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We're looking to move to a rural area from an urban area, in a different state. Besides the obvious lack of conveniences right around the corner, what did you find after you moved that you wished you'd known prior to moving?
Trying to avoid that head-smack moment (like reading the thread where the west coast guy couldn't put a septic system on his northern New England land).
We will probably buy a property complete with house and outbuildings. We do not personally have wells and septic but we've looked at houses here with them.
if you want livestock you better check the zoning reg and board of health reg of the town you are looking at. Rural or not, acreage or not, prohibitions regarding livestock are becoming more common. Too many city people moving to rural areas and wanting city rules!
Fire insurance, >$5,000 year, was an unexpected expense.
Whether target practice or hunting, noise from shooting is one problem. Another is you may not know in what direction the shots are being fired.
Cell service may exist in one location and not exist one lot away. A possible solution is to request a network extender from the cell phone provider.
A Landline is necessary in emergency situations. EMTs and law enforcement can't determine a home's location from a cell phone.
When electrical power is lost in my area, we also lose cell service and internet. (6 to 10 times a year is average, each sometimes lasting 2 weeks). Some neighbors lose well and septic pump service. A generators is a must!
If cable is available, ask neighbors whether the system is reliable and customer-friendly.
Fencing is the only way to stop deer from eating most everything you plant.
Local Fire and Law Enforcement services may be significantly less robust than in the city. Backup can take hours to arrive.
How far away is the commercial airport? You may travel; friends/family may visit you.
A city transplant will be an outsider for years! It is up to the newbie to get involved in local community activities.
It sounds like you're looking to buy large acreage. If you were looking for 5 acres or less, I would ask if the home is in an HOA. Yes, rural areas can have HOA areas, with their attendant rules and regulations.
The only thing that did not occur to me to research before we moved here -- btw, we had lived in a rural area before, so that was a good learning experience for us! -- was to research veterinarians. The vet service here is TERRIBLE. There are no 24/7 emergency vets, so if we had needed a vet in a true emergency, we would have had to make a 60-mile trip to Green Bay. The vets here are strictly Monday through Friday, and they don't stay open past 6:00.
And, btw, of the four vets in our county, three were not accepting new patients, and there was a three-month waiting list for the only one who was accepting new patients.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ss20ts
I wish I had looked more into local politics and the puppy mill issues which I never thought of. Never knew this state had a puppy mill problem until I relocated to this area. The state, counties, and towns are well aware. They just don't care. .
Oh, that reminds me of something else. I DID research the voting record of the county as I was looking for a balance between Republicans and Democrats, and I thought I had found it when I saw that the county was almost exactly 50/50 in the past POTUS elections. It was only after moving here that I found out that the northern half of the county is almost entirely liberal/Democrat, and the southern half is almost entirely conservative/Republicans. As a moderate conservative, I now find myself on the "wrong" side of the dividing line. Good thing I am an introvert because my immediate neighbors range from very liberal to extremely liberal!
Last edited by katharsis; 06-30-2022 at 06:15 PM..
The USPS sometimes has workarounds for package delivery obstacles.
In my case, they won’t deliver mail OR packages here despite its being a public road. FedEx and UPS do deliver here, but I prefer USPS. Because we have a PO Box at their office, we can get packages delivered there, even if it is shipped FedEx or UPS. Just have to use the address format that they specify. Easy.
The USPS sometimes has workarounds for package delivery obstacles.
In my case, they won’t deliver mail OR packages here despite its being a public road. FedEx and UPS do deliver here, but I prefer USPS. Because we have a PO Box at their office, we can get packages delivered there, even if it is shipped FedEx or UPS. Just have to use the address format that they specify. Easy.
What's that format? The PO I dealt with was very unhelpful.
Climate...make sure you factor in your new climate, not just the location. You mentioned you'd only visited the new location April - October. If it's a place that actually has winter, you'd dang well better make a visit in January or February before you move there.
YES, this is a big one, especially if you are moving into northern latitudes. Those long, pleasant, sunny summer days become dark, cold, wet winters.
Definitely be DIY. Don't expect neighbors to help, & reveal little about your skill set to nosey neighbors, especially if they, like you are transplants. We have some real users in the new people. The locals fend for themselves.
Be aware that all rural areas are having medical staffing shortages. You may be just fine health-wise, then BAM, you're not. So have a plan B.
Don't count on LE to protect you & your stuff. Learn to protect yourself.
What's that format? The PO I dealt with was very unhelpful.
You write your name but with the physical address of the PO, and you add a line that indicates your PO Box number. Our PO uses a different word for that than “PO Box”. Ask your local PO what they want for terminology. If you do not have a paid-for PO Box with them, this service is not available.
Policies vary about mail delivery. I know someone whose Postmaster requires that all residents get PO Box numbers. It is free, because they won’t deliver mail to homes, period. Might be related to local budgets.
Good stuff here! The stories I hear from my horse friends and "visitors"
I've seen a number of - I guess I would call them garbage cages, wooden and chain link and padlocked.
Are there really parking ordinances on acreage out of town? (10+ acres) I never would have thought that!
Not ordinances so much as that people may park on your road, in your driveway, in your yard, in order to access trails, rivers and other streams, the woods, bicycle paths, etc. Since there may NOT be any parking ordinances there may be nothing to tell them they can't park there.
And if the other homeowners in the neighborhood are absentee owners and rent their houses out to tourists, those visitors may not be polite about where they park.
Location: When you take flak it means you are on target
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Thank you for this thread. This rural living doesn't sound like much fun. Too much work, nasty neighbors, shooting guns. Mountain lions and airplanes and bears, oh my! No Uber Eats or Door Dash, how do you survive?
I have decided to build my homestead in a rooftop penthouse in Miami.
I do have one tip, if you do choose to live a rural life (suburbs with cul-de-sacs don’t count as rural) —- please leave your city ways and mentality in the city. No we don’t want street lights, no we don’t want sidewalks, no we don’t want the road widened so your kids have a berm to illegally ride their brand new dirt bikes Mach 80 up and down the road
That sounds like my kind of place as I'm tired of street lights, will never buy a place with a sidewalk again (this house had it, it didn't matter at the time but I'm done with them!) and we don't have kids (and plan on recreating more quietly on our own property)
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Originally Posted by Chrisyoung86875
More money is needed because of the lack of normal infrastructure. Actually, I came to my parents for half a year. And I realized that it wasn't for me at all.
I wish I had that option! I once dated someone who had family with a large farm, but the two branches didn't get along that well and I was only able to visit once. I am toying with the idea of a month long rental in a couple of different seasons.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KCZ
And never buy a house on the north side of a hill. It will be darker, colder, and snowier all winter than a place on the other side of the hill.
Good point! I wouldn't like that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taz22
Sorry for your bad luck, it happens. Wish I’d know that JBLM has such loud booms from the land nearby, I would have done a lot more screening. People don’t realize how noisy small planes and helicopters can be, until they’re right overhead. Lesson learned for the future.
Apps aren’t the best way to check, neither is a map. For the best idea of the location and what’s behind those trees, walking and driving the neighborhood are the way to go. When we first moved here, I drove up to say to our neighbor on the hill, and found his yard covered in various items, including a mattress. His yard was hidden by trees, but seeing that kind of takes the fun out of dropping by to introduce yourself.
Yeah, the mattress would bother me a bit. Let's hope they are out of sight And yes I've had people say "what's the big deal, they're just small planes!". They never take me up on my offer to sit in my backyard for a couple of hours. The nicer the day, the more planes.
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