1st Step… Find Some Land

The first few properties we visited were nice, but were missing some key elements from our list…

When we entered our, now, ranch it was an instant feeling that it was the right place and we couldn’t believe it was on the market! As we explored the insanely densely wooded listing, we could imagine our ideas coming to life! Unfortunately for our broker, the listing broker did not say that to enter the property the tree branches would scrape both sides of his Yukon… and that we might get stuck if we drove down to the lower part of the property without an ATV.

After we got past those few minor details, we explored the property for the rest of the day taking in the terrain and views. The trees and sheer wilderness that we had to sneak through to explore the property, got us super excited about using a blank slate for our dream! 

It took some time to negotiate and close on the land, but while we waited we knew we needed a business plan. In February of 2020, we quarantined ourselves (before it was mandated!) for 10 days and weren’t allowed to leave our Airbnb until we had the bulk of our business plan in place. With a gorgeous swimming pool and some Rum to help, we emerged at the end with a 40-page plan to tackle our notion! 

After some negotiations with the seller’s broker and the landscape of the world changing with COVID in March of 2020, we finally came to terms on the ranch and started our 90-day due diligence period. During that time, we were busy researching: zoning, access to water, building restrictions, lack of cell coverage, determining internet access, access from the main road, etc…  I won’t bore you with the details, but the list was lonnnnnnnng. Once we were about 90% sure it would all work, we got the keys to the property in June of 2020. One year after finding the land, we were the proud owners of 100 acres of TRUE wilderness! We couldn’t wait to see what was to come…

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