If you have ever thought about living self–sufficiently, off the grid, or owning your very own homestead, now is the time!
There are increasing issues with food security, the cost of living, and the impact of climate change and severe weather events. You can control a lot of this change by owning your own homestead and deciding what you do with it.
Small farms are definitely affordable if you look in the right places. And buying now will give you more time to plant trees as shelter, fuel and food in time to weather any storm. Here are three reasons to buy now: Location, opportunity and affordability.
Location
Unless you have a lot of money, you will need to look outside the main centers, in the regions. Here the climate might be less favorable, or the property may need a lot of work. With a positive, growth mindset, it is easy to see opportunity where others see problems. By buying a cheap, but run-down homestead, you have more opportunity to make it your own. You will be less attached to specific features of the house or infrastructure and be able to more objectively evaluate the purpose of each building. You can rearrange walls or spaces or demolish buildings without any emotional attachment to them.
But moving far away means leaving family and friends behind, right? Often rural communities have similar priorities, so the community you will move into will likely match your own wants and needs. I’ve always liked the saying that a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet. This new small town could be full of friends you haven’t met yet!
But you can think of it another way, you can create your own paradise the way you want and your friends and family from your old home town will be lining up to stay for weekends. Smallholdings aren’t usually subdivided in the middle of nowhere. Once upon a time they were thriving neighborhoods often with their own school or church. As transport became more efficient, some towns grew larger and small ones shrank. Making these small pockets of neighbors seem further away from the nearest town. But they will still be near enough. It’s only the big ranches and stations that are in the middle of nowhere.
Opportunity
If you haven’t owned a house or land before, you might not realize the opportunity it presents. Home businesses can be run from a house, and commercial crops and tourism ventures can be borne from owning land. There is endless opportunity when owning a homestead compared to an apartment or city-living. Even just the opportunity to produce your own food and live life with a smaller carbon footprint. Yes there’s the whole urban food production movement, but you can only grow so much. Out in the small towns you have better landscapes, cleaner air and a better lifestyle!
Usually existing, older homes in need of repair often come with more opportunity. Bare land, for example, might be in a more desirable location, but you still have to pay to build a home. They often come with restrictive covenants, and they are BORING. I never see one with a creek or established trees. A hedge, if you’re lucky. Whereas a run-down property is often half the price and comes with cool things like aviaries, creeks, stables, huge and magnificent trees, orchards and more.
Just as we started looking for a homestead of our own, my husband and I looked at a few of these boring, dry, flat 10 acre bare land places for sale. He said to me, “I don’t want that. I want one that has character,”. It just so happened that as we had started looking, someone we know needed to sell theirs. Our home came with a woodshed, a whole 7 acres of established trees and woodlot, an old heritage apple orchard, and the carport that I turned into a hay barn and greenhouse.
Affordability
A lot of people these days lament the affordability crisis of housing and believe they will never own their own home. If you are prepared to roll up your sleeves, do some DIY and live in a small town, this wholesome homesteading life is totally affordable. You don’t even need to have building skills. Everyone I know is self-taught and have created amazing projects. My husband build our goat super-shed by himself and it is very well built.
You could even go in with friends or family to buy land and have two dwellings on the property. More hands make light work, so you can all DIY together. If you find one that has been on the market a while, don’t be afraid to haggle the price down. We were lucky enough to buy from someone we knew, so it was a private sale and we saved on agent’s fees.
You can even be cheeky and drive around looking from the road. If you see something that might be in your price range, put a note in the letter box or call the local government authority to see who owns it. Worst case, they aren’t interested in selling but are flattered someone wanted to buy it.
The best thing about owning your own homestead is the security of knowing where your food comes from, that certainty that you will have food because you grew it. No one will increase the rent on you, and no one will increase the cost of your food. And that makes it a lot more valuable than its price tag!
