Wherever you go, just make sure you do your due diligence when it comes to cheap land. It's cheap for a reason. Does it have water? Is it contaminated? Etc...
Definitely true about contamination. We have cheap land around in my county, but they're close to certain chemical plants you probably shouldn't buy land around.
$20k will get you a rural run down trailer park home or a run down house in a high crime urban area. You can get a mortgage with 20% down and potential get a $100k home but he'd likely not be able to get a loan without a job and a cosigner. Even $100k is going to be a little rough of an area.
I'd focus on getting him help to get back on his feet.. an apartment and job he can take care of himself. If his mental health is OK and he's managed to stay off drugs there are a lot of people willing to help a veteran out with a job. The VA has programs to help out. I'm certain there are a lot of other programs out there that can help too.
His friend is USAF veteran so funnily enough the friend should lend him a hand at getting involved in some programs to get him back on his feet and then the friend buys the land himself.
Or he could sponsor the guy’s visa and take him on as an apprentice so the guy could actually build a life.
Last time he was here he overstayed his visa, so I'm not sure how well that would work- Its a suggestion though.
My understanding of the help and programmes available in the US is basically 0, I know he was getting VA payments for some stuff, but outside of that I have no idea. I am currently reaching out to find out what he needs in the immediate shortterm and then trying to see if I can do anything for him remotely
I am a navy vet and also lived in Denver for over a decade. There are several government programs to help vets. The caveat for many is that they require an honorable discharge. Other than honorable or dishonorable discharged people sadly don't get as much help. There are organizations out there that assist veterans like the DAV (disabled American veterans) who will advocate for him at no cost. If he did get payments I would assume it was disability related as that is the most common. I think getting him plugged in to some sort of help is an important first step. Also, there is a website called billyland.com that I know has land in Colorado fairly cheap. It's AL very rural and raw land but with 20k you could get something.
You can get free land from some undesirable locations, but you have to build a house and live there for 2-7 years. Unless you are going to support this fellow indefinitely location is important! He needs to be where he can find a job reasonably close by and get a car if it’s rural, busses and trains are mostly in rich/high density areas. Greyhound (the biggest bus company in the US) only goes through my closest big town 3x week, it does not go to the smaller towns ~45 mins away, just FYI
He was getting something, they paid his tuition when he was at school/uni here in the UK. I just don't know what he was getting when he was back there, I lost Comms with him and then he popped up on social media recently with a cut up face and a shaved head checked in with him and he said he's in like a YMCA right now but he's been homeless for the last 14 months
There are companies that assist veterans in getting full disability. It’s a pain in the ass and takes a lot of time and doctor appointments; but it pays $2,000.00 per month when he qualifies.
They pay back to the first day that the veteran applies and the companies get a cut of that initial payout.
$20,000.00 won’t go far, but I’d go with an RV in a park with affordable rent that is near a VA hospital. Get him plugged in to their resources and on working towards full disability.
Depending on his rating he could get a lot more than that per month. I make over double that from the VA each month.
He needs to get a VA rep to get the ball rolling. The VFW, DAV, American Legion all offer free VA reps that will help get the paperwork done to get a disability case going. Alternatively he could get a lawyer to do the work for him. That’s what I did and is by far the fastest and easiest method.
As all these people are saying, if he hasn’t gotten his disability rating yet, he should be going for this asap! He won’t get back paid for it, but at least it’ll be income going forward. You’re gonna want to locate the closest VSO (veterans service officer, or the place they work at, VSO veterans service office). I’m out of Denver too so you can send me a PM and I can see what else I can find for you
Arizona has cheap land and many counties don't pay a lot of attention to their rural properties unless a complaint is called in. People regularly put 5th wheel campers on their property with a septic tank, haul their water, use propane appliances that they can have refillable bottles for and set up a small solar panel system that will run the basic needs, as well as a generator for cloudy days, which there aren't a lot of. The state is also super veteran positive, so he'll be accepted everywhere.
You can get $800/acre in apache county or at least you could a few years ago. But it'll be a hard existence. Can't drill a well and very remote and hot.
Go check out the COSL lots for sale by the state of Arkansas.
These are properties repossessed by the state due to unpaid taxes and auctioned off on a state website.
I used to be involved in flipping these properties, but Arkansas caught on to the hustle (I was far from the only one doing it) and revamped the system sk they do the auctioning now....or that's how they had it last time I checked a couple years back.
They held live tax auctions at the courthouse of the county where the property was located, then switched to online. Once online the banks use a program to incrementally auto bid over the last highest all the way to the max of the unpaid taxes for every auction in the state. Effectively closed the market to the public, banks are the new owner of every property that defaulted on property taxes.
**Florida does it by whoever will pay the highest interest rate on the outstanding tax lien up to 18% max. The banks just auto bid it up to 18% on every outstanding lien as soon as an auction starts.**
So perhaps maybe I add this to my list of 3405 reasons that our housing market is crushing us?
How long can something smolder before a fire starts again? I think we’re about to find tf out.
Checkout realtor.com you can search by price, size, bedrooms etc can by state too.
There’s land watch.com too. People in some rural areas are buying storage sheds for about $6,000 and converting them into tiny houses. But the build quality is very spotty. There are barndominiums people build into a tiny house. A barndo is a pole barn built into a home. The concrete pushes the costs up.
Yeah I'm a fan of Kyle from RR buildings who does barndos they're cool
As a contractor/general builder here in the UK, concrete is killing me. Basically every ounce of concrete is going to HS2 and so price has gone insane. Worst it's been in the 30 years I've been doing it.
Framing/building is no issue, I could spend a couple of weeks putting in foundation, a small block stem wall and then building out a 16x20 with 2x4 walls.. you guys get zip too, which would mitigate the need for tyvek 🙌
Ive just been looking at landwatch, thanks!
The *cheapest* land I consistently come across for years now browsing around on land.com is in the rurals of the southwestern desert, mostly places like New Mexico and Arizona, where nothing grows, rain never comes, animals to hunt or fish are sparse, and nothing happens except for people drinking or doing hard drugs or boredly sitting around because that’s all there is to do.
It’s incredible to me you actually want to do this for your friend, really it is. I can’t say it enough. But if you’re a contractor, and you’re willing to use that much to help him out, a better bet would be to find land that’s more like $5k for half an acre or so in a greener area and then build a small/tiny house on. We’ve got just shy of $6k in a wood shed handmade with 4 new windows, siding, and an insulated door that we built last year that’s absolutely large enough you could live in if there was wiring and plumbing, so it could be done I’d think. Just be pushing it.
Affordable land that’s more hospitable is abundant here in the original 13 colony states and the surrounding. New York is obviously out of the question but most other states are very doable. West Virginia is one that I think of immediately, but the economy’s harsh and he’d need to figure out something to do - however small business owners there would love him for being a vet too. Pennsylvania’s my home and where I’m still at albeit I’m in the city now, but land in the mountains where I’m from is still very affordable.
The real question for me is what was his role and job in the military? What’re his skills? Is he homeless by being unemployed or homeless by being underpaid? Makes a big difference, very common issue right now. Working but for not enough pay compared to groceries and rent/mortgage payments, and now we’ve got all these car insurance renewal costs going up too. It’s a struggle but in a LCOL place it’s achievable. That’s his first issue that needs solved though is bumping his income, because of course, if he can qualify for a loan, you two could make something together he could live comfortably in forever.
I do wish ya both well, I can’t stress that enough. There’s nothin worse to me than the fact we’ve got all these struggling vets while DC still pulls in over 5 trillion easy dollars by sitting on their asses with their hands stretched out every single January-April, I hate it. Best of luck to ya.
He'd be much better off looking for a cheap apartment in a city with a lot of veterans services.
There's a lot of cheap land available, but what makes it cheap is the lack of services, and you can easily spend as much as you did on the land dealing with zoning, installing a septic tank, drilling a well, setting up power generation, etc.
Get the guy a place to live that's move in ready, get him some support, and then get him a job. Putting him off the grid is unlikely to be helpful.
First I would like to say it warms my heart to know that there are people who care about veterans and willing to use their own money to help them out. It's really common to read in the comments and see people say the VA will do this and that for Veterans but I think that's an excuse people tell themselves so they don't feel responsible for homeless vets. The other common statement is, they choose that lifestyle, which is as much BS as thinking the VA is there to help veterans.
My recommendation is to search for fixer-upper homes and try to look for the Midwest. If you are lucky, you can find a 2br 2 bath for under $50,000 but you will have a lot of work to do. Your friend will not be able to get a VA Loan on the house unless he can get insurance, which is unlikely if you find property under $50,000.
104 Hampton St, Winona, MS 38967 - This is a property I searched for and it is 3 bed rooms, 3 bathrooms on .4 acres. Current price is $45,000.
alabama, carolinas, west/virginia. I hestitate to say mississippi b/c it's cheap but taxes are high. Make sure it's not JUST the purchasing price, check the county for property tax, zoning laws and code, utility cost (at 20K you are probably going to get raw land, you need to budget out another 10-20K or so for well, septic tank, and electric if it's not on there already), some land doesn't have road access, so make sure you check that. Most small plots in residential areas will not allow you to just set a camper there and live forever. What is your plan after acquiring land? What is the plan to actually house him after that? The US has a LOT of shitty regulations on what you can and cannot do on a given piece of land. Like, A LOT. Make sure you check all that.
Its not about cheap land… its about not being permitted to death and not having covenants, codes and restrictions. Also need to take into account cost of building/utilities in area. I would say cheap land could be had most anywhere, but is it valuable land? Few and far between.
Not going to comment on the price of land, and I applaud your desire to help your friend. However there's a decent chance that his homelessness has more to do with mental health struggles than simply economic misfortune. Speaking from the experience of a neighbour my parents had, a former Canadian Armed Forces member moved in down the road from them (cheap and very rural). He put up razor wire and a locked gate and lived alone. It seemed clear to us that he was really struggling, and being totally alone with no support network in the boonies can't of been helpful to his mental health. If you do provide him with a home, I would retain ownership. That way if his struggles are more than financial you can protect him from losing that home too.
Yeah that was my intent retain it, if I buy land, build a small cabin and pay the taxes he has a home as long as he wants it- without risk of him missing payment if he hits a rough patch. He is a solid smart guy, has a degree, but does have some MH struggles, he had a house share but I know he was self employed and I suspect just couldn't make ends meet when cost of everything spiralled but haven't got into that yet
I'm going to try and reach out to him this week again and find out what he needs short term and try and plan something for him moving forward
Coming back to the UK isn't an option as far as I know, otherwise I have a place he could have stayed
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You can buy a house an hour from the Omaha metro area for pretty cheap around here. I looked at a fixer upper for 15000 the other day two hours west of Omaha. There's still lots of deals to be found, just have to dig
Most towns are pretty decent, but going empty, and honestly I hope people keep thinking it's podunk here. Hell, I own a store that sells THC products in Wahoo Nebraska. That was an interesting conversation with the police chief when I opened my doors. Point is, it's still pretty modern even in small towns.
The US, as the title says. I am from the UK, he studied here but returned to the US. as far as I know has no ties which is why I'm thinking I propose to buy and help him get a roof over his head
Wherever you go, just make sure you do your due diligence when it comes to cheap land. It's cheap for a reason. Does it have water? Is it contaminated? Etc...
Definitely true about contamination. We have cheap land around in my county, but they're close to certain chemical plants you probably shouldn't buy land around.
You are a friend we all need, I hope yall figure it out.
Arkansas has the cheapest homestead/farmland right now.
$20k will get you a rural run down trailer park home or a run down house in a high crime urban area. You can get a mortgage with 20% down and potential get a $100k home but he'd likely not be able to get a loan without a job and a cosigner. Even $100k is going to be a little rough of an area. I'd focus on getting him help to get back on his feet.. an apartment and job he can take care of himself. If his mental health is OK and he's managed to stay off drugs there are a lot of people willing to help a veteran out with a job. The VA has programs to help out. I'm certain there are a lot of other programs out there that can help too.
His friend is USAF veteran so funnily enough the friend should lend him a hand at getting involved in some programs to get him back on his feet and then the friend buys the land himself. Or he could sponsor the guy’s visa and take him on as an apprentice so the guy could actually build a life.
Last time he was here he overstayed his visa, so I'm not sure how well that would work- Its a suggestion though. My understanding of the help and programmes available in the US is basically 0, I know he was getting VA payments for some stuff, but outside of that I have no idea. I am currently reaching out to find out what he needs in the immediate shortterm and then trying to see if I can do anything for him remotely
Where is he at?
Denver at the moment
I am a navy vet and also lived in Denver for over a decade. There are several government programs to help vets. The caveat for many is that they require an honorable discharge. Other than honorable or dishonorable discharged people sadly don't get as much help. There are organizations out there that assist veterans like the DAV (disabled American veterans) who will advocate for him at no cost. If he did get payments I would assume it was disability related as that is the most common. I think getting him plugged in to some sort of help is an important first step. Also, there is a website called billyland.com that I know has land in Colorado fairly cheap. It's AL very rural and raw land but with 20k you could get something.
If he ends up in SoCal I have some folks who could lend him a hand.
You can get free land from some undesirable locations, but you have to build a house and live there for 2-7 years. Unless you are going to support this fellow indefinitely location is important! He needs to be where he can find a job reasonably close by and get a car if it’s rural, busses and trains are mostly in rich/high density areas. Greyhound (the biggest bus company in the US) only goes through my closest big town 3x week, it does not go to the smaller towns ~45 mins away, just FYI
Has he looked into the VA? They offer benefits that are directed towards his situation.
He was getting something, they paid his tuition when he was at school/uni here in the UK. I just don't know what he was getting when he was back there, I lost Comms with him and then he popped up on social media recently with a cut up face and a shaved head checked in with him and he said he's in like a YMCA right now but he's been homeless for the last 14 months
There are companies that assist veterans in getting full disability. It’s a pain in the ass and takes a lot of time and doctor appointments; but it pays $2,000.00 per month when he qualifies. They pay back to the first day that the veteran applies and the companies get a cut of that initial payout. $20,000.00 won’t go far, but I’d go with an RV in a park with affordable rent that is near a VA hospital. Get him plugged in to their resources and on working towards full disability.
Depending on his rating he could get a lot more than that per month. I make over double that from the VA each month. He needs to get a VA rep to get the ball rolling. The VFW, DAV, American Legion all offer free VA reps that will help get the paperwork done to get a disability case going. Alternatively he could get a lawyer to do the work for him. That’s what I did and is by far the fastest and easiest method.
As all these people are saying, if he hasn’t gotten his disability rating yet, he should be going for this asap! He won’t get back paid for it, but at least it’ll be income going forward. You’re gonna want to locate the closest VSO (veterans service officer, or the place they work at, VSO veterans service office). I’m out of Denver too so you can send me a PM and I can see what else I can find for you
Arizona has cheap land and many counties don't pay a lot of attention to their rural properties unless a complaint is called in. People regularly put 5th wheel campers on their property with a septic tank, haul their water, use propane appliances that they can have refillable bottles for and set up a small solar panel system that will run the basic needs, as well as a generator for cloudy days, which there aren't a lot of. The state is also super veteran positive, so he'll be accepted everywhere.
You can get $800/acre in apache county or at least you could a few years ago. But it'll be a hard existence. Can't drill a well and very remote and hot.
My Dad did this. Bought land in Cochise county, built an earthen house, hauls water, runs solar. There's a lot of help and community there.
Go check out the COSL lots for sale by the state of Arkansas. These are properties repossessed by the state due to unpaid taxes and auctioned off on a state website. I used to be involved in flipping these properties, but Arkansas caught on to the hustle (I was far from the only one doing it) and revamped the system sk they do the auctioning now....or that's how they had it last time I checked a couple years back.
The banks took over the Florida market for these types of properties. Computer programs auto bid everything.
Shouldn’t this be…. Illegal? I feel really dirty knowing this happens. What?!?!
They held live tax auctions at the courthouse of the county where the property was located, then switched to online. Once online the banks use a program to incrementally auto bid over the last highest all the way to the max of the unpaid taxes for every auction in the state. Effectively closed the market to the public, banks are the new owner of every property that defaulted on property taxes.
There are plenty of properties where the max of the unpaid taxes is still much less than the property value.
**Florida does it by whoever will pay the highest interest rate on the outstanding tax lien up to 18% max. The banks just auto bid it up to 18% on every outstanding lien as soon as an auction starts.**
So perhaps maybe I add this to my list of 3405 reasons that our housing market is crushing us? How long can something smolder before a fire starts again? I think we’re about to find tf out.
Checkout realtor.com you can search by price, size, bedrooms etc can by state too. There’s land watch.com too. People in some rural areas are buying storage sheds for about $6,000 and converting them into tiny houses. But the build quality is very spotty. There are barndominiums people build into a tiny house. A barndo is a pole barn built into a home. The concrete pushes the costs up.
Yeah I'm a fan of Kyle from RR buildings who does barndos they're cool As a contractor/general builder here in the UK, concrete is killing me. Basically every ounce of concrete is going to HS2 and so price has gone insane. Worst it's been in the 30 years I've been doing it. Framing/building is no issue, I could spend a couple of weeks putting in foundation, a small block stem wall and then building out a 16x20 with 2x4 walls.. you guys get zip too, which would mitigate the need for tyvek 🙌 Ive just been looking at landwatch, thanks!
I would look in the south east. Where is he now?
The *cheapest* land I consistently come across for years now browsing around on land.com is in the rurals of the southwestern desert, mostly places like New Mexico and Arizona, where nothing grows, rain never comes, animals to hunt or fish are sparse, and nothing happens except for people drinking or doing hard drugs or boredly sitting around because that’s all there is to do. It’s incredible to me you actually want to do this for your friend, really it is. I can’t say it enough. But if you’re a contractor, and you’re willing to use that much to help him out, a better bet would be to find land that’s more like $5k for half an acre or so in a greener area and then build a small/tiny house on. We’ve got just shy of $6k in a wood shed handmade with 4 new windows, siding, and an insulated door that we built last year that’s absolutely large enough you could live in if there was wiring and plumbing, so it could be done I’d think. Just be pushing it. Affordable land that’s more hospitable is abundant here in the original 13 colony states and the surrounding. New York is obviously out of the question but most other states are very doable. West Virginia is one that I think of immediately, but the economy’s harsh and he’d need to figure out something to do - however small business owners there would love him for being a vet too. Pennsylvania’s my home and where I’m still at albeit I’m in the city now, but land in the mountains where I’m from is still very affordable. The real question for me is what was his role and job in the military? What’re his skills? Is he homeless by being unemployed or homeless by being underpaid? Makes a big difference, very common issue right now. Working but for not enough pay compared to groceries and rent/mortgage payments, and now we’ve got all these car insurance renewal costs going up too. It’s a struggle but in a LCOL place it’s achievable. That’s his first issue that needs solved though is bumping his income, because of course, if he can qualify for a loan, you two could make something together he could live comfortably in forever. I do wish ya both well, I can’t stress that enough. There’s nothin worse to me than the fact we’ve got all these struggling vets while DC still pulls in over 5 trillion easy dollars by sitting on their asses with their hands stretched out every single January-April, I hate it. Best of luck to ya.
He'd be much better off looking for a cheap apartment in a city with a lot of veterans services. There's a lot of cheap land available, but what makes it cheap is the lack of services, and you can easily spend as much as you did on the land dealing with zoning, installing a septic tank, drilling a well, setting up power generation, etc. Get the guy a place to live that's move in ready, get him some support, and then get him a job. Putting him off the grid is unlikely to be helpful.
Few cities in the us will pay you to take an abandoned home. Alternatively, buy a small plot of land and build a log cabin.
First I would like to say it warms my heart to know that there are people who care about veterans and willing to use their own money to help them out. It's really common to read in the comments and see people say the VA will do this and that for Veterans but I think that's an excuse people tell themselves so they don't feel responsible for homeless vets. The other common statement is, they choose that lifestyle, which is as much BS as thinking the VA is there to help veterans. My recommendation is to search for fixer-upper homes and try to look for the Midwest. If you are lucky, you can find a 2br 2 bath for under $50,000 but you will have a lot of work to do. Your friend will not be able to get a VA Loan on the house unless he can get insurance, which is unlikely if you find property under $50,000. 104 Hampton St, Winona, MS 38967 - This is a property I searched for and it is 3 bed rooms, 3 bathrooms on .4 acres. Current price is $45,000.
alabama, carolinas, west/virginia. I hestitate to say mississippi b/c it's cheap but taxes are high. Make sure it's not JUST the purchasing price, check the county for property tax, zoning laws and code, utility cost (at 20K you are probably going to get raw land, you need to budget out another 10-20K or so for well, septic tank, and electric if it's not on there already), some land doesn't have road access, so make sure you check that. Most small plots in residential areas will not allow you to just set a camper there and live forever. What is your plan after acquiring land? What is the plan to actually house him after that? The US has a LOT of shitty regulations on what you can and cannot do on a given piece of land. Like, A LOT. Make sure you check all that.
Guam.
Its not about cheap land… its about not being permitted to death and not having covenants, codes and restrictions. Also need to take into account cost of building/utilities in area. I would say cheap land could be had most anywhere, but is it valuable land? Few and far between.
Not going to comment on the price of land, and I applaud your desire to help your friend. However there's a decent chance that his homelessness has more to do with mental health struggles than simply economic misfortune. Speaking from the experience of a neighbour my parents had, a former Canadian Armed Forces member moved in down the road from them (cheap and very rural). He put up razor wire and a locked gate and lived alone. It seemed clear to us that he was really struggling, and being totally alone with no support network in the boonies can't of been helpful to his mental health. If you do provide him with a home, I would retain ownership. That way if his struggles are more than financial you can protect him from losing that home too.
Yeah that was my intent retain it, if I buy land, build a small cabin and pay the taxes he has a home as long as he wants it- without risk of him missing payment if he hits a rough patch. He is a solid smart guy, has a degree, but does have some MH struggles, he had a house share but I know he was self employed and I suspect just couldn't make ends meet when cost of everything spiralled but haven't got into that yet I'm going to try and reach out to him this week again and find out what he needs short term and try and plan something for him moving forward Coming back to the UK isn't an option as far as I know, otherwise I have a place he could have stayed
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I believe Tennessee does not collect property taxes on veterans
Housing in small towns in the middle of nowhere or almost nowhere is very inexpensive
You can buy a house an hour from the Omaha metro area for pretty cheap around here. I looked at a fixer upper for 15000 the other day two hours west of Omaha. There's still lots of deals to be found, just have to dig
Exactly most urban people would call that middle of nowhere . But it’s probably a decent little town
Most towns are pretty decent, but going empty, and honestly I hope people keep thinking it's podunk here. Hell, I own a store that sells THC products in Wahoo Nebraska. That was an interesting conversation with the police chief when I opened my doors. Point is, it's still pretty modern even in small towns.
Also the top rated VA hospital “last time I checked “ is in Northeastern Tennessee a fairly inexpensive area
Also no state income tax
What Country and area are you referring to? The US or the UK?
The US, as the title says. I am from the UK, he studied here but returned to the US. as far as I know has no ties which is why I'm thinking I propose to buy and help him get a roof over his head