Folks that own a small piece of land and camp on it?

[ORANGE]

I have come across this several times in researching how to get out there and do it.

Where are folks buying little pieces of land to periodically camp/live on it?

It would seem to me that zoning laws are so strict I dont know how they are getting away with doing it.  There is an older man I saw in a video once (wish now I would have saved that to ask him) that has a piece of land in Texas and when he isnt traveling that is his home base.

Ive tried internet searches about buying land and camping/rving on it and really havent gotten any useful information.

Anyone know?  Or can point the way?

 

[Ken in Anaheim]

Is the "old guy" you're speaking of Rusty78609 on YouTube?

 

[ORANGE]

No kidding Ken you are awesome. A wizard. How did you do that? You answered in 8 minutes. Is Rusty somewhat famous here?



Yup here he is talking about Capitan, TX and bookdocking on his lot

 

[highdesertranger]

I camp on private property a lot. it's not my property but other peoples property. the county might not allow it but in rural areas it's not enforced. in other rural areas it's perfectly legal. highdesertranger

 

[maki2]

Some states do have areas that have "recreational lots". Those are the keywords to use if you want to have some land where you can stay for a while but not as a full time residence.

 

[IGBT]

I don't know if you consider 30 acres small but that is what we have in the mountains of Washington state.   Taxes are ~$28 a year and nobody bothers us at all.   There is a mountain lion though that seems to cross our game camera at night about once a month.

 

[bullfrog]

Many lots you can live in an RV a certain amount of time before you must start construction. I guess you could just buy and sell every so often but why would you want to deal with all the hassles of ownership plus in certain states if you buy land and don't make improvements or stay there over a certain period of time your neighbors can simply clear it, cut the grass and claim it. The courts will rule in their favor, ask me why I don't like Ohio. I couldn't even get my taxes back I had paid over the years while someone else held the title without my knowledge. I have found it much easier and cheaper to rent, lease or gift land to a family member with the understanding I can store or stay there. There are campgrounds that rent storage as well as sites.

 

[Gr8ful]

I have 13.5 acres remote in the UP that should pay for it just in thinning the timber for $13K. Last thinning 15 years ago brought $14.5. PM if interested.

 

[Matlock]

^ I've not heard of that " claim it" situation unless it's in a residential area and their are excessive complaints. Relates to property values.

I've not run into that on my rural plot. My "neighbors" are a mile away.

 

[RVTravel]

No. His brick home is central texas and his property is in capitan new mexico?

 

[ckelly78z]

We often have friends over with their campers for holiday weeks/weekends to camp in our back farm yard (10 acres with a creek/woods).

I don't think I would like camping on a city lot, and waiting for that knock on the door, while hearing all the sounds of a city.

 

[StarliteRambler]

I've watched a lot of Rusty's videos. He say's the ideal situation is to find a lot that formerly had a mobile home on it so that utilities are already in place. That's a huge savings. His place in the Hill Country in Texas has a sheet metal RV cover on it for shade and he had a concrete slab poured that his Casita sits on and is also his patio. The place in Capitan is in town and he can stay there a max of 6 months/year.

 

[annapearl]

We have some recreational lots in NE Utah that are zoned for RV use.  They are only accessible during the summer months though.  I wonder if a lot of the areas that are zoned like this are hard to sell lots in undesirable or hard to access areas???  Just a thought.

 

[bullfrog]

^ I've not heard of that " claim it" situation unless it's in a residential area and their are excessive complaints. Relates to property values.

I've not run into that on my rural plot. My "neighbors" are a mile away.

Was a rural plot that was bordered by a plot that was subdivided which they then claimed my plot by clearing and maintaining my plot that I continued to pay taxes on and then they sold.  A few years later when I went to pay the taxes I went by the property and there was a house on it!  No notification other than taxes due which I paid yearly.  Courts ruled in their favor.

 

[highdesertranger]

bullfrog that's efed up. highdesertranger

 

[abnorm]

^^^^^^Sounds like the legal principle...…..Adverse Possession

 

[jim solo]

I am so called Camping on a friends land. In pix below, the left is all woods and down hill.
I just mow for them. They are a couple older Ladies, and very close friends.

 

[jim solo]

I camp on private land in a rural area of ( south western ) Virginia and have had no trouble.
Not my land, but a friends property. While I work on my Rig to get it ready for the road. Had
some pix to show, but will have to shrink them to use as attachments. It's plain beautiful here.

 

[jacqueg]

Was a rural plot that was bordered by a plot that was subdivided which they then claimed my plot by clearing and maintaining my plot that I continued to pay taxes on and then they sold.  A few years later when I went to pay the taxes I went by the property and there was a house on it!  No notification other than taxes due which I paid yearly.  Courts ruled in their favor.

Sounds like adverse possession? It's a hold over from english common law. 

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/state-state-rules-adverse-possession.html

Individual states differ in the details, but I'm pretty sure it's a thing in every state.

Absentee landowners - visit your property! every year! and make sure you are the only person paying your property taxes!

 

[XERTYX]

I'm glad I saw this before I started a new thread. I'm considering buying some land in AZ as a home base. I found a few 40 acre lots that even backed up to state owned land. The prices seem reasonable cheaper than a single acre where I am now. They claim to be unrestricted so I'd imagine I could camp on it.

Does AZ recognize tiny homes? I.e. is a self built shack a dwelling? Ga I'm told doesnt recognize tiny homes as a dwelling. You cant get water or electric service or a mailbox. Also then your tiny home cant be lived in at all and you can be made to tear it down.

What I'd like to do is buy a sizable lot and put a shack in the middle and that would be home base. I'd want a mailbox so I could have a residence but I dont know what would qualify for that. If I'd need a professionally built home with electricity and city water or what.