Advice on purchasing property in WI or IL

Hello out there!

I am wondering if anyone has advice on buying a house with land (<5 acres) in the WI or IL area.  I recently sold my home, and am in an apartment temporarily, and I'm looking for a place to buy.  I see a lot of options that are surrounded by cornfields in these areas and I'm wondering how concerned I should be or how far I need to be to be able to grow healthier non-gmo foods and herbs.  

All advice is welcome!  Thank you!!!

-Dot

I used to live surrounded by corn fields and dairy farms.  I'm glad I don't any longer.  The dairy farmers spread liquid manure on the fields a large part of the year now, and the law changed so they build these huge concrete manure tanks that are just vile smelling.

Farm land here sells at a premium, and that is fine with me.  I wanted hilly, forested land.  A house with the amount of land you are looking for sells for is also at a premium right now, and it's hard to buy.  A lot of people are looking for that exact thing.  Larger areas of land less for quite a bit less, but of course, they are a lot harder to afford.  Most of the houses in this area sell before they are put on the market by word of mouth and bidding wars are relatively common.

I don't want to discourage you, just letting you know so you know what to expect.  My only real advice is, if you find a place you like, be ready to make an offer immediately.

Thank you Trace.  Yea it's a crazy market out there and I'm trying to visualize what I learn about from permie/gardening books into an actual property in this area. All I'm looking for is some nice prairie land with a little house on it.  Hmph.

Dot Gac wrote:Thank you Trace.  Yea it's a crazy market out there and I'm trying to visualize what I learn about from permie/gardening books into an actual property in this area. All I'm looking for is some nice prairie land with a little house on it.  Hmph.

It's hard, unless you convert part of it to prairie.  Prairie=farm land here.  IL I think  would be a little easier because it is so much flatter than much of WI.  I was down there a couple weeks ago picking up a puppy in Pocahontas IL, near St Louis.  It seemed like pretty much everywhere in IL was flat land that would be easy to build on.  Any chance you would be interested in an old farm house that needed some work?  Building materials are high, so remodeling is expensive now, but building new is very high.  

I still have relatives in IL, but I'm biased towards WI  Hope you find somewhere you love.

I am totally interested in an old farm house that needs some work.  Well, is it live-able right now?  Maybe it can be renovated later on when prices simmer down a bit?
I kind of have my heart set on WI.  It's a new land for me  I've lived in IL my whole life and I'm ready for a change.

Congrats on your puppy.  That's awesome!

If you want to avoid GMO and toxic gick and smells, I'm afraid being surrounded by conventional corn/soy is not what you want.  The further north you get, the land gets cheaper but the winter gets longer.  To get a house in a prairie might be possible in some rare developments where each lot is 5 acres but I'm guessing they'd be very expensive and for rich commuters.  

How close to a big city do you need to be?  I tend to think of Wisconsin in a few blocks.  

There's the driftless area in the west and southwest of the state that is beautiful and very hilly.  Lots of wooded land with farms in the valleys.  Some areas are very expensive due to deer hunting but at <5 acres the plots wouldn't be attractive to hunters.  Ten miles as the crow flies can sometimes take a 25 mile drive.

From the driftless to the east is farm country.  Flattish and corn/soy covered.  Back 40s of wood lots here and there but much more open than wooded.  

In the middle is the Central Sands.  Combination of sandy soil and farm country.  Water table issues due to a lot of high capacity wells.

The northern 1/3 of the state is mainly trees and lakes.  Tourists and rural economy type activities.  That's where I live.  Maple syrup, fishing, wild rice and the closest conventional farm is 8 miles away.

Thank you Mike!  That's a good explanation and gives me a lot to consider.  I don't think I need to be near a big city.  Some sort of town nearby would be good for entertainment and socializing.  
What does "Back 40s of wood lots" mean?

It sounds like you live in a nice place with syrups, fish and rice.

IDK if you would have any interest in living up by Superior in WI, but there is a lot of great land in Ashland and Bayfield counties that are not cornfields. Bayfield and Washburn are actually in a bit of a warmer microclimate as well. I know a man up there who says he is in zone 5. We're a bit south of the lake in Ashland county, so we're zone 4a, some corn maybe a mile away, but our land is too hilly and wooded for any of our neighbors to start farming corn.

Sorry Dot, I was maybe mixing my metaphors there.  When you're a farmer, you often have a "back 40".  It's a 40 acre chunk that's somewhere in the back of the farm.  Often it seems like they also are the sections that they left trees on as a firewood lot and deer hunting woods.  So as you drive around you'll see 90% fields and 10% wood lots, the woods usually being back off the road a ways.

Hi Dot,  if you don’t mind me asking, are you open to buying anywhere in the IL/WI area?  The reason I ask is that this covers quite a bit of latitude.  As Mike has already pointed out, he lives in a very northerly portion of Wisconsin with mild summers and harsh winters.  Much of my family is from that approximate area so I am fairly familiar with it.

I grew up in the flat, flat “corn forests” of central Illinois.  I presently live in deep Southern Illinois, well south of St. Louis.  It is a very hilly, rugged and rocky area.  The glaciers never got this far south and the land shows the difference.  The winters are quite mild (I hardly even call them winters) but the summers are brutally hot and humid.  Generally the land is fairly cheap in Southern Illinois, but the soil is not the loam found in central Illinois—instead you will likely find rock-hard clay.

I hope this isn’t too much information.  I just wanted to stress the wide climactic and topographical differences ranging from Northern Wisconsin to Southern Illinois.

Eric

Thanks Eric Mike and Rachel!  I think my search is broadening for WI, based on these conversations.  I'm not looking for extreme northern WI yet....I have the jitters about being so far away from my NW chicago area family and friends.  But I am considering that driftless region in WI and maybe up north to Fond du Lac or Baraboo.  It would be nice to keep my travel time to IL friends and family to about 2 hours...ish.

These microclimates are so interesting.  I can't imagine being in IL and having a mild winter.  

Dot Gac wrote:Thanks Eric Mike and Rachel!  I think my search is broadening for WI, based on these conversations.  I'm not looking for extreme northern WI yet....I have the jitters about being so far away from my NW chicago area family and friends.  But I am considering that driftless region in WI and maybe up north to Fond du Lac or Baraboo.  It would be nice to keep my travel time to IL friends and family to about 2 hours...ish.

These microclimates are so interesting.  I can't imagine being in IL and having a mild winter.  

I'm in the driftless area, and in my opinion, the most interesting part of the state.  As Mike said, much of it is wooded and hilly.  My own land is only cleared on a few acres and the rest is woods.  I have steep ridges and valleys.  I have some kind of miniature plateau areas, but mostly hills.  On top of the ridges, you can see for miles.

Whatever you decide, I hope you find a place that is perfect for you.

Dot,

I am glad that you narrowed that geography down a bit.  If you are trying to stay within 2 hours of the Chicago area, then Southern Illinois is probably not for you.  I live close to 6 hours away from Chicago and there is still more of Illinois to the south!


Eric