I’m continuing to try to find a piece of dirt that meets my anticipated needs and desires. It’s been a bit of a slog, but I am noticing prices are coming down. Also, the markets (stock and metals) have been nice to me over the last six weeks so I have about 10% more to spend on an acquisition than I previously had. As I peruse the various real estate listing websites I do come across the occasional piece of property that makes me wonder what the previous owner was thinking. One such piece is this guy. I am really curious about this piece. The description says that the whole 11 acres is, to some degree, fenced. Okay thats kinda nice…a bit unusual but nothing really eyebrow-raising. But then theres an inner perimeter fenced with chain link. Ok, it’s bear country and maybe they wanna keep the deer outta the garden. Totally plausible. The three strands of outward-facing barbed wire atop the tall fence, on the other hand….. Barbed wire does nothing to deter deer and bears will go through it like it isn’t even there.
I get the impression this was either someone’s bugout location or there’s a serial killer out there who couldn’t meet his mortgage.
Regardless, its a hard no for me….$20k per acre, even with a well, is absolutely ridiculous. But its certainly an interesting piece of property and rather interesting to ‘read between the lines’ with.
Well, you can always offer less. The worst that happens is they laugh at you
One of my parameters is a minimum of 20 acres.
Z, is there a particular reason why 20 acres is a requirement? Farming potential, hunting, etc?
Privacy.
Your nearest neighbor there is 300′ away, and that’s one of two that close.
It’s also at 5K’, and less than 50 mi. from downtown Missoula.
On dirt forest roads.
Bummer if you had to get there in January, I’m thinking, and not very “private” even then.
And 20 acres is a good benchmark for privacy, but it also depends on how far any dwell site is from the entry point.
It appears most of that 11 acres is unusable ravine, and the house is close enough to the road entry up in one corner that you might as well stay in your house in town.
As I mentioned in the post, I have zero interest in the place for myself. I just thought it was interesting it the way it was laid out.
I understood that from the outset. And I think that was a very wise call, for a host of reasons.
Ted Kaczynski would’ve found that place very attractive. People have unreal expectations of what their precious stuff is worth these days. Prime ranch and farm lands are going for about half that price per acre.
Trivia: I was at the college here same time as him. A guy in my journalism class is the one that took one of the very first post-capture photos of him….followed the FBI’s car all the way to Helena and then caught them coming out of the mens room at the federal building.
Journalism class? So that’s what lead [pun intended] to this!
I wouldn’t do it…too primitive…
Looks like a hunt club set up…
the fencing was probably done in stages as the “break-ins” increased.
I’d wait for a better opportunity to come along…
Remember, the patient hunter is always rewarded
The inner fence with chain link is just set up for a one acre garden.
Yeah, Im aware of that. My question is about the three strand barbed wire at the top which is a bit much for deer exclusion.
I am sure that the garden would feel much safer
The well is a big deal. A 150′ 6″ well can run ten grand. Add a stainless steel Simple Pump at an additional $2500.
Is it hard to get a privy permit?
Where my shack is they only allow holding tanks for an outhouse.
I’m pretty sure that piece is located in what the locals call the “reclamation” area outside of Helmville. It’s old logging company land that’s been divided up quite a while back. Not a great area, due to a crappy access road, lots of neighbors who many are recent transplants, and basically none of the benefits of living remote but all of the drawbacks. Anyhow, just my two cents. Also trivia, we used to see ‘ol Ted riding is bike to and from Lincoln back in the day. We all just thought he was a harmless eccentric
I was looking at properties in that area recently for a job possiblity – man it’s gotten expensive there compared to other locales I’ve researched recently, and compared to when I was in the area in 2008.
I’m looking for long term options and haven’t found a good combination of job and locale yet.
I’m on 23 acres. I have neighbors with very visible improvements. If it’s privacy you are after, you are off by an order of magnitude.
We have about 20 acres, but the house is not in the middle of them. This time of year, I can’t see the neighbors’ houses. At night, I have to walk around outside to find a spot where their lights peek through the leaves. In the winter, when there are no leaves, I can see the house that is a quarter of a mile away during the day and see the lights of the other neighbor at night.
If I am outside, I can hear a big chainsaw and four-wheelers, but not a weed whacker. We never hear voices. What really gives us privacy is that we are on a private road at the end of a dead-end county road. There is no through traffic or traffic passing through. Even UPS, Fedex and USPS won’t come here.
Moving from the exurbs to the middle of nowhere was the best decision we ever made. We looked for three years in at least five states, including in Montana and Idaho back in 2017, before we found our place in late 2019. Looking taught us a lot, including helping us refine not only what we wanted, but what we didn’t want. In the end, everything came together, but not without some heavy lifting on our realtor’s part.
Wishing you the best in your search!
Privacy -ask a bunch of dead Rhodesian farmers about seclusion.
Remote locations are great places to hang out and torture residents for fun and profit. Long time ago I lost some ancestors that way.
Nearly every real life account I have ever read says you are better protected by having good neighbors.
Does not mean you have to live on a 1/4 acre, just that after a point, seclusion brings it’s own set of problems.
Just like a barrier, if you can’t bring fire to bear, it will be breached-invaded -trespassed upon. If you can’t control it, it ain’t yours.
In my area of the northern Rockies region decent parcels frequently list for $20k or more per acre. A good well and irrigation rights drive the price up even farther. Semi-private? More dinero. The shack isn’t impressive, that would be a miserable place to winter while you build. Good call to keep looking, there will be better deals everywhere as the collapse progresses.