FS - 10 acres of North Idaho for a *possible* homestead site

First off - I have seen a couple of these types of posts so I gather they are allowed - if not, I am sorry and please let me know!  Also, if there is a better place to move it to, or cross-post, let me know that too.

As I've described elsewhere, it is looking like time for me to pass on my lovely 10 acres of partly wooded south-facing land in northern Idaho, to someone else, who is in a better place to do something with it.  The end (or pause) of one dream might become the beginning of someone else's!

There are some challenges that would have to be overcome before trying to homestead - but there just might be a Permie type out there that is looking for something just like it and is ready to work!

I'm going to just bullet point for now to get started, gauge interest, etc.:

Kootenai County - about 50 minutes south of Coeur d'Alene - kind of near the SE end of the lake (no lake view though....unless you build 80++ feet )

Square lot approx 660' x 660'

Off the beaten path....then off of that....then off of that... see below for details

Mostly gently sloping NE down to SW, couple of flat-ish spots

No creek, but a bit more watershed than just the 10 acres (I think)

Next to a disused field (which is part of a 640-acre farm / timber parcel that is also for sale...)

Partly timbered; mostly Ponderosa pine and some of another species or two; apparently at least partly logged decades ago

Kootenai just changed to allow opt-out of building codes under certain conditions (for now.....I noticed one of the Commissioner candidates is campaigning on "common sense and safety for your family"...read between the lines....but I digress)

It's out there a bit - somewhat isolated....err, Peaceful.  The neighbors on the county road all seem pretty nice, and a lot of it is farm or timber land.

There's only one house visible from part of the property!  Across the little canyon.

You can only hear a bit of highway noise off in the distance (from two sides)

Other than that, it's mostly you and the turkeys and coyotes and barking elk and occasional power equipment off in the distance - quite lovely, actually

Almost but not quite next to a State Park (aka local game preserve )

There are some other wells in the area, but I don't know much about all of that yet

I've also researched nearby septic, taken drone video, found the original 1914 land patent, 3-D topo mapped it in Google Earth, etc.

For the...ah, less desirable qualities.....or maybe those qualities for the more adventurous / willing to work for a lower price!

No legal access (that is, recorded easement) - YET - may be possible

Good, recent logging road goes most of the way from the county road to the neighboring field - something like 1-1/2 or 2 miles!

Old logging road appears to go around the hillside, through a different neighbor, and does go through my parcel

There's a third neighbor (farm) through which a hypothetical easement would be a lot shorter - all of that would have to be arranged and built though

I *think* it's on the Reservation - trying to confirm this and if so, exactly what difference it makes (I think they at least retain hunting rights)

There may be some complications with title insurance and such - I am working on that - I don't think anything bad, just more steps to work through

Price??  Like a good engineer, my answer is: "It depends..."  How much work do you want to put in, how much....uh, unorthodoxy?... are you willing to deal with?  I've had two different people in the industry wet-thumb it (after a basic look) in the 50-60k+ range - if you could drive right to it and all the usual ducks were in their usual row (i.e. with easements and road and clear title and so on).


I am not an attorney, real estate professional, title specialist or medical doctor, and this does not constitute legal, medical or other professional advice or an offer for sale or solicitation for bid, etc. etc.  No warranties expressed or implied, wash before wear, contents may be hot after heating, all rights reserved.  Et cetera ad infinitum!  


That's all for now.  Even if my ideas aren't working out for now, I think I'd just as soon sell to a fellow Permie, as to an out-of-state "investor" or someone who will put in a 4000-sq-ft typical house for 3 people and 2 dogs!

Oh, and it's off-grid too....almost goes without saying after all of those words .  But needs to be said:  

No utilities currently on site - other than pretty good cell coverage on Verizon at least.

C Jones wrote:First off - I have seen a couple of these types of posts so I gather they are allowed - if not, I am sorry and please let me know!  Also, if there is a better place to move it to, or cross-post, let me know that too.

It's totally fine! I added this thread to the Permculture Real Estate forum so it might be spotted easier, too

Hi C Jones!
I am an Idaho native and have spent my whole life here. As I read your post, I was blown away at how far away this property is from my family ranch in Plummer. I would love to homestead this property and was wondering what steps I need to take in order to do this!
Thanks in advance

Hi J;
Big Welcome to Permies!

I noticed that this post is a year old.  If your family land is in Plumber, then this land isn't too far off.
If you do not hear from him thru Permies . You might try looking at county records on line.
See if you can identify who the current owner is and where to contact them.
A 10 acre parcel next to a 360 might be locatable.

Now that your here you may as well check out the rest of the Permies site!
Lots of way cool subjects to investigate.
I suggest my personal favorite the Rocket Mass Heater forum!  Stop on by and read all about them!  
You have already met the forum moderator!

Hi J!

Thanks for reaching out.  I'll also send you a PM, but here is an update for anyone else interested.

The good news for you is that I haven't sold the property yet but am still looking to!  (My life has been pretty, we'll say, interesting the last couple of years.)  

The other good news is that I cleared the minor title issue by paying a bunch of money.  The less-good news is that I still don't have an easement.  However, the CdA Tribe now owns the farm with the access road so there may be a path forward to getting an easement (the previous owner didn't want to deal with easements because they were selling the land).

As far as steps needed to homestead, were you thinking more of what the land would need, or how to get the land?

Q1 -
As far as I can tell it would probably be off-grid for, well, everything.  One power company gave me a quick rough guess of like $70K to bring power on (based on the distance to nearest existing power), which I imagine would be prohibitive.  A couple possibilities might be:  Find others nearby who could split the cost with (10 acres adjacent also sold last year, 20 others are for sale, the tribe or the logging co on the other sides seem less likely).  Or maybe I contacted the wrong power company, I had meant to follow that up to find out because there are at least two in the area and I don't know for sure who has anything closer.  Or of course, off-grid solar, etc.  That set of plans that was recently featured on Permies for free might be interesting - Solar Station Construction Plans by Ben Peterson -- ebook.

Water - probably need to drill a well

Wastewater - the usual

Road - the existing road is pretty passable even for my old sedan, as long as the snow is gone, and as far as the road goes.  Tried to go out with someone last year in a jacked-up 4WD truck and got stuck, so there's that.  If you were going to homestead it would more than likely need more road sooner or later (and an easement too, of course).  I'll add that I have a guy I'd trust to do the work, whose info I could pass on.

Umm, anyway, there's probably more that I'm not thinking of now, but feel free to ask.

Q2 -
I had it on the market through a Realtor TM for $35,000 for a while, but the hangups were too much for most people.  Now that I've fixed the title I suppose it'll be more saleable and I might be asking somewhere in that same range.  We can talk more by PM.

Thanks again!
CJ


aside to thomas - haha, checking the county records online is exactly what I would probably do too!

It would be great if it worked out for both of you.  If J Wilmes puts in a rocket mass heater, thomas wins too!