The 8 Things You Should Consider Before Buying a Survival Property

The popularity of survival prepping measures has soared in recent years. What was once a fringe movement has now grown in the mainstream media as a way of protecting your family from a worst-case scenario.

For many years, people couldn’t fathom a situation where society broke down, buildings were burned, store shelves emptied, and other dire events unfolded. But now, we serve as witnesses to daily alarming events and give us much consideration about where we stand with preparedness.

While some families are merely stocking up on supplies at home, others are going one step further and preparing a separate survival homestead property that they can bug out to in the event of a local emergency.

This might be due to a significant weather event, civil unrest, war, or other catastrophes. There are times when you may find that your home is unsafe, your supplies have been ransacked, and it is safer to leave than to stay.

If you can afford it, it’s always wise to purchase a separate property for survival purposes and then create a homestead that allows you to live off the grid whenever the need arises.

Things You Should Consider Homestead & Survival

• Brainstorm strategies to prepare for the unexpected.
• Prepare for disaster through real-world experience.
• Own a second property that you can escape to when needed.
• You want to be able to live off the grid and not worry about supplies and food.

Get Away from the City Where Chaos Can Ensue

You never want to spend a challenging survival situation in the city. While it currently meets your needs for convenience in terms of accessing grocery stores, schools, and more, it’s not a safe place to be in many survival events.

Instead of building a second property in the city limits, try to find something outside of the city limits, in the country – where you have more control over your property and fewer prying eyes.

If food resources grow thin, you can almost guarantee that unsavory characters will be going door to door in the city to take what isn’t theirs. You want a property far removed from the rest of society so that your loved ones and supplies are safe.

If you are outside of the city limits, you will be able to monitor your property for anyone who shouldn’t be there easier than if a flood of city dwellers descended on your street, ready to steal from you.

Keep in mind, whenever you are looking for a property outside of the city, you may want to find a path that isn’t the same one everyone else will be following when they leave. Learn which back roads you can take to get to your property instead of taking a major highway that may be shut down.

Why Homestead Survival

• Own a home in the country instead of having to rent.
• More rural areas = lower risk of chaos.
• Stay away from the city and its chaos.
• Get to know alternate routes of travel to arrive at your destination.

Stay Close to Your Current Residence

You don’t want to go too far away from your current residence. While it might be a wonderful idea to have a beautiful piece of property in Montana, if you are in Texas, it will make it hard for you to visit your second residence frequently, stock it, and maintain it.

Besides that, you don’t want to have a long drive to get to a safe place in a survival situation. If you build a homestead and cannot visit it regularly, you may return one day to find squatters, an overgrown property, and other things that are out of sorts.

If everything has spiraled out of control, you may not be able to get gas to get very far. Or, you could encounter dangerous civilians in your path. The shortest distance possible will be your best bet, as long as it is just outside of the city.

Another reason it is good to stay near your permanent residence is that you will be more prepared for life off the grid in that area. You don’t want to go from a warm climate to an extremely cold one.

You don’t want to learn about a new location foraging for food, hunting, or protecting yourself from wildlife or other changes. You want it to be as normal and similar to your current life as possible.

•  Get a beautiful piece of property and enjoy it in your spare time
•  Stay close to home and ensure you can easily maintain your second property
• Avoid having to deal with long drives in survival situations

What Your Land Should Look Like

Whenever you start shopping for properties, make sure you purchase a plot of land that will serve you well for many years. Remember that you may need enough room to house animals, grow a garden, and even build additional home space for your family.

The property that you purchase may be dependent on your budget, but don’t purchase a small plot of land so that you can rush the process if it’s possible for you to buy a slightly larger plot that gives you more room a few months down the road.

You don’t want to buy property where they are currently building many houses in the area. Preferably, you will own several acres to put between yourself and your neighbors.

You don’t want all of the land around you to be cleared, often driving small animals out of the location. If it comes down to it, you will want to hunt or trap small prey for food survival purposes.

You do, however, want to select a property that is somewhat easy for you to navigate. If your property is in rough shape, you’ll want to invest in machines or services to clear certain areas for your homestead, barn, garden, etc.

• Purchase land with a large buffer from other buildings
• Keep nature, fauna, and farming as your surroundings- not a dense population of housing developments.
• You can hunt or trap small prey for food survival purposes on the property if needed.

How Much Space Do You Need to Build for Shelter?

Before buying a property, you have to know how much house you will be building on it. This may depend on how big your family is, or how much room you want in general. Keep in mind that the survival situation may go on for years, so having children share a room may not be as difficult when they are toddlers compared to teens.

Your budget may allow or prevent you from building a modern homestead. This doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. It just has to be enough of a shelter that you can fit your family in, along with supplies that will last.

Some people build second homesteads for temporary events, not expecting to live there long term. You can take this route or plan for it to be an eventual permanent residence, which will require more space.

• Build a small and cheap but still comfortable and functional shelter
• Live comfortably in an emergency situation
• Find the right size for your family

Considerations for a Safe and Secure Homestead

When you are building your home on the property, you want to consider certain measures that will allow you to hide supplies, defend your family, and withstand severe events.

Not only should you be able to defend your property from inside the homestead, but you want to have strategic defense measures set up for outside of your property. You might have hidden storage rooms and other areas to protect your valuables, supplies, and family.

One of the things you might want to include for safety purposes is a tornado shelter. Depending on where you are located, you can build a reinforced room that will protect you in a bad weather situation.

Some people purchase a property and take the do-it-yourself route for building their actual homestead. This is fine if you know what you are doing. But if you don’t, you will want to hire someone to help you build a safe residence.

Keep in mind that the materials you choose to build with can help you maintain the property longer and protect you from weather events and keep invaders out of your home.

• Safeguard your family and property with a tornado shelter
• Ensure that you have the best materials for quality construction
• Hire an expert to build or guide your work if you know what you’re doing

Familiarize Yourself with Your Surroundings

Once you have purchased a property to build on, make sure that you and your family become highly familiar with your surroundings. You want to make sure that everyone knows the property inside and out and knows the lay of the land nearby.

For example, locate water sources for the family to access in the area. Make sure everyone knows any dangers or benefits of living in the area you chose. If there are certain animals they should be concerned about outdoors, teach them what to look for and how to react if they encounter them.

You may or may not want to introduce yourself to your new neighbors if you have any at that time. It benefits you to team up with other individuals to protect properties in certain survival situations.

Just make sure you aren’t speaking freely about the purpose of your new home. You don’t want to announce to everyone that you are stocking supplies and building a survival homestead that they may someday want to invade.

Once your home is built, you want to teach your children and spouse everything about the house that they need to know. Start with teaching those who can drive how to get to the homestead from your current residence, such as taking back roads.

With every entrance to the house, such as a front and back door, windows, etc., make sure your loved ones know how to secure it from any intruders if you have certain things hidden, such as valuables or ways to defend yourself, show them how to access these for security.

• Keep your yard and house safe and hidden
• Start teaching loved ones how to get there
• Reinforce what your loved one needs to know about the homestead

Figuring Out How Much to Stock in Your Second Residence

One of the primary reasons you will be building a second homestead, besides having a safe place out of the city to go to, is to stock supplies. Your current residence probably has many odds and ends for comfort and show only.

If it came right down to it, you could probably get rid of many things in your house and replace them with survival supplies, which is exactly what you will be doing in a second homestead property.

Depending on your space and budget, you may also have the comfort amenities you are used to in your current residence. But for most people, it will be a place to stock up on supplies needed for a long-term situation.

If you do have to bug out of your current residents and head to the homestead property, make sure you have an easy way to quickly gather up sentimental items and valuables that you don’t want to lose.

You never know if your residence in the city will be burned or ransacked, and you may lose those items forever. It’s good to keep them in an area where they can be quickly grabbed on your way out the door.

You never want to leave your valuables at the second, new homestead, either if you aren’t living there. Because you will not be on that property at all times, it will also be vulnerable to thieves or intruders at any time.

What you can do is stock up on supplies that will come in handy for your family, such as water, food, first aid items, and other gear – such as a generator, flashlights, batteries, etc.

If you are stocking food on your homestead property, you want to make sure that it frequently gets rotated out and doesn’t end up spoiling. You may want to make a schedule to go out to the second property and rotate supplies when you bring new ones.

Ensure that you are not creating an easy target with your homestead property. For instance, if you openly have things like rain barrels, tools, and equipment outside where they can easily be seen, they might get stolen.

Ensure that you have clothing for the family on hand, toiletries, and other necessary items, such as defense gear, like firearms, ammunition, and knives. You’ll also want some comfort items that will keep the family happy, such as board games.

Maintain the Property and Buildings

Once you own your property and have built your homestead on it, you want to ensure that it doesn’t go to ruin. Whether you are there frequently or not, make sure you take care of both the outside and inside of the property.

You can hire a lawn care service to take care of the grass. You don’t want to let the property become overgrown and attract squatters or even rodents that will inevitably invade your home and compromise your food storage.

Not all survival situations will mean that the grid goes down. You want to have the utilities functional in your new property until it does. Keep an eye on the electricity and water to ensure it is in working order.

Owning a second property for survival prepper purposes is a wise move for everyone to make. You don’t want to be stranded with no shelter to go to in an emergency, and when staying in place poses a danger to yourself and your family.

Make sure that when you’re planning your property, you consider both short and long-term plans. For example, if you have young, college-aged adults still living in your home, and the event is expected to last years, they may want to build a separate home on the property to raise their own family in, so you’ll wish to have room and supplies for that.

• Gives peace of mind knowing you’re prepared
• Get a second property for survival prepper purposes to stay at in case of emergency
• Allows you to prepare your first and second property for survival depending on the event duration
• You may want to build a separate home on the property if college-aged adults still live in your current house.

After reading this article, you should have a better idea of what to do and what to look for when purchasing your next survival property. You’ll want to be close enough that if the city becomes chaotic or unsafe, you can easily leave. Make sure there are plenty of natural resources in the area and research how far off-grid it is so you know what size space will work best for sheltering yourself from any impending doom. The more familiar you are with your surroundings, the less likely an enemy will catch up on foot – but make sure not to get too comfortable (or lazy) because maintaining buildings and land takes time and patience!