Buying land? Our experience...buying online and site unseen!
Welcome to the adventure!
After deciding for certain that living a tiny, sustainable lifestyle is what we want to pursue, we were at a standstill with where to begin. We looked into buying a tiny house on wheels, but were detered by the high price of many of them, and realized we had nowhere to put it, so we started looking at other options of sustainable living.
After almost buying a school bus, with the hope of converting it, we were getting frustrated. We needed to do something!
We started spending our down-time window shopping for vacant land, online, torturing ourselves with beautiful parcels that were far outside our budget (we're all guilty of this from time to time). What we did notice, though, was that vacant land, priced per acre, was actually very cheap. There simply weren't any plots in our budget that were more than an acre or two, and our goals called for a bit more than that.
Searching mostly in the Southwest, we found the most reasonably priced plots...but still, the parcels were too big, some 40+ acres! After almost giving up on the hope of getting our own land any time soon, we stumbled upon Landio.com, and were shocked to see some pieces of vacant land in our price range! We contacted the sellers and were able to speak about the property with a real, live person, a pleasant surprise in today's automated world. After a quick discussion about how crazy this might be, and some signatures here and there, we owned land! Just like that, a little over four acres, in the high desert of New Mexico, was ours! We hadn't seen the property yet, so I quickly planned a road trip out to investigate our purchase, just to camp there for a week, and get some needed connection to Nature.
After a thirty five hour drive and lots of rest-stop coffee, I arrived at night to set up camp on our new land! I set up my tent a few meters from the "driveway," a loose sand trail up the hill, and decided to take in the serenity before unpacking and letting the dog roam around. It was only minutes before a pickup truck came rolling down the road and slowed down near my car, still parked on the side of the road.
I ran down the hill to introduce myself and explain the unfamiliar vehicle parked there. It was one of the neighbors, checking up on whoever was prowling the private property, he'd seen my headlamp, I guess, but he was friendly enough, although suspicious. He warned me about the coyotes and the occasional property theft that's been happening, and went on his way, wishing me well.
That first night, I sat in peaceful silence at the edge of my tent, looking up at the most beautiful collage of stars I'd ever seen, and listening to the wolves howl at the nearby sanctuary, there from my own tiny getaway. Cliche, maybe, but it was everything I wanted it to be.
Wasting no time the next day to explore our new property, I found pine trees, elk tracks, deer tracks, and more plant life than I could identify. It was so diverse! That was a pleasant surprise, the photos had made the land look rather sparse and rocky. But it was more beautiful than I could've imagined.
The folks at Landio had asked if I would do a testimonial video for their website, while I was on the property, and I was happy to. Here is the link to their website, where you can start your search for land or check out the testimonial video. If you have more questions about buying land through Landio feel free to contact us directly.
Third testimonial down on the page:
https://www.landio.com/testimonials
Thanks for reading!
-Devin
@tinygetaways
*A Sustainable Living Cooperative*
