Fraggle Rock Creek Homestead

Working our way to Self-Sufficiency and Sustainability

Finding & Buying a Homestead

The Search: Where to start when searching for a new home

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Previously I talked about how we got our finances in order to be ready.  Took us little over 2 years, but we did it.  So how did we start our search?

Where to start when searching for a new home

Step one: I did what most people do and I searched online.  I used Zillow, Realtor.com, and tons more.  Now understand, we live 2,200 miles away from where we were wanting to move. So searching online and relying on a Realtor and our children there was our only choice.  My kids also sent us photos and addresses of properties for sale if they saw them while driving around. I even put the word out to friends in the area that we were looking and asked to keep an eye out.

I also searched for a real estate agent.  Not all are created equal!  The first two were not very responsive when I inquired about something. Days, even weeks would go by with no response to inquiring about a property or wanting to set up an appointment for one of the kids to go and check out for us.  I was really disappointed.

Then, after 6 months of looking, while talking to my son about it, he said don’t you know so in so’s mom is a real estate agent? Ummm NO! LOL. He got me her contact info and all was good from there out.  Very timely responses, got all info she could when I asked about a property and got us appointments for the ones we had narrowed down and wanted to see.  Unfortunately some of them were already sold by the time Barb came on board.  But… I tried to remain positive that something better was waiting for us.  Boy was I right! More on that later. But point is, ask people for a reference or if they know someone.  Would have saved us a lot of time if we had done that first.

So how do you start to search?  Start broad first. Of course price limits are important.  Know what you can afford. You should also be talking to a Lender about getting pre-qualified so you know exactly what you can do. I’ll share more on this later of some options we learned about that 90% of people don’t know.

Then narrow more by number of minimum bedrooms you want, amount of land, in the area you want.  All those sites let you create a free account and you can save them to a list.  Narrow your search as you read more info on each one keeping in mind your must haves and don’t want at all lists.

This should give you a good feel for what is available out there.

When you start to narrow down to a few do a search for the address. Amazing what you can find out using Google. And while using Zillow, you can see when the house last sold and for how much and most have direct links to a county website for the information.  Sometimes you can find out additional information this way too.  Take notes on each one.

Something VERY interesting while doing this… half the time the County records don’t match things on the property listing.  These are things you will want to question later if a house makes it to your final list.

ALSO, check out the address on Google Maps.  You can see arial views and a lot of times street views. It may not be completely up to date, but usually it’s within a year or two.  Later you can do this on the County websites too some times after you are digging deeper into a specific property.

When you find something that looks good to you, schedule an appointment to go see it.  Or like we did, we asked our kids to go see it with our Realtor or at least do a drive by and see if it would be worth looking at.  Even on a few, the realtor had already seen it and could give us some insight too. If they know your Wish Lists, then they have a good idea what you’re looking for.

On the first visit: This is more of getting an overall feel for what’s there.  On the drive to and from, note things in the neighborhood.  Traffic, stores, neighbors… anything that might be important to you to have or not have. Example: If it’s located next to a railroad track or not.  Or if the neighbors yard looks like a junk yard and it’s spewing over the property lines.  Yes, seen it. Might have bought it. LOL. Or maybe there’s a flea market across the street. You know what traffic will be like on weekends then.

Now, I do Inspections. So I tour a property different than most.  I don’t let emotion interfere either. I look at a property in a very particular way. Structured really.  If I always work counter clockwise, I won’t miss something.  With this “Home Inspector’s” style of doing this, it will help you see, and remember, all that is really there. I highly recommend you do it the same.

What and how to look at a potential home and land to buy

When you step out of the car, have camera in hand.  Now think of the property like a clock face.  Work Clockwise or counter clockwise and walk the whole perimeter of the property. Take photos of anything you want to remember.  Like confirming if that tire pile is on your side or neighbors. Or if there is a creek or pond if that’s important to you.

Walk the ENTIRE property! Work again around the clock same way as before narrowing the circle and do it around the house last.  Step back and take photos of EACH side of the home and any other buildings on property.  Believe me, that camera sees a lot more than you do.

Some things to watch for while walking that property would be like standing water up against the home.  Foul smell coming from a pond or septic systems. The huge power lines running next to the property. Or the existing garden in a perfect spot. lol  Or that cemetery next door that didn’t show up on the maps if that bothers you.   The list could go on. But taking photos and walking it really helps you become aware of the surroundings and get a good feel.

Entering the home, keep that clock in mind and walk through home taking photos of each room and close ups of anything of concern or in question. Staining at a ceiling line, or broken windows etc. Or if appliances are included with the sale, take a photo of each one.  Are they working? New, old… just note it as it is something that will come in handy later.

Now, I’m one of those who also relies on how a home feels.  I’ve walked into homes that just out right gave me a bad vibe and walked right out.  I also like visualizing to see myself living there. Look beyond personal belongings. They won’t matter.  But I want to feel it. Can I see my things there? Can I see us living there?

And depending on the season, you can also feel if a home is drafty or cold.  Are icicles hanging from the gutters or hot spots showing up on the roof? But for now, this is just the first walk and you just want an overall view and feel but taking the photos helps you remember the home later.  And if you are tech savvy, use your phone to voice record notes. Or even better! Take a video while talking into it about something you want to remember later. Our Realtor did this for us. Was a HUGE help! Just one word of advise, take several smaller videos instead of one big one.  File size may be an issue. LOL. If that’s not your thing, maybe a notepad will help.

As soon as you get home, write down everything you want to remember. Look through the photos as you do this. It’s amazing what you see in a photo or video that you didn’t see while walking. 😉 Make your list of questions now too while all is fresh in your mind.

I’m very computer oriented so I kept a file folder for each property and within there I would put the printout from the realtor’s site, save photos and maps I found online too. Then I would have a word file with all my notes and questions and download my photos in there.  Made it a LOT easier when trying to decide our next step.

We did this until we narrowed it down to 1-2 homes.  Many were voided out just from driving by or upon entering the home and seeing severe damage.  Remember, we were looking for a Fixer Upper.  Saw a few that I was shocked were still standing. LOL Good bones was important to us.

Then I sent my kids out with a list in hand to “inspect” for us on a second visit. Remember, we are still 2,200 miles away. I have to rely on them.  But this post is long enough and I will do a whole other post on that process.  We’re going to get into details there.

Want a little FREEBIE check list for your first walk-thru?

I have one for you!  Inspection-First Visit

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Buying a Homestead: Making a Wish List

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After you know your Budget it’s time to sit down and make your Must Haves, Would like to have, and don’t want at all lists.  These can be as basic or detailed as you want, but in doing this it will help you get your priorities in order and will be of a great benefit to your agent if you use one.

My one piece of advise for creating this list is to keep in mind your future.  Will this be a forever home? Is it just a stepping stone to a larger homestead and land? Are you just starting a family or are you an empty nester? Makes it a little easier when you have your goals in mind.

For us it was pretty easy because we knew we wanted this to be our last move ever.  So we kept that in mind while making lists and also when we started searching.

First we laid out our major Goals:

  • Working Homestead large enough so we could raise and grow our own food on.
  • Potential to go “Off Grid” eventually.
  • Large Kitchen and open concept capabilities –  We know how we live, and we live in our kitchen and hearth room.  I have no need for a formal living room. I also want to have the space for canning and preserving and having large family gatherings.  Want large farmhouse table area for this also.
  • Living on one income so price needs to be within that budget.

MUST HAVES:

  • 2+ acres –  Want to grow our own food and raise chickens and milking goats for food.
  • 2+ Bedrooms min. Extra room for office and sewing room. Could be a finished basement also.
  • Water on land – Well, pond or even a creek we could tap into.  Need for gardens and animals and would like to be able to use well water for ourselves getting off grid in future.  If not one existing, is the water shed there to drill one.
  • Able to have a produce stand on property without special permitting. (Some towns even require a permit for a garage sale. Geeze!)

LIKE TO HAVE:

  • Outbuildings – need to be structurally sound. One for animals, one for workshop/garage
  • Alternative Heating options.  Wood stove, large pond for geothermal, natural gas on land.
  • Trees on property for North wind break and privacy and future heating.
  • Fruit and nut trees
  • Big front Porch with a swing. 😉

MUST NOT HAVE

  • No Oil heating – Unless it can be converted to gas. Dirty, expensive and don’t want to deal with ever again.
  • No baseboard heating. Too expensive and not conducive for going off grid later.
  • No City ordinances preventing owning animals we want or future goals.
  • No neighbors within a stone’s throwing distance.   Just done with nosy people peering in my windows.

 

After expanding on some of these and adding details, here is what our end result was so you can see what I mean. I gave this list to our Realtor also so she would know exactly what we were looking for.

Ideal homestead for us!

Land: Ultimate long term goal is a Homestead (mini farm), and self sufficiency. Getting off Grid eventually.

  • 2+ acres min., prefer more – trees good.  Not wanting vacant open farm land only.  Existing north wind buffer preferred.
  • Could build our own home as I do have one designed, but would like utilities at street at least. But not interested in undeveloped farm land only. And looks like land only is really up there now. So thinking better idea is smaller house on land that can have enough space to build 2nd house or renovate existing home. 
  • Water on land – pond, creek, ditch, or well would be nice for gardens and animals.  Could do water recovery off roofs, but prefer on land also. Pond allows for possible geothermal heating/cooling system in future. 
  • City water is a plus for house for now.
  • Prefer a modern barn existing with possible future shop area.  Can build one if land allows.  But then still need a barn for animals. If old barn, needs to be structurally sound. Metal roof preferred. Electric preferred.
  • At least one roof facing south for solar panels. So orientation of house or barn is important.

Home: One that can be renovated to the way we live.

  • Good Bones – Structurally sound
  • 2+ bedrooms min.    Prefer first floor master with private bath or can be renovated for.
  • Office space – could be formal dining or living room or a spare bedroom converted.
  • Bonus room or room that can be used for Quilt Studio.  Up or downstairs.  12’+ wide (or space to add onto home for a 16’x20’). Could be combined with Office if large enough.
  • Large kitchen – open concept but can take walls down if laid out right and structurally possible.
  • NO oil heating – will eventually go geothermal with Solar bank type of system depending on land and house orientation.  
  • Prefer to have wood stove in home and/or fireplace that can be converted. Goal is to heat entire home. 

Other Considerations:

  • MUST be able to have chickens and small milking goats. Eliminates several Townships in area.
  • Land MUST have room for barn, coop and large garden (50,000 SF), small greenhouse and mini orchard (1/4 acre), if not existing.  Why a 2 acres min.
  • We do not mind at all a fixer upper if bones and land are good. 
  • Price is dependent on conditions of course. But would like to stay under 160k total. Prefer under 100k with fixer upper so we only need to rely on one outside income until we get future home business established there. 

Now the list doesn’t look too bad, but certain towns were eliminated right off the bat because they wouldn’t permit certain animals like owning a rooster or a goat.  We knew the general area we were wanting as we wanted to be closer to family. So our first assignment was to find out this information for each town.  This took a little bit, but most of the time I found the information on a town’s website or by doing a google search for the town in question. Last resort was calling the town and just asking.   You’d be surprised what some town’s have in their ordinances!

Example: One town we were looking at permitted certain animals only in certain zoning areas and none with the Village of that town. (Downtown area).  So I had to find out where those were and cross check any For Sale listings we found.

6.04.050 Certain domestic species prohibited. A. No person shall keep within the corporate limits of the Village, either temporarily or permanently, any live bees, fowl, gamecocks and other fighting birds, cows, cattle, horses, sheep, swine, pot-bellied pigs used for breeding purposes, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, or any other domesticated livestock. No rabbits shall be kept within any portion of any multiple family dwelling. The provisions of this section shall not apply to cows, cattle, horses, sheep, swine, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, or any other domesticated livestock located on properties in the A-1 (Prime Agriculture), A-2 (Agriculture) or A-3 (Agricultural Holding) zoning districts.

Another town said you could own backyard chickens, but not a rooster. I even found a town that didn’t permit you to have a compost bin on the property.  Yea, you’re off my list! Seriously? I can’t compost my kitchen and garden waste in my own backyard? wth?

Just do your homework up front and it will make it much easier to narrow your list of areas.

Next is the actually property searching.  This took us over a year to find the property we did and it was under our noses the whole time.

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Buying a Homestead: Getting Frugal

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Cut out the extras in spending

  • Cable – Think long and hard on this one.  But there are options out there. The cable companies are out of control!
  • Eating out – Cut it back at least. If you eat out 3x a week, take it to once a week.
  • Shop sales for food (and everything else). If it’s not on sale, don’t buy it unless it’s absolutely necessary! Penny saved is a penny earned attitude.
  • Plan your meals around sales. Just planning your meals helps cut extra spending.
  • Stop buying Pop and Soda! Drink water, it’s healthier anyways.  If you don’t have a good filter on your frig or faucet, get one. Don’t buy bottled water, most likely it’s no better than what’s coming out of your faucet. Just blows my mind to see someone paying $1.50 for a small bottle of soda at a gas station.
  • Forget gourmet coffee out.  Buy a good coffee and make it yourself.  $6 for a cup of coffee… GET REAL! I know, I know, I was guilty of this too.  Just stop it! LOL

Sell anything unused and put the money away

  • Dig out those closets, drawers, back of the garage.  Come on, if you forgot you had it, or have not used it in 5 years… do you really need it?! 😉
  • Clothes too small.  Sell or donate to a local charity.

Some other simple frugal things you can do to cut spending.

  • Stop buying paper towels and use washable tea towels instead.
  • Turn down your water heater to 125-130. Did you know your Hot water heater accounts for about 14% of your energy costs?
  •  Don’t really read that Magazine or Newspaper you subscribe to? Cancel them!
  • Pack your lunch if you go to work. Huge savings!
  • Don’t buy prepared foods. It’s not really so hard or time consuming to make your own and along with the savings, you’re eating healthier too!
  • One step farther is to take your old T-Shirts and cut up into paper towel or napkins sizes and use for your rags for cleaning.
  • Shop around for better insurance. I was shocked to get a better deal for half of what I was paying.
  • Trim your cell phone bill.  I don’t really use my data as I have Wifi at home and a lot of store have free wifi now too.  Cut down your data plan.  Can cut hundreds a year just for that alone.  And look at how much you use your phone. Can you get a better plan?
  • Stop eating out so much. I know, I said this before. BUT… We cut a few hundred a month off our expenses with this one. We eat out 2x a month now max. Yes we miss our Chinese, but I learned to cook our favorites easily. Gotta love Pinterest!
  • Are you paying for a high speed internet that you don’t really need? Most lower speeds are fine for the average person if you’re not steaming movies.
  • Switch to store brands.  Most are just as good if not exactly the same with a different label. Bet I slashed 25-50% off my monthly bill.
  • Stop using expensive cleaners. So many of these you can make yourself with a HUGE savings. Like I use Vinegar and Dawn dish soap for my go to cleaner for tubs and showers etc. Not only does it cut the soap scum better it’s far cheaper.  I use baking soda when I need a mild abrasive for scrubbing.  And when mixed with vinegar, it’s a great grease cutter for your oven and stove top. Bonus? No harsh chemicals!
  • Ask your providers for a better deal.  I was amazed to cut $20 a month off my cable bill just for asking. Yes I have to call every year, but it’s worth it.
  • Cut splurge spending. This could mean little things on those enticing shelves at the check outs to not waiting for something to go on sale that you need.
  • Also, if while shopping and you see something you want, go home and think about it.  Most of the time you will realize you don’t really need it. If you decide you do, watch for it to go on sale before buying.
  • Shop subscriptions on Amazon.  For example, we buy our dog food and treats on subscription. The price is only about a 5% savings, but, because it’s a subscription, we get another 10% off AND it’s delivered free to our door. No gas or extra time running to the pet store when we were out and lugging that huge bag home.  And while your there, check out the prices on other items you commonly buy. Is it cheaper? Usually yes. So why are you paying more at the big box store?!
  • Put on a sweater or heavier socks instead of raising the thermostat.

Some bigger ticket items we cut. 

  • Our car is paid off.  Would we like a new car? Sure! Do we need a new car. Nope! 4 years without a car payment is a HUGE savings!  Take care of what you have and it will last a lot longer than those payments. If you do need a new car, shop around. Negotiate. Buy at the end of the month when salesman are trying to make quota. Don’t let them talk you into extra things like a tire warranty when you don’t really need that.
  • We have a smaller TV unlike most of our friends.  Would we like that huge 65″ Sure! Do we need one? Nope! 32″ works just fine.
  • When you get a raise (and you should ask for one if you haven’t), put the extra money away.
  • We moved temporarily to a far cheaper rental home while we prepared to be able to buy.  We saved $10,000/year doing it!

Was it it worth it the last 5 years to do all this saving and cutting? YES!!!

And how did I keep on track with all this cutting back? I pinned pictures above my desk, on my monitor screen and on my refrigerator of our dream. This kept the prize in mind and made it much easier.

And what did we do with the extra savings? We paid off debt and started saving for our dream homestead.

Next step?

Get a hold of your spending to know where it’s all going by making a budget and tracking every penny.  When we did this, it was an eye opener to see where the money was going.  Was not at all where we thought. There are tons of free budget templates out there you can use.  I found a few and then tweaked it for us and came up with my own. If your tech savvy make one for yourself in Excel or Numbers.  Track weekly, monthly and yearly.

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Buying a Homestead: Getting Your Credit ready

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This is the beginning of our own journey to fulfill the dream of owning a homestead that would be self-sustaining and we could grow old together on.  A LOT of things had to come into play before we could even think about buying land and/or a home.  Then we had to find the perfect one. Then we had to make it happen.  My goal is to share my experience with others from what we did and learned along the entire journey.

Buying a Homestead getting your credit ready PREPAR NOW

So what’s my first piece of advise?  CHECK YOUR CREDIT SCORES! LOL

Sounds easy at first.  But, we had a few unique situations.  Darling Husband had 0 credit.  YES, after buying and owning several homes, cars etc etc. he had NOTHING on his credit report.  Why? Because for the last 17 years he paid cash for everything! If he didn’t have the money in the bank, he didn’t buy it.  GREAT to not go in dept, but not so much if you need to get a mortgage. And we needed to rely on his because he was the one with the job.  At the time I wasn’t working and even though my credit was ok, it wasn’t going to help much without a job.

So 2-3 years ago, my first step was to build our credit.  We started with the bank we do our checking at and applied for a card.  Used it wisely. Paid it religiously.  In 6 months, they raised the limit.  Instant credit report! Then we looked at several others and went with another card that had several benefits.  Yes, the limits started small. But when you pay on time and don’t abuse the credit (stay under 10-30% usage at any time), the credit card companies will gladly raise your limits.  Then the offers just flooded in.  We did NOT just get any credit offered us.  We were picky.  Like got an Amazon card that gave back points we could use for future purchases. Bonus for us since we buy on Amazon a LOT! It’s like getting an item on sale! Another card that gives cash back as you spend.  Get the idea?  Forget the frequent flyer miles, you want the cash! The entire first year or two I applied all the cash back to the card. Most companies give you that option.

Within 2 years he had a good standing credit rating again.  The age of the credit keeps it under excellent, but all the big important reporting items for the credit score were in the excellent range.

So what can you start doing today?

  • Pay every single bill on time!
  • Pay down your debt.  Even if it’s only $1 a month!  Your Credit utilization Ratio is 35% of your FICO credit score.  That’s pretty important.  Get it under the 30% debt ratio or even better, under 10%.  “What is a Credit utilization Ratio” my daughter asks?  It’s the ratio of credit limits to how much you are using. To figure out your own, you simply divide your credit card balance by your available credit line.  So if you have spent $400 out of a possible $2,000 this month, your debt-to-credit ratio is 20%.   I raised our credit score a whomping 35 points in 2 days just by knowing how much I needed to pay off a debt to get it under the 30% ratio that a Lender likes to see. And I did it 3 days before we applied for the mortgage loan. It made a huge difference in the APR we were offered.

Going Forward for the Goal:

If you have an established credit report you need to look at every item! Go to a site like Credit Karma for free and get a copy of your score and a report.  Don’t pay some middle man with big promises that can’t keep to do what you can do for free and a little bit of your time!

And you should keep an eye on it monthly to see your progress also.  It helps the attitude of doing this when you see it creeping up.   The wonderful thing about a site like them is you can also run simulator’s to see what would happen if you paid something off or took out additional loans or even just got the limit raised on a card.  Was a valuable tool to have.

What to check on the Report:

  • Is everything on there yours?  I had a $40k loan out in Michigan that I never applied for!  It was in good standing and after informing the Credit Agency it was not mine, we came to find out it was one digit off from my Social Security and reported incorrectly. They removed it.
  • Is anything outdated? You can google just about any kind of credit account to find out how long it should stay on your report. Anything older than that, ask them to remove. Everything has a limit that it can stay on your report.  Don’t worry about anything that is in good standing. Worry about that occasion 7 years ago when you forgot to pay a bill and didn’t realize it until a month later.  Yep, put a bad mark on your report.  Ask for it to be removed.
  • Confirm your limits and balances are correct.  I had an old auto loan that was paid off that still showed a small balance.  The lender never reported it was paid off.  A simple request to confirm the balance is all it took for it to be corrected.

What to do about other items on your report:

  • Did you know you can call and negotiate with your creditor? Yep! Ask if you pay off the debt if they will remove the bad comments.
  • Did you know you can negotiate your interest rates on a lot of different items? Ask for a lower rate! This works very well if you’ve had an account with them over 2 years in good standing.  Now you can make the same monthly payment but more goes towards your principal owed. Pays down the debt even faster.
  • Even worst case, if you had a period of time say you were out of work or had an emergency and fell behind on your payments, you can alway make a comment on your report in your behalf. Doesn’t always help your score, but it will help a little when a lender checks your report.

I hope some of this helps.  We all have to learn it no matter what level we are at. If you have a specific question feel free to ask me.  If I know the answer I’ll share.  If I don’t, we can research it together.

Want a FREE worksheet for Credit-to-Debt Tracking?

Just click here to get.

It’s on my Google drive, so you can download and use as you like.  I did write in a ‘How to Use’ also.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Next up? What to do during that period of time of getting ready to buy.

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