Question 1

How do I get an address?

Accepted Answer

Once the deed is in your name, you can call the county and ask them to assign an address to the property if they have not already. (It's sometimes called a "911 address" in rural areas).

Question 2

Is composting allowed?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it is!

Question 3

What are my water options?

Accepted Answer

Cheapest option: Set up a tote or a cistern, and haul water to the property.

Totes: You can find 275 gallon totes (called IBC totes) for a few hundred dollars on Facebook Marketplace or Tractor Supply. Local RV parks often let you fill them up for a small fee (usually around $15-$20).

Cisterns: You can buy a cistern of any size, but they are more expensive than totes. This is a good option if you want thousands of gallons instead of just a few hundred gallons.

Second cheapest option: Water delivery.

You can hire someone local to fill up totes/cisterns and bring it to your property for you. There are also water delivery companies that can bring larger amounts of water but usually cost a lot more especially if they aren't close by.

Most expensive, but most convenient: Drilling a well.

Drillers charge by the foot, so it gets very expensive in desert climates because they have to drill deep. Not only is it dry, but it is also higher elevation than the east coast, for example. It is usually many tens of thousands of dollars. In Costilla County at large, average well depths are approximately 300 feet. But each property can vary.

Question 4

What does a septic cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the size of the system: If you have a small house with only one bathroom, then the septic system will be smaller than if you have 4 bathrooms. It can range anywhere from $7,000-$15,000 typically. You can Google local companies for a more accurate estimate based on your exact needs!

Question 5

Do I have to get a survey?

Accepted Answer

No! A property survey is not required by law, but there are certain times when it can be very useful. For example, if you would like to put up a fence along the border of your property, we recommend that you hire a surveyor first to make sure you're not encroaching on the neighbor's property. A surveyor also puts stakes at all of the corners, which can be helpful for visualizing the boundary. Our GPS coordinates are very accurate, within a few feet.

Question 6

Do you offer financing?

Accepted Answer

We don't offer owner financing, but you can still finance it on your own by using a credit card (you can use multiple cards, to spread the amount out over several cards), or a personal loan from your bank.

Question 7

How do I pay?

Accepted Answer

Scroll down to the How To Purchase section just below these FAQs - we have a list of payment methods that we accept and details about how the purchase process works!

Question 8

Do you have any good resources for homesteading or off-grid building?

Accepted Answer

Yes! We (the owners) lived off grid ourselves for many years, and our favorite YouTube channels are My Little Homestead and Our Self-Reliant Life.

Additionally, Geoff Lawton is an excellent wealth of knowledge for learning how to grow food in desert climates, and The Weedy Garden has amazing tips and tricks and practical advice.

For heat, we recommend diesel heaters, propane, or wood stove (electric heaters take up too much power and are difficult to run off of solar power.)

To stay cool, we recommend Swamp Coolers (evaporative coolers) because they take much less electricity than ACs and you don't need as much solar to run them. Shade Cloth is also a great option, because in the desert shade is almost as good as AC because there's very little humidity and the heat is really just from the sun itself, not the air.

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