Van Life Homebase: Should YOU Buy Land as a HOMEBASE? Pros and Cons!

hi everyone welcome back to my next video today's going to be a little bit different we are looking at land i know we're nomads bob why are we looking at land because i think uh there are a lot of our good arguments to be made why a nomad should own a piece of land in fact this piece of land that we're looking at and i'm standing on is my land i own this i bought this in about 2016. uh let me give you an idea of where we are right now it's very green because it's been a wet summer here in arizona northern arizona so it's really pretty and green but believe me it's not always going to look like this this is the best it's ever going to look we're in northern arizona if you know have any idea where williams arizona and flagstaff arizona is if you go due north on on flagstaff i'll put a map up hopefully you're seeing a map now you go due north uh from williams on 64 and you go off to the northwest from uh from flagstaff they intersect at a little tiny non-town called vale the valley depends on who you're asking to or talking to at that moment but it's v-a-l-l-e it's not really a town there's a big chevron there and there's there's a few things there's not much well of course it it's that intersection has internet and that's one of the reasons why i wanted to come here is that it has uh it has okay internet where we are now it's not the best in the world but it's adequate and so i've got internet i've got gas and shopping such as is right there uh williams is about i don't know i'll put it on the i'll put i'll put it up here how exactly far how away it is i think it's like 40 miles to williams and it's like 40 miles uh to flagstaff so you got a lot of shopping within an hour's drive pretty comfortably the roads back here are not all that great getting out of here to the pavement to 180 or to 64 will take you a while but once you're on there you're not you're less than an hour away from really good shopping uh so it's a pretty central spot of course the grand canyon is just north of here uh we're at about six thousand feet 6500 feet that means it's going to be warm in the summer really warm it'll be into the 90s on a pretty regular basis rarely will it hit a hundred uh but it'll be into the low 90s often so that's about what you would expect here in the winter in the summer in the winter they get snow and the snow they come up here in a snow machine that's actually why a lot of people own land here is they come up from phoenix or out of flagstaff to run their snow machines when when you get snow in the winter so you get four seasons uh but you're going to have like six months a year where it's pretty comfortable and you'd be glad you were here and if you were ever to build a structure put on a tiny house build a shed put it bring in a mobile uh you could be very comfortable here this is a good place and on the drive end there's a lot of people in the area around so i have one acre uh now back to so that describes the land and where i am and why i'm here i paid two thousand dollars for it uh he would let you put two hundred dollars down and then pay like a hundred dollars a month and that's how i started out and then i just paid off the loan really fast but there's a lot of land here and you can get it for about that two i don't know what the what it's going for now probably about two thousand dollars still and this is raw land and it's the taxes are like fifteen twenty 20 30 a month a year at the most so less than 30 a year for taxes so you're not paying anything in taxes one of the most important things to consider when you buy land is the county and the restrictions this is coconino county which has severe restrictions but when you drive in here you see there is no enforcement however just because there's no enforcement now doesn't mean there will never be enforcement and so that was a risk what coconino does is they will let you buy a permit and and spend i think uh either three or six months i think it's fifty dollars and you can stay on this land in your rv for either three or six months so if i you own two one acre lots you could buy one on each uh and then move back and forth and you could stay here forever for a hundred dollars a year in your rv you'd be perfectly legal so but county rules and restrictions is a really important thing you take into account i would actually suggest you buy in apache county which is far east arizona off of i-40 south of i-40 towards st john they have very loose restrictions on the county it's almost certain that you will never have a problem with the county and so i would actually if you're out thinking about buying land in arizona that would be my first thought apache county it's about the same elevation you're going to have about the same weather patterns uh there is internet like here it's kind of spotty you have to go around make sure you have it on your land and land is going to be about the same price you could probably pick up an acre for a couple grand five or ten acres it's actually cheaper over there you could probably buy ten acres for five thousand easy uh if you're buying larger acreages you're looking at a thousand an acre or less in apache county so and there's a lot of it there's no limit on the amount of land okay all that that's all good uh that's great bob why would i buy a piece of land why do you buy a piece of land why should i think about buying a piece of land let's consider that so why did i buy land and why do i think it's generally a good idea for nomad to buy land no the reason number one is you're now a legal resident of that state you have a legal address someone ever asks you where do you live in that state you i have an actual address i'm not gonna give it to you but it's like one two three four main street williams arizona uh in fact you can just punch that uh address in and it'll google will send you right here it's not the best road in the world you're going to have some fun getting to it uh but you're going to get to it and and so you have now have a legal address and if a a a ranger ever says to you do you have a home somewhere your answer is yes that solves all the problems with do you own a home when you go to uh to title your vehicle and and get insurance on your vehicle they will ask you where is the vehicle going to be garaged that's a very specific question they want to know the piece of land it will be on i now have an answer it's one two three four main street williams arizona and then whatever the zip code is i don't know uh now i've i've solved that problem i am in every way i don't have to lie i don't have to kind of fake it or fudge it i own land here i am a legal resident i am that entitles me to use uh everything including camping on public land uh national forest and blm there is an issue about that i'm not going to discuss it but this solves that whole problem uh so that's your number one reason you're legal and being legal and is is a very positive thing i think it's worth for me i spent the two thousand dollars for this piece of land just so that i could know that i was legal and didn't have to worry about it so now the next reason i think you should consider uh a piece of land is long-term and emergencies what do i mean by that well i'm 66 i don't think i'm i think i have another decade on the road i'll be 76 that's pretty old i mean why for a man if that's not that's less true for a woman if you were a woman i would say you have more but for a man at 76 dear i'm about done being on the road and if i'm not done being on the road i would like to have a home base that i go to and spend part of my year there relaxing so thinking ahead to when you're older or when you're sick say you have a physical illness if you have a piece of land where you can go to and and you have friends and neighbors and they can help you uh for emergencies or or say there's a natural disaster and and uh the zombie apocalypse finally comes we all know it's coming it's only a matter of time we all know that uh if the zombie apocalypse comes i'd like to be right here i'd like to meet all my neighbors and know them and we could band together and fight off those zombies how about that now i'm being facetious of course but the idea that there's something really pretty hard coming and i can come here and be ready so if you're if you're thinking in terms of buying land for emergencies then a real uh practical way to go about that is to buy a shipping container uh connex uh you know they're trailers that go back on the back of trucks and they go on trains you can buy one of those for pretty cheap have it dropped out here and they're pretty safe and secure so you can store your emergency supplies now water is a big issue but what you could even do is store water inside your conex and treat it uh bleach it and then and then continue to bleach it because water goes bad and replace it every year two or three so you definitely have got to keep uh your water up but water is a biggie i wouldn't count on a well uh or or water or septic here so one of the things that you can do is rain catchment and that works uh arizona is perfectly legal in some states rain catchments actually illegal so you'll want to be careful to do your research about the county and the state you're in i think in most everywhere in arizona it rained catchments is legal but that changes so i'm not a claw here i'm not telling you what to do you do your own research make sure it's legal so what i would do then is i would uh bring out and set up one of the big metal roofed uh with just uh pipes that hold it up and then you would drive your rv or your van or your car or put up a tent underneath it and then you could put up tarps around it to secure it from the wind wind it's always an issue everywhere in arizona there's a wind blowing now as you could probably tell but then that's going to give you rain catchment put barrels and save that and store that and treat that and then just filter it as you take it out uh that's an easy way to do it that's the way to get water as an ongoing thing and during the the that's why it's so green here is because during the monsoon season there's a lot of rain here you can do a lot of rain catchment then you've got shade and you've got rain catchment going at the same time for not much money and there's not much to be damaged one thing to be concerned about everywhere in arizona is damage vandalism while you're gone people come they'll just cut a conex open if you bring out here with some uh cordless tools you can just cut a conex open and take everything out so i would always bear that in mind that it's not as simple as as just dropping stuff off and knowing it'll be safe because there are issues with that so that's for that's a good reason to have it is for emergencies some kind of emergency in the country or in the state or or or personal emergency you need a goat you need to go to ground you have ground so the third main reason you might think about buying land is to have a home base what do you mean by a home baseball well i mean a lot of us as we get older we need to have a doctor i write people write me all the time and say bob i need to have a doctor i need to see him every six months i need to get prescriptions how can i do that and be a nomad so that's one example of why you would want a home base another is your pet so my last dog homer uh as he got older when he was 10 he had all kinds of health issues and my vet is in williams so a good reason to have a home base is for your pet you have a vet that knows you and knows your dog and i loved my vet in williams it's williams veterinary clinic so i'm going to recommend him very highly and that's one reason i went here is because i had a good vet in williams also if you have medical needs there's you know there flagstaff is just right over there it's a college town it's an exciting vibrant town and there are lots of doctors so if i need a doctor that i need to maintain my health there's hospital there not only that you're uh what a half hour life flight away from phoenix which has every medical facility known to the planet is right there in phoenix so really quick i had you have all these doctors nearby that's what a home base gives you say you have an ongoing legal issue well you could have a lawyer in flagstaff or in williams whatever you need out of a home base it can be here so you just make it a point to twice a year travel through and stay at your land i could do that very very easily uh in the spring on the way north to wherever i'm going to spend my spring i stop here i see the doctor i make my appointments i camp here on my own land i see the doctor he my dog sees the vets i see my lawyer i see whatever i need out of a home base it's here not only that but you'll probably get to know your neighbors a lot of them are doing the same thing you are they're nomads they're traveling through you'll meet people and you'll get to know them and you'll have that's a that is a community building community is really one of the best things you can do in life and so you can do that really easily once you have a home base now as a jumping off point i am so close to so much uh nevada las vegas is just right over there it's a it's a day's drive away and i'm in vegas uh colorado is just right over there and i just drive off to colorado and the beautiful mountains i can spend my summer up in there oregon the oregon coast is just beyond vegas and due north i've got idaho and montana and wyoming and it is an amazing jumping off place in the summer going north and then going south in the winter going fall i'm just i'm uh like three four hours drive away from quartzite or from phoenix or from tucson or all the way down to tombstone that's this is a fantastic jumping off place and then finally uh now this probably goes under emergencies but i'm going to get older and someday i'm not going to be one on wanting to be on the road and slowly over the years i can build this up to be a home i'm looking forward to coming to so i can this year maybe i'll put in a carport i'll put it a post to beam carport with a metal roof and or i'll spend the money and have one put in and and then i've got water catchment so that's one year's project the next year i buy a shed as i build up and save my money i don't have all this money at once i'm not made out of money and so the next year i buy a uh a 16 by 24 two-story shed and i have it dropped off and i make that my home uh so now i'm just slowly and then i uh i be i bring in a better road so i'm going to cut a road into my land this is my land here you're standing on a i don't know who owns this but it's just a little two-track road there's a little two-track road there i have to bring in a road so you see my point over time i can build this up and and turn it into a nice little homestead maybe i'll put in a garden uh i think you could garden really well here there's a lot of there's a lot of sun and i think the soil you'd have to work with the soil uh i think you buy a load of manure and bring that in and you work with this soil i think you could turn this into a little homestead you have to put up your own solar there's no electricity here there's no utilities here just assume there's no utilities at a thousand or two thousand an acre you're not getting utilities you're gonna be off grid there you go folks that's the reason i own land and it's a reason you might think about owning land there's a lot of cheap land to be had and almost always you can get it on terms so if you pay 2 000 for an acre you put two hundred dollars down you pay him a hundred dollars a month you too can own a piece of land it's a completely realistic goal that nearly all of us can achieve and one of the reasons a lot of us have gone on the road become nomads is to travel around and find where we want to be this is is this the best place in the world it's a good place and i can afford it and it has enough advantages to it that i'm glad i'm here okay i'm gonna stop i've given you way too much information so i hope that helps you that gives you some ideas of why you would want to get land and how to go around about doing it and the link below will give you some sites there are lots of sites that have a land where you can go and find it cheap and buy it through them and we'll give you some ideas links to land land for sale places in the description below okay i hope you got something out of this video uh i think it's something i'm glad i did i'm glad i owned this land uh i got it paid off the first year and i i paid less than 30 of taxes there's no burden on owning this for me there may be a huge advantage to me down the road i thought i'm very glad i owned this land okay if you got anything out of this video like us on youtube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 394,773

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: JpZm8Jf7t5A

Length: 18min 1sec (1081 seconds)

Published: Wed May 04 2022