What to expect buying Rural Mississippi property?

[BeardedDude]

Thanks again for all the good replies!

We looked all over the state and traveled around extensively and liked a bunch of different areas all over the state. Finally ended up buying a place in Southwest MS, rural amite county. Not as much acreage as I was hoping for in my head, but just enough and it had a nice manufactured home on it and the price was right.

Already got a bunch of chickens, meat rabbits, goats, looking into getting some cows as well. Have a few garden plants, but waiting until August to plant some cooler weather crops as we missed the season.

We love the friendly people. We meet a lot of not fake, very real, no BS people almost everywhere we go. Very friendly for the most part.

The food is going to give me weight gain and diabetes, I had no idea food could be so good.

Had a heatwave and the 100 degree days were a bit of an adjustment to what I’m used to. 5am-9am aren’t bad, as well as 6pm on into the night. I try to adjust my schedule to get outside things done at that time.

There’s definitely a bit of culture shock that I wasn’t used to at first but warming up to, and again people are very friendly so that helps.

All in all a great state that I’m happy to be a new resident of. I love driving down the backroads and finding new places and things. 10 minutes outside of a town on and your basically in the middle of no where. I love Natchez, the Natchez trace parkway, the food, the people, almost every small town, etc. The only thing I don’t like is very hot days (albeit not too bad), and the bugs, which was expected so can’t complain.

Just an update from a dude that moved from Alaska to Mississippi

[Southern man]

Welcome. You will get used to the heat. Plant some collards for the fall crop.

[Mississippi Alabama Line]

Originally Posted by BeardedDude

Thanks again for all the good replies!

We looked all over the state and traveled around extensively and liked a bunch of different areas all over the state. Finally ended up buying a place in Southwest MS, rural amite county. Not as much acreage as I was hoping for in my head, but just enough and it had a nice manufactured home on it and the price was right.

Already got a bunch of chickens, meat rabbits, goats, looking into getting some cows as well. Have a few garden plants, but waiting until August to plant some cooler weather crops as we missed the season.

We love the friendly people. We meet a lot of not fake, very real, no BS people almost everywhere we go. Very friendly for the most part.

The food is going to give me weight gain and diabetes, I had no idea food could be so good.

Had a heatwave and the 100 degree days were a bit of an adjustment to what I’m used to. 5am-9am aren’t bad, as well as 6pm on into the night. I try to adjust my schedule to get outside things done at that time.

There’s definitely a bit of culture shock that I wasn’t used to at first but warming up to, and again people are very friendly so that helps.

All in all a great state that I’m happy to be a new resident of. I love driving down the backroads and finding new places and things. 10 minutes outside of a town on and your basically in the middle of no where. I love Natchez, the Natchez trace parkway, the food, the people, almost every small town, etc. The only thing I don’t like is very hot days (albeit not too bad), and the bugs, which was expected so can’t complain.

Just an update from a dude that moved from Alaska to Mississippi

Wow, yeah, you really did it up big, moving to Amite County! That's about as rural as it gets.

[viverlibre]

Originally Posted by Southern man

Welcome. You will get used to the heat. Plant some collards for the fall crop.

If possible, you may want to put an electrified fence around them, the whitetail will eat 'em up! We had years when the deer eat them to the ground when they first came up and years when they didn't touch them at all.

[viverlibre]

Originally Posted by Mississippi Alabama Line

Wow, yeah, you really did it up big, moving to Amite County! That's about as rural as it gets.

If you see Claude, Newgene and Clovis, make sure to give then a big hello and buy them a RC Cola and Moon Pie.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by viverlibre

If possible, you may want to put an electrified fence around them, the whitetail will eat 'em up! We had years when the deer eat them to the ground when they first came up and years when they didn't touch them at all.

Back in the day, it was legal to "defend" your crops against deer. Officially you were supposed to notify the local game warden to have them come get the carcass. My dad dutifully notified the game warden the first time we "defended" against a deer that kept getting over our electric fence. The game warden told him bluntly he wasn't about to go way out there and drag a dead deer out of our garden and he didn't care what we did with it. So for the rest of the time that we had a garden we harvested both plants and animals. We'd skin, quarter, and freeze it, then either butcher it ourselves or get it done during the regular deer season.

Laws may have changed since then, though, and/or the local game warden may have different opinions. Always check first.

[EarlVanDorn]

Originally Posted by viverlibre

Most rural land (that is not suitable for farming) will run between $2000 and $5000 per acre depending on the value of the timber on it. If no municipal water, a well will run another $15k, septic can run as much as $10k, getting electricity to the property could be expensive also.

I think you have overstated the cost of well and septic. I realize these are very old figures, but I put in a well and aeration system for about $4,500 almost 20 years ago. I can't imagine that costs have increased five-fold during that time. I'm not saying there might be some areas that would cost more, just that it isn't the rule. We have a very high water table and relatively lax health departments.

[viverlibre]

Originally Posted by EarlVanDorn

I think you have overstated the cost of well and septic. I realize these are very old figures, but I put in a well and aeration system for about $4,500 almost 20 years ago. I can't imagine that costs have increased five-fold during that time. I'm not saying there might be some areas that would cost more, just that it isn't the rule. We have a very high water table and relatively lax health departments.

Just finished a well in March, went down 250 (ish) feet, the well was around $11k, the electric, trenching, piping, and tieing into a house ran close to $4k. We were on the waiting list for over a year.

Septic is likely going to vary from county to county, from buying selling several properties in Rankin County, a septic/treatment plant is a huge PITA to deal with (at least the with last home i sold about 5 years ago). In some counties you could just throw down an old school septic tank and no one would care or be the wiser.

For 20 years ago, your price certainly sounds reasonable, for 2022, it's a new whole new ballgame.

[brickpatio2018]

What a cool story about Amite County. That's pretty country. I like the gently rolling, intensely green terrain and open space.

Natchez is cool and they have a terrific mayor at the moment. One neat thing about Natchez is the steep ridges set back in the forest outside Natchez. People live in homes set atop those ridges with their back yards being almost primal hardwood forest descending down into ravines and up the next ridge tops. It's quite stunning.

I actually kind of like McComb too. I've driven through their residential neighborhoods, especially just west of I-55, and the homes sit on giant rolling lots with towering pine trees and lush foliage. Especially during nice-weather months it kind of feels like paradise. And something about being almost to the Louisiana border adds to the mystique.

Regarding the weather, a lot of places have 90 degree summers but many places don't have 60 degree winters. Once October rolls around, the weather will be pretty nice all the way through early June. Even summers aren't so bad if one is going from ice cold house, to ice cold car, to ice cold grocery store, etc. The heat can actually feel amazing as a break from ice cold AC.

[Desert kid]

I'll second North Mississippi like other comments above.

Hernando, Senatobia, Pontotoc, Tupelo, Corinth would be my choices.