The 4 Big A’s
Above pics: recent properties for sale we’ve seen. Hilarious note: the top left pic is a piece of land for sale that: has no direct access; sits right next to I-90; cannot be built on due to it being a flood-plain; and the only way you can walk the ground is to park at the rest stop which closely hugs the property. This is what we’re up against people! Fortunately, rather than finding it only frustrating, I also find it comical how terrible this one was! What kind of buyer wants this one?!
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Accessibility. Affordability. Acreage. Appropriate location. Meet the four big A’s that guide our land search criteria.
Accessibility: Can the folks we hope will join us for future Empty Mountain programming, events and retreats get there in non all-wheel-drive vehicles? Can we get to the property year-round (ya know, cuz we want to live there and all)? A note to help set the scene: A majority of the land we look at boots on the ground involves some dirt road action to get there. A number of properties that meet our other criteria fail the litmus test on this one. Accessibility is a big deal. A common phrase we run across in listing descriptions online is: snow-mobile access in winter, which is an automatic no-fly zone for me (although Mike, the dreamer & creative problem solver of our dynamic duo, is not so easily deterred and thinks snowmobiling into our property in the winter months sounds like a fun adventure).
Affordability: Is it in our limited price range (did I mention we’re not interested in taking out a loan or getting financing and want to find land that fits within our current and available means)?
Acreage: 20-acres is ideal. Less is potentially workable, especially if it’s backed up against public access land, such as: NFS (national forest service) or BLM (bureau of land management). Neighbors are fine, we just don’t want to see them from our land. We want at least some buffer of woods around us.
Appropriate location: Since our friends and sangha are in Missoula, we want to be within a one-hour drive of town. We used to think the closer the better but we’re becoming aware that doing what we’re looking to do (ie: building alternative dwellings; creating a residential community) may be near impossible if we reside in Missoula County. Neighboring counties have less red tape when it comes to such things. Out of necessity, we’ve been slowly expanding our search out a little further and have gone as far as 90-minutes away looking at properties for sale but we’ve not yet breached the 90-min time barrier (though we are reluctantly starting to consider it).
Stats:
To date, since we got back to the 406 (Montana area code) in early April, we’ve gotten boots on the ground at a total of 11 properties for sale.
We made 2 offers on one piece of land and were turned down both times.
I don’t mind sharing with ya’ll that this whole land search thing is not my favorite. There’s not a lot on the market right now that harmoniously meets our 4 Big A’s. Still, we’ve got our finger on the pulse and our eyes (and hearts) are wide open.