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My husband and I are beginning our journey to buy land, settle down and start a small business in the West. Our beginning point is Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado because we love the sunshine, the big skies, the mountains and the heat. We are planning to WWOOF starting in May/June for an indefinite period of time to learn more about these areas and find a place that will suit our needs and also to learn the methods people use to garden in those areas.
We want to buy a small parcel of land, ideally 3-5 acres and proabbly a maximum of 10, that we can live on, have a small garden for our own personal use, and the main objective is to set up 3-7 yurts and run a small camp ground/B&B. (The very long term goal is to build our own straw bale home, so any knowledge you may have about this sort of construction happening in Northern New Mexico would be appreciated.)
Our preliminary priorities (which have room to change!) are as follows:
1. Proximity to urban areas (200 miles?) The thought process behind this is that the majority of our campers would be people coming form the city for a long weekend or a vacation.
2.Proximity to landmarks/national parks: i imagine this wont be a huge problem in Northren New Mexico, but we would love for people to have close access to hiking, national and state parks park etc. when they are staying at our site. Do you have any special advice for finding land that is backed by these areas?
3.Climate: We like and enjoy growing our own food so we would need a climate that elnds itself to growing and i am currently looking into New Mexicos microclimates. Also, i have no idea how the water rights issue works and what questions we need to ask when looking at parcels of land.
4.Land Prices: we have a small starter savings for our future and are currently looking at around 30,000 for land. but this is just based on our budget, it has no relevance to what land prices actually are. (I find looking for land the most daunting task, so we are trying to find an area that we like first
and looking at land prices second. They seem to vary greatly)
So i am open to any suggestions wether it be about our general business idea, do you think this is something that would be desireable in these areas? (we arent looking to make loads of money, just enought to work for ourselves and live happily) I guess i should also say that we have never owned a business before, we plan on taking it really slow and letting it build gradually. Any business advice will be considered!!
Or on suggestions for areas that might suit our need?
I am also looking for ideas and advice on looking for land in New Mexico, I dont even know where to start with that, there are about a million realtor's sites that come up when doing a search!!!
So remember, this is just a starting point for us. We plan to explore the area for ourselves in the coming months, but it is always nice to hear from people who are familiar with the finer details of these areas!
I suggest requesting a copy of the State of New Mexico Tourism book available on their website as well as a book listing all the national campgrounds in the US. Between these you will learn where the camping sites (tent, trailer, small huts, etc) are located and about how much competition for the tourist, fisherman, hunting busines you can expect. The NM Highway Department may have traffic counts for the areas your are interested in exploring.
Also get a copy of the Benchmark New Mexico Road and Recreation Atlas (I should be getting a commission for this) as well as GTR Mapping's Recreational Map of New Mexico. This city-data site also has more information about New Mexico towns, villages and wide spots on the road than you could ever absorb.
You might also consider buying an existing campground to reduce your road building and utility costs. Get their customer list as part of the deal.
We want to buy a small parcel of land, ideally 3-5 acres and proabbly a maximum of 10, that we can live on, have a small garden for our own personal use, and the main objective is to set up 3-7 yurts and run a small camp ground/B&B. (The very long term goal is to build our own straw bale home, so any knowledge you may have about this sort of construction happening in Northern New Mexico would be appreciated.)
The first thing you need to do is find out what the price of commercial liability insurance is. For a venture like this you are going to have to have a couple of million dollars worth and it's not going to be cheap. Once you have decided WHERE you want to locate, I would definitely check around and get some quotes before purchasing any land. You would be astounded how expensive insurance can be.
I am also looking for ideas and advice on looking for land in New Mexico, I dont even know where to start with that, there are about a million realtor's sites that come up when doing a search!!!
So remember, this is just a starting point for us. We plan to explore the area for ourselves in the coming months, but it is always nice to hear from people who are familiar with the finer details of these areas!
Thanks a lot!!!!
Realtor.com, Zillow.com and I guess Craiglist.com are the only real estate sites we allow to post here because they are general in nature. All others will be edited out or deleted, etc. Just start your search there.
Go to google.com and search for 'Land New Mexico', you will see a lot.
There is a lot of cheap land in New Mexico, but people keep finding out, much of it is inaccessible during some times of the year (yes, we have flooding).
Water and water rights are an issue. I know people who spent $25,000 having a well dug, and still no water...
There is a lot of free camping in primative area of State and Federal land.
One: I met a couple from CO in Santa Fe recently, who had this story: Their dream was to find the best location for themselves, then build their own perfect place, and live happily ever after there. They settled outside a small town in Colorado. Bought land. They discovered that they had woefully underestimated the resources (not just money, but time, stress, unforeseen obstacles) required to build their dream house. They also discovered how isolated they felt being so far from the small town. One day, by happenstance, they went by an established home that was just inside or just outside this small town, looked at it, realized it had all of the qualities they wanted - and put their land on the market and bought the house. Take-away lesson for me in their story: 1) they had a vision and pursued it, AND 2) had the flexibility to revise the definition of their vision. ... So ... don't rule out the possibility of buying a place that already has some of the infrastructure you'll need. Don't rule out the NM bootheel (or AZ's southeast corner adjacent) - the beauty of this area is that you've got a birder's paradise, you can choose between the heat of the desert, the shadier coolness of the nearby Cave Creek Canyon area, the ecological interest of the "sky islands," the proximity to the more deciduous Coronado National Forest, astronomer junkies who seek super dark skies ...
Two: I encourage you to put aside the funds that will allow you to take several months to explore the areas you're interested in; spend time in the kinds of accommodations you're interested in creating; and interview the owners of these accommodations. Recently, I stayed at a place near the Gila National Forest - very nice, budget-friendly place, in a great location - in which the owners shared that they had been at the point they didn't know if they'd be able to pay some of their basic bills because the winter had been so bereft of tourists; it was only by luck that this particular weekend they'd received a flurry of reservations, allowing them to get into town to pay some urgent bills.
Three: Test your assumption about who your target clients will be by having a conversation with the state tourism board, who *should* know how many tourists from where go where and when. Is it really NMs who'll go to your place on weekends? Or will it be folks from CO? Will they be 20-somethings looking for one budget and ambiance or boomers with a different budget and ambiance search? And why will they choose your place instead of the other place(s) down the road?
Four: Visit tripadvisor and some other travel sites and look at reviews of various places similar to what you're contemplating - learn from the reviews what travelers comment on. Is the experience you're offering something travelers want?
I would think the yurts would have some appeal close to Santa Fe, and close to the interstate so people don't have too far to travel to reach the campground. You'd probably be competing more with the Ghost Ranch than other campgrounds and national parks with those yurts.
Since you want to keep it small, there very likely is a niche market.
I would think the yurts would have some appeal close to Santa Fe, and close to the interstate so people don't have too far to travel to reach the campground. You'd probably be competing more with the Ghost Ranch than other campgrounds and national parks with those yurts.
Since you want to keep it small, there very likely is a niche market.
Yes, and I you had some sort of a central pavillion, you could market to retreats (yoga, holistic health groups, etc)
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