30 acre permie property with improvements in SW Virginia $135K OBO

2/1/22 - On grid, 30 acres of S to SW facing hillside, gentle to steep slopes with two fairly flat plateaus (house and barn).  About 10 acres cleared, mostly pasture, and 20 acres of forest surrounding the cleared core.  Plenty of privacy and loaded with deer and occasional turkeys.  Has horse barn (7 box stalls, 1 double box, and tack room), shed, pump house, garden area with raised beds and plenty of room for hugelkultur mounds.  I completed my PDC last winter and used the 10 acre core as my final design project.  I've excavated one swale so far and started a food forest in the berm with 5 fruit trees, more to be added each spring and fall.  I've also planted blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, elderberries, and grapes.  Strawberry bed in the front.

Current living accommodations consist of a 3 BR / 2 B singlewide which was gutted when I bought the place but quite livable now with new heat pump, PEX plumbing, mostly new wiring, insulation and about half sheetrocked.  Installed large double paned window in south wall of master bedroom, and lots of new lighting (all LED, sorry Paul).  New kitchen cabinets, sink, used glass-topped electric stove, standard refrigerator, washer and dryer.  Still needs 8 replacement windows, better entry doors, and new locks.  Ran out of cash.

Had planned to create permaculture community here with 3-5 families, but the first family I chose to join me didn't work out, so I'm a little disillusioned and not as eager to pursue that idea.  Since I evicted them, I'm enjoying living here even more and my list of to-do projects keeps expanding.  But I've realized that at my age, 75, I'll probably never see them all completed.  I think I bit off more than I can chew, so would like to sell the property to some younger folks with similar plans.  Could work out some sort of share program, lease option, partial purchase with eventual buy-out—I'm open to whatever works.

Will require decent lease deposit or down payment, so if you are looking for free entry – no chance.  Send PM with your name, interest level (buy, lease, partial, or whatever), experience level, and your email address.

When. Can I see it I'm interested

I have large down payment please contact me so we can discuss this I can be in your area in late March.

Hey Hi there.  I am iso a small homestead for me, my adult son and his spouse.
We need a clean, year round stream or creek or spring for our plans. Let's chat soon if there is water on the site. I am ready to buy. Thankyou!

I am guessing you have already had alot of interest in this property but if you have not- please get in touch with me at Tdhadorn@gmail.com . My wife and I are actually planning a trip out to the area starting on Friday. If anyone else is interested in a similar concept of starting a permaculture/ natural building community on a similar sized plot of land and have any leads- please feel free to get in contact with me as will at the above email address. We would love to meet some like minded people who are ready to start something like this with.

Update 11/7/22:  Since last posting I have made a few changes around the property, mostly repairs to existing buildings, rethought location of garden area (was in a frost pocket), moving gradually to sunnier area on slope.  More fruit trees, bushes, and perennials.  Fixed some leaks and winterization.  In process of preparing in-barn chicken coop for winter.  20 chickens now in movable Chickshaw in movable fencing on pasture.  Next project electric fencing for next spring's goats.

Since July I've had a second family take up residence here.  They are wonderful--the exact opposites of the family I had here initially that I had to evict.  They have restored my faith that this could be a thriving permaculture community.  They brought their own 5th wheel trailer to live in, an excavator that has proved very useful, two trailer loads of tools, materials, and supplies, and four sets of willing hands and brains.   Joe and Terri, pushing 60, and two of their four adult children.  So far, we are getting along quite amicably, and I've pretty much given them free reign with the entire property to do as they see fit.  Their goals and mine mesh well, and I consider them a godsend and hope they will decide to make this their permanent home.  For the time being they are renting for two years while they consider their options.

Since I turned 76 in August, I've had a number of physical setbacks.  First shingles that has yet to clear up completely, very painful and exhausting due to lack of sleep.  Then cataract surgery which went well but limited my physical activity for a couple of weeks.  And last month kidney stones that required hospitalization and surgery.  I'm still recuperating from that ordeal.  Thankfully, Joe was here to drive me 60 miles to the nearest VA hospital and pick me up when I was discharged.  I really would have been in trouble if I'd been here alone.  My nearest neighbor, whom I could have asked to drive me, died recently, and though I've met a few of my other neighbors, I don't know any of them well enough to ask favors.

So, to make a long story longer, I'm now open to additional families or singles to join our permaculture co-op.  If you haven't found your own land yet, this might work for you.  There are at least six identified home sites within the 30 acres.  You can build a house or cabin, set up a yurt or tent platform, or help me build a bunk house with composting toilet, bucket shower, and graywater system.  Great south-facing sloping land with several plateaus and other flat spots.  Great solar gain.  Water is limited to a year-round spring and rainwater collection off large barn roof.  I'd like to sink at least one well near or above the barn.  Estimate is 500 feet.  PM me with your email address for more details and to discuss your qualifications and contribution(s) to the group.

Sounds like the opportunity I might be looking for..   was looking at TN but haven't ruled out any of the surrounding states in that area either.   I'm looking for maybe in a year timeline though.  I'd love to see more pictures of the property if you are inclined to post more!

Ideally for me;  I'd be looking for about 2 acres,  with some shade, and a running creek or brook would be lovely.   I have dogs.   I'd also be looking to keep ducks and rabbits.  Maybe a small number of sheep.    Fair amount of varied experience with livestock and gardening.   Have been casually studying permaculture for many years.

Sorry, Heather, no creeks or brooks, only a spring at present.

I have most of the materials to put in rainwater collection system from the barn roof to provide water at the barn and gravity feed down to gardens, food forest, and pastures as needed.  Planning for well near the top of the property and a small pond lower down.  The rain over the past 3 years has been sufficient in volume and frequency that we have not needed irrigation for gardens or anything else, but if that changes in the future, I'd like the well and rain catchment as backup.

I'm very interested please contact me

Hello my name is Amanda Miller,  I am 55 my husband is 57. We are looking for this type of land in S w Virginia. It's this still available?
(321)960-9308

Hi, all,

I sold this farm in June 2025.  Wishing now that I hadn't, but at the time it seemed like my best option.  Couldn't find a way to delete the post, so it is still here on Permies.  I drove all over the country (VA, TN, KY, AR, OK, MO, UT, NV, AZ, NM) looking at smaller homesteads and existing eco-communities but didn't find anything that met my 12 criteria.

I'm currently back in Maine where I have spent the winter re-rehabbing a house that I hope to sell this spring.  I did an 18-month fix-and-flip on this house in 2018-19 before I moved to the 30-acres covered in this post.  But the buyers defaulted on the seller-financed mortgage, and I had to foreclose last fall.  Got it back completely wrecked.  Most of the work I'd done on it had to be redone, plus more.  I'd say those people lived like pigs, but I would be maligning pigs.  Pigs ae much cleaner and less destructive.

Anyhoo, it's pending sale now and I'll be heading back to VA/TN/KY soon looking for another property to homestead with the intention of starting a small permaculture community to share the workload and development expenses.  If anyone knows of an available property with at least 10 acres (preferably more), with livable house or trailer, well and septic, electric, about half open land and half wooded, and not too steep, please let me know.

Or if you have land in the southwest VA, east TN area and are looking for someone to buy in and share, please contact me.  Thanks.

Also, if you are interested in joining up with me to share the land, labor, and livelihood, I'd love to hear from you.

Cimarron Layne wrote:Hi, all,

I sold this farm in June 2025.  Wishing now that I hadn't, but at the time it seemed like my best option.  Couldn't find a way to delete the post, so it is still here on Permies.  I drove all over the country (VA, TN, KY, AR, OK, MO, UT, NV, AZ, NM) looking at smaller homesteads and existing eco-communities but didn't find anything that met my 12 criteria.

I'm currently back in Maine where I have spent the winter re-rehabbing a house that I hope to sell this spring.  I did an 18-month fix-and-flip on this house in 2018-19 before I moved to the 30-acres covered in this post.  But the buyers defaulted on the seller-financed mortgage, and I had to foreclose last fall.  Got it back completely wrecked.  Most of the work I'd done on it had to be redone, plus more.  I'd say those people lived like pigs, but I would be maligning pigs.  Pigs ae much cleaner and less destructive.

Anyhoo, it's pending sale now and I'll be heading back to VA/TN/KY soon looking for another property to homestead with the intention of starting a small permaculture community to share the workload and development expenses.  If anyone knows of an available property with at least 10 acres (preferably more), with livable house or trailer, well and septic, electric, about half open land and half wooded, and not too steep, please let me know.

Or if you have land in the southwest VA, east TN area and are looking for someone to buy in and share, please contact me.  Thanks.

Also, if you are interested in joining up with me to share the land, labor, and livelihood, I'd love to hear from you.

Wow the place you sold here in VA was beautiful! I am in south central VA myself on 30 acres, just me and some livestock.

Hi, Larry,
Yep, it was beautiful.  On the south side of a ridge that got plenty of sunlight and a great view across the valley, but it was too steep and needed expensive terracing to make it farmable.  The hike up to the barn 2 to 5 times a day kept me in good shape physically but was getting to be a drag.  Too much work to maintain it alone, and couldn't attract skilled people to join me, so I gave up and sold it.  Now I want to find something similar only flatter and closer to a larger town or city where I can market what I grow or an existing community where I can share the land, labor, and expenses.  I've communicated with a few IC's in the Louisa, VA, area in south central VA, so I may be heading that way when I leave Maine (soon I hope).  If you'd like to stay in touch, you can email me at farm@corylayne.com.