Land checklist:
>19.99 acres
No HOA
No tweaker neighbors and preferably no neighbors at all
Treed
Pasture-capable
At least one good hill
At least one large rock feature
Live water
South of the 37th parallel
That’s going to be hard to find.
Discussion
Yah it is.
New Mexico
If you consider mesquite as real trees you have lots of options.
NM is where I am planning on going.
I love the sw part!
I’m from the exact opposite climate and I’ve never been anywhere that intrigues me more than the American southwest. Would be so hyped to spend the rest of my life exploring those canyons and mesas.
There is a lifetime of adventure and exploration that awaits!
Have you spend a lot of time and/or lived in the SW?
In and around Phoenix for about 25 years. I came from Minneapolis before that and it was a huge change. When are you relocating?
Not sure when. When I have the cash pile, hopefully in 2025.
If you like Northern AZ and NM check out Hildiago County NM and Cochise County AZ. NM is low taxes and people seem to not care what you really do with your land out there. Cochise county is the home of Tombstone and Bisbee and great thing called the Opt- Out building inspection. You can build conventional or by on conventional means and just as long as the septic is in order, you are good.
One day I had planned to do a optout strawbale build, nothing too big. We shall see.
Doable but you will most likely have to compromise on one or two of those to find one in budget.
what makes you want less than 20 acres specifically
I literally just closed on that… well not quite I only get 12.5 acres but have the option for 17 more…
Will be leaving Chicago this spring and trying my hand at #homesteading
BTW mine does not have “live” water but a well should work…
We are thinking solar and Starlink fully off grid. Wood stove and propane cooking/water heater…
Very cool. Congrats. Will be a grand adventure.
Beautiful! Looks like north Texas, Arkansas or Oklahoma (no need to dox). Love that type of forest. Beautiful blank canvas 🎨
Let’s just leave it at “South of the 37th parallel” and west of the Mississippi
But you are in the right area.
Bought a used camper, getting it fixed and ready for the spring….
Tasks
1 clear trees for a pasture
2 build cattle pond
3 build pole barn
4 build chicken coop
5 start garden
6 build cabin
Here is where I will be living while I build out the #homestead
I still can’t believe I am leaving the Wall Street life behind for the wilderness! 
Man, I’m hyped for you and jealous. What a time you’ll have. So much better than comfortable suburban life! A life with meaning 🫡
Thanks by the way, the live water/live spring or access to a large reservoir lake with mountain drainage or something of that nature adds easily $30,000 value to the property.
Those are really difficult to find and we chose to go the route of hiring heavy equipment to bulldoze out the lake . We’re budgeting around $10,000 for the bulldozing work.
But we’re going to be in at least $20,000 for a well and that’s if we can get water at 800 feet if we have to go down to 1000 feet or 1200 feet to water and case the well it’s just gonna be a lot more expensive .
The other thing I am planning to do is just walk away from my job and be 100% living off the land so what that means is that it’s a little bit of a standard start up/ burn rate problem where you’ve got so much money and when you run out you run out. So we have to prioritize the most important items the pond, the well, the solar panels and then scale everything back as budget allows.
couple of other pieces of advice are that Prairie grass areas or land and land with large oak trees are typically very good Land. Land with pinion Pines and other scrub evergreens are typically too rocky to really Homestead and I know some people that have done that and I’ve talked to him and they’re in a much bigger challenge than what I was up for, but the land is much cheaper
Just focus on what you want and why, the mechanics/how you find it are the fun part of being a creative being
Congrats on getting clear- you’re half way there!
Need a bore.
why south of 37th? why not 38?
I think your going to find that everywhere 🔥💪