really cheap piece of land

I saw this ad on craiglist today, I have a friend looking for property so I have been looking online for her, but she needs a place with a house, but it is in such a cool area and such a good price, I thought someone here may want to check it out. Almost an acre for $27,000. I have no connection with this, just passing it on. Not sure if it is the right place to post or not.
http://eugene.craigslist.org/grd/2460254693.html

It may be cheap for the Eugene area, but it's way out of MY price range, LOL!  Prices like that are why so many people are being driven out of Western Oregon, even those of us born and raised there, and whose families were the original homesteaders.

Kathleen

Oregon land is so expensive because there is always one more Californian who thinks it is cheap!

John Polk wrote:
Oregon land is so expensive because there is always one more Californian who thinks it is cheap!

Exactly what I was thinking.

I bought 20 acres in Texas for $1,000 in 2002.  And no, I didn't leave out any zeroes on that price.

I bought a 10 acre tract in the foothills of western Mexico for $800 in 2007.

I built a house on both of these properties for under $15K with solar/wind system, rain catchment, gardens, animals, etc.

So, for that $27K, I could have gotten 30 acres in 2 countries with 2 homes and full solar/wind systems, etc.  Or, I could have bought "almost an acre".....

Velacreations, how is the water situation on the Texas land?  Do you have to haul water?  What's the native vegetation?  And how did you find twenty acres for that price??

Kathleen

I made a big roof and did rain catchment.  We hauled water initially (first few months). After that, we used the rain water.

Native vegetation is brushland/desert, typical of the Chihuahuan Desert, lots of ocotillio, lechuguilla, creosote, sotol, cacti, etc.

That's just what land went for in that area at that time.  You could probably find 20 acres for $5K, now.

Finding cheap land is all about getting out and looking and talking to people and researching and spending time, etc.  It isn't easy, but I've found some nice deals over the years.

This may not qualify as real cheap, but to us it is. We just bought 20 acres of land with a 3 bedroom house on it. There is about 5 acres of pasture, a small orchard, a small creek that flows year around and about 10 ac. of woods for 87K. It is in western PA. We have wonderful soil in our garden, 4 seasons, an in spring we will have enough maple syrup for us and family.
kent

here in Michigan you should get a couple dozen acres for that price

It really depends on where you are.  There are areas not too far from me (in Oregon) where you could get forty to sixty acres of land for that price.  But, it's remote (as in, you'd probably have to use a snow machine to get in and out in the winter), and it's in areas where wells are extremely deep, so either you go a thousand feet down for water (probably $30,000+ for a well, which could, of course, be a dry hole), or you haul water, or you develop a rain collection system.  Need a lot of roof area to make that work, but it would still probably be less expensive than the well.

Kathleen

in texas, we had 1200 sf of roof, 1-15" of rain a year

in Mexico, we have 1000 sf of roof, 20-25" a year.

In any case, the real cost is the storage...  still, it's cheaper than a well.

velacreations wrote:
in texas, we had 1200 sf of roof, 1-15" of rain a year

in Mexico, we have 1000 sf of roof, 20-25" a year.

In any case, the real cost is the storage...  still, it's cheaper than a well.

Are you american or mexican citizen originally? I ask because I am wondering about buying land in a foreign country (I am american). I don't know where to start with looking or where it may be a less complicated task to get citizenship.

I am an American.  If you want to buy land in Mexico, there are specific rules for foreigners.

You can't own land within 50 miles of a coast line and 100 miles of an international border.  You can only have property in those areas as a 99 yr lease, while the title is held in a Mexican national's name, usually a bank.

Outside of those areas, there are 2 types of land, ejido land and private property.  You can not own ejido land, only Mexican nationals, but ejido land can be converted to private property, if the entire ejido decides so. 

Private property is everywhere, but most Mexicans do not wish to sell their property.  I looked for over 2 years before I found the piece I bought.  The reason is that property taxes are usually very low (I pay $8/yr), so there is not an incentive to sell vacant land, like in the states.  So, most people keep property or sell to a relative, keeping property in the family.

I advise you to go talk to English speaking lawyers and real estate agents.  Don't necessarily by anything from them (they'll probably charge a lot more than something is worth), but they'll give you a lot of good information about the process.

Other countries are different, and I only really know about Mexico and the US.

thank you vela, that was all new info to me

Currently I have my eye on 160 acres 15 miles out of town for $59k.  closer to town here in NV it is about 10k an acre.  if I had the money all at once there are some full 640 Acre sections that are ~$176 an acre.  I am trying to get on some land without a mortgage so I am limited to a smaller plot.  so really it depends on the area.

Spencer

John Polk wrote:
Oregon land is so expensive because there is always one more Californian who thinks it is cheap!

Some things never change. When I was a teen (early '70s) there was a popular bumper sticker in Oregon, it said "Don't Californicate Oregon."

Spencer wrote:
Currently I have my eye on 160 acres 15 miles out of town for $59k.  closer to town here in NV it is about 10k an acre.  if I had the money all at once there are some full 640 Acre sections that are ~$176 an acre.  I am trying to get on some land without a mortgage so I am limited to a smaller plot.  so really it depends on the area.

Spencer

Man I wish land was cheaper in the UK My parents are paying £80k ($130k) for 18 acres in Wales where land is relatively cheap compared to England, especially the south.

I'm seriously considering emigration!

Sam, you'd be able to do a lot more (a LOT more) with your eighteen acres in Wales, than with 160 acres in Nevada!  Do a little research on the climate there, and you'll see why.  Short growing season, near-desert precipitation, and high elevation (over 4,000' for most of the state, some areas quite a bit over even without being up in the mountains. 

Kathleen

Kathleen Sanderson wrote:
Sam, you'd be able to do a lot more (a LOT more) with your eighteen acres in Wales, than with 160 acres in Nevada!  Do a little research on the climate there, and you'll see why.  Short growing season, near-desert precipitation, and high elevation (over 4,000' for most of the state, some areas quite a bit over even without being up in the mountains. 

Kathleen

Ah yes, I completely failed to see the bit about NV in Spencer's post

Sam wrote:
Man I wish land was cheaper in the UK My parents are paying £80k ($130k) for 18 acres in Wales where land is relatively cheap compared to England, especially the south.

I'm seriously considering emigration!

Now you know why I left Wales!  Didn't get anywhere near that kind of money for my land though...  If you want to try Portugal it's a bit life-changing and the climate and soil are nothing like Wales, but I've never regretted leaving for a moment. 

daphnetree wrote:
I saw this ad on craiglist today, I have a friend looking for property so I have been looking online for her, but she needs a place with a house, but it is in such a cool area and such a good price, I thought someone here may want to check it out. Almost an acre for $27,000. I have no connection with this, just passing it on. Not sure if it is the right place to post or not.
http://eugene.craigslist.org/grd/2460254693.html

this price is very close to what it goes for in this area of  VA.  but we dont blame the califonians for the high price.  its the yankees.  they come down from the north where the price of eveything in alot of areas is immorally high and buy up stuff.  10 yrs ago my 2 acres was right at $50,000.00

I can get 140 acres here in northeastern New Mexico for $85,000.

It's badly overgrazed ranchland in the middle of nowhere, but it is cheap.

Good riverbottom farm land with water rights costs much more.

You would consider 4,000 ft to be high elevation? I wouldn't think that height would pose any problems.

just spent 3 months in bolivia,  returned to NY last night. ahhhh home !!!

Lot of my time was in La Paz,it's at about 12,000 feet i think,little less...

near there is a mountain i did a 3day trek on called Huayna Potosi, now that sucker is high,
6,088 m (19,974 ft)
im sure land is real cheap around there....have fun with that! nearly froze my b@!!s off.

Paleo Gardener wrote:
You would consider 4,000 ft to be high elevation? I wouldn't think that height would pose any problems.

Sepp Holzer farms at 3600-4500 feet so... There might be other factors I guess, I don't know Nevada at all ^^

4,000' elevation isn't really all that high, but combined with low humidity, it makes for an 'interesting' climate.  We can have frost any time of the year, even mid-summer (I'm at 4,200' elevation).  Our nights are generally pretty chilly -- they are still going down to low forties or even high thirties even now in August.  It's rare to have night-time temps in the fifties or higher.  This is nice for sleeping, but a little hard on some plants in the garden (esp. tomatoes, cukes, melons, etc.).  Fruit trees produce well once in a while, maybe every two or three years there will be a crop. 

In a lot of ways this is actually a pretty nice climate -- you can pretty much count on sunny summer days, for example.  Rain in the summer is rare.  And it's REALLY nice to be able to open up all the windows at night and cool the house off, then close them in the morning and keep the house cool all day long!  But you have to be able to irrigate in order to grow almost anything, at least long enough to get it well started.  And some things grow better with warmer summer nights, or would produce better with an earlier last-frost date (our official last-frost date is early June).

Kathleen

There's a reason the Willamette Valley is spendy, besides those Californians, or maybe, there's a reason they're drawn here.  The weather is dependable and mild - rain every winter, sun (almost) every summer, no tornadoes, no golfball-sized hail, we keep our heat and humidity separate, you can grow almost anything.  Also, few bitey bugs, few poisonous snakes (my Dad says there are or were rattlers on a rocky ridge near us, but I've never seen any).  We have mountains on one side, the Pacific Ocean on the other, for those looking for a playground.  Land is expensive, but on the plus side, you can raise way more per acre here than in the desert.  After reading some of these forums, I think I may be too weenie to live anywhere else.

daphnetree wrote:
Almost an acre for $27,000.

if you are homesteading and looking for land just to do your own thing, yes, this would appear to be expensive.  if however, you are looking for land to grow food for local markets, it is very reasonable.  one could make this price back in a few years with a voracious csa market and a population base willing to pay top dollar for nectivorous produce.  and this is the buyer's market that you are competing with here.  so, i guess that it is all relative and depends on what is happening locally.  a good resource for farms and land for sale that practice organic principles in oregon is the classifieds section of the oregon tilth publication.

WOW. Land in northern Idaho is a whole lot more expensive than anything detailed here.....You folks are spoiled! 

Take a look at the BLM program called "Desert Land Entry".

http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/lands/desert_land_entries.html

This is something that I looked into about 15 years ago when I lived in Wyoming. It is the real deal,  but the folks at your local BLM office may not make it easy for you. Remember there job is to "manage" BLM lands. If they get rid of it all they get rid of their jobs. I had to go into their office about 6 times before they finally admitted that the program existed and they gave me the forms to fill out. Life has a way of getting in the way and I never followed through with it.

The hard part is finding property that has water ,or won't break you trying to obtain it. I know of some land near the town of Rock Springs, Wyoming that has a creek running through it. I haven't looked at it for years but there were still water rights available at that time.

you are spoilt - the cheapest land i have found within a 5 hour drive is $100,000 for 3 acres, no house, no power/telephone and on a slope that means it is no good for farming - at least conventional farming

Spencer Hatfield wrote:Currently I have my eye on 160 acres 15 miles out of town for $59k.  closer to town here in NV it is about 10k an acre.  if I had the money all at once there are some full 640 Acre sections that are ~$176 an acre.  I am trying to get on some land without a mortgage so I am limited to a smaller plot.  so really it depends on the area.

Spencer

What area of nevada are you? I grew up in lander county, and there are a lot of 640 acre parcels around there.

I've seen land in Oregon for 2k an acre (so 20 acres is about 40k) or even less than that. Looking at this thread though I wonder if I should question such land. I assume it's in BFE but I don't know what else might be wrong with it that it's so cheap (or is it cheap? I can't tell). Then again, I'm only ever half heartedly browsing on the web. I currently have $20 to my name and no income x_x so land is a very far off dream. I'm hoping one day I'll be able to get a decent 20 acre plot for 50k or less in PNW. Oh dreams....

Here on on Hawaii I just got 3 acre in Fern forest for $23K about 1/5 acre cleared and put a 40 foot cargo container on it for 3K. You need to look first because this type life is not for ever one. PM me I have a house in HPP which is a lot nicer but if the ship hits the sand FF may be better. Planing for HPP but back up of FF.

Land is not a homogenous commodity where there is a "fair" price for an acre. You get what you pay for.

When I was looking for my property here in Ontario, I had to avoid southern Ontario because good farmland was way overpriced, probably because it's all on the outskirts of a still-expanding subburban sprawl. I started looking north, and found either expensive cottage properties, or "recreational" land that was affordable but useless for farming. Most of it was uncleared and typically conifers only. Uncleared land will probably cost you more per acre to clear than the purchase price.

Finally found an ideal 80 acre property that was about half cleared, with a nice mixed woodlot, and most importantly, the soil was tested and identified and had a history of no chemical use. I paid an average of $2000/acre, which might seem like alot but my soil is a fertile sandy loam, and one of my neighbors runs an award-winning winery!

You usually get what you pay for.

Gee! I hate the word cheap! Can't we use inexpensive?

We bought land we could afford. If you work and improve land it is possible to sell it for more than the buying price. You can them buy a larger plot or in an area that offers something the land you sold did not, trees, pasture, more preciptitation.

If we don't work at all or if we spend money

Most of the people in California are Americans if they move to Oregon they are Oregonskis, should be ok for Americans from any state to move to any other state.

I baught 2 acres in 2015, in Palatka Florida with a well, septic, power pole, and dirt road access with giant Oak trees but most understory brush cleared for $10,000. I got it from a guy who admitted he got it for $6,000. A few months prior I a county auction tax deed sale. We are desperately trying to find the cheapest housing and have 3 kids. We have looked at a few options including the now popular shipping container homes but the sandy soil may be a big problem for big trucks getting back there. So we are now leaning towards a "Quonset Hut" if anyone knows about these especially if you diy all the way from slab to constructing the kit please contact us. Miketurnerart@gmail.com face book

Hmm, the bitter irony is our forefathers crossed the country on horses and covered wagons and for 40acres if you lived long enough to get the homestead and make it work with one horse towns and shipping everything from the east coast. Same dna, different upbringing. If they could make it with those conditions...dont see why 50miles from a city would be BFE... sometimes i think theres no hope of colonizing another planet with the stock the human race has to offer.