Searching for our Homestead: Property Number 3

If you haven't already been following my wife's and my journey to buy our own homestead, you may want to catch up by checking out the initial post. In the first and second post, I explain a lot about what we are looking for and the process that we use to evaluate a property as a good fit for us.

Alright, here we go looking at property number three! This property came onto our radar when we finally realized we probably needed to compromise a little bit on the amount of land we wanted, so we lowered the threshold down from a minimum of 30 acres to 20 acres. This property had 21 acres. We were super stoked as we began this eval, for several reasons. First of all, it coincidentally happened to be a very close neighbor to the FIRST property we evaluated, which we adored and put an offer on! So, it was almost precisely in the very spot that we had already fallen in love with. It had all of the same terrain, all of the same wildlife, the exact same vegetation, and was most definitely in the middle of nowhere. Secondly, the house (based on the listing pictures) was amazing! It was 2300 square feet, had a porch completely around the entire house, was roofed and sided in metal, and the interior pictures were downright impressive.

So, we had already been able to evaluate it on several fronts before even laying eyes on it. In fact I said to my wife as we were sitting at the computer looking at it, "okay, this is the one. Let's just tell the realtor to offer them full price right now." Fortunately for us my wife did not take me seriously, because this property turned out to be a massive MASSIVE letdown!

The entire two and a half hour one way trip became a total loss the moment we reached the gate to the property.

Facing the gate, there on our right was a "home" of some kind, not fifteen feet from the car window. It appeared to be a mobile home that someone was adding a room onto by hand, and not very quickly as it was still nothing but frame. In the yard of this place were several vehicles, one of them rusted out and apparently being used as lawn decoration (yep, we're getting stereotypical now). But, we drove all this way, so we may as well finish the tour. We opened the gate and drove down a very pretty driveway through a grove of young Live Oaks and Pine trees.

As we turned the bend toward the house, we were greeted with yet another dilapidated vehicle shell, only this one had been ornately painted purple, with pink rims. The next thing to catch our eye were the two...yes TWO...shacks that remained in place from some original homestead. They also happened to be literally ten feet from the porch of the gorgeous 2300 square foot house.

One was covered, sides and all, in old tar paper and shingles. The other...honesty I don't even remember much about it except that it was leaning, was filled with dusty dirty garbage, and smelled like a crypt. Alright, alright, we can still give this place the benefit of the doubt, right? I mean, old shacks can be torn down and removed, right?

The tour of the house was as we had expected. It was roomy, it was laid out in a great way, had high ceilings...it was a great house!

While inside and out of sight of the eyesores, we started to be able to imagine ourselves living there. A little bit.

We went back outside to look around more in the direction of the land itself. The current occupants were raising Brahma cattle (the kind with the strange hump on their back), and so the entire place was fenced and cross fenced, had watering troughs and hay pens, and all kinds of random unappealing pole barns made from scrap material. I went into the front yard of the house and just stood there for a moment looking back in the direction of the trailer we had passed at the gate. I could most definitely see it through the trees. I turned to my left a few degrees, and there was yet another trailer. A rusted car was also visible at that angle. I turned to the left several more degrees and wouldn't you know it...there was yet ANOTHER house visible through the trees. As I turned again towards the original trailer, the long unending blast of a vehicle horn pierced the solitude and sent me into "runaway" mode. And as if the fact that I could so clearly hear the horn wasn't enough, the person who was activating the horn just laid on it like little Jimmy had just fallen down the well and they needed help right now. For five minutes this horn blew, piercing not only the silence of nature, but my very soul. LOL. There was no way on earth I could EVER call this place home!

We packed ourselves up, all of us, even the kids, in silence. We were all dumbfounded by the infinite barrage of reasons NOT to buy this place. As we drove away, I realized that these people had done the inconceivable. All of these neighbors had literally bought property an hour away from the nearest town of any size, and rather than embrace the solitude and peace of just being by yourself surrounded by nature, had actively recreated the noise, squalor, congestion, and eyesores of the very towns they left behind. I guess you can take people out of the city, but you can't take the city out of the people.

On to the next property!