Ep162: What is the most important feature to look for when buying land? 

This channel strikes a great balance between practical and intellectual! I think that’s the attraction of homesteading/farming - the need to be a “jack-of-all-trades”.

I used your suggestions and was able to buy a 9 acre wooded lot in a gated community from a developer that was trying to avoid bankruptcy! Thank you very much!

Availability of water is #1, 2 is water rights, 3 is mineral rights. If you don't own those two.. you may as well not own the land.

I water our kitchen garden with a small submersible pump that resides in a stream behind our house. I pump it about 100ft and it does a fantastic job so my plants have consistent water everyday.

If you go looking for springs, learn your water plants and which ones grow over what depth of ground over water. There are certain plants that grow only over areas that have water year around and they can tell you even how deep that water is. That is the best way to locate springs!

We are building our homestead on 10 acres west of Ft Worth Tx. We have two water tables from which to draw. The shallow one is reported to dropping at an alarming rate due to rural development...too many wells. The deeper water table would cost 15-20k to drill. We are opting for a rain harvesting system. It will be by far the least expensive option for our situation. Initially we will use our 5000 sq ft shop roof (metal) then later add a smaller metal house roof and probably a barn as well as the roof of our above ground tank storage structure. Just the shop should produce 3000 gallons per 1" of rain. We are planning initially on 7500 gallons of storage capacity with 3 poly tanks with room to add another 1or 2 tanks if necessary. Our tank structure has a 10 ×10 room to house a pump, pressure tank and filtration and UV sterilization systems all that we would have to have with a well anyway. There will be a first flush system and gutter screens to get rid of debris and bugs between rainfalls. We get hardly any freezing weather but will have valves and drains to protect plumbing and heat in the pump house. Time will tell if 7500 gallons is enough in a time of drought but we usually have abundant rainfall in the spring and fall. Hope this helps anyone considering rain harvesting.. theres tons of info online and different techniques for different parts of the country.

I have lived all over the Country and the greatest mistake people make is water sources. This video should be 101 before you do any shopping for land. As a child in New Mexico we had a well with windmill and a cistern at the house. Dad was always working on. Here in Arkansas we are very similar to you there in West Virginia. At my house I have a well of about 90’. But I have a 60 acres lake and more than 10 stock ponds mainly for cattle and deer. My first priority is water then location. 👍😊

One thing before buying large acreage is having a survey performed before buying. The old deeds without angles and distances are literally guesses. I've seen 70 and 80 acre deeds coming out to about half of what it calls for

Love videos like this. As an aspiring homesteader, info like this is key to not overlook. Videos on other features to look for would be awesome.

Great advice Troy, Keep em coming.

Don't forget timber rights.

Very good info... Thanks for sharing Troy...

A bubblier (like from a fish tank) will precipitate out the iron. So run the water into a small tank so that your use does not cause a hugh flow throw it, put in a bubblier in it, no iron. You will need to syphine the precipitated iron out of the bottom regularly.

Thanks for making these videos. Great for someone just starting out on their search for land for a homestead.

This is the kind of vital information we need. Thank you.

"aliens provide fluoride, whatever" hahaha i loved that

This is the man I have been looking for.

Plus chlorine in water plus maybe more, and usually in a home owners association. Never get in one of these. Hassles galore.

Thank’s for the info! Awesome Brotha!

My retirement plan is homesteading. Thank you so much for your great information regarding homesteading water needs.

Troy, your subjects are almost always interesting, informative and useful. Thanks for all the time and effort you put into your videos. Your last comments about the difficulty of some you know in accessing water reminded me of someone: Thomas Jefferson. His plans for Monticello made him largely self-sufficient in most things except water. He relied heavily on rain filled cisterns but still had to haul water up the mountain.

Love all of your videos...

Troy, are you still doing videos? You have a wealth of knowledge and I would love to watch all you hve to offer!!! Hope to see you soon!

The states that deem rain water retention illegal need go back to the Constitution. The government does not have the authority to impose such illegal so called laws upon the people.

I really enjoy your practical advice. While some is not necessarily applicable to all of us, your depth of info & willingness to share it is both enlightening & appreciated. Thank you.

Great Informational video, I hope to acquire some good land one day, and like you I'm also a West Virginian.

good overview on water and rural land

Great video Troy

We just bought our land and a manufactured home as a package through the manufactured home company and the well we just drilled is 597 ft deep and is producing 10.5 gallons a minute.

Very uptown date. Realistic. Great info for free.

very informative video, thanks!

Regarding rain water catchment, I've been watching Joe on his Homesteadenomics channel. He lives in southern Arizona and it wasn't practical to drill a well where he lives, so he does rain water collection for his homestead's water needs. Sounds like it's pretty common in that part of the country. He's got lots of videos on the topic, including a pretty good FAQs. Not meaning to plug another channel on yours, but it's worth checking out for anyone interested.

Thank you for the video

Darn Zombies! 😀 Well water is best. Our well is 310 ft deep but pressure brought it up to 50 ft. Tested 8.5 alkaline. 17 gallons per minute. And nothing toxic or chemical. Would have had opted for a solar pump. $8k.

Our wells around here is 600 to 700 feet deep to get decent water we have a lot of iron here also. We have a filter at well and have one at house and a filter at kitchen sink just to make it drinkable.

This is so true, I live in sothern Idaho in my area wells tend to average between 200 and 400 feet rain collection I've been told is against the law and taking water from a stream or river without a permit is stealing. This may not be the case for all of idaho but is in my neck of the high plains desert. Water is a very serious issue and even city water has become talked about alot more. Alot of people moved in over the last few years and it is taxing some of the city systems not to mention a few years back one of larger towns wells tested to high for arsenic, the fix cost alot of money to pipe water from other wells to dilute it to an acceptable level.

Youre doing god's work, broski

West Virginia has a lot of rain. Rain is slightly acid. Acid eats iron.

Great info as usual, Troy. If available, wouldn't you consider springs a better option than digging a well? Those drillers offer no guarantees and are damn expensive.

Very helpful

A friend had a well drilled like 10 years ago.......they hit a spring at 45ft and they had to dig a ditch out away from the casing and lead the overflow to a dug pond......when power goes out he still has 20psi of water at his faucets without the pump. Like he would of hit gold cause he hasnt run out of water or nothing and like i said he has water preasure (not alot but still) without the pump.......

A thorough overview of water on the 'stead, Troy. It's very important for people shopping for land in arid areas to understand that water and means of getting and storing it are a whooooooole different ballgame than they are for folks like you, who live in wetter climes. My well, here in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California, is "only' 165 ft. deep (most others in the neighborhood are over 300 ft.) and produces about 9 gallons per minute -- an amount that would be pitiable in your neck of the woods but that is considered good here. I would never buy a piece of land out here that did not have a working, productive well on it -- too chancy to spend $10K or more to dig a big, deep, very dry hole! I would also never buy land serviced by a shared well, i.e., a well used by two or more land owners. No matter how "binding" the written agreement (if any) or how "nice" the other parties seem to be, this is a crisis waiting to happen. One couple I know saw their shared 7,000 gallon well holding tank drained by the co-owner. (How can anyone drink that much -- water, that is, lol.) One more point before I fall off my soapbox: Locate at least one purveyor of potable water in your area and hang onto their contact information! No matter how secure you think your water source/s is/are, you never know when the unfailable may fail!

You can make a pond on higer elevation of your property and get free and easy water

My dad has property with a house and 3 cabins across the road from his mane house. I think its 10 acers in all situated in a small community, one garage with a grocery store about 15 min from town. He has a great view of the fire hall down the hill and across the hwy. There is a well on his property but the water is no good for drinking, he uses it for the garden and laundry only. So, he made a deal with the guys at the fire hall to keep an eye on things ( they've had break ins in the past) he bought a truck with a water tank fills it at the fire hall for free and parks it in a garage he built on the side of the house. He's been doing this for 20 years lol. They let him shower at the hall too ;)

nice ideas .

Troy.... listening to right around 24:30 and the position you are speaking from. Two ideas come to mind..... 1) has anyone with some hydrology background or system design been involved in this discussion? I’m seeing a potential to alleviate the water seepage issue, capture that water just a little behind and uphill from where you’re standing here and to then offer several uses for the water and to recover the space in which you’d like to see the water gone...... this comes from looking beyond the “symptoms” or issues and from a wholistic perspective as one might say though It might make sense and eliminate more than the water seepage issue as well. Depending on the greater environment there and what is needed with water potentially being moved to where its needed. Great video, new here and look forward to what more you have so generously made available. Thank you.

There are people who do says seismic studies in the ground that go around 1100' and they will tell you where your water is located or if there's any water at all and approximate water flow.They do this for around $3400 in Texas.

I am 57 years old grew up in a home with a cistern, with a sand filter. Rainwater from God.

A slow well can flow 24/7 to a reservoir/cistern.

I remember as a kid this neighbor had a shallow well and kept trout in it, the idea being if the fish were alive the water was ok to drink! I think our well was only 15’ deep, spring fed, but we had to filter it because the water table was high and ground water got into it too. Water is such a balancing act- you always want plenty but never too much. Lol

Well casing 2 ft. into bedrock grout 1.5 inch layer around casing with neat cement. Test q. Test q.quality quantity in gpm. Test labs everywere. Quality equipment for every problem. R o

I like spring

My mountain house is at 2100 ft above sea level, the well is a casement type and was bored to 700 ft with the pump hung at 600 ft and still only get 10 gpm,being on top of a mountain has it good points and bad points. There's a good size river at the bottom of the mountain (about half a mile from my cabin) that feeds a TVA impoundment that's a couple of miles away,lots of water there.

No 1 in consideration in developing countries such as India is eminent domain. Government compulsory acquisition of land and throw away compensation prices. Once a project is in the offing, politicians and bureaucrats purchase land in the vicinity and manage the project land acquisition to ensure their lands are not affected.

Try citric acid to remove iron stains

We currently live in central Ohio but are looking at buying a larger property in southern Ohio. Can I be nosy and ask about what a well runs in your area (estimate)?

Our towns water supply is pumped from a small reservoir that sits below a large cemetery 🤢

"aliens provide fluoride..."?! I'm always the last to know. I bet the antidote is Kale. Also, I hadn't considered what manner of chemistry asphalt shingles might impart to rainwater. It can't be healthy, nor easy to filter out.

U can put in a spring box

Great informative video. I'm looking for land kind of in that area of the country, southeastern Ohio. Any pros or cons between the two states? You mentioned mineral rights in one of the other comments. Any advice on how to learn more about them?

Our citywater somehow meets all of the regulations but it smells bad and corrodes everthing including the faucets. Completely undrinkable,

A ram pump could be an option for pumping water.

In my opinion I believe well water is the safest. I lived on a farm my whole life. My wife and I bought our farm 38 years ago and two years ago we finally got city water, and it's not nearly as good as the city water supplied. We are at the end of the line which is 4 miles long and the chemicals they treat the water with is never sufficient enough to our house. Good stuff Troy, appreciated this video. 👍👍👍

As far as your lake or stream goes, another thing that needs to be taken into consideration is does it freeze solid during the winter? Especially where you live.

Parts of Colorado and other states, the water rights were sold long ago. New land buyers cannot trap rain water, or drill wells. They need to negotiate with the folks who own the water rights. Nice, huh?

Condensing fresh water from the atmosphere may be viable when considering West Virginia's humidity. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_water_generator

So you don't own the mineral rights in your property but why do you have wells?

1. City 2. Well 3. Stream 4. Spring 5. Rainwater 6. Transport

One must maintain the purity of their essential bodily fluids. Mandrake, what do you know about fluoridated water? We have a deep (375 foot), reliable well here, but no surface water, other than a tiny slow moving brook.

I would make a few 10 foor ditches all over the property to see which ones fill up..whenever I build a house and excavate, often I come back and its flooded..God loves me..so I may as well see this positively and say, hey here is water , directly tapping into the Groundwater table of the place ..afterwards, I would excavate a bigger pool around the ditch that is alwaus full and I can use the man-made pond for bathing and maybe filter part of it through a gravel, sand earth pool and reeds sitting on parts of it , possibly with a runner membrane and reeds and shruns on top of it to filter it clean ,,and have it overflow naturally into my swimming pool by the house..I ll have to swim with them cws but hey , nothing is perfect...lol. Also check into Earthship Water and Septic Technology and Systems ..they are off -the -grid and use water 4 times..also design your rnext oofs to make catchment easier...think deeper

I only found out in the last 4 years that the USA has these laws in places were you cant take water out of a lake or river, all i can say is wow,, nothing like that here in Canada that i have ever heard of and for sure no were around me, also you guys have water in a totally different way, in a lot of places ou can dig a well 12 to 18 feet deep and have great water, normal you hit a graval seam just before the bed rock, on my land i tried to dig but after digging down 37 feet in red clay i had one drilled 60 though red clay, 12 feet though coarse gravel and 17 feet into bed rock were the dril rig dropped 18" into a cavity loaded with water with in the bed rock, my well is 117 feet deep and like spring water, it is best to have your well water tested every summer by the heath department to make sure there been no change and the test is always FREE. HERE WHEN A WELL IS DRILLED THE STEEL WELL CASING must seal into bed rock, how that is done is they weld a driving shoe on the end of the steel well casing and that get pounded into the bed rock, my well cost me under $2000 cnd not including any pump or wires of lines. some people may not get enough water at 300 feet so the blast it o get better recovery, some will have high minerals but nothing a water softer cant take care of, for 4 to $600 and a bag of salt a month .. i love my well, 30 years and only a presser switch

Wouldn’t water catchment from the roof be as clean as water pumped out of a hole in the ground? Don’t both sources need to be filtered?

In north Floriduh, I farted a well.

I wonder what the HP rating is for a pump lifting from 800 feet in the ground?

Only good water is from a well grouted properly with neat cement, disinfected, tested, treated if needed, most times not needed

So alien provide fluoride

Deeded access to the property is the most important feature. If you can't get there, why own it?

How could one find land with water in WV?

You left out low level radioactivity in water.

Are those pigs in any type of enclosure?.

is it true that water weighs 10 lbs per gallon?

Damn water zombies

You are maybe used to it by now but this video's sound is being overpowered by the sounds of crickets. Maybe there is a mic which cuts out background sounds to pretend you are talking and the voice over the video when inside.

Meets Zombie standards..