Buying a small chunk of private land to hunt

[JDHasty]

Porter, Oakville, Galvin, Bucoda, Adna if you are OK w/getting through Tacoma/Ft Lewis.  And be sure to budget for the best when it comes to security system.  The meth heads are legendary in that area.  It is a quick run into Elma to watch sprint car racing on Saturday night too. 

[jamesfromseattle]

I think your on the right track.  Very doable with the 100k price range.  I've been 'looking' and there's alot out there cheaper than some think. (They just may not fit your needs) But good luck man!   

I appreciate the encouragement! I've actually been surprised at how much is out there. We originally planning on waiting another decade and saving up for something bigger, but after looking at a couple cheaper spots, my wife pretty much said she wants to just go for it now and focus on our current quality of life rather than just indefinitely saving for something we can't afford.

Like everything else, it seems like the name of the game with cheap land is figuring out what you are willing to compromise on. Since we only need a small building footprint and don't need power or water, it gives us some good options. From what I've seen so far, I think we will probably end up with a property that is mostly floodplain with a small dry corner to put the cabin on. Places on the edges of industrial timberland or public land also feel much bigger than they are. A one acre parcel is plenty big for our purposes if there are a few thousand acres in the backyard that we can acces. I'm confident we'll find something that fits our criteria.

[jamesfromseattle]

Porter, Oakville, Galvin, Bucoda, Adna if you are OK w/getting through Tacoma/Ft Lewis.  And be sure to budget for the best when it comes to security system.  The meth heads are legendary in that area.  It is a quick run into Elma to watch sprint car racing on Saturday night too.

That's a good point. The tweaker factor is definitely something I hadn't considered but that we'll need to think about.

[JDHasty]

Porter, Oakville, Galvin, Bucoda, Adna if you are OK w/getting through Tacoma/Ft Lewis.  And be sure to budget for the best when it comes to security system.  The meth heads are legendary in that area.  It is a quick run into Elma to watch sprint car racing on Saturday night too.

That's a good point. The tweaker factor is definitely something I hadn't considered but that we'll need to think about.

Oh my gosh yes.  That is what really complicated it for us when we were looking. 

[kselkhunter]

My best advice is be patient.  Bare land can take longer and be harder to sell if it turns out you don't like the area, or realize you don't use it as much as you thought, or need to sell for financial reasons due to job loss/changes. 

I've made mistakes buying bare land before.   Take your time.  Travel frequently to the area you're interested in on Friday evenings to test the commute, etc.   Make sure it's a region you enjoy going to.  Amenities are reasonable (ie not a 40 mile drive on washboard roads to the grocery store, etc.).  That you have a plan to enjoy it in the months/years before you build a structure (ie camping or travel trailer/camper). 

I can't help on your location ideas, as I go to my second home to escape the rain and go to the mountains that I love.  Which is well beyond your two hour non-negotiable limit. 

Good luck, and I hope you find something that suits your needs.

[Miles]

Last weekend of June(non-holiday) it took me a little over 6 hours to get home from Moses Lake. I live in Duvall. It's normally a little over 3 hours I'd say. It would have been a solid 7 hours to get to Seattle. If you're going to have to drive home on Sundays from anywhere, plan on it taking an extremely long time from anywhere. With that said, I agree with what  everyone else is saying. Expand your drive a little bit, go east and come home on Mondays. Without traffic, you can be in Ellensburg in 2.5 hours from Seattle. I think what you're looking for is going to be extremely difficult to find, if not impossible.

This is how it was for 4 years when we lived in the Bay Area.  I hated it and am so glad to be away from that rat race now.  Fridays and Sundays were equally awful.   Now we have a life again...loving Colorado.

[jackelope]

Last weekend of June(non-holiday) it took me a little over 6 hours to get home from Moses Lake. I live in Duvall. It's normally a little over 3 hours I'd say. It would have been a solid 7 hours to get to Seattle. If you're going to have to drive home on Sundays from anywhere, plan on it taking an extremely long time from anywhere. With that said, I agree with what  everyone else is saying. Expand your drive a little bit, go east and come home on Mondays. Without traffic, you can be in Ellensburg in 2.5 hours from Seattle. I think what you're looking for is going to be extremely difficult to find, if not impossible.

This is how it was for 4 years when we lived in the Bay Area.  I hated it and am so glad to be away from that rat race now.  Fridays and Sundays were equally awful.   Now we have a life again...loving Colorado.

It's completely ruined any enthusiasm I have of heading east on the weekend, which we used to do all the time.

[fishnfur]

MLS# 1161976

Almost perfect.  Gold Creek just a stones throw away, not on the property.  List price $109K. - Offer $100K firm or dicker up from $95K.

edit - taxes are brutal.

[jamesfromseattle]

MLS# 1161976

Almost perfect.  Gold Creek just a stones throw away, not on the property.  List price $109K. - Offer $100K firm or dicker up from $95K.

edit - taxes are brutal.

Great suggestion, thanks.  Less than an hour from my office.  Following up with the agent now to get more info.  I can't really tell if this is a part of that housing development at Gold Creek.  We have been discussing a couple other lots in that development that are for sale as well.  The primary issue with that place is that I think they've got some CC&Rs that would make it difficult to get some sort of structure on there at an acceptable price point.  Tough to beat the convenience, though.

Never seen many animals around there, but I'm sure we'd get it figured out if we were up there all the time.  The state just put in that wildlife underpass around there, so there must be some critters in the neighborhood.

[GrampasGuns]

Can you get water there?

[jamesfromseattle]

Can you get water there?

Sounds like probably no water. Previous buyers backed out for that reason.

[LeviD1]

If you want something for the most bang for your buck it will probably just take a lot of looking. When I bought my 30 acres I had certain criteria I wanted it to meet, but it took 3 years to find it and I didn't have to many requirements. I drove a ton! As well just looking at properties because what seems good on paper more often that not turns out to be a crappy useless piece of land a realtor took the only 5 good pictures of the property or pictures not even of that property..... Just keep saving until you find something you really want in my opinion and look a lot! Good luck!

[GrampasGuns]

Can you get water there?

Sounds like probably no water. Previous buyers backed out for that reason.

I would highly advise against buying property with no option to drill a well.

[Mudman]

That's the whole state now it seems!

[jamesfromseattle]

That's the whole state now it seems!

Yeah, rural permits in the whole state are pretty much frozen.  The silver lining is that values for unimproved lots seem to have fallen.  Since we are just parking a trailer for the foreseeable future, anyways, we figured that we'd just roll the dice on a place with no water.  There is legislation kicking around right now account for the Hirst decision, so there is a decent chance that stuff will change in the near future.

Found a really promising spot that we're currently negotiating on.  Won't say where it is at the moment because I don't want to draw any more attention to it before it closes, but we found a really small plot that borders public land and timber company land.  Meets all our criteria and WAY under what we expected to pay, so fingers crossed it works out.