Buying land?

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Rayman1

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Just wondering if anyone has bought land to live in an RV and/or what states are friendly to it
 
As long as it doesn’t gets below freezing, it’s doable. Have thought about a shed large enough to park my 5th wheel in and live in the 5th wheel. pull it out for road trips. Would be better protected from bad weather.
 
Just wondering if anyone has bought land to live in an RV and/or what states are friendly to it
I wish I could give you a friendly direction but at this point I can't. Ive been searching the west coast of Washington and what i find is county ordinances that limit RV's to 90 days a year, have HOA fees and are normally less than a 1/3 acre and start at 60,000 buckaroo's. The property lines often fall into a corner lot with massive brush to clear. Sometimes flat often not. Then...lets talk flood planes. "What a revolt'n development this is" as William Bendix used to say
 
It’s normally the county. You have to find unrestricted land. We purchased 10 acres in SW Virginia. It was unrestricted. We were told we could put anything we wanted on it. So we purchased a park model cabin. Problem is Virginia considers them a manufactured home so everything has to be inspected. Look for land that already has power, well and septic. Those three utilities could cost you $50,000+. Also a driveway is a big expense. 8’ve included a photo of our cabin.
 

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Like OldGator I bought 5 acres last March in north Florida. My property journey starts on about page 3.


I have documented a ton of the journey in YouTube as well.

Lazy Pines

Like Old Gator said it is controlled by the county, if you are outside city limits. My property is AG1 and I could get a "permanent" RV permit but could occupy the land for 6 months a year - they expet you to go traveling if you have an RV.

I knew I would need a well. I had a septic tank on the property so had it inspected early on and it was viable. There had been power in the past so I knew that would not be a huge drama and I knew there was fiberoptic internet in the street. I am about 3-4 miles from the "city" of Live Oak.

I spent about 10 months clearing land and from the start I reckon I lived in my RV for about 12 months. Somewhere about 4 months ago I decided I did not want to live in the RV permanently and purchased a MH.

I purchased the land for $25k, the well was $6k. I spent probably another $10-$15kk in tools, rentals and equipment. Call it $50k for the land set up.

The later added MH was about $100k.

Be very careful where you buy. I was more lucky than good. I bought in the rainy season so was assured I wasn't buying "Florida Swampland." I looked at riverfront property but couldn't find anything I liked. This was a blessing because riverfront property here requires elevated septic, elevated housing and water purification systems for water near rivers can run $40k if you get bad water. My water is very clean and tastes great.

I also bought proximate to a city so services were really no drama in terms of access and installation.
 
what states are friendly to it
In general, the more rural, less densely populated states are more friendly to what you are thinking of. TX has very little zoning restrictions outside of the major cities, while states like CA have many such limits. Most states have regulations on septic systems and required inspections for them. Most of them also have at least some rules about wells and many states require permits for them. Of course, you do not what your septic system drain field to empty into you well for drinking so there will usually be separation issues to deal with. If the land doesn't have ready access to electric service it can be incredibly expensive to get it put in, so you may need to add a solar system.

I have helped to develop land in both TX and WY and neither one of them have nearly the regulations that a friend ran into in CA, but there were still more costs involved than we had expected.
 
Eastern Washington (east of the Cascades) is more likely to have land with few or no restrictions, but it gets hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.
 
Louisiana where I live has traditionally been fairly good for such things, but I get the feeling the practical side of this is getting more difficult in recent years, when it comes to permitting, getting power, etc. as there seem to be more and more hoops people have to jump through to get power, water, etc. to an undeveloped lot.

Let me relate something that is currently going on with a relative, she had an old house (150 year old) on about 5 acres of land, which also included a small barn/shed and an older mobile home that was in disrepair and had not been lived in for a few years. Last winter she had a chimney fire and the house burned down, power was disconnected for a couple of months while insurance claim went through etc. One of her son's is now building a smaller house on the property, and from what I have heard had a real hard time getting power reconnected for the barn and old mobile home prior to starting construction on the new house. The power company requires approval from multiple parish (county) agencies before they will connect "new service" to an address, some are easy to get approval on, others not so easy, one requirement to get power is to have a working septic tank, or connection to public sewer system, this house had a septic tank, though it was installed before the state started requiring septic tank certified installations about 20 years ago. There is a process by which such older septic tanks can be certified, but it involves more hoop jumping, then even after that there were more issues with getting power to the barn, in the end he ended up waiting until he started construction on the new house to get a "temporary" power pole installed.
 
@Isaac-1 This sounds like discussions I had with the county here when I started. I didn't go down the temporary power route but in hindsight probably could have. I hope that the son has a plan for that septic and that he gets it signed off earlier than later. It could certainly be a barrier later to the permanent COO.

On one hand I understand how annoying it is to have the county "all up in your business" but on the other hand the rule enforcement are clearly a result of so many people attempting the sneak aboard lifestyle.

Closed sewerage is a good way to avoid the Black Plague - LOL...
 
I agree the problem here is that the government really pushes more expensive mechanical septic systems even for people with plenty of land to use non mechanical field line setups. The official attitude seems to be that one day you might sell off some of that land above the field lines to someone else.
 
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