Advice in helping my parents find property in Oregon or Washington

Hello,

I am looking for advice if you have any. My parents have been homesteading in Illinois for 20+ years and they have 2 cows, 3 horses, 3-4 goats and a dog and 3 cats in the house.

They are looking to relocate that whole operation to the west, somewhere within a 4 hour radius of the Portland, Oregon area, where my brother and I are settled.

Finding land that is not crazy expensive, gets enough rainfall to grow things, is suitable for livestock, and is not a 10 hour drive from Portland is pretty tricky. They have a gorgeous 9 acre farm back in Illinois, but the same money can't buy the same thing out here with higher land prices, which is a huge bummer.

Do you have any recommendations for finding such things?

Do you know any real estate agents who are good at hunting out land like that?

Renting a farm out here for a little bit while they hunt for the right place to buy is a good option too, but I'm not sure where you find farm rentals.

I'm trying to help, but it's hard to know where to start, so if you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Thank you!

Hello! I humbly recommend my county. I hear Paula Burrows with Windermere is good

https://permies.com/t/100135/Praise-Lewis-County

Thank you James! Lewis County does sound pretty fabulous. We shall investigate further...

We are in the process of purchasing a property in Jackson County, Oregon. Our real estate agent has been great, specializes in rural properties, Kenny Taylor with John L. Scott Realty. The more northern areas of Jackson County are about 4 hours from Portland. I have no idea what you consider reasonable, as that's quite relative, but Kenny is great if you are interested. Good luck.

Thanks Stacy! That's another place we have been wondering about.  My mom is going to give that realtor a call. :)

You're welcome. Hope they can find something.

I lived in Ashland for a while and I really loved it. If they do choose to move down there be sure they get a place that has good, secure water resources. Further north or towards the coast in Oregon it gets wetter. I hear Eugene is really nice too

That is very kind of you to help your parents out with this!
Id second Lewis county, if youre looking in WA. I actually spent 25 years in WA and grew up there as well, and unfortunately most major counties (in Western WA) are getting extremely strict on zoning, water rights, and encroaching on "freedoms" in general, so depending on how much of a true homestead they want, there may be quite a bit of constraints in most Western counties... This, unfortunately, is why i moved. Land prices anywhere in Western WA and OR are generally going to be pretty high, which I see you know already. When i spent a stent looking for properties up there, I found that the heavily forested properties with no utilities were (of course) the best prices, but then there would be the cost to clear an area, build homes, drill well, etc. So it really does depend on how rustic of a homesteading lifestyle your parents would be ok with. The great PNW is beautiful and majestic, but with that comes a lot higher cost of living than theyll be used to moving from the mid-west.
If you were to look further east in either WA or OR the land prices do get less expensive, but there are other concerns such as colder winter temps, less rainfall, different foliage, just depends on how far east theyre willing to go in Cascadia. The 4 hour radius is what i feel is putting a lot of constraints on this, but i understand the "accessibility" aspect of that concern.
best of luck to you and your parents!

A great resource would be a site called landwatch.com   I like browsing just to see what land around the country looks like. It has very detailed descriptions on some of the listings. Such as water electricity and just general info you would want to know