Group purchase of land for RV community

[DannyB1954]

They may do better selling time shares.

 

[DesertDweller]

I heard there are a few land owners willing to "rent to own" small portions (like from $150 per month) on up of land to individuals in parts of northern AZ (near Williams comes to mind). Not sure if it's true but I'm going to look into it. I'd like to establish residency here, get DL, tags and CCW and while I travel always have a place to fall back on and making affordable monthly payments from my pension would not break the bank. Rather then a group buy a few or more people could "rent to own" an acre or 2+ next to each other for something to stay on a few months out of the year. Interest would bite but would be worth it for me. Anyone have valid info on this.....has anyone bought land this way?

I used to buy tax liens and sell acre and 5 acre lots in northern AZ...Mohave County, to be specific. Yes, there are a lot of parcels that are only one acre lots out here, they're everywhere. Some are as low as $99 down with low payments. However, if your'e a long term RVer, the county would require you to install at least a septic within one year. I had a buyer who wanted to place 3 RVs on a lot, and fence it in. The county told her she'd have to have the septic within a year, even though an RV is self contained. There is also a limit as to how many RVs can be on a lot. You can call the county you are interested in to check on the particulars. I highly recommend that you check with any county you'd like to purchase land in to find out the county rules before making a commitment. 

I live on a rural road in Golden Valley, and we do have a few people who own lots and park their RVs on them in winter. My street has city water and electric, so you can place your own hookups on the lots. 

Also, you don't need a CCW in the state of Arizona, it's perfectly legal to carry openly or concealed with no permits necessary. The local gun shop does, however, offer CCW classes if you so desire them.

I hope this helps?
Hope

 

[JeriLynn]

Hey all!  

I was wondering if any of you ever considered getting together - say 20-30 people - from this forum and purchasing a nice 5-10 acre parcel of land somewhere out west and all chipping in on it?  We could all park our RV's etc. on the land.  We would all have different skills and help each other in different ways.  One person could buy a sweet solar set up, another few could chip in and have a well dug.  Just a passing thought.  The best part is we would have a little community (family) off grid on our own private land to call home base.  

Peace,

Matt

I read through the replies and they all contribute valid ideas. 

I would be very interested in joining a responsible, but anarchic coop.  Like 4 or 5 people. I looked at many of the intentional community links that someone else suggested and did not find any of the groups of interest.  They all seem to be oriented toward religion, veganism, farming, permaculture, spirituality and so forth.  Too much groupness for my taste.  I think a dumpy mobile with working utilities on an acre would suffice for a handful of van dwellers. Too many big rigs and as one person noted, the authorities will swoop in armed with a zillion regulations. I recently saw a lot with a fixer upper outside of Blythe for only 13K. Something cheap and not too close to town or too remote would be best in my opinion.  Someplace to use as a home base with electricity and plumbing.  A junky house could be a communally shared space.   

I think there are ways to live stealthily in or out of a van.  I have a single wide trailer in northern CA.  It is very plain on outside, nobody would take a second look. With a fence around the porch, nobody can see in and no one would guess how nice the inside is.  What area or state would you like to be in?

Jeri

 

[rvwandering]

This does sound like a nice idea but I think it would be too hard to get a group of people to agree on rules, regulations and upkeep. Years ago we were part of an association that owned a small island in the middle of the Allegheny River near Pittsburgh, PA.  The island was previously owned by a gravel company and little cottages had been built in the 1900s by company employees. Many are pretty primitive but the island is beautiful - all grass and trees. There are no roads and access is by boat only. Anyway for a place as simple as this with less than 100 members there are so many things to take into account. A board of directors is elected every year. There are always people unhappy about something or breaking rules. We loved the place but not the politics that went along with it.

 On the campground idea: Friends of ours bought into a campground association. I think that the campground was a Jellystone that went bankrupt in the 1980s  and was bought by the members. It's really an inexpensive way to have a base camp.  To become a member you buy a trailer or a plot of land but you don't really own that piece of land yourself because it's all owned as a whole by the association.  There are a wide range of prices for the trailers but some are as low as $14,000.  The great thing is dues are only $600 a year and that includes water, sewage and electricity. Furnaces, stoves, and water heaters are all propane which the trailer owner supplies.  The campground is closed for 2 1/2 months every winter to keep it taxed as a campground.
 Some of the people spend all summer at the campground then go south for the winter.  If we liked this type of thing ( which we don't) we would definitely buy into a membership like this.

 

[kayell]

Newbie here jumping into the middle of this. 20 years ago I lived at a well known (still functioning) commune/intentional community. Could be considered in some ways similar to what you are thinking of. It was set up as a non-profit corporation with various bylaws designed to protect the continued existence of the community whether individuals left or not. It was consensus rule. As you can imagine, things happened VERY slowly. However, unlike most communes, it does still exist and is self-supporting from various enterprises.

I exited fairly quickly, despite initial enthusiasm and and pre-entry 3 week visit and 6 month approval. This despite being in general political and social accord with the group. Put simply, it was like living in a 70 person dysfunctional family. And general accord may mean far less actual accord than you would imagine.

If it hasn't been mentioned yet (I've only read 4 of the 9 pages so far), consider what happens to the land if someone who is part owner is caught distributing drugs. I know of at least one sad case where an older woman lost her house to the DEA asset forfeiture program when her grandson was found to have stored drugs for sale in her house (unknown to her). A very good lawyer would be needed to to set the situation up to protect everyone else against mistakes or accidents or outright nastiness by a few.

 

[AngryVanMan]

Welcome kayell! It's cool to have someone with experience in a commune on the forum! Part of the objection to a communal setup here seem to be about the transient, nomadic nature of van/RV dwelling. If you've got wheels, you probably want to use them!

The DEA "asset forfeiture" risk is a good point. Everyone who owns property in a country without protections against unreasonable search & seizure is at risk if someone else sets foot on it. Unfortunately, that list now includes the USA.

 

[ghost]

I read through the replies and they all contribute valid ideas. 

I would be very interested in joining a responsible, but anarchic coop.  Like 4 or 5 people. I looked at many of the intentional community links that someone else suggested and did not find any of the groups of interest.  They all seem to be oriented toward religion, veganism, farming, permaculture, spirituality and so forth.  Too much groupness for my taste.  I think a dumpy mobile with working utilities on an acre would suffice for a handful of van dwellers. Too many big rigs and as one person noted, the authorities will swoop in armed with a zillion regulations. I recently saw a lot with a fixer upper outside of Blythe for only 13K. Something cheap and not too close to town or too remote would be best in my opinion.  Someplace to use as a home base with electricity and plumbing.  A junky house could be a communally shared space.   

I think there are ways to live stealthily in or out of a van.  I have a single wide trailer in northern CA.  It is very plain on outside, nobody would take a second look. With a fence around the porch, nobody can see in and no one would guess how nice the inside is.  What area or state would you like to be in?

Jeri

Hi Jeri!  I want to live in Oregon.  I met a gal one this forum that will hopefully join me  :shy:

I really like you idea of a stealth type set-up where no one would take a second look.  That's awesome!  

As far as utilities, in Oregon there is plenty of rain to catch where I want to live but solar would be an issue for about 4-5 months out of the year.  Wind power may work however in the months where sun is limited.  Do you know of any other ways to get off grid power other than solar or a wind turbine?

Composting toilet and solar shower could take care of the rest.

Thanks for your input Jeri!

Peace,

Matt

 

[AltTransBikes]

Some years back I spent a week at a SKPs co-op park. One morning at the guy's coffee meet-up I got talking about some maintenance on my rig that I had been putting off. One of the guys, a retired auto tech, suggested I do it there and he'd lend a hand if I needed it. They have a workshop with loaner tools, and the compressor, floor jack, impact wrench came in handy. After I got the parts, we knocked the job out in half a day, done right and saved me a bundle.

The Escapees are probably somewhat a different demographic than what is mostly represented here but for them and what they do they do it pretty darn well. They now operate 11 co-ops parks around the country. IIRC they are  incorporated as 501c and organized in way that limits the co-op and it's membership from liability with any one individuals possible legal entanglements.

 

[ghost]

After reading all of the responses maybe it would be best if I found someone to buy a piece of land with me and off-grid it. That way there is no outside BS and we would just pay a small tax on the land we live on. Sort of like an RV homestead. I understand there are zoning laws out the are everywhere but I think it can be done ... I'm currently in PA and the taxes on a $150k house are almost $4k/ mo. They can shove that right up their *** I don't have kids and don't plan on paying for other people's kids to go to school.

 

[AltTransBikes]

Don't allow the negative comments here to put you off. Be reminded that it's really a miniscule sample of opinion in the larger picture. There are people out there doing creative, inventive things with their lives and they find a way!

 

[dogear52]

DesertDweller
I used to buy tax liens and sell acre and 5 acre lots in northern AZ...Mohave County, to be specific. Yes, there are a lot of parcels that are only one acre lots out here, they're everywhere. Some are as low as $99 down with low payments. However, if your'e a long term RVer, the county would require you to install at least a septic within one year. I had a buyer who wanted to place 3 RVs on a lot, and fence it in. The county told her she'd have to have the septic within a year, even though an RV is self contained. There is also a limit as to how many RVs can be on a lot. You can call the county you are interested in to check on the particulars. I highly recommend that you check with any county you'd like to purchase land in to find out the county rules before making a commitment. 

I live on a rural road in Golden Valley, and we do have a few people who own lots and park their RVs on them in winter. My street has city water and electric, so you can place your own hookups on the lots. 

Also, you don't need a CCW in the state of Arizona, it's perfectly legal to carry openly or concealed with no permits necessary. The local gun shop does, however, offer CCW classes if you so desire them.

I hope this helps?
Hope

Sorry for getting off topic Ghost but need to respond to the above. I like your idea and agree that the fewer people involved in your plan the more chance it will work if everyone has the same level commitment/enthusiasm and work ethic. 
Thanks for your response and info DesertDweller. Reason for my wanting to get an AZ CCW permit is my Florida CCW expires in Nov and since I'm a full time nomad now with no address I figured owning a small piece of affordable AZ land (and AZ DL/registration) will allow me a home base a few months out of the year and also give me a physical address which I'm assuming will allow me to get the AZ permit (unless I'm missing something) so I can travel to other states that recognize AZ's CCW permits. While my Florida permit is still active I can get the required training waived. My take is one needs an official residence/address in addition to being a US citizen for out of state folks so I might as well become an AZ resident, which I had planned at some point in the future.

 

[ghost]

Don't allow the negative comments here to put you off. Be reminded that it's really a miniscule sample of opinion in the larger picture. There are people out there doing creative, inventive things with their lives and they find a way!

Man you're spot on.  It's going to happen.  Godspeed brother or sister.  Live free.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

As far as utilities, in Oregon there is plenty of rain to catch where I want to live but solar would be an issue for about 4-5 months out of the year.  Wind power may work however in the months where sun is limited.  Do you know of any other ways to get off grid power other than solar or a wind turbine?

Been following this thread but staying out of it as it's not my thing.  I want a vehicle to travel, not live in while sitting in the same place all the time.

But anyway, the answer to your question is called micro-hydro power.

I've been reading HOMEPOWER magazine for a long time now.  It covers solar, wind and micro-hydro.  They have a digital only subscription for $40 a year that includes complete online, downloadable, access to their back issues in pdf format, all the way back to Issue #1.  They're currently on issue #170 something, so getting access to their back library is well worth $40.

https://www.homepower.com/subscribe-and-save

 

[IGBT]

Doing this idea in Seattle will solve a lot of your problems.

1)  Don't buy the land, just show up and take over a section of a neighborhood (maybe Ballard)

2)  Don't pick up trash, and stay in your RV most of the time so they can't tow it away

3)  If you shoot up, take advantage of the public facilities where you can get needles and have a nurse help you

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah try to do a micro hydro system in Oregon. doesn't matter if you own the land or not you will be in court, unless you jump though all the hoops and get the proper permits. highdesertranger

 

[DesertDweller]

From all the replies I've read here, what you may want to consider is purchasing the land yourself, sole ownership, so you would have total control of who comes and who goes. Then, you can invite a few other mobile dwellers to join you, or join you on a temporary basis. 20-30 people may be entirely too much headache to manage, too many personalities to deal with, and someone always ruins the peace for everyone. Depending on the size of your lot, I'd probably alot "one person/mobile dweller per acre". Everyone has peace, everyone has space. Everyone pays a little.

 

[ghost]

I entered into a partnership on some acreage many years ago. I wouldn't normally do such a deal but my partner was my best friend that I had known for fifteen years. A couple years later my friend was married to my very recent ex girlfriend under some very awkward and uncomfortable (I might even say cruel) circumstances. The property is still in both our names and we keep our distance from each other, only communication is splitting taxes each year. Needless to say it is now 'once bitten, twice shy'. HA!

Guy

Oh man.  The kind of mess I would definitely want to avoid!

Thanks for your input Guy!

Peace,

Matt

 

[sephson]

Also look into the local and state regulations on eviction procedures. There will come a time when you have to remove a problem resident. You don't want to get stuck with a six month legal battle to get rid of someone who creates problems for the community.

 

[DannyB1954]

Also look into the local and state regulations on eviction procedures. There will come a time when you have to remove a problem resident. You don't want to get stuck with a six month legal battle to get rid of someone who creates problems for the community.

How are you going to evict them, if they own the land that they are parking on? They will just be stuck with them.

 

[BC Guy]

How are you going to evict them, if they own the land that they are parking on? They will just be stuck with them.

I have seen similar situations (strata apartments) locally where disruptive owners were taken to court. The judge said that they had to sell their unit and move out.