My husband and I would like to downsize and simplify our lifestyle. Move to a smaller home with 1-3 acres in the country not in a subdivision. We're in our early 50's and both work. He says wait till we retire and I say let's start looking now. I'm afraid that when we retire there won't be any "country" left. we'd like to stay in N. Georgia but it's starting to look rather costly per acre. any ideas or information would be really helpful. Thanks so much!

-- Amy Lary (yalary@mmm.com), June 15, 1999 Answers I say look and buy now! However,Maybe your husband is hesitant because he doesn't truly share the same goal. Or, maybe he doesn't want to buy now because owning the land may require more "outside" work than he wants to do right now. I would find out the reasons why he doesn't want to buy now and discuss these with him.

P.S. If you want cheap land move to Oklahoma. My wife and I are negotiating on 160 acres of land. We just moved here from Ohio where the land costs are very high.

-- Bill Martin (bmartin_tink@yahoo.com), June 15, 1999.

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You might try the best of both worlds -- find a parcel of land with NO house on it that you could afford on your present income, so that you are making payments. It could be at a distance from where you are now in a location you prefer. You could camp out on it in tents or if it is in a nice area, perhaps buy a small camping trailer to stay in when you visit. It would be more of a recreational venture than a major and total change all in one fell swoop. You could try out the idea without making a major commitment. You might save more in the long run because commuting a distance to your daily jobs is tiresome, painful, and expensive in terms of gas and vehicle maintainance. Prices are going up everywhere, so the value of the home you are living in now will be going up. If you buy later, the land or your prospective little homestead will cost more, but you'll realize more from the sale of your home.

However, if you have land and can design and slowly build your new, smaller, more practical home, while still keeping the homebase where you are now, perhaps that would be the best way to meet your needs and golas and those of your husband.

Or, in the future, maybe you could sell both places and become amazingly rich and move somewhere else!

-- elizabeth petofi (tengri@cstone.net), June 15, 1999.

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It takes time and energy to build a homestead. When you retire you may have the time but not the energy to start from scratch. We have been on our ten acres for 18 months. With the threat of Y2K we cranked up our plans to high gear and it takes a lot of energy. My husband hopes to retire in 11 years. I don't think that we would have the energy to start our homestead at that time. We expect this to be our "retirement home" so we're getting it ready now while we have our health and are not too stuck in our ways to change our lifestyle. We looked for 15 years for this place. We absolutely love what we are doing but it takes time and energy. Gayle Voahell

-- Gayle Voshell (gvoshell@dpnet.net), June 17, 1999.

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Hi! We're in north Alabama and if north Georgia is growing anything like over here, you'd better start looking NOW if you want to stay in this area!!! I'd start looking and hope to make the move WAY before retirement so you will have time to do the things you really want to do there and will be established before you get older. I'm 47 and my husband is 55 but I feel like I did when I was 17---until I've been out in the garden all day!!!! Best of luck and just don't give up!!! My other advice would be to read COUNTRYSIDE from cover to cover and read as many of their back issues as possible and do the same for BACKWOODS HOME! I've learned SO MUCH from both of them. good luck!!! suzy

-- suzy lowry (slgt@yahoo.com), July 03, 1999.

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I live in NC very close to Hiawassee GA. Areas that were cheap and rural 15 yrs ago now have golfcourses, zoning, deed restrictions, traffic etc. That's why I live in NC, by the time I was ready for N GA I couldn't afford it. Prices have been going up as long as I've known the area. Start looking anyway, even if you don't buy for years, you'll be better informed when you do. Subscribe to local papers in the communities you like, some areas have web sites. Realtors and the Chamber of Commerce are only going to tell you half the story of an area. Some people car pool to Atlanta to work, or live here on weekends. Jobs are hard to find here and don't pay very well, usually no benefits. Health care field is the exception. Regular rental houses (not dumps, not palaces) are hard to find here. If you find a workable place to buy you could probably rent it for enough to cover financing and other expenses. Owner financing is pretty common here. When you come up you can plant trees and brambles, work on fence etc. When you decide it's time to retire you'll know if you want to move here or sell. You'll either have a nice bit of capital, or a well started homestead, and a lot of knowledge.

-- Kendy Sawyer (sweetfire@grove.net), July 27, 1999.

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just a thought...i am looking at the BIG 50 tomorrow, and a few thoughts have crossed my mind as they do at this time of life... forthe past too many years - decades have gone by - i have lived everybody else's dream..."honey, let's do this, that, the other..." and now that i am single again, i look in the mirror and see a lady who is getting too close to the time when you say "i wish i had,,," which are the saddest words in the english language, right up there with "if only,,,". for crying out loud, figure out a way to have your cake & eat it too. i have waited forever to be able to get a place in the Smokies, and i am out of shape, and will never have enough money, nor enough anything else, but who cares? i don't have enough now, whatever enough is. sometime you have to decide whether to live your dreams, or just let them be dreams. sorry to be so long winded, but i have a log of personal butt kicking to do on that score. best of luck!!

-- kate hankins (yarnspinnerkt@hotmail.com), August 02, 1999.

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Greetings! Go for your dream! I found myself a real fixer-upper farm, and I love it here! Sometimes the work seems overwhelming, but I have 50 acres to call my own. Be absolutely certain that you both want this though - it has just broken up my marriage, but I'm keeping the farm anyway. In the year and a half that I've been here, things have gone pretty well - the freezers are full of last year's poultry and rabbits, and I'm all ready to start putting in this year's batch. The dairy goats have had their kids and I'm milking them now. I've also got a small flock of sheep, with a few lambs this year.

It might also be worth considering the move earlier than later, since there is often a lot of work to do on a place when you first get it. In the first year here I've replaced the water heater, the septic system (banks are funny about that), had frozen pipes and have improved the electric service. It is a very nice thing to have either a very large nest egg or a regular income when these kinds of bills roll in....

Just a few thoughts, since I had a lot of those questions myself. I found this place after about a year of looking, but I'm in an area where farms are going belly up with saddening frequency.

I'd be happy to answer any other questions or point you toward any sources that I have.

Karen

-- Karen Raymond (76275.2532@compuserve.com), August 03, 1999.

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We sold 4our acreas in Illinois and bought 280 acreas in Oklahoma. Yes a little more but not much. Anyway the hardest part of learning to homestead is - it is not as easy as the books say. I wish I built muscles while living in subdivisions. We are in are mid. fourties and I am glad we didn't wait until the fifties. I hope by that time everything is routine. By the way we learned a lot from Countryside.

-- Debbie Wolcott (bwolcott@cwis.net), August 03, 1999.

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Before you buy anything, I'd get a copy of Gene GeRue's book; "How to Find Your Ideal Country Home," available from amazon.com and a lot of other places. It'll help you set priorities and avoid some painful mistakes. As to where to settle, it seems eveyone looks beyond the sidewalks. But is that the only place? There are a great many wonderful little out-of-the-way and dying communities that could benefit from youth and energy and age and wisdom in assuring them some sort of survival. I think of one just three miles from me in Arkansas. It is Cotter, which just had a study done to see if they can find a way to preserve its charm and create a self-sustaining future for it. Population about 500. Location, in a beautiful valley on the White River. Going begging are a lot of good fixer-up houses with yards big enough for all the chickens, goats and garden you might want. Beyond the sidewalks is an attitude, not a manditory location.

-- Vern M. (modeland@runningriver.com), September 04, 1999.

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Hey Vern! I can vouch for Cotter. It is a very nice place, the view is fantastic and the fishing is, well, about the best around. We lived just outside Mountain Home and had 40 acres. You can't hardly grow anything on it, unless rocks can be counted. But the land is cheap there. Just don't expect to make any kind of living there outside your own home. Wages are dirt cheap. My parents retired and bought a house(small) and 80 acres that were completely fenced in with a pond and seasonal creek for about $62,000. But you're right, there are lots of places like that, Willow Springs, MO is another example. 100 acre farms going for next to nothing. Here where we are at, the prices would shock you: $3-$4,000/acre for "hill country". We rent and are waiting for something to come along. We may have to wait for some time, who knows...

-- Patrice Bertke (herbalgroup@skybest.com), September 04, 1999.

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Thanks for the information and support, Patrice. Cotter is going begging for some younger ones with the energ to save it from decay and ruin. They fog a Univ. of Arkansas funded study of what the community could be, but have no one to do anything about it except old folks (like me?). I just wish more Countryside-type people would take on the challenge of saving our charming and picturesque little towns. Not everyone belongs on a big acreage and, I think, a lot of folks who think they do become disenchanted once they've tried it and found out how labor- and time-intensive it gets. There is a place for community gardens and community concern that might foster a better sense of community and responsibility to each other. Cotter, Arkansas, for one place has cheap housing, a beautiful setting, a river running around it on three sides that is filled with good fish, a bountiful spring with a park, charming architecture including a classic concrete span highway bridge and an even more historic "turnstile" railroad bridge made for passing riverboats that lost out to the railroad. I could go on.

But Cotter is not alone in its charm and potential. I'll bet there is a little town like it to be saved near you too.

Vern M.

-- Vern M. (modeland@runningriver.com), September 04, 1999.

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As a real estate broker for 11 years, I say look now! I work in the markets and frankly I'm shocked at how much prices have shot up just this last year alone. I'm in a higher priced market in Maryland. We started looking for our "homestead" site and after a thorough 6 month search for the right elements of location, features and price (low!) we basically "gave up" on our area (and state). Then something popped up nearby which we almost stumbled upon by accident and didn't think we would like at first. Turns out it had been on the market for over a year and overlooked because location was not as desirable to most. We ended up getting a lower price because no one else wanted it and we had financing arranged to buy "as-is." We love it now! Recommendation: start now, determine what you want, choose area (s), get financing or cash ready, get a broker(s) to send you info sheets, start looking, be ready to act if what you want comes along, inspect thoroughly! Make your purchase contract subject to a "home and property inspection" over a 10-15 day period, then check everything out. Hire a professional home inspector ($150-$250)if you're buying a house, outbuildings, etc. At least you'll know what you're getting into. Even with this you find suprises. You really just need to check everything out that you can from zoning, permitted uses, surveys, well and septic tests, etc. You won't get everything you want and you usually have to make compromises, but at least you'll go into your purchase with your eyes open. You can also search prices and areas on www.realtor.com. Don't forget to look into foreclosures, newspaper ads, farm journals, etc. Good luck.

-- Derrick Comfort (dcomfort@ccnmail.com), October 06, 1999.

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Go for it as soon as you can.We bought our homestead/farm 25 years ago,it took every penny we had to get a mortgage as it had been abandonded for several years and the house was 170 years old.We near froze to death during the first winter( We moved in on Oct. 10.By the next winter,we had installed storm windows,insulation and a new heating system.By the next winter,we had a new wood stove and eight cords of firewood,which saved us many $$$$.It's not easy,we took a chance on a old farm and a low mortage.The house has been vastly improved over the years and is now very easy and efficient to heat.Our partial dirt floor cellar,keeps potatoes fresh from Oct.until May.by then they are used up.The best of luck in your quest.

-- farmerjoe (farmerjoe@webtv.net), May 15, 2000.

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If you care to visit our homestead/farm,key in http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/joe_roberts/farmerjo.htm We are a family of seven.four boys and one tough girl.

-- farmerjoe (farmerjoe@webtv.net), May 15, 2000.

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Please ignore/delete this post, Im trying out HTML formatting to make my posts more readable. I just found one of the oldest posts to tinker with in the hope that nobody would notice me. h1 test h3 test

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-- Dave (AK) (daveh@ecosse.net), June 21, 2000.

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I say do it. My husband and I just bought 2.1 acres in Talking Rock, Ga. That is about 75 miles south of the Tenn border. It's beautiful there and I think we got a fair price on the land. We plan to break ground Jan-Feb 2001 and hope to have a triple wide there by summer. I have a lot of links for North Ga on my website if you'd like to look at it. http://www.webspawner.com/users/talkingrock

Good luck and don't wait for your dreams. There will never be enough time or money but you just have to go for it anyway - because it'll all work out.

-- Nancy Mills (nancymills_98@yahoo.com), December 17, 2000.

-- ducky (duxinarow3@yahoo.com), July 13, 2001