Find Land in Idaho

Hi guys,

I'm in the very beginning of looking for land. We have set our mines in Idaho and I been looking online at listings and gathering as much information as possible. We are scheduled to fly there 1st week of march and we are also meeting with a realtor. We have about 8 days and want to make sure they count. It's obvious that buying land is much more work then buying a house. We want at least 5 acres., able to build a natural home and have some farm animals. We are essentially trying to go off the grid as much as possible  (no public utilities, grow own food etc) so I'm aware to stay out of city limits. I would like to be at least within  30 -40 minutes a small town or city because I have a 3 year old and do not want to homeschool. I have been looking within 40 minutes of Boise, pretty much all treasure valley, Emmett, horseshoe bend, Idaho city , weiser, also looking at salmon Idaho. I read the southwest has longer growing season ( warmer climate) and so would like to stick to southwest , central Idaho.

I noticed not a lot of inventory and land is quite expensive for just a couple of acres. . Also read some investors own thousands of lots  😕
I need you help! How do I find lots that don't have addresses? If I am looking at let's say 20 acres how do I look at must of I'm think walking will take a while . Should I rent some type go cart or Atv sorry if these questions seem kinda of stupid. I really would like to find my piece of land this trip as we are ready to get out of lifestyle. I doubt realtor is going to go with us all over, and spent considerable time looking at each lots.
I read and made a checklist of things to look into and consider
Anything else I should know?
Please feel free to make any recommendations
Favorite nice towns etc
Thanks

Howdy Johary, welcome to permies!

One of the things that I like to do is to go to the county assessor's web page of the county you are looking in.
If you are looking around Boise that would be ADA county. Which is HERE
You will be looking at the County GIS map so look for GIS or interactive map.
This should take you to a map where you can zoom in and see property boundaries. If you play around with all of the "app" buttons on the page you can find out who owns the parcel, how big it is, taxes etc.

Might I suggest that you look for properties owned by the union pacific railroad. If you can find a contact person you can ask if they have any land for sale.

And yes it will take some time to walk around a larger parcel. I own 35 acres in Wyoming and we walked the whole thing in about 3 hrs. So if the property owner would allow you to drive around that might be quicker, but be sure that you have permission.

To find larger parcels that may not have addresses you will have to get yourself some good maps. Topographic maps are my favorite. Some states also have maps for sportsman that show land ownership. In the west the land was all surveyed into 1 square mile sections. At the corners of these squares there will be markers. many are cement posts with brass plaques mounted on the tops. These will have the township and range and section numbers engraved on them. So if you have a good topo map and you can locate one corner post you will know that there will be another post 1 mile in each direction, North, south, east and west from there.

I also like to look at the Landwatch website.

Any way I hope that helps some?

Johary, you are making quite a bit of change going from FL to ID. I am a realtor in Montana and sell Montana ranch for sale.
I would recommend leasing for a bit before you plop down money. For instance, you were talking about living 230 minutes out of town with school age kids. I think you will regret that. I would suggest you look at the MLS site for Idaho and Lands of America. I know you want to lay down roots but what happens if they are the wrong roots? You would be paying real estate fees all over the place. Lease for 6 months until you learn the areas. It will pay off even with the hassle. JMO and best of luck.


Buzz Tatom

Thanks all great advice.

Hello Johary,
There is a swath of agricultural land with a fairly long growing season generally along the Snake River from Burley to Weiser. There are also some microclimate areas in Idaho with longer growing seasons (banana Belt areas) like Hagerman, Glenn's Ferry, Homedale area, Riggins, and others. There are some areas in Southern Idaho with "hot water" where you can farm year-round. The Oregon side of the Treasure Valley has some good farm ground also. Absolutely make sure of the water rights on any ground that you purchase. Good luck in your search.
Steve      

Johary, we are looking for land in the same area. I’m curious as to what you settled on?