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House search!

Wow, been a busy couple of weeks.  We had a couple of decisions to make about the homestead.  While our main goal of building a house on our 40 acres has not changed we needed to decide if we do it right away after retirement when we feel we need to rush it or of we be patient and wait a bit.    The more we looked at what we needed to do the more we realized that it would be very difficult to do most of it before we actually retired and that would have basically cost us the first year of retirement and it would have been very difficult to get started on the aspects of the homestead I was most looking forward to, the livestock. 

At that point, after some feedback form the in-laws we decided to start looking for some properties with a house already on it that was relatively close to our property.  We soon found one about a mile from the property, it was a 3 bedroom, 1 bath with a great looking barn.  The house itself was pretty small but it did sit on 6 acres.  The issue, the house was ok, but the amount they wanted for the house was just so far out of reality to what we felt the property was worth.  The price was high enough we would need to take out a mortgage and we just were not willing to do that for that house.  It was by far the most convenient house but it was overpriced by about 70k!!

  We then looked at a second property, it was a little further away but had a bunch of great out buildings already including a great looking red barn!  The house was a two story house and pretty nice looking but I really did not like the kitchen on the second floor.  I also did not like the shape of the property, while it had decent acreage it was not really set up for efficient use and would have had a lot of wasted space.  The current owner had only had it one year and after looking at the purchase records it was priced close to what he paid for it, after he would have had to play closing cost I do not think there was more room for a deal and I was not willing to pay that price for a house again I was not in love with.  The garage was a couple hundred feet away from the house and I really want not looking forward to making that trek in the Minnesota Winter!

The third and last house we looked at was way more house then we needed, including the unfinished basement over 4,000 square feet!  But the land was almost perfect for what I was looking for.  It sat on a little more than 8 acers with multiple out building, including a heated workshop, a two horse barn (that will work well for a goat house, or large chicken coop), a small chicken coop, a 20X24 building that is currently being used for storage and a large equipment barn (that does leak!).  The property was already fenced off into a couple of large pastures, one of which included a small pond.  The house had a very awkward layout, but it did have a large spacious kitchen we were looking for.  We also preferred a main floor master bedroom and the master in this one was on the second floor.    It was also the only house with a full basement, one that would be perfect for my root cellar! Of all the houses we had looked at this one was the closest one to being priced appropriately.


When it was all said and done we decided to make an offer on the third house.  It was the most expensive of the three but it was the one closest to being “turnkey” for a homestead, when we retire I can pretty much go straight on homesteading while we continue to get the main property ready. After an offer and a couple counters we finally agreed on a price I think we were both happy with, or at least content with! This property is set up enough where we can keep the livestock on the 40 acers for spring through fall and move them to the homestead for the winter.   The main issue was this property is about 10 miles on un improved roads from the mail property.  On the flip side this house is on the state highway which will make trips to town much easier!  Here is an over head picture of the property.  The previous owners as a barral racing course on it in the north west corner.   Not sure what I will do with that area yet!  Well, one stop closer, should close in September!






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