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Fraggle Rock Creek Homestead

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Getting Ready to buy a home

Buying a Homestead: Making a Wish List

April 13, 2018 by MamaFraggle

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.

Other related articles that might interest you

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

Buying a Homestead: Making a Wish List

Buying a Homestead: Getting Frugal

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Filed Under: Finding & Buying a Homestead Tagged With: Getting Ready to buy a home, Setting Goals, Wish list for a home

Buying a Homestead: Getting Your Credit ready

April 12, 2017 by MamaFraggle

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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Filed Under: Finding & Buying a Homestead Tagged With: Fixing Credit, Getting Ready to buy a home

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