# Where to call home



## NavyKen (Feb 14, 2010)

My entire plan for when I retire from the Navy in 3 years just went out the window. My best friend lives in the south east US. The plan was when I retired to move close by forming a group of about 8 adults and 6 children. Well my two friends are getting very antsy about the current administration and general direction of the nation. They have placed their properties on the market and are moving to Aruba. Well I have no intention of moving out of country, which leads to the main issue of this post.

How do I go about selecting a place to move my family after I retire. I want to have land to continue my preps, grow food, and raise live stock. but still be able to find employment. Are there any tools to help with this selection process? Please If you choose to reply understand, my friends choice to move to the islands is his and his alone and I am not looking for reasons why this may or may not be a good idea just how to chose a location for my homestead.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

You will have to decide to do what you want how you want to do it. Basing your decisions on others is never a good idea unless they are family and "under your control - meaning basing decisions on what is best for your children.

If you have no place to go when retiring, you have any place to go and you can choose very specifically the best place for you. Do you like snow? Head towards Colorado. Do you hate snow, head to Florida. Can't stand aligators in Florida, try Arizona instead.

There is always Canada where everything is great!!! :2thumb:

Seriously, you have an opportunity that many wish that they could have, see what you can really do with it!


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## kogneto (Feb 23, 2010)

My fiance and I are looking at the Northwest areas as a future home. It has a very similar climate to what we're used to, and most of our friends either came from there or have moved there now. My only concern is post-shtf the Rawlsians coming in and taking over.


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## GreyWolf (Mar 17, 2010)

NaeKid is right, you do have an incredible opportunity. With 3 years until your retirement you are positioned even better to make an informed and careful thought out decision that will be right for you and your family.

As for tools to help select the property, I'm not aware of anything but there are a LOT of resources available online. Perhaps the best place to start is on Reltor.com and do a search for properties that are available in the area you are interested in. This will give you an idea of the property values for the area, links to more information such as school, maps etc. Using google maps you can view the area of a particular property on street level or from satellite images as well as find links to more information in the area. You can also use walkscore.com to enter the address of a property and find out still more information and links.

As for employment opportunities in an area a quick search on career sites such as monster.com can help with that as well as the online newspapers that are local to the property. A quick search for the nearest town/city can quickly provide you with local information such as the the threat of any natural disasters for the area, the crime rates of surrounding communities, the types of emplyment in the area and a lot more.

Recently I was considering the purchase of a property in another state. Everything seemed good until I found their tax structure for the area. Living in Texas we don't have a state income tax but the property I was looking at had state and city income taxes that would have to be paid so it became a factor in my decision making. 

Hope that s.


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## mdprepper (Jan 22, 2010)

also try landwatch.com you can find some great deals on there.

My husband and I are looking at WV for property to live on eventually.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

We've thought of moving and we looked at land prices, covenants, zoning, jobs, taxes, home school laws, political leanings, population density, precentage of public land, climate, social structures such as income, percentages of minorities, crime data, etc. All of this is available on the internet.

Another thing, if you're thinking of buying right off spend some time in the coffee shops, etc. and get to know the people a bit. Find out about real estate values. One of the reasons real estate shot up in our area is because of out-of-state/country people (primarily California, Washington and Canada) buying land at inflated prices. It will also give you an idea of how the locals view new people moving into an area although in my experience as long as you keep your mouth shut and don't try to change things you'll be accepted eventually.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Texas is nice. We also have one of the strongest job markets in the US. As for growing... you will have to work on it. Also find a suitable place to do it. A lot of Texas is just scrub land.


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## GreyWolf (Mar 17, 2010)

Texas is nice with the woods of East Texas, the Hill Country in Cnetral Texas , the coast with some nice beaches and then there is the scrubby areas in West Texas. The broad industry base has helped to keep the unemplyment rates lower than most states. Still has a budget surplus with nothing but a very reasonable sales and use tax and reasonable property taxes to support the local governments with good gun laws overall and good people, 

But I could be a bit biased in my views of Texas.


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## HarleyRider (Mar 1, 2010)

*Seems like a nice place to retire....*

I'm planning on retiring to Tennessee. The cost of living is very reasonable, the climate doesn't seem to have extremes of too hot or too cold, lots of fertile land for crops, and cheap housing costs. Also, lots of good ole' Country Folk. Bible belt country.


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## allen_idaho (Oct 21, 2009)

The Pacific Northwest is the place to be. I wouldn't want to be anywhere East of Yellowstone if that thing explodes. 

I wouldn't want to be in California in case a major earthquake hits. 

I wouldn't want to be in the South West in case major droughts hit and the water dries up. 

I wouldn't want to be in the South East because I don't like tornados or hurricanes. 

So the Pacific Northwest. Idaho, Montana, Washington or Oregon.


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## kyfarmer (Feb 22, 2009)

Aruba and all the small island's or nation's will be snapped up if we drop to the bottom of the bucket. Some think the south American area's will be safe, i don't think that would be so for long. Ripe pickings Hugo baby has his eye on everything south of Mexico, don't you think any thing else he want's to be king. Oboma's soul mate for sure. We might be in a mess but here is where i will stand on my native soil. Come on down to Kentucky land around a lot of the eastern lake's within a short drive. Priced fair some will even take a down payment and go with a land contract, getting common here. Folk's are tired of the bank's screwing both parties. We have four season's, game, fish this is a fish and hunt friendly state. Fair bag limit's on ever thing. Here's an example i will not put co. or number up, don't know about site rule's. Elliott Co. KY. 25+/- acres. Excellent hunting. Can be gated. Includes new cabin, two pond's. $42,900. If i did not have a family farm i would look at this place. Deal's like this come up fairly often all over the east part of the state. Don't know the place or seller's just an example of what's around. For the most part i think in KY. we have some purdy good folk. NavyKen America's going to need good people who have been in the service and want a better country for their families. I know there are a lot of folk's leaving America, but the grass is not greener on the other side, been there. The problem's in the world today will only follow those who bail. Luck to you and your family where ever ya decide to lite.


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## HozayBuck (Jan 27, 2010)

Well I'll tell you a bit about my story and maybe it will help you..

I spent 36 years in Montana and still hold to it as my home of record, but when my lady died after a 90 day fight with cancer I was lost as we had planned to get a RV and kinda hit the road... so after several months I did that, and alone it sucks.. not to be morbid but watching a beautiful sunset alone sorta loses something...

I attended a small get together of prepers in GA where I met some folks from East TX, they invited me to stop by in my travels, after a lot of e mailing and chat time I decided to do so. I was more or less adopted into the family and here I be..

Let me tell you, this East Texas Piney Woods area is not to be believed, water everywhere, lakes, creeks, high water table, trees everywhere, big Oaks and Pines that look like they could be mast on a schooner ! I swear 160 ft tall and straight as an arrow, winter lasts about an hour and a half to somebody who's been in the Rocky's most of his life..( think 1 cord of fire wood ) I believe the growing season around here is about 9 months...or so it seems..

Now, there are no Mountains which I hate , and damn few high hills, and no Elk..BUT, plenty of Deer and wild Hogs running everyplace... no season, no limit, day or night.. ( Hogs that is  ) Squirrels every where you look.. hard to move thru the woods for the brambles and heavy brush, but hard for others too!! good soil that seems to grow anything, hell we even have 4 Banana trees, no fruit yet but we have hopes!!

You can do more with 5 acres here then anyplace I've ever been ( Calif to Maine to AZ to Alaska) if planning to survive most anything is your plan then this place has it. 

Of course it's not near any of the bigger cities which is a good thing ! and densely timbered enough that if you want you can lose yourself by not going into town unless you have to..see nobody be see by nobody if you want...

Well that's my point of view, as for work? I can't say, I'm DAV and SS so I don't work..until the checks stop coming in..then we are all screwed so...building it now for then...!!

One other thing...I believe Texans like Montanans own more gun then any place else in the country, and there is a pretty large push here for breaking away from the US, now it won't I know that, but that goes to show these folks will not be pushed very far , I think if the SHTF this is going to be a very good place to be...they may get you but man they will lose a lot of people doing it..


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## GreyWolf (Mar 17, 2010)

HozayBuck you're right, that's exactly how it is out here in East Texas. You may get bananas off those trees yet, I picked oranges and lemons last year.


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## HozayBuck (Jan 27, 2010)

We planted our new fruit and nut trees last year then had the worse drought in many years and most everybody lost their gardens... but I think the trees will come back... I was up in MT at the time getting a new knee from VA and wasn't here to take care of business...I will be this year! and man I hope your right about the Banana trees, just for the fun of taking pics and sending them to my friends up north...


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

HozayBuck said:


> We planted our new fruit and nut trees last year then had the worse drought in many years and most everybody lost their gardens... but I think the trees will come back... I was up in MT at the time getting a new knee from VA and wasn't here to take care of business...I will be this year! and man I hope your right about the Banana trees, just for the fun of taking pics and sending them to my friends up north...


Is it hard to find a place to hunt there? One of the main reasons I like it here is the availability of public land. What about allergies. That's the second problem for me...I'm allergic to everything green. At least here the allergy season is short and not as much grass, wheat, etc. to worry about. Kansas was horrible for allergies about nine months of the year.


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

*Where not to call home...Guam*

This is unblievable that a US Congressman talks and behaves this way...is he on drugs or what?:dunno:





You have to force yourself to watch the whole video.:scratch


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

I feel so much better with people like him directing our future.


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## HozayBuck (Jan 27, 2010)

mosquitomountainman said:


> Is it hard to find a place to hunt there? One of the main reasons I like it here is the availability of public land. What about allergies. That's the second problem for me...I'm allergic to everything green. At least here the allergy season is short and not as much grass, wheat, etc. to worry about. Kansas was horrible for allergies about nine months of the year.


MM I too have issues with some allergies, not near as bad as many and I flat can't take Antihistamines , but I've not noticed problems , maybe because of all the rain here, like 48 inches in a normal year... for some reason pollen isn't as bad as up there, MT was pretty bad ...

Hunting here ain't nowhere like up there, no public ground to speak of, but there seems to be an abundance of white tail deer, smaller then we are used to for some reason, but the limits seem better, here in this county it's 2 does and 2 bucks per...or was last year...fishing is awesome from what I see mostly I just kinda like the weather and the area...TX like Montana and WYo have some beautiful areas and some dogs ass ugly areas...hahaahh...

Sales tax which I don't like but no state income tax... just easier to survive here then in MT... ya kno, Okla is a nice place too...and they seem to be even more freedom minded then TX..


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## tortminder (Oct 15, 2008)

allen_idaho said:


> The Pacific Northwest is the place to be. I wouldn't want to be anywhere East of Yellowstone if that thing explodes.
> 
> I wouldn't want to be in California in case a major earthquake hits.
> 
> ...


Washington state and Oregon near the coast is subject to the Pacific "ring of fire". The same tectonic plate that pushes against the California fault lines, (it proceeds north along B.C and up through Alaska. Mountain ranges are evidence of ancient fault lines where the earth crust was pushed up due to tectonic movement, think Sierra Nevadas; Olympic range; Cascades; Rocky Mountains; Ozarks; Appalachians and Great Smokeys'). Mt. Hood; Mt. Ranier and the ever popular Mt. St. Helens are all volcanic cones. If the Yellowstone caldera "blows" it will also, most likely "wake up" the "dormant" volcanoes both east and west of it.

Politically, Oregon and Washington state are left leaning with a healthy disdain for 2nd. amendment guarantees.

I have considering the same issues raised by the O.P. and, for me, have narrowed it down to;
1) Southern Kentucky or most of Tennessee, (away from the major population areas); climate is good, people are right minded.
2) Southern Missouri or Northern Arkansas, (too close to the New Madrid fault, but otherwise good... with the usual caveat to avoid major population centers) climate is good, people are right minded.
3) Northeastern Minnesota; northern Wisconsin or the U.P. of Michigan, (weather is less than ideal but the people are right minded).
4) Utah; Idaho;Nebraska; Montana, (all have major negatives in my mind but the people are right minded)

For any other number of reasons I have personally eliminated the balance of the country. Not to say that these places wouldn't work for someone else, but for many reasons they wouldn't work for me.

I use the United Realty network to do preliminary research on potential land parcels. So far, been looking for 2.5 years...still looking. 
Good thread... thanks to OP for starting it.
:thankyou:


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## Homesteader (Apr 10, 2010)

Afew years ago I decided it was time to get serious. I bought 322 acres in norht east Tn an a very safe area. I thought that my freinds would want to plan also but found out differently. I am now in the process of selling the parcels. I will be keeping one for myself. This land will always be safe, the entire area is made up of small homesteads that have been there for years. My land is somewhat hilly but provides everything needed for survival. It has moutain streams, fire wood, tillable land, an abundance of wild life. I am only selling a few parcels now because I would not want to have it all sold and then have the dollar colapse and be stuck with cash. Please forward my site to your freinds. Untitled


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## Homesteader (Apr 10, 2010)

I have land in Tn that I will owner finance. It is good survival land and it is in a safe place.


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## mosinia (Apr 10, 2010)

Homesteader said:


> I have land in Tn that I will owner finance. It is good survival land and it is in a safe place.


Are these Homesteads? where in TN? like to find out more.


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