The path to your homestead
Leaving the city is one of the biggest decisions a family makes. Here's the whole road, one step at a time, with our tools beside you at each step, so you buy the right land with your eyes open.
From your first search to your first harvest
Set your priorities
Where you're looking, whether you'll keep your job and commute, family or friends you want to live near, budget, acres, your garden and animals. Your answers color the map for your family and get checked on every property.
Set your preferences →Find your first batch of properties
Every property gets a free score. Paste a listing link or address, see its real property lines and buildings on the map, and save the ones you like.
Open the Land Finder →Compare the best few
A Land Report explains each score: water, soil and room to grow, flood and safety, drive times, value, and what to ask before you buy. Put your top properties side by side, and see the all-in cost of each.
Compare your saved properties → Your homestead budget →Get pre-qualified
Land loans differ from house loans: down payments are often larger, and specialty lenders (Farm Credit, USDA programs, local banks and credit unions) know rural land best. A pre-qualification letter from any lender tells you your real budget and shows sellers you're serious.
Meet a Homestead Land Specialist
We match you with one local agent who knows country land: someone who walks the boundaries, reads the well records and asks the hard questions about zoning. You bring your saved properties, your reports and a checklist of what a land contract should protect.
Get a free introduction →Decide and make an offer
Your agent writes the offer. Before you sign, make sure it protects you on the perc test, the well, zoning for your animals and buildings, a survey and legal access. Then walk the land once more after a good rain.
Under contract: check everything
The days between the accepted offer and closing are when you can still walk away. Work through your Land Report's action plan: the perc (soil) test or septic inspection, a well test or a driller's estimate, the survey, the title search, a letter from the county on zoning, and quotes for power, the well, septic and the driveway. Add them to your budget as they come in.
Your homestead budget →Closing day
A final walk-through, then the title company or attorney handles the papers and records the deed. Keep everything (deed, survey, perc results, well log, permits) in your Vault: you'll need them for every permit and loan to come.
Your document vault →Move in and build in the right order
The first years go best when the pieces go in the order each one depends on. See the build order below.
Your first years: what to build first
Each step depends on the one before it. Doing them out of order is how families pay twice. [EXPERT REVIEW: building, permit and well guidance is researched, not yet checked by a builder. Permits and their order differ by county: verify with yours.]
A way in: the driveway
Every truck that follows (well driller, septic installer, concrete, lumber) needs a road that holds in the wet. Ask the county or state about a driveway permit where it meets the road.
Water: the well
Drill (or test the existing well) before you build, so you know what it makes. Size it for your morning chores, not the daily average, with a storage tank if it can't keep up.
Septic: the permit before the house
The soil test sets where the septic field can go, and that decides where the house can go. Most counties issue the septic permit before the building permit.
Power
Ask the electric co-op for a line extension quote early: it can take months. Or plan solar on open ground that sees the winter sun.
Shelter: the house
With water, septic and power in place, the house goes on the high, dry site. If the land has a house already, this is repairs and making it yours.
The kitchen garden, close to the house
Start small and near the back door: a few raised beds or a kitchen garden you'll see every day. Get a soil test, fence it, and start a compost pile the first season.
Fencing and water lines, then animals
Animals come after the fence and the water reach them: hens first, then goats or a cow when the pasture and the routine are ready.
The orchard and firewood, a year ahead
Plant fruit trees in their dormant season on the slope above the cold-air pockets; they take years to bear, so plant early. Cut next winter's firewood this year so it can dry.
Grow from there
A hoop house, the larger garden, the barn, rotating pasture: added as your family and your skills grow. Our Land Setup lays this out on your own land, with costs. (coming)
What we offer
Free with your account
- The Land Finder map and a score for any property
- Real property lines and buildings, where the state's parcel map has them
- Save properties you're interested in
- Your preferences, used everywhere
- A private document vault for every property's papers (coming)
Window Shopper
- Why the score is what it is, category by category
- Room to grow inside the property lines, checked against your garden and animals
- Flood ground, water, soil and septic, drive times, value
- What to ask before you buy
- Layout pass: $49 to lay out your homestead on one property
Homestead Buying course
- The full course: buying country land without expensive mistakes
- 5 Land Reports
- The comparison tool
- A layout of your homestead on one property
Show a pre-approval letter from any lender, or a proof-of-funds letter from your bank, and the $249 is waived. Your free 72-hour Vision Pass opens everything the moment you choose that route, before you send anything. Paid the $249 and later buy through one of our Homestead Land Specialists? It becomes credit toward our Advanced Skills courses ($99 to $299).
Start my free Vision Pass Opening soon: join the listWhite-glove
- We come to the property: a drone flight and layout
- Local records pulled: easements, zoning, access
- Well test, perc test and inspections set up for you
- A full homestead layout with a cost for each piece
A few families a year, because it's our own time on the ground. Coordination and education, not legal, engineering or real estate services.
Ask about itHear when the course opens
Questions
Why is a letter from any lender enough?
We want serious buyers to have the course, and a pre-approval letter (or a proof-of-funds letter from your bank, if you're paying cash) shows you're serious. Which lender you choose is up to you. Everything opens for 72 hours the moment you choose that route; add the letter to your Vault in that time to keep it. We never ask for bank statements, pay stubs, tax returns or Social Security numbers. Those stay with your lender.
Does the agent pay you?
The introduction is free to you. Once our founder is licensed, we may receive a referral fee from the agent's brokerage, paid by the brokerage, never by you, and we'll always tell you. Property scores never change because of who represents you or who your lender is.
Can you tell me what to offer or review my contract?
No. Your local agent (and an attorney, if you want one) handles the offer and the contract. We give you the research and a checklist of what a land contract should protect, so you can ask good questions. Rules differ by state: verify with your agent and your county.
Do I lose my saved properties or layouts if I don't buy anything?
Never. What you save is yours, and you can download everything at any time.
Are you open on Saturday?
We keep the Sabbath. From Friday sunset to Saturday sunset we don't take orders, send emails or make calls. The free map is always there to use.
A planning and research service, not legal, lending or real estate advice. Always visit the land and verify with your county and state.