What features and/or goals do you have for your homestead land?

[SCinPNW]

We are currently in the process of looking for some property that we can turn into our retirement/homestead place. I am curious as to what specifics you want or have found in your homestead place. Here are some of the things that I think are important for us:

1. Close to good quality major medical;
2. Good quality schools in the area;
3. Surrounding area offers lower cost of living, as compared to where we currently live;
4. For the land itself, I am looking for 40 or more acres--depending on the quality of land so that we can garden, have a small orchard (apples, peaches, pears, cherries, etc.), raise chickens, pigs, and a couple of beef cows;
5. Good source of water without having to hook up to county water;
6. Longer growing season than our current location. Our summers tend to be cool compared to the rest of the country, and not a lot of sunshine. With that said I also do not want blazing hot either.

The books that I have been using for information on setting up a sustainable homestead are:

[MustangGal]

Our current location is temporary... we have been here almost 23 years, and will remain until we are certain MIL will be in a nursing home or she passes. We are currently on 3 to 4 acres and have chickens, goats, and rabbits.

I am looking for land.
*It needs to be near my parents, within 5 miles.
*off the highway, directions must include "turn on to the dirt road" :P
*water, it must have a well (or we will have to drill one) AND a stream or pond or even better both.
*5 acre minimum, prefer ten or more, but more than 80 is probably out of reach both financially and what we can reasonably care for.
*wooded, but with some pasture.

Since we already live in the area, I am satisfied with the schools and there is a local hospital.

[rice paddy daddy]

Both my wife and I looked for land that was far enough away from any great concentrations of people. We now live on a dead end dirt road 6 miles outside a one stoplight town. We have gotten several more neighbors since we moved in, but we are at the stage (63 + 65) that moving again would be a real hassle. However, we are both adamant that if the county EVER paves the road we live on, it's time to move further out.
We have 3.5 acres that abut many hundreds more. This used to be timber company land, thousands of acres. Wildlife abounds, just 200 yards up the road is a hunt club lease, for example.
The only utility that comes this far out is electricity. Our water comes from a well in the front yard, TV is satelite, our house came in on wheels.:)
There is a small county hospital (less than 20 beds) just across the state line in Georgia if it's an emergency. Major medical is 50 miles away.
There is a gas station, Ace Hardware, Dollar General, and NAPA in town.
Anything else - restaraunts, Walmart, Home Depot, etc is on the other side of the county (40+ miles).
The Big City is an hour's drive each way. Who needs a mall anyway?
We have a food garden, chickens, and horses.
Living this way is not for everybody, but it's exactly what we've wanted for a loooong time.

[rockriver]

a question i've debated and considered for a while.
schools - can indicate quality of folks in the community.. i have poor schools - my kids are grown.
medical - next county for us
cost of living - poor schools helped house be cheaper
acreage - get what you can afford!!
trees - for fruit and firewood. a lot of trees can grow on 5 acres.
water - look for stream/creeek/pond/ find out what groundwater depth is for well. solar well?
growing season - we have long.. we also have lots of high temperatures and gnats and mosquitos!! to go with the long growing season.

enjoy the search. buy soon!
rr

[LizardKing]

I've been looking for a while for a piece that has high ground with a good field of vision, year round natural water and an actual address. That would mean I would theoretically already have electric, septic and potable water, regardless of the condition of whatever structure was there and the ability to switch my vehicles to that location if the insurance is cheaper. I have found that major medical facilities mean population centers, since it is a business and has to be profitable, so I dropped that qual from my list. A long growing season is also on my list.