re self-sufficient.
“We love homesteading,” says Katie Krejci, a registered dietician and longtime homesteader who runs The Homesteading RD. “It’s very satisfying and rewarding work.”
Krejci has been homesteading since 2008, when she planted a garden, fruit trees and a grapevine at her Kansas City home. Now, she owns a 5-acre property in Minnesota and is looking to upgrade to a much larger homestead in the near future.
“Our goal wasn’t initially to get into full-blown homesteading, but it certainly has been progressing that way,” says Krejci, whose @TheHomesteadingRD Instagram account has over 264,000 followers. “Every year or two, we would add on something new and after a while, it really started to add up. Now, homesteading has become my full-time job, and we’re actually property hunting again to move to a new 200-plus-acre homestead.”
What is Krejci looking for this time around? And how can you ensure you’re buying the right property for your homestead? Here’s what she and other experienced homesteaders had to say.
— Understand your goals.
— Consider costs.
— Check the weather.
— Determine what features you want (and don’t).
— Get creative in your search.
— Check for zoning limitations.
— Don’t hold out for perfect.
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1. Understand your goals.
Before diving into the search for a property, you need a clear picture of your homesteading goals. Do you want to grow certain crops or raise a specific animal? Are you hoping to be completely off the grid? Is your main aim to save money or eat more healthily?
“There are so many ways to homestead, and not everyone wants to take it to the extreme that we have,” says Alexia Allen, who owns Hawthorn Farm in Woodinville, Washington. “If you’re clear on your reasons for finding a homestead, it gets a lot easier to choose the right place.”
Allen has homesteaded at Hawthorn for 20 years and lives almost wholly off the land. Hawthorn boasts produce gardens, dairy goats, rainwater storage, solar panels and a forest full of wood for its wood-burning oven. She and her husband, Daniel, even produced all the food for their 2017 wedding (including cheesecakes sweetened with hand-tapped maple).
Beyond your goals for the property, you should also think about your lifestyle goals. Do you want to be close to family or other homesteaders? Are you looking for a more isolated life away from others?
“Proximity to family was also a priority for us,” says Jim Kurczodyna, who runs From Scratch Farmstead in Illinois with his wife, Joelle. “Both of our families lived in the suburbs, and we hoped to be within an hour’s drive of both sides. This really helped us narrow in on an area that was a good middle ground.”
2. Consider costs.
Next is determining your budget. The costs of land vary widely from one location to the next, so knowing how much you can spend can help you home in on a suitable location.
You will also need to consider the costs of any work that needs to be done. Kurczodyna, for example, bought a “fixer-upper,” which required some work before move-in. Clearing trees, building a barn or digging a pond will add extra costs as well.
“One property we were seriously considering early on was 20 acres, and I thought that was the one,” Kurczodyna says. “After working the numbers and realizing how thin it would have stretched us financially, it was ultimately something we needed to back away from.”
They now live on a 5-acre homestead in northern Illinois with their children, dogs, cows and a “smattering of chickens,” as their website say.
Taxes can add to your costs, too, so look at local tax rates before choosing where to purchase. As Brian Wells, a fourth-generation homesteader and host of the Homestead Journey Podcast, explains, “Every dollar you spend in taxes is a dollar you can’t invest in your homesteading goals.”
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3. Check the weather.
Climate considerations come next. What areas are right for the crops you want to grow or the animals you hope to breed?
“The length of the growing season, annual precipitation, growing zones, these will all determine what’s possible on a property,” Kurczodyna says. “You can transform a lot about your homestead over time, but there’s no changing the climate.”
You will also need to think about the climate’s impact on how you can physically use your property (and work on it).
“Just because you’re fine with 100-degree Texas heat or below-0 Minnesota winters doesn’t mean you will be OK working in that kind of weather for hours at a time,” says Deborah Niemann, who owns Antiquity Oaks and the Thrifty Homesteader. “Be honest with yourself about how well you can tolerate the weather.”
4. Determine what features you want (and don’t).
Make a list of features you want on your homestead property, things like a pond or creek, barns, wooded areas, or even just a long, deep-set driveway.
For Krejci, her must-haves include “open pasture land for livestock, natural water sources, good soil quality and a diverse and mature forest, something great for foraging, maples for tapping, and bringing in wildlife,” she says. She also wants a property “away from busy roads, preferably on a dirt road or a dead end, and away from any conventional farming operations to avoid overspray and leaching into the water. ”
You should also determine your dealbreakers — the features you don’t want on a potential homesteading property. Wells, for example, didn’t choose his property with homesteading in mind, and it’s required extra work as a result.
“While we’ve been able to make our land productive, we certainly have had to work hard to do so,” he says. “It really is not property that is well set up to do what we are doing. We live on top of a mountain that at one point was a limestone quarry. I’m convinced our property is where they dumped all the junk stone.”
5. Get creative in your search.
Once it’s time to actually start your property search, working with a real estate agent can help, but only if they’re experienced with homesteading or farming clients.
“Find a realtor that knows farmland,” Kurczodyna says. “Searching for a homestead is not at all like searching for your standard three-bed, two-bath house in the suburbs. You’ll run up against things like wells, septic fields, easements, fence lines, outbuildings, soil types and a whole host of other factors. Someone who knows farmland and the area well can help you understand and assess some of those unique and quirky things.”
Don’t rely wholly on your agent, though. Drive around in your preferred area and watch for “For Sale” signs. Ask local homesteading Facebook groups for leads. You can even post a flyer in area feed stores.
“You need to be the one in the driver’s seat,” Kurczodyna says. “Don’t just wait for the daily update emails from your realtor. Competition for homestead properties has skyrocketed in the last couple years.”
[READ: How to Build a Greenhouse.]
6. Check for zoning limitations.
Finally, once you’re considering a property, be sure to check any regulatory limitations it may come with.
“Zoning laws, building codes, cottage food laws, hunting and fishing laws, environmental regulations and other laws and regulations can put serious limitations as to what you can and cannot do on your own land,” Wells says. “Make sure you understand the water rights where you intend to homestead, too. In some places, it’s even illegal to capture rainwater.”
You should also be careful about HOAs or POAs, which set rules for how properties can look and be utilized within a certain community.
“Look out for HOAs that are going to go into a tizzy about your dandelion-rich garden or your dairy goats,” Allen says.
Don’t hold out for “perfect.”
Searching for the right homestead property can be challenging. If you don’t find what you need right away, Wells recommends starting at your current property and expanding from there.
“Don’t wait until you’ve bought the perfect land,” he says. “Start herbs on the window sill. Put tomatoes in pots on your back porch or balcony. Buy fruit at the grocery store or farmer’s market and make jam. Start learning skills now, and that’s less you’ll need to learn after you’ve purchased your dream homestead.”
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How to Choose the Right Homestead Property originally appeared on usnews.com
