Piero Soligo

Mark Tudor wrote:Piero, here is a search from landwatch.com on Clark County Washington, under $100,ooo: https://www.landwatch.com/default.aspx?ct=r&type=5,80;6,119;267,7110;268,6843&px=100000

19 properties for sale, ranging from 0.1 acres up to 6.11 acres.

I never thought that land would be so expensive. I was looking on Zillow and found some lands under 50,000 :

A few in Kelso- It appears to be a really bad area and a bit far
2 lots that looked perfect, I even made an offer, but were mostly a steep hill after checking the topographic map
1 under a bridge in Portland= No sun for plants or PV
1 right next to train tracks
A few that are under 30,000 are within HOA with multimillion dollar homes next to the lot
Another that was perfect had a gas easement passing through the property

It appears that the best option is to rent land but I'll just take it easy and keep looking.

Thank you so much

Jahnavi Veronica wrote:Hey Piero, we live in unincorporated clark county, out in the foothills. Its a great place! Real close to state forest land. Streams are healthy. Lots of trees. One downside is that most people seem to move out here to keep to themselves, something which i grow more and more confused about.

Where we are land is usually $30,000/acre. Yeah its super expensive compared to cowlitz but there is an upside of higher population densities(maybe this is a downside to some), and proximity to portland.

There are several properties within walking distance of our house that are for sale currently. Mostly 5 acre parcels without much improvements.  I'm always trying to attract more permie neighbors out here.

Hi Jahnavi Veronica, could you share a bit of information on those lots near you if its not too much trouble? I looked around Clark but there is nothing on Zillow or other sites. You can send it to my email at iam_data@hotmail.com. 30k is more or less my budget.

Thank you

Julia Winter wrote:

OK, so the proximity to Portland is for family members to have employment opportunities - it's not that you plan to earn money in Portland?  Because, if you earn more than a couple thousand dollars in Oregon, you need to pay Oregon income tax, even if you don't live in Oregon.  You can read about that here.  

If you plan to travel to Portland with any frequency, your quality of life goes up if you don't have to endure the traffic on the 205 or the 5 trying to get across the Columbia River.

We have a farm, 40 acres, in Beavercreek Oregon, about half an hour south of Portland.  It's possible you could rent some land from us - we had a young man in a tiny house stay in our fourth pasture through the summer and fall.  He did carpentry work on the farm in exchange for the space for his house and car.  His work ethic, or more precisely his "clean up after himself" ethic left something to be desired, but anyway, opportunities exist in Oregon as well as Washington.  We're having solar panels installed on the goat barn - the panels are up, we still need to build a secure room inside for all the rest of the equipment - so a person with solar expertise is intriguing.  Our long term plan for the property is agro-tourism, we are refurbishing the main house on the property to be a vacation rental and possibly a meeting place and educational center.  Eventually we'd like to have multiple places to rent in various beautiful locations, kind of like your place in Puerto Rico.

That sounds lovely. Can you email me at iam_data@hotmail.com
Would love to talk a bit about that possibility.
Thanks

Erik Goheen wrote:Hi Piero, there's also a pretty strong push for a state income tax right now, and definitely follow the observe rule for a year before building your Temple, we have a different climate than PR.
Check out the Bullock's homestead on orcas island, they've figured it a few things that you're considering regarding toilets etc.

Wow, good to know, thank you so much!
Definitely, the time to observe before designing is essential, which brings us to another problem with regulations in some areas, I have read that some places don't allow you to live in an RV or a tent in a site that is zoned as residential. If you want to take the time to understand the site, you cannot just buy it and start building immediately.

Great resources, I was using Zillow with several good results.


There are some useful tools I have been using, there may be better ones!

Elevation- http://veloroutes.org/elevation/
Review of the area- http://www.areavibes.com/
Clark Cty parcel search- http://gis.clark.wa.gov/mapsonline/index.cfm?
Cowlitz Cty Parcel serch- http://www.cowlitzinfo.net/applications/cowlitzassessorparcelsearch/(S(hffa5v45353w1g45ha4r4j55))/searchcp.aspx?Public=Y
Skamania- http://skamaniawa.mapsifter.com

Jahnavi Veronica wrote:Hey Piero, we live in unincorporated clark county, out in the foothills. Its a great place! Real close to state forest land. Streams are healthy. Lots of trees. One downside is that most people seem to move out here to keep to themselves, something which i grow more and more confused about.

Where we are land is usually $30,000/acre. Yeah its super expensive compared to cowlitz but there is an upside of higher population densities(maybe this is a downside to some), and proximity to portland.

There are several properties within walking distance of our house that are for sale currently. Mostly 5 acre parcels without much improvements.  I'm always trying to attract more permie neighbors out here.

Sounds great! Can you share the location address or coordinates? I can go on the Clark parcel map to see if I can find anything. I like the idea of community living, I thought of buying a parcel and opening it for woofing. I was ready to do that in my site in Puerto Rico but the hurricane came so everything is on hold. That site is only .5 acres and still managed to fit more than 40 types of fruit trees with a lot more space available. Small is ok for me.

Mark- Thanks, I agree. I've been in contact with the county but the flow of information is slow.
I did not know about that regulation, thanks for sharing. I did find out that the cost of a well can reach 10,000 or above. This land has to be perked and it doesn't have a well. I thought that maybe I could start by transporting water tanks as if I'm in an RV and place a rain collection system but who knows if this is allowed, there are so many regulations. At the moment I'm waiting for answers on if composting toilets are permitted, I certainly don't want to spend any money on a septic system but would do if its mandatory.

Julia- Hi, I'm considering Washington (for buying land) because it doesn't collect state taxes. I just want to be near Portland so there are more employment opportunities for my family if I bring them with me at a later time. I'm looking for flat/ somewhat sloped land, forested is ok but with enough access to the sun for a solar system. Mainly, something that has an affordable rent that would allow for the use of the land.

An ideal site would be one in which I could develop a mini demonstration site where I could offer PDC once I get my Permaculture design diploma. Of course, for that it would be better to own the site.

Hi, I'm deciding on moving to WA and wanted to know if anyone have any feedback about my land-lease option

I must decide between:

Buying land - It is super expensive, but I would recreate an eco-lodge I developed in Puerto Rico ( ficustemple.com ) . This may be a good idea because I could implement several integrated designs and have several sources of income but I would be in debt for a long time and my job is intermittent. There is a land I saw which has 7 acres but that is too big for me so I thought that I could lease 3-5 sections of this land for different types of products (bee-keeper / fungi-culture ). Of course, I may be limited on this by permits and zoning.

Renting land- I would build a movable shipping container tiny-home and I would make an agreement with the land owner to lease a small portion of a land (.25 acre max). I planned on offering monthly rent, permaculture services or both and all I would need would be access to water. The only thing I need is to be, at least, 50minutes max from Portland.

Any recommendations? I'm not sure if it is realistic to think I could find land that would open its doors to two people with a tiny-house and a car

Thanks
Piero