Logistics of building and living on a family compound.
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Anonymous
turn on your sarcasm detector, plz |
Anonymous
| OP, please don't do robes. They're so 1990s. |
Anonymous
OP, we have the ability to do this. My parents bought a place in rural Maine that has three functioning homes on it. Cheap. You can buy the land and build the first or additional houses. But "homesteading" is not as easy as it sounds! Growing your own food is hard work. Start by researching homesteading/off grid living. Mother Earth news, some survival sites and tiny home/off grid living sites have been informative to me. Also need to pick a state where they don't interfere too much in what you do on your own land. |
Anonymous
| Babe. I'm tellin ya! This is a bad idea. |
Anonymous
To be honest, it's sort of like an indirect gift to our parents. The average salary there is $1,000/month, so this way they'll have a nice, modern house on the property that they are welcome to use whenever we're not there. They are really into fixing up their existing house and doing their own renovations, but that only goes so far in my opinion. They also would never accept a handout from us so this is a way to do it on the sly. |
Anonymous
this made me laugh uncontrollably 
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Anonymous
| My siblings and I all want to build vacation homes on one gigantic piece of property that my parents own. We even want a little bunkhouse/sleeping cabin for all the grandkids. It's definitely part of our 5-year plan. |
Anonymous
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Just go to West Virginia and buy a nice working farm with plenty of land. If you get the place from someone who is retiring, you can usually buy all their equipment along with the rest of the farm. I've done that before. Well, to have a farm, not a "family compound."
I'd recommend around 300 acres. make sure 100 is functional farmland and the rest can be wooded (will be able to have a few "private" homesites spread around on it. Goats are the devil to fence, I'd recommend starting with something easier like beef cattle. I'd also recommend marrying a farm boy because otherwise you aren't going to have any idea how to actually do what it takes to have a successful farm. Farmersonly.com may help you. |
Anonymous
me again -- forgot to mention, the farm boy may come with his own farm already so that is an added benefit to looking for the right one! |
Anonymous
For city folk, it's easier and probably more fiscally prudent to just rent out the workable farmland to other local farmers. Farmland has some very favorably tax treatment, IIRC. |
Anonymous
Well, I live on a farm and so does all my family -- we own half a dozen working farms. I can tell you now that in most places, farmland rents for a pittance. My dad has some health issues and just rented out 100 acres for $2,500 a year -- and everyone thinks that is fair. I don't think it is "fiscally prudent" to plan any sort of dependence on leased farmland. It's a little different in the Midwest -- I hear you can get better returns there -- but the farms tend to be big flat squares and you can see for miles. I'd prefer something where everyone can have a bit of privacy without having to buy up the whole damn county. Also, if OP wants to try her hand at farming, like her post said, she's going to need to actually have some land. The reason I suggested 100 acres is that you can support yourself above the poverty line with that amount if you aren't a fool. Tax treatment depends on your state to a large extent (ag land is usually taxed at a much lower rate than pure residential -- which makes sense because you have 1-2 taxpayers on 100 acres of farmland, and God knows how many on 100 acres of housing development. also we pay taxes again when selling the products produced on the land, so Uncle Sam still gets his share but more based on how much you produce than the acreage involved). |
Anonymous
Yes! I'm the Big City Girl PP and this is how I'd do it. My great grandparents actually raised 12 kids in two rowhouses with the middle walls partially removed. Then a few of the older kids bought adjacent or opposite houses to raise their own kids. My mother always talks about how much fun it was, though I suspect at least some neighbors were annoyed. It's like when an extended family of 20 kids all attend the same school or house of worship. By default, they influence everything. |
Anonymous
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Why would your parents get a big home while the growing families take smaller homes?
Love the idea, but if you have to ask how to make it happen, it's probably not right for your family. |
Anonymous
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I recommend that you build a series of tunnels that connect your home to a central bunker. It will be so much easier to fend of a siege. Also, your future husband is going to love living in the shadow of his in-law overlords. |
Anonymous
| I personally love this idea & would totally do it. I get along great with my parents & sister/her family. My moms house has the main house, and two separate buildings (one a small bunk house, the other sleeps 5 & has a full bath. We (sister & I) are currently trying to buy the property next door so start out compound! But, this is on a lake, and only about an acre/lot so no room for growing much or having animals. Plus, I'd rather have someone do most of the farm work for me. But truly love the idea. |