Tips before Buying Land and Navigating Risks of Homesteading

Hello, I have been a homesteader for over 5 years and I am also a civil engineer and geologist (what pays the bills to be a homesteader). I started my private practice after 16 years of consulting and wanted to share a few tips to make your purchase less risk:

1. Google earth. Before buying the land, look for aerial photos. Often, aerials can provide you with key info like flooding, buildings that are no longer there, trees in the past and trees in the present, old roads, holes or excavations. All of this is free info you can use to put together the history and also give you some help with what to look for, what questions to ask and doing a walkthrough.

2. Drainage. #1 call i get from homesteads I helped is drainage. From pastures flooding, to basements flooding, to swampy grounds to people wanting to make ponds for fish and cattle. #1 step is to get a topographic map, #2 is to do a big of investigative work like google earth and my favorite tool, which is free, the USDA Web Soil Survey. You can see what types of soils you got, and plan your homestead. I guided many homesteaders through their planning process, from septic system location, to solar arrays, to ponds, to pastures and likely best areas for crops. Yes is free, google it, and play with it.

3. Geo hazard and liabilities. Im in new england and sometimes a deal looks like a bargain but…. Sometimes people sale a problem or a liability. Are you buying a liability? Can you handle being on a floodplain? Did you know the pasture you are about to buy flooded 10 years ago because of the river or the lake or the dam that breached? Always google search the town, county and state and search for “recent flood”, better yet, go to the FEMA website and search for their flood maps, is free, and it can save you from a very expensive purchase long term. The same goes for bedrock ledges, is the rock good or are you going to be worried about rocks rolling down the hill to your shed or house? A topo map and a little bit of geological info can help, again, all free and likely available in your state GIS maps. Some people buy dams without knowing, it sounds cool but know the state will demand you repair it, inspect it, maintain it, and you just became liable if it failed (legal and financial), check before you buy, please.

Hope this helps. You can find a lot of free online information before buying, during planning and pre construction. Hope this helps someone. It is more expensive and stressful to fix vs. avoiding the need to fix 👍🏼