as real estate has gotten more expensive
people are looking for more affordable
options like buying their own piece of
land
and living off the grid not all
off-the-grid property is created equal
and today we're going to be going over
the dangers of buying certain types of
off-the-grid properties
and which ones you should absolutely
avoid whenever you're going to any
property
make sure you walk the entire property
line to see if there's any kind of junk
or things that need to be removed from
the property now you may think that
you've won the lottery if you come up on
a structure on a piece of land that's
supposedly
vacant and you're looking to get off the
grid but it already has like utilities
attached to it so if you were thinking
kind of only going
like half off the grid and having you
know county water and sewer
problem is this to remove one of these
structures
is going to cost you as a buyer a lot of
money
so always walk the property line the
whole entire property line
all the way around back and forth to see
if there's anything on that property
that you don't want there so that way
you can negotiate to have that removed
by the seller
at the expense of the seller not to you
as the buyer and not walk it just the
one time i want you to go there
once it's raining i want you to go to it
when it's snowing i want you to go to
it when it's sunny because you're going
to want to know where the low parts and
the high parts are
on that piece of property wonderful your
piece of property that you found is
really close to water
but do you actually have water access to
this are you allowed to use the water
from
this canal if you find a piece of
property and it butts up to a river
that doesn't mean you get to use the
river water on your property itself
you might have it all the way up to that
line and then right at the shoreline
the river belongs to somebody else so
make sure that you have rights to that
specific water i've seen it where even
utility companies have access to the
water but you don't so you can't even
put your
your dock out there because it doesn't
belong to you one of the best pieces of
advice i heard from a person that lives
off the grid
was you do not want a piece of property
too close to society
and you don't want one that's too far
away and what he meant by that was
he he didn't want one that was too close
to the city where he could hear the
hustle and bustle of everything
but he didn't want one that was too far
away where he couldn't get to a local
hospital or he couldn't get to the local
home depot within
a 30-minute drive here's something that
most people don't think about when
they're living off the grid
how close is the closest fire hydrant to
your homestead
you don't want anything to happen to
your home and it catch on fire and it's
so far away from a fire hydrant that
your house goes up in flames
that's something you're going to want to
consider if you're planning on living
off the grid
my camera is a little off angle but you
know what i mean
so i know that if you probably watch
this video you've probably watched five
other videos about living off the grid
and i know a lot of those videos will
tell you not to use a real estate agent
granted i am a real estate agent and i'm
advising you to use one
if you're not going to use one this is
what i will advise
make sure the piece of property that
you're buying is actually being sold
by an illegitimate seller there are
websites out there that have
land for sale and it looks very official
you even go through this whole process
with a contract
and you think that you've purchased this
piece of land
only to find out when tax season comes
around you don't own it and you never
did
so i just want you to be very very alert
and aware of the piece of property
you're buying
make sure the seller that's selling it
actually owns it the best way to check
to make sure that those people own it
is to go into the local tax records
their public record
it's very easy to find just type in the
address or the lot number
and look in that specific area and you
can see who the owners are
and who the owners were previous all the
way down i know a lot of people are
gonna be looking
to do owner finance and when you do a
loan or finance they ask for a large
deposit
and you make payments over time which
means you wouldn't have the deed
necessarily until the end of the period
of the loan
if the person you've been paying all
these years didn't own that piece of
land
who are you exactly paying and whose
property are you living on anyways
so please check that out please i
implore you as a real estate agent one
of the biggest things that happens with
a lot of
properties when you're looking online
you don't understand if it has
access to it and if it does have access
to it you have right to that access
whenever you're researching a property
find out what the access to the property
is
and who owns that access so that way you
know if you have to maintain that road
because it's going to belong to you
after the sale of the property another
thing you're going to want to know if it
doesn't belong to you
are you going to be able to be granted
access by the person who actually
owns that road itself these are the
things you need to research ahead of
time
so that way you know if this is the
right property for you and you're off
the grid home
so let's just say the piece of land that
you got is like way out in the middle of
nowhere bill
think about one thing we're gonna get
your mail can you
get a mailbox on your property or you're
going to have to go to the post
office and pick it up at a p.o box is
that something that even bothers you
and especially if you're looking for an
eco-friendly type of homestead
having to travel and use that gas to go
get your mail could be
a real problem so that's something to
consider when you're looking at some of
these off the grid properties
now for some people that are living off
the grid trees are extremely important
to them
because they like the shade now for
other people that are living off the
grid
it's extremely important for them not to
have any trees because they're trying to
collect as much solar power
and wind power as possible you can
always look at weather maps to see how
much wind
actually goes through this specific area
to see how much
wind energy you're going to be producing
and you're going to be able to find out
how much
uh sunlight comes through as well man
it's busy on the river today
now there's tons of websites when it
comes to finding pieces of property
you can always look at zillow and
realtor.com but there's ones that are
specifically
just for land like this one right here
i've said it before in previous videos
and i'll say it again
one of the most important things you can
look at when you're looking at a track
of land
is the zoning so you can have a huge
track of land and part of it is
considered mixed use
some of it is considered agriculture
some of it is considered wetlands
so when you see the price of the land
and you're thinking wow that's a great
deal for 120 acres
and you only find out that only like two
of those acres are you know available
for you to build and they happen to be
in the middle of nowhereville
there's a reason why that that piece of
property was so expensive
another trick you want to know about
buying an off the grid property
is remember when i told you before to go
look at the tax record to see who
actually owns the property
they give you a tax evaluation of how
much that piece of land costs as well
so even though the taxes are always kind
of a little off
on the rolls it will be close enough and
if they're way off
let's just say the taxes only say that
piece of property is worth 6 000
and they're asking 25 000 that's some
negotiating room do you know that even
the tax assessor knows that it's not
worth that amount of money
so just know that ahead of time it's a
little trick you should know
so you can get a better deal everybody
likes a deal i like a deal
i want you to get a deal another thing
you want to be careful of is the type of
leases that might be already on the
piece of property
always make sure always make sure you
have a clear title search
and that's when you get into deeds so
what kind of deed restrictions does this
particular
property have now let's talk about the
type of deeds you can get with a piece
of property
when you're looking to purchase a piece
of land there are five main types of
deeds that you can use
the first one is a warranty deed the
second one
is a special warranty deed then there's
a quick claim deed
usually to clear up any kind of title
issues or pieces of property between
family members
then you have the bargain and sale deed
and then you have a grant deed
i won't be going into much detail of all
of these deeds because that would take a
whole entire another video
just know the warranty deed is best but
most likely you're going to be getting a
special warranty deed
one thing that stinks about buying any
piece of land whether it's off the grid
or not
is hoas and restrictions even though you
think that this piece of property is a
real
piece of property and nobody's gonna
care what you're doing on it
trust me you need to find out what the
hoas and restrictions are
especially if you're planning on putting
something in like an alternative housing
unit
like a tiny home a container home and
just a little word of warning
if you have some neighbors that are in
this hoa
go to the hoa meeting before you buy the
piece of property to talk to them about
your plans
of purchasing this piece of property and
what you plan on doing with it
so i suggest always check with your
neighbors ahead of time
so you're going to get along with them
see if this is something
they will allow you to have even though
you might not have neighbors
for miles you wouldn't believe how close
that ends up being if they don't like
you
if you want to know some more about
buying land go ahead and check out
this video right here my name is
christina smallhorn your real estate
whisperer and i tell you all this
because good real estate information
matters