Looking to buy an out of the way house (Peoria: real estate, to rent) - Illinois (IL) - City-Data Forum

robotamadeus · 09-12-2011, 07:11 PM

Ive been starting my search for an out of the way affordable house on illinois. Ive been looking at real estate and modular homes and alternative housing options. I dont know yet if I want to buy a pre exisitng house or trailer or buy property and set up a house on the property. Im only looking to spend about $5000-$10000. So thats why ive been looking at trailers and modular houses. Ive also looked at alternative housing such as yurts and other pre fab houses. The key for me is that the house have no other niehbors around it for about 5 radial miles. I am looking for something very isolated so I can have privacy out in nature. Country or forrest would be good. I was just wondering if anybody can reccomend waht I should do to find a dwelling like this in illinois? Ive been on some of the real estate sites but couldnt find an option to tell how isolated a house is. Is there any way that you know of to find real estate like this? Oh and it also would need heat, electric, sewage and all the neccesties of course. Thanks for any ideas or reccomendations!

madpaddy · 09-12-2011, 07:45 PM

no neighbors in a 5 mile radius? Seems highly improbable. I think your only shot in Illinois is somewhere deep south in the Shawnee

linicx · 09-13-2011, 06:14 AM

That is not necessarily true for It is not unusual for farmhouses to be 5 miles apart in Central Illinois. Shawnee is a national forest. You cannot buy federal land.

You can buy $10k trailors. You can find isolated land. What you will run into is the cost of bringing electric, water and septic to your house. And you will heed a 4x4 with a blade if the snow is deep. How far do you want to be from decent medical care and groceries? How much land do you want?

An acre is 208.71 feet on each side. One mile is 739+ continuous acres or or over 3600 continuous acres between you and your neighbor. You will pay dearly for that much isolation.

Sometimes your best bet is to rent the vacant house on farmland. You will have the privacy, the isolation, the building with some land for a garden and the utilities, but. You will also have the noise of a working farm. The farm shed may be near the vacant house. The upside is, if you are a good tenant the farmer might turn out the Deere to plow the driveway or the road in front of the house for you. Farmers are very good-hearted people who help others, but if you are an isolationist they will not bother you. Isolation is a two-way street and I live the life.

madpaddy · 09-13-2011, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linicx

That is not necessarily true for It is not unusual for farmhouses to be 5 miles apart in Central Illinois.

An acre is 208.71 feet on each side. One mile is 739+ continuous acres or or over 3600 continuous acres between you and your neighbor. You will pay dearly for that much isolation.

A circle with a 5 mile radius is over 20000 acres of land. I've lived in central IL for 20 years, driven over on many of the most desolate roads for various reasons, and can't remember ever seeing a single home that isolated. I'm skeptical that would be anything other than highly unusual. It would certainly be unusual here in the eastern half of central IL. I'm less familiar with the areas west of Peoria and Springfield. Are there really locations out there where there's that much space between homes?

As for the Shawnee forest, obviously you can't buy the land owned by the Federal government. But there are plots adjacent and nearby the federally managed section that are still forested but privately owned. If you can find a plot that backs up to the federal forest you have your five miles of isolation covered at least on one side. Find a plot in the right corner and you have your isolation on two sides. Unlikely to find anything for $10,000, though. Too valuable as hunting land.

I think our O.P. may need to consider far western Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas,Nebraska/Dakotas or perhaps Montana, Nevada (remember the brother-in-law's place from the movie "Vegas Vacation?"),Utah, or Alaska.

linicx · 09-13-2011, 06:24 PM

When you are amongst farmers with 1200 acres of corn it is not unusual to see houses 5 miles apart. It is a fer piece when the nearest town is 10 miles and it doesn't have anything except silos and a post office. Wsstern Texas isn't much but sand and tumbleweeds and oil wells; same can be said of Eastern NM.. There are some very isolated areas in NWAR in the bed of the Ozark Moiuntains around War Eagle and Pea Ridge. Also in Eastern OK between TUlSA and Arkansas along 412, and south on US 69 in OK around Ft. Smith - you watch where you buy as they have tornadoes in that area. There is more than a few isolated areas between Jay and Afton on US 69 N in NE OK. And it is beautiful country: hunting, fishing, trapping, giging, etc.. On the other hand if you get down around Hot Springs AR you can get gallons of pure mountain free.

Truthfully, it makes no difference where you go... if you want isolation, its costly to have the comforts of running water and toilets - expecially on a mountainside. .

robotamadeus · 09-17-2011, 05:53 PM

hmm maybe i should get a realtor to see if they could find anything. but thanks for the comments!

linicx · 09-18-2011, 11:51 AM

If you are willing to compromise a bit you wil find a place much quicker and easier. You would probably like Eureka in Woodford, or Lacon in Marshall and Stark Counties. The towns are small and its heavily forested. So is Fulton County around Astoria and Browning. Yet the area is centrally located not terribly far from Peoria, Springfield, Bloomington, Macomb. In Peoria County between Farmington and the Fulton County line you will find the same thing. Why?

Marshall, Stark, Peoria, Fulton Tazewell, Woodford and Mason Counties are not counties locaed in the flat open plains of Illinois. You find forested cliffs, rolling hills, rivers, tree stands and streams that criss cross these counties. You are isolated but you are not sooo isoated that you cannot get help if you need it. If you live in this area as i do - and it is rural - you must have a cell phone with good reception or a landline. Sprint and Verizon convers this area best in my opinion. I live 50-miles from any large city and I do like the isolation. Real estate tazes are much cheaper in the county than in any city.

robotamadeus · 01-28-2012, 10:17 PM

Great sounds interesting. Good advice. Im wondering if I could just outsource the project to a researcher on the internet to ascertain the particulars for me. Im pretty busy right now so that might be an economical option. I dont know if I can find anybody that could extrapolate some info like that for me outside of a realtor or not. Im sure with the plethora of services out there on the web theres something available that might be thrifty and effective. Thanks for the info! Another thing I was considering was renting a cabin out in the wilderness somewhere. Ive seen lots of wilderness retreats and spiritual retreats, and monasteries and such advertised on the internet. Some of them are in Illinois as well. Im going to do some more research on it tonight.

qwqw122 · 01-31-2012, 04:47 AM

Also in Eastern OK between TUlSA and Arkansas along 412, and south on US 69 in OK around Ft. Smith - you watch where you buy as they have tornadoes in that area. http://www.*****.info/g.gif (broken link)

mdand3boys · 02-02-2012, 10:38 PM

With most of Illinois (and other Midwestern states) having been originally homestead areas - with 160 acre plots - the odds of finding anything with neighbors more than a mile in any direction is very limited.
I know. I lived North of Peoria in a very remote area and my closest neighbor was well within a mile. As the other person noted, I cannot think of any area in Illinois with 5 miles to the nearest neighbor?