The past few weekends I’ve been cruising the back roads, especially dirt roads, looking for land to build a small or very small off grid home or an abandoned smaller home on sufficient acreage. It’s a lot of fun just driving and exploring – it’s something I haven’t done much since my college and high school years – back then it had more to my interest as a fire bug but I always liked exploring the back roads often overlooked.

It is so much fun to cruise the back roads, especially this time of year when there is lot of mud to sling. I’ve been carefully studying the houses and how people live and relate to their land, at least the best I can from the window of my truck. I’ve been noting abandoned properties, which I then go up and pull the property record from ArcGIS MapServer. The plan is if I like what I see, to do more research into the property – why is it abandoned? I do some Google searches on the owner to see if I can find an obituary or news stories, and also if the property is in the news.

Then I start to look for potential red flags. I do a quick review of online deed filings from the County Clerk. Mostly to see what property transactions have occurred and if there are any noteworthy parties. I will pull LIDAR to look for dumps and cuts and fill, and will pull the list of state environmental remediation nearby. LIDAR also shows the stone walls, ledges and other ground features. Then I analyze the land cover, calculating the acreage of each land cover in the NLCD, pull up new and old aerial photos, if I’m really curious on the history, I can download the aerials from 1952. I also have code I’ve written to tell me the slope of the property and which way it’s sloped – and break it into acreage by percentage classes. I check the soil maps to get an overview of what types of soil cover the land and the acreage of each type. I also will check for the distance to nearby buildings, homes and other potential nuisances like being downwind of a barnyard, farm field or manure storage.

Often GIS data can be quite misleading. It tells part of the story and arms you with facts but it can’t tell you the whole story. This time of year is excellent for roadside surveys of land – the trees are bare allowing you to peer deeply into the woods, and the water table is high. Especially after all the rain we’ve had it gives you good chance to see what commonly floods, is vernal pools and how high swamps and creek beds rise in ordinary spring weather. While such a roadside view is limited – I would insist on a full walk through of the property once the conversation on purchasing has started – it’s one more data point to consider.

My plan is to learn as much as possible about various neighborhoods, locations, and the ways people live rural locally before starting to take the next steps — reaching out to property owners and their real estate agents. I want to have a comprehensive idea what’s out there, the costs, the pros-and-cons. I don’t want to be unduly persuaded by any seller or get a raw deal that won’t work for my homestead because of something I didn’t know about. Once I feel more comfortable with the process, I’ll follow up with owners of potential sites, using certified letter and telling them about my vision for their abandoned property — or in case of properties for sale, with the listed agent or owner. While I know sellers can be misleading, I want to make sure I have a clear vision and make sure what I am buying can work for my homestead, get appropiate permits and access and be built.