Buying off grid land- you'll never hear this from Realtors

one of the biggest most frequent questions i  get in my comment section and in my email inbox   is can you please help me figure out how to find  off-grid land how to vet it how to afford it give   me some tips and advice so this video is going to  answer all those questions i'm going to take you   to some off-grid properties going to be hands-on  evaluations of properties that are for sale   and i'm going to show you the off-grid  property we just bought in interior alaska   completely sight unseen see what you  guys think over the past 25 years   dave and i have bought and developed six  off-grid properties in michigan and alaska   we've learned a lot along the way we've learned  how to spot some of the trouble you might get   into we've learned to look at properties with an  eye for potential with an eye for sweat equity   we've learned how to do it out of pocket we want  to share that information here with you today so   hopefully this will be helpful for you as you're  looking for your off-grid property stay tuned okay as you saw we just drove into this property  this is off-grid this is a five-acre piece and   let's take a look at the characteristics of this  place the pros and cons we'll see if it's worth   the price of admission let's go check it out  first off let's talk about where do you go to   find off-grid land well first you need to know  where you want to be then you get boots on the   ground you start driving around the area you start  seeing the area get a feel for it what is the   economy like in the area what is the land like  what's the people like what's the climate like   and it has to speak to you so start driving  around but then you're going to look at local   realtors so that's usually not where we have  the best luck facebook marketplace craigslist   a lot of times it'll be for sale by owner  so if you're just driving around back roads   you might see some for sale by owner  stuff if you go to realtor.com or zillow   any of those online sites top your search at  like fifty thousand dollars or seventy five   thousand dollars and i know that's still a lot  of money that's going to filter out all kinds of   stuff right from the beginning and start from the  bottom up over the years we've found a lot of land   ends up being people's broken dreams for sale so  there may or may not be structures on the property   and that's something you have to think about when  you're purchasing land and looking at off-grid   property is what's already there it can it be  salvaged does it have potential will it bleed you   dry trying to fix what's there i'm going to show  you a really interesting one here after this one   so there's so many things to think about when  you're searching for that piece of land but you   know let's be honest price is going to be right  there at the top the perfect piece of land with   a great climate and water access in like a  stream and a creek and fresh water and good soil   and great access and great sun exposure all of  those things only come with lots and lots of money   so you're going to have to find out which areas  you're willing to sacrifice to do what you can   to afford a piece of land so it's not going to  be perfect our first piece of land had leftover   stuff on it had old fencing old animal corrals and  shelters and sort of a driveway somebody's broken   dreams once again but it was a couple of acres  and a couple acres beside it were for sale so   for like 12 grand we got like four acres and the  power company had come through and cut some logs   so there was some logs already down even though  we weren't tied into the grid those were our logs   so we used those logs to build a little 12 by 12  cabin and there we had our own piece of land our   own cabin that we built with our hands for nothing  so that's how you start you start very small   with what you can do with what you can afford  as soon as you start to go bigger than that   you're gonna you're gonna lose you have  to stick with what you can afford and   the sacrifices you're willing to make and that  means with the land itself as a starter piece   or with life in general the no running water the  no electricity all of those things hauling water   is a big deal it's really hard how hard is your  access how easy is it to get into the property   what about year round access and we're going to  get into all of this but right now let's just look   at this property this property is being offered  for 48 000 it's way too much money for this in my   opinion it does come with a cabinet some other  building which i i can't go in i didn't call   to get access inside i just wanted to see the  land you first just want to get a feel for the   land like do you see yourself here is this some  place that uh speaks to you dave and i have always   gone off the premise does this land speak to you  and every piece of property we've ever bought   you know we've gone back and we've gone back again  it's like yeah you know i just i kind of like it   here so let's take a quick look at this place and  what it has to offer and i'll give my my thoughts   on that so you can see they obviously have brought  in a ton of gravel to get this driveway in and   just to get back here this is a typical interior  alaska location with just a ton of black spruce   but they have interestingly cleared out this  giant section and left a few birch trees   so the fire danger here is much you're much more  protected in case of a fire though black spruce is   still every everywhere when you're looking at  your land is it prone to fire are these trees   you know really really flammable we like this  piece because these aspen aren't as you know the   fire danger that like say black spruces this is a  much better uh piece of land for fire protection   than would be black spruce though fire is always  going to be going to be a concern no matter what   in black spruce in alaska is very indicative of  very poor draining soils permafrost what have you   and so that's definitely what this place is now  since they've cleared this it's coming back it's   got lots of birch coming up it's got little spruce  probably black spruce um i'm sure that the uh   the the moose come in here and browse on all this  is probably a great spot to see moose this is   an awesome place to watch the northern lights it  would be just fantastic here so yeah could you do   something here you would have to uh amend the soil  for sure this is just very silty soil around here   it's not very nutrient dense so you would have  to figure out how to make the soil better but   i mean you could you know have an amazing  garden here you'd have to really protect it   from the moose but uh you know you could  do something with this open space i do   like the open space it does help with mosquitoes  you know this place is going to be great for solar   but when it's 80 it's going to be brutal  there's absolutely no shade here at all   so you know and it gets hot here quite often so  it's something to think about it's obviously an   owner-built cabin so let's go take a look at that  so when you're evaluating structures and the worth   of structures you want to pay close attention  to the roof you want to pay close attention to   the foundation what's this thing  built on looks like this is built on   railroad ties so i mean it's not awesome the rest  you can't see because they've got it covered up   now here's an example of a post and pad foundation  this is our cabin north of fairbanks dave poured   these concrete piers and also poured the square  concrete pads underneath this foundation is is   post and pad we're on a big slope here we're  building directly on top of the ground you can   see the the land drops right off here now here's  the cabin foundation here is really really sketchy   i go this way i think this thing is  just ready to fall off the mountain here   quite a view right i've always wanted to own  this little cabin actually no idea who owns it   and they're never here first thing you'd have to  do is fix that foundation which is pretty much   non-existent that board there is twisted as all  get out and sitting on cribbing and just jacked up northern lights would be incredible  up here but yeah this place   has always been one of my favorites despite  the work it needs it does have a metal roof   and that's what's been saving it  all this time because it's just osp is what it is it's always open it's kind  of just a uh survival cabin honestly   it's cool i put a loft in it and sit here and  watch the northern lights quite a view main   thing is how's the roof piece blew off now  we've got exposed wood which is definitely   bad so you gotta check the whole thing out top to  bottom it's probably 14 by 16 with a loft inside   they have a wood stove in there and  obviously have some kind of a drip   stove like a toyo stove very popular here in  interior alaska because there's the oil tank you're looking at roofs you want to look at the  overhang and the eaves and any damage this is   just t-111 on the outside again you can't see  any of the foundation because it's covered up   got i don't know whatever in the heck is in these  i do smell oil here so there's either a drip   or a leak of some kind in the in the connection  so that's not awesome because i can smell it   quite a few solar panels i'd be interested to  see the inside and see what's going on in there   oh let's see if we can get in here and look now  you can't see anything in there looking at the   windows they look like double paned windows there  it's not a bad window more unknown things in jugs   um good steel door on the  inside it's good and warm a   pretty good screen door too one thing i'm  noticing here is that's like a 10 inch   board this thing would be very very  warm if the walls are 10 inches in there   but that the casing what i'm seeing is is a very  deep casing on that window not too many windows   for what this is i would definitely want  way more windows and i don't know if this   building is just like a little storage building  kind of guessing it is and this thing only has   the one little window and it is broken  good steel door looks like it was just   brought in it's just sitting on some janky timbers  the roof meadow's a little jacked up no window on   the back and some metal has come off of this thing  on that edge it looks like no one's been here in a   really long time not completely protected but  i mean it's a building it's intact you could   probably do something with it and the same  for this one but nothing you can do with this   property besides clear it out which is exactly  what they did hey buddy here's the outhouse   hasn't been used in a long long time let's  look down the hole squirrels have been in here see if you can see it there is a barrel sunk in  because the soils here do not drain so you would   have to have some way to clean it out so that's  going to be something to think about it's going   to be an issue 48 thousand dollars is a lot  of money for this this off-grid place way too   much in my opinion this property to me has it  does have a little charm i like the open space   much better than being in all the black spruce  be amazing to watch the sky here in the winter   um might be all you're doing though you can  make that into a little office i'm going to   check my phone i want to see if there's actual  cell coverage here that's something else you   got to think of what are you going to do if you're  stuck you can't get out how are you going to keep   yourself employed in this area at this place  that you want to live this off-grid property   how are you going to make money all right i've  got two bars here that's kind of amazing that if   you're working from home and the internet's part  of your deal this is something you want to look at   one thing to remember how you're going to afford  this these places are not going to get financed   by a bank you need cash in cash talks especially  the longer a place sits so the more i clean up the   more work that needs to be done the more the more  off-grid it is the more less attractive the land   is cash talks and that's the only way you're going  to buy this property anyway you can sometimes get   a land loan with 20 sometimes 30 down that's still  a lot of money and you still got to make a living   out here so think about that so this one there's  this one so now i'm gonna kind of drive around   this area and see what else is in the area see if  there's other cabins i've already google earth did   i kind of know what's here and that's important  to do look at the if it's in a county or if you   can get to acrevalue.com you can do an overview  you can see who the landowners are in the area   i'll put the links below to those the acre value  it's a wonderful resource it is not available here   in alaska if you live in a borough that has taxes  land taxes you can track that stuff down otherwise   you're not going to know who lives  around you unless you just physically   you know drive or walk around so that's what i'm  going to do now i'm going to the the trail keeps   going and then goes this way i'm going to go check  it out see the the land see what else is here   right now we're just gonna go look at a five  acre piece of land here no structures we do   have a partial driveway here old hasn't  been used a bunch of logs over it but uh   let's go take a look at the land this piece is 35  000 for five acres that's where you would come in here again we have black  spruce but they're much bigger   i mean this is about as big as they get so  the land is pretty dense with black spruce and this is basically the building site now this  piece of property is actually on a paved road   quite a ways off the beaten path long ways from  a town but there is power on this road you could   actually tap into power but if that's not what  you're looking for then you're paying for that   without ever going to use it so the fact that  there's power on the road and it is a paved   road it's a rough paved road that also means  the access is going to be wonderful there's   year-round access here this road is getting  maintained by the road commission the land meh 35   i think is still too much for this  you know this has a few bigger trees   not much of a mix at all pretty much just spruce  so this is not going to be a place where you're   going to garden the ground is just a really thick  mossy bottom you're going to want to do anything   back here it's going to start with clearing a  path and then bringing in a bunch of gravel water   is probably pretty deep you could do  rain catchment but that doesn't always   guarantee you're gonna have water especially in  interior alaska can be very dry here is our source   of bathing water this is coming off the shed  roof we have a nice uh metal roof here and it's   collecting into this rain barrel and what do you  notice is that it's hardly any water in there we   are in some pretty desperate times for for water  we we've had hardly any any rain for several weeks   is your source of of water reliable are you gonna  are you gonna have good water that you can rely on   the thing to really consider is your water source  where are you going to get water if you can't   rely on rain water you got to know where you can  get your water year round so figure that out too   all right so this is where i come locally  to get water this is a spring that is   provided for the community to get water  and uh it's it's just the best water ever so we get these big five gallon jugs  and then i just do like my road water   and fill it up here so a lot of places  in alaska you find these springs   you can get water you can find you know state  parks where you can get water but it's something   you have to think about this place is open  year round and the water just keeps flowing filling up the barrel now okay wow that was pretty great oh yeah look at  that that was about half an hour's worth of rain   that's beautiful now we've got bathing water  in here you see all the pollen in the water but   otherwise yeah it's good for bathing and dishes  even man because this five acres is so dense   like i don't know what you would do with it as a  value of the property you know it's a buffer for   privacy but other than that what are you going to  use it for so a couple things when you come on a   piece of land you got to be honest with yourself  about the price can you afford it are you living   debt-free already have you saved money can you  build something yourself or are you going to have   to pay to have something built is there material  on the property that you could use to build   the structure you want to build this one  honestly yeah these trees here are big enough   that you could actually you could actually do  a cabin um if you cut some of these logs down   um you see by the sides of my hand you'd get  a good you know eight inch log out of that   and there's there's quite a few of those around um  you're gonna have to work hard at getting them out   of here you're gonna need some some trails cut  and you gotta get you know four-wheel drive and   you're gonna have to cut trees and make it  happen yourself but it could be done so this is   our property that is north of fairbanks and it is  an off-grid property and you can see it's full of   aspens which we utilized for building our cabin  and it's an unconventional kind of log to use   but you can see that it's it's held up really  really well as long as you've got good eaves   and the wood is sealed makes for a really  beautiful cabin and that all came from these   aspen trees which is the resource we had  on this property so that's what we used um if you're very new at building this may  also just seem overwhelming so that's where   the other piece might be more attractive where  there already is a small structure and another   small structure that you can start with and you  can redo it you can revamp it and and you can   make it your own without actually starting from  scratch um without a building here's some land   is it is it what you want is it going to give  you what you want this one has access this one   has power if someday you wanted to tap into  it which also makes this land more valuable   both to start with and at the end game so you  know the more remote the more off-grid the more   you are removed from access and power the less  expensive it gets but there is a there's a value   exchange there too for you because you're  gonna have to make up that difference you're   gonna have to get power you know whether it be  solar you're gonna have to access the property   you're gonna have to take care of that road  maintain that road so you can get back in there   there's so much to think about do you have to  build do you have the skills but if you don't have   skills to build that's not a deal breaker i'll  put the link below to my brother-in-law scott's   cabin that he he built just in sections and he  just started small and he went bigger and bigger   you know just added little rooms off and it can  be completely done on a really small scale so   i'll put the link below to that and it's worth  a watch and it's very inspiring if you don't   have any experience and just want to start small  go check out that video another here's another   selection of off-grid land and and what to look at  and what to look for oh wow it's just strawberry   it's light what is that wow those are all currants  look at this i've never seen so many currants   in my life holy cow this whole berm so  it looks like what what they did was push   all this land to flatten it out and they just  pushed it into this pile which is now your   problem to deal with it's probably 10 feet above  the rest of the uh the cleared out area here so what kind of wildlife do you  have in the area are there   are there predators are there scavengers  are there dangerous moose there's one now you got to think about these things it's nice and quiet out here i will say that it  is really nice and quiet that's one thing i really   pay attention to so i don't know if you can hear  behind me but even though we're off grid and we're   way out of town we have a road that comes down  the bottom of this valley that is well traveled   you're gonna hear traffic it comes right up the  mountain and i can hear it really easily at times   other times it's not so bad but it drives me crazy  uh the land was cheap and we're glad we bought it   but the noise here like the road noise from the  one road it just the noise travels up and i just   don't want to hear road noise so it's kind of a  bummer the other thing right now is air traffic   we have major wildfires everywhere so there is a  tanker going by right now are you near a runway   even if it's remote you might not know it until  you spend some time on the land before you buy it thing is you're evaluating trails coming into  off-grid properties you want to look for spots   that may be potentially low spots you can tell  it gets flooded out maybe has ruts and stuff   consider what time of year it is you know there  may be problems with springtime and this being   like super wet and muddy um you want to look and  see if the ground is hard or if it's you know   here it's silty so it's  probably going to be fairly   fairly solid underneath any water but  you know something to keep in mind besides wet spots and stuff like that you want to  know if you have legal access do you have deeded   access to this trail and this uh road going  into your property it's good to know because   at any point if you don't have  deeded access it can be denied   your access can be shut off by some other land  owner so it's a good thing to look into that   do you need a four-wheel drive to get back in  here could heavy equipment come in and help you   with bringing in gravel or equipment or you know  materials and supplies does the road or trail   can it support heavy equipment or big trucks  these are things you want to think about based   on what you're going to do with the land and your  in your ideas but definitely things to think about so as you evaluate your properties that you  look at how are you going to get in and out of   an off-grid property on an unmaintained trail or  road that's a mile or miles off the main road you   are the one that's going to have to maintain  the wet spots and the holes that develop and   putting gravel down in spots that need it and  plowing or getting yourself in and out are you   going to snow machine in and out are you going  to bike at the very least you should ask yourself   if you had to walk out are you physically able  in case of an emergency you you don't have any   kind of transportation in or out of here can you  get in and out on your own your own foot power   that being said a few things you also want  to think about is how close do you need to   be to medical care um is it important to have  a hospital nearby or a clinic are you trained   medically to take care of yourself you have  basic knowledge and wilderness first aid and you   in a kit to take care of yourself how close is the  nearest school if you have school children are you   considering homeschooling if you're going to be  very isolated where's the nearest grocery store   where's the nearest building supplies so  consider all those things before you fall   in love with a piece of land be really honest  with yourself about year-round access what the   weather is like and go from there now a lot of  times when dave and i are looking for property   we'll initially go look at a piece and dismiss it  and then we'll just kind of keep coming back to   it for some reason it will have sparked something  it will have spoke to us somehow or we have maybe   have considered the potential in different  ways we will come back and visit a piece of   property several times this property is that  one for us we considered buying this property   um so we've been here a couple of times to check  it out and then we go back and discuss it and and   and then every time you come out here you get a  different feel whether the weather is different   you can hear different sounds whether  the wind is blowing you can hear   whether you can hear a road nearby this piece is  more than a mile off the road it's completely off   grid and completely isolated from any other  structures or building around it so it is   really a a really interesting piece but  it has so many problems or opportunities   depending how you look at it so let's go  take a look at what we're talking about   now this is a 10 acre piece and right  away the thing i like the most about it   is this setting and this has just  a really really great setting   so we're going to start out with the positives  which is this is just a lovely setting and this   place has some uh real potential with the setting  it also has some really nice outbuildings but the   big elephant in the room is this giant owner built  disaster i mean it is a disaster it's been sitting   here forever and it is just hard to wrap your head  around the amount of work that needs to go into   dealing with this structure there is there is  junk on this property from one side to the other   but there are some bonuses and you have to be  careful with the things that you do like because   it'll it'll talk you into the place um unfairly  and it'll make it worth more in your mind than it   really is so it's got a really nice wood shed it's  got a really nice chicken coop so this is good   land here we've got some really nice white spruce  some cottonwoods and just a really beautiful   setting so lots of sunlight lots of opportunities  for gardens and all of that this place hasn't been   lived in in such a long time again classic  i don't know why you'd want a two-holer   this one is actually dirt so this is good  draining soil and you can have an outhouse   that just drains nice privacy curtain there  but mostly the rest of the land is black spruce   this place has a nice little chicken coop you  got to think about if you want to have homestead   animals you know usually like chickens are the  easiest to start with maybe ducks goats but how   are you gonna protect them what kind of predators  are in the area what kind of fencing are you gonna   have to put up can you afford the fencing can  you afford to have the animals like what kind of   climate is it i know here in alaska i had chickens  and i built like a straw bale coop for them so   they had walls that were this thick of straw bales  you know it can get 60 below here and we've seen   it 60 below here so you've got to think about how  are you going to take care of those animals how   you going to keep their water from freezing  i i had only rubber bowls so that i could   you know beat them and the ice would come out and  i do that twice a day give them water and we were   hauling water so you still have to think  about where are you going to get that water   to take care of your animals water where's the  nearest vet where are you going to get your feed   is there a feed store nearby are you going to let  them free range if you're going to let them free   range how about predators so nice to have some  structures already in place but don't let that   fool you into the making the value of  that property more than it should be here's the butchering station for chickens  here's another um nice out building and   you can see that this would just be a  really nice yard i mean it's actually   really beautiful there's some building  material i'm sure it's just kind of junk as far as the garden area goes you're gonna have  to keep out deer and moose and rabbits whatever   else existing fencing or are you going to put  in fencing for your garden things to think about so right away you see that this place has just  been a conglomeration of owner built ideas   and it's actually really huge this place is  massive and it's really hard to see inside   because absolutely every window or window hole  has been covered up but again you start looking   at what's here in the roof wood beyond the metal  which is always bad so that wood's been exposed   that's just the start of the problem absolute  disaster there's just so much junk so many   weird add-ons and but there's just so much  junk it's just been boarded up you know i'm   guessing they must have had some solar up on  the uh the roof up there so i don't know what   that whole contraption up there is about there's  actually no windows at all up there it's all   boarded up there's a big investment in windows  timbers are just exposed to the weather it is just just crazy weird so let's talk  about the foundation here which is   just who knows it's built right on the ground  just got osb all the way down you can't even   really see what's going on this place is still  standing i mean it's janky but it's still up   it's a lot of insulation this this foam insulation   in some spots there's boards going past the metal  just it's really bad it's just going to rot out   again the least of the problems here give you  i'll give you a taste of what this place is like   i call this the uh master bedroom it smells like  creosote in here you can't see anything because   it's just all dark and boarded up this floor is  just completely rounded you'd have to put a new   subfloor in here can you believe there's  like a baby crib in here it's super scary like that's one room and  this is supposed to be like a bathroom i don't know another thing to think about with all this trash  all this scrap all this whatever's here is any   of the land contaminated especially where you want  to grow something so you know be aware of that and   hauling off hazardous containers of whatever  oil gas old fuel oil i mean you just never know   so lots to think about with this particular  property access demolition cleanup renovation   tear down what do you have the energy for what do  you have the appetite for do you have the money   let's let's sit on this one in low ball because  this is a nightmare but it has ton of potential   you have to be able to see through all  of this we've done this many times on   pieces of property where there's just been  leftover dreams we've cleaned it up and   worked out really good for us because you can  get it at the right price and with sweat equity   you got something all right so after all of  what i've just told you there's also the option   to go completely rogue and buy something  sight unseen so here we are on on a new   piece of property that dave and i just purchased  over the winter sight unseen with a caveat we   know this area so we know what the land looks  like we kind of knew what the road was like   so this is interior alaska as well and this is an  area we felt okay buying something sight unseen this is on a maintained road  it's a maintained gravel road   way far away from a town um there actually  is power on this road as well but this land   was so cheap piece was listed for 16 000 it was  part of an estate sale none of the family had   any want of this property so we made a really  low offer we offered eleven thousand dollars   and they took it totally totally has potential and  you know we got this land cheaper than our first   property we ever bought in alaska oh yeah and  that was two acres right the first place was 6500   right but it was just two acres yeah so some of  this property is just this deep black spruce which   pretty much good for nothing so five acres of  land for eleven thousand dollars is a smoking   deal you know that we couldn't pass it up full of  squirrels moose loves it here beautiful flowers   interesting mix of trees on this property but  really we bought it because the price was right   just couldn't resist it oh we have found  the bunker wow yeah this ridge is awesome   yeah it's definitely cool up here it opens up and  uh it's got nice birch trees and if you cleaned   this up and brushed it out it'd be magic up here  i actually found a survival shelter back in here this piece of property just keeps getting more  and more interesting this is really neat in here very cool some of the prettiest things in alaska  are these fireweed against birch or aspen you just   have to be really careful with buying something  sight unseen for obvious reasons you really boots   on the ground are the way to go it's much  better to do your homework go actually vet   the property vet the area and go from there but  occasionally good deals just can't be passed up this dog wants to climb trees in the worst way we're we're going to figure this one  out this is going to be a fun one to   to do something with there you have it when it  comes to land there's so much to know and you're   only going to get there with experience  and trial and error but go into it smart   do your homework and make the best decision for  you and remember not to be too intimidated by   the thought of building your own place there's so  many resources out there that can really take you   like step by step for how to build and remember  to start with something small i'm a big fan of   books like this building a shed take you through  the whole process but you know could start out   to be a little tiny home but it'll take you step  by step through the building process and you know   that may be just what you need larry han i love  how to build a house building small by david and   jeannie styles they've got line drawings in here  and just inspiration for small spaces you can   build your own place if you really want to even if  you don't have any experience i built a cabin last   fall i really have never built anything solo by  myself hope you guys like this video i hope you   got lots of good information and are psyched to go  find your own piece of land so good luck see you   in the next video guys this girl in the woods she  gone oh don't forget to get outside and get happy all right i gotta get to work so yeah

Channel: Girl in the Woods

Views: 1,983,118

Keywords: off grid cabin, off grid, off grid land, how to find off grid land

Id: MRjh4XVO4TE

Length: 38min 58sec (2338 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 08 2022