Any tips or advise on moving to the country?

Question

We can't stand living in the city. We want to move to the country. We'd love to even have a farm but don't know how to start. Any advice or tips on how to find a good place in the country, that isn't super expensive?

Answer 1

What do you mean by “farm?” Are you talking a few animals and a garden for yourself or commercial farming where you’re growing crops or raising animals to sell?

If it’s the former, you can do internet research and buy books on the things you want to raise. If it’s the latter, I hope you have a spare million+ lying around because a commercial farm is not a cheap thing to start.

Having grown up in a rural area, I can tell you that anything in the country will be comparatively affordable to urban life so long as you’re not buying a huge plot of land for a commercial farm. The big reason for the lower property prices is much lower demand. In an urban area, just about everything you need is within a few miles of home. In a rural area, you can easily drive an hour or more just to get to a grocery store.  Just as in larger areas, most property is sold through real estate agents.  Pick an area of the country where you want to live and contact an agent who works there.

When making this move consider

-Proximity to jobs, if you still need to work

-Proximity to services like hospitals, grocery stores, etc

-Can you live without being able to run down the street for a gallon of milk, to rent a DVD, get a burger, etc.?

-The weather. Will you potentially get stranded at your home for days or weeks after a storm? (unpaved roads can’t be treated)

Answer 2

Definitely try renting first so that you are not sinking your entire investment.  I am a country bumpkin gone city...I miss the country but I am not so sure my kids would be happy.  I am just going to mention things for you to consider if you work in town.

1. If you are on a country road and need to get to work every day, the road graters pass LAST on the country roads.

2. You must be self reliant in the sense if you get stuck, hope you have something to pull yourself out on the road.  Not all farmers are laying on their lazy backs to pull you out and there is always a risk of damaging your car.

2a. That gallon of milk is miles away. So are your kids friends.

3.If you like street lights to light up the area when you come home, you will have to pay for one. It is good to see the ground and know what you are stepping on.  

4.Wild Kingdom is at your back door if you do not own a large dog to keep them at bay. Skunks, raccoons, deer munching on garden, Mr. Coyote.

5.No use screaming because no one is within ear distance.  Once I was coming home and shutting the gate, and the neighbors bull was beside my truck, I touched its fur without knowing and scared the living day lights out of me.  Phone in truck...nothing happened because the bull could care less about  all the excitement.  I went home and got a bucket of grain to coax him back where he came from.

6.Gas prices and distance traveled to and from work.  How long can you last snowed in?  I am not knocking the country at all because I grew up with tractors, 4WD, chains, guns, deep freezers, and light.  I miss the country and would go in a heartbeat if I had those items.  You can survive one year renting and see what it is like.  Maybe your area is off a main highway and you are in a better economic situation.  There are lots of people out in the country.

Answer 3

Depending on where you are, places in "the country" like where I live have gotten ridiculously expensive.  If you've never lived in the country, there are a few things you might have to prepare yourself for, depending on how far out into the "country" you move, and whether your concept of out in the country is actually into a small town, or really and truly out of any town.  I'm going to assume the latter, since that is in fact where I live.

First, it gets DARK at night.  No street lights of course.  Some people find that to be scary.

Second, it may seem remote.  Face it, get in your car and you can get to town pretty quick -- well, within a couple hours, anyway -- but you're not going to be walking to a store.  That isolation can unnerve some people.

Your city friends might come see you, once a year or so.

You're often pretty much on your own.  You may find that certain service providers don't want to drive out to your place to fix or deliver appliances or repair your roof.

Speaking of on your own, should you call 911 for a fire, it's going to be a volunteer fire department.  Those folks have to leave their homes and go to the fire station and gear up and then drive all the way out to your place, which is likely to have completely burnt down by the time they arrive.  That's just the way it is.  An ambulance is not going to get there much sooner either, so you may have to reconcile yourself to driving yourself or whatever bleeding family member needs attention to the hospital on your own.

And by the way, except for maybe stitching the typical laceration (the type of which is commonplace among country dwellers doing things on their own), that local hospital is not likely to be more than a triage center where they prepare the patient for transport to a much larger facility, usually by helicopter since that facility is so far away.

Do you have a gun?  If not, are you prepared to get one?  Call 911 for a cop and he/she may not be there for an hour or more, especially at night when the lone deputy on duty may be on a call at the other end of the county.  You may also need a gun to get rid of the occasional nuisance critter, like a raccoon in your attic or a badger in your basement (remember, you're so far out of town that there's no Animal Control service).  Can you shoot an animal?  Get used to the idea...if you find one of your housecats has been terminally chewed apart by a bobcat, you're the one that's going to have to put it out of its misery (it's two hours to the nearest vet).

And how about a chain saw?  "In the country" around here means "out in the woods."  After a windy night you may find yourself literally having to cut your way out through blown over trees.  No one else is going to do it for you.

Your electricty is probably going to go out sooner and be repaired later than anyone in town.  Be prepared to live a week (maybe even longer) without it.

The snowplow may or may not reach your neck of the woods during a snowstorm.

The local school will be small, and probably under-equipped and under-staffed by larger district standards.  You'll be expected to fill in some of those deficiencies by volunteering.  Kids will have long bus rides, and "away" games really will be quite far "away."

And we haven't talked about your commute.  There aren't what you'd call a lot of jobs in the country (I'm lucky, by design, sort of, since I'm a forester who actually works out here), so most people have to drive however far (60 to 100 miles around here, ONE WAY) to get to work every day.  That's the same distance you have to go to go shopping at a large grocery store, major department store, eat at a restaurant or go to a movie or decent bar (there are a couple indecent bars a bit closer).

Are you the type that if you have a problem with a neighbor, you can approach them and work it out between you, or is your first reaction to call the authorities?  If the former, you'll do okay.  If the latter, you'll be ostracized by the locals as a spoiled city slicker, and you'll probably not get much help from the authorities anyway.

You'll have to learn to take care of a well and a septic system, since you'll probably not be on city water systems.

Have I mentioned dial-up internet?  Or a rather expensive satelite alternative?

Well, these are some of the negatives of living out here, and there is a whole host of gradients between.  For example, I know some people who live 15 miles out of town but are still served by city water.

And I haven't mentioned the positives.  While it does exist, crime is low (criminals know that homeowners are generally armed and not afraid to shoot).  You may have room to grow a nice garden, really big enough to provide some actual year-round food (if you learn to can, that is).  If you keep a low profile, you'll see and experience things in nature that pass most people in the towns and cities by, like deer looking in your windows, thousands of more stars in the night sky, s*x in the front yard on a hammock, and a quiet so quiet you'll sometimes think you've gone deaf....  Yeah, life out here is pretty grand, IF you know what you're getting into.

Answer 4

First of all - just do it.  You will love it.  Get a good realtor, and get ready to meet people and for such quiet days and nights you'll never want to go back to the city life.  Probably better to get a place that has been updated or renovated, rather than making a life project out of it.