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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 19, 2019 1:24:01 GMT
Hey all,
As you know, I am looking to move to the States, if i can manage to organize immigration. One method of which is getting a job and getting the employer to sponsor you. This is all well and good but you guys have a big country with lots of different climates, landscapes, growing seasons, soils, price etc. I am looking for some advice as to good areas to homestead in as it will help to direct me in job hunting. Not so much after the best area just some good guides as of course will have to go where the work is and I can make things work from there. Thanks Darren
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Post by LauraD on Jun 19, 2019 13:01:35 GMT
I think you can pretty much find a way/place to homestead in any climate here in the States. You might be better off asking yourself what type of climate you wish to live in, then narrow down your geographical search accordingly.
Of note, laws and regulations vary by state and even by county/city. For example, when I was searching for a property to buy for homesteading in Missouri, I only considered counties where there are no building codes. In Indiana, however, there is a state law that all buildings must meet Indiana state building codes, and smaller jurisdictions (e.g., counties, cities) are forbidden from adding more restrictions/conditions. So once you decide on a climate, you will need to research each state to decide which one/ones would work best for you. Then you can narrow it down from there.
Good luck!
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Jun 19, 2019 18:04:53 GMT
We're in the Ozarks on purpose. I was raised in Minnesota, lived 29 years in Dallas TX, a while in the mountains of North Carolina, and had cabin for several years in SE Oklahoma while living in Dallas. I used to ride motorcycles up through this area, and became familiar with its geography and somewhat the people.
In SW Missouri (Ozarks) we get all four seasons, just not too much of any to be burdensome. The rural counties have no building codes, with the exception of getting testing and a permit for septic systems. I'm told Stone County has a building inspector, but I've got a hunch some County Commissioner had a son-in-law that needed a job. Nobody has ever seen him.
Property is inexpensive compared to most other area where they'd be considered "cropland", average unimproved land runs from $1500/acre for timbered & rough, to $2500 for grazeable. Property taxes are low, but we do have personal property taxes also. Our 3bdrm home on 4 acres, with 6 outbuildings, 3 vehicles and two trailers cost us under $700/year in taxes.
My suggestion to people thinking of moving here is to find and older "fixer-upper" with a septic system and well already in. Those can be expensive to put in if you're building, but people don't seem to value them when selling older properties.
Politically, this is a very conservative area. Last local election there wasn't a democrat on the ballot anywhere for anything.
Lots of the locals are lifelong, generations long, Ozarkians. Nice folks, mostly religious of some sort, and a bit stand offish initially. We've become good friends with several. One piece of advice I give to people moving here is to not tell these folks how you did it where you came from, how they're doing it works for them.
The ground in the Ozarks is mainly thin & rocky, but with a bit of nutrient addition and time there's no reason not to have an abundant garden. The area is heavy with grazing stock, cattle/sheep/goats as opposed to corn in the northern areas of Missouri.
Hope this helps, if you want any further info just let me know.
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Post by snoozy on Jun 19, 2019 18:49:44 GMT
What work do you do?
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Post by Jolly on Jun 19, 2019 22:37:13 GMT
Some places, land is reasonable, but work may be scarce. A good bit of the Mississippi Delta is that way.
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Post by feather on Jun 19, 2019 23:01:50 GMT
Wisconsin---hmmmm. This is a frozen area from November to March (at least), our planting dates are around June 1 (maybe a little earlier) and the season goes until September, maybe a little later if you are lucky. Up here, we generally have one planting season (not like the south US).
Jobs are mostly near Milwaukee, Madison, Wausau, and Near Minneapolis MN. There are small pockets of industry in many of the small towns. Oconomowoc, Menomonee Falls and following the interstate between Milwaukee to Madison. Land in the ES part of the state, pretty expensive, high property taxes. There are a couple more WI folks from different parts of the state that can tell you what they know.
There's the canning industry through WI, and paper making in some areas, beer (I don't know if WI makes beer much anymore?), the food industry (which is everywhere), foundries and metal work in S. Milwaukee, New Berlin, and Oconomowoc. Farming is everywhere away from the big cities, for crops, and the dairy industry is falling off as time goes on. Septic and sewer, HVAC, handyman services, are spread far and wide. Marketing, lawyering, accounting, shipping/receiving, picking for mail order, those are where ever industry exists.
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 20, 2019 1:29:57 GMT
snoozy, Carpenter by trade, currently working as a construction Estimator. I have been a Fencer, Arborist, Gardener and Construction Supervisor as well as Security when i needed some fill in work. Basically I can turn my hand to most things.
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 20, 2019 1:44:21 GMT
We're in the Ozarks on purpose. I was raised in Minnesota, lived 29 years in Dallas TX, a while in the mountains of North Carolina, and had cabin for several years in SE Oklahoma while living in Dallas. I used to ride motorcycles up through this area, and became familiar with its geography and somewhat the people. In SW Missouri (Ozarks) we get all four seasons, just not too much of any to be burdensome. The rural counties have no building codes, with the exception of getting testing and a permit for septic systems. I'm told Stone County has a building inspector, but I've got a hunch some County Commissioner had a son-in-law that needed a job. Nobody has ever seen him. Property is inexpensive compared to most other area where they'd be considered "cropland", average unimproved land runs from $1500/acre for timbered & rough, to $2500 for grazeable. Property taxes are low, but we do have personal property taxes also. Our 3bdrm home on 4 acres, with 6 outbuildings, 3 vehicles and two trailers cost us under $700/year in taxes. My suggestion to people thinking of moving here is to find and older "fixer-upper" with a septic system and well already in. Those can be expensive to put in if you're building, but people don't seem to value them when selling older properties. Politically, this is a very conservative area. Last local election there wasn't a democrat on the ballot anywhere for anything. Lots of the locals are lifelong, generations long, Ozarkians. Nice folks, mostly religious of some sort, and a bit stand offish initially. We've become good friends with several. One piece of advice I give to people moving here is to not tell these folks how you did it where you came from, how they're doing it works for them. The ground in the Ozarks is mainly thin & rocky, but with a bit of nutrient addition and time there's no reason not to have an abundant garden. The area is heavy with grazing stock, cattle/sheep/goats as opposed to corn in the northern areas of Missouri. Hope this helps, if you want any further info just let me know. Ozarks Tom, Since you build in a different style over there a fixer upper would be what I look for, I can learn the style by doing repair rather doing trying to build in a style I'm not familiar with. General rule in life is not to teach people how to do what they are doing, it's just rude. Learn from everyone and do what works best for you. Property is a lot cheaper over there than here and i get get better bang for my buck so to speak, used to gardening on hard clays so yep adding nutrients is very familiar. I am very Conservative plus Christian that's part of what makes things worse here in Aus, very Liberable but anti-Christian at the same time over here.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Jun 20, 2019 16:45:33 GMT
aussiedarren, As you know, carpentry is one of the most portable trades there is, I've never known a hungry carpenter. Here's a link to the Craigslist site for this area, I just typed in "carpenter". springfield.craigslist.org/search/jjj?query=carpenter&sort=rel I built all my outbuildings the way I wanted, if they're to "code" I have no idea, all I know is they're built the way that makes sense to me. Heck people would hire you just to hear you talk! Fixer-uppers are easy to find here, they're usually sitting on small acreage. Our home was a repo from a bank, had been sitting empty for 1 1/2 years, pipes frozen & busted in a couple walls and the well house, garage door off its tracks, hand carved walnut mantle and dishwasher had been stolen. It's 1600sf, 3br, 2 bath, double attached garage. When we bought it we had a little over 6 acres, but sold 2 to a neighbor for river access. We're sitting on a 70' bluff over a river, with a view of a large valley. They were asking $89k, but jumped all over our offer of $74,500. It took me about two weeks part time to get it in habitable shape. After that, the painting, cleaning up the grounds, etc. was at our leisure. As you can tell, we're very high on the Ozarks.
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 20, 2019 22:52:00 GMT
Ozarks Tom, thanks for the link looks like work is busy out that way for sure. Prices are pretty affordable compared to here too. I was speaking to someone last night living in a rural area down here $340k on 5ac that was not a fixer true but really takes a chunk of change to buy down here and truly there really isn't much of a price break on doing the repairs here. Also wells are rare here and troublesome to get the rights for so dry land farming with out a well.
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Post by snoozy on Jun 21, 2019 14:42:22 GMT
You really should rent for awhile wherever you decide to go. You may need to try out a few areas to find the place you feel you can build a life in.
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 21, 2019 15:12:44 GMT
You really should rent for awhile wherever you decide to go. You may need to try out a few areas to find the place you feel you can build a life in. I probably will Snoozy, but will be locked into an area that suits sponsor, so won’t be a lot of choice.
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Post by Tim Horton on Jun 21, 2019 22:34:57 GMT
G'day Darren Depending on what part of OZ you are from, familiar with..... I would suggest visiting for a while in places with a similar climate and exploring from there.....
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 22, 2019 1:36:10 GMT
G'day Darren Depending on what part of OZ you are from, familiar with..... I would suggest visiting for a while in places with a similar climate and exploring from there..... So The desert 😂 No thanks mate had enough of dry land and never seen snow, somewhere with a more temperate climate for me. Don’t know about Alaska and Canada type of cold but cooler than 110 would be good
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Post by bowdonkey on Jun 22, 2019 11:02:08 GMT
Sounds like Mt Isa. I have a buddy over there. If I was a few years younger I would have moved there. Lots of high paying blue collar jobs. But best of all, spectacular hunting and fishing. And of course, Fosters!
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 22, 2019 16:02:19 GMT
Sounds like Mt Isa. I have a buddy over there. If I was a few years younger I would have moved there. Lots of high paying blue collar jobs. But best of all, spectacular hunting and fishing. And of course, Fosters! Only Americans and Poms drink Fosters. And unfortunately getting a gig in the mines is next to impossible. Hunting the tricky part is license unless you are a foreigner who has lots of the folding stuff. Queensland fishing is some of the best in the world though.
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Post by AD in WNC on Jun 22, 2019 16:39:15 GMT
aussiedarren, Just a few notes from North Carolina. First, I am in the mountains, at about 2700 ft above sea level. Ozarks Tom has land that is much cheaper than here - for some strange reason we are 10 times as expensive as the Ozarks - maybe we need to move there! We have red clay that has to be amended and four seasons. Our frost free days are April 15 to October 15 (~180 days) and if we are careful we can get two crops in per year. The area seems to be focusing on tourism and retirees, so jobs are low paying. The economy for building houses is not that good - land is too expensive and too steep, plus they are unaffordable to the typical worker. Just a word of caution: check the weather of the location that you are interested in. Here in the western part of NC, we don't get tornadoes or hurricanes and our elevation is too high to flood (we do get an occasional land slide...) We typically get 3.5 inches of rain per month and maybe 9 inches of snow per year. Most of the businesses are small and only IT guys get the sponsored visas here. I took a class with a fellow from South America who was thinking about starting his own business here and sponsoring himself, but I don't know if he got that done.
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Post by feather on Jun 22, 2019 16:53:11 GMT
I can't imagine why you, aussiedarren, wouldn't want to live in Wisconsin. The chances of tsunami, hurricane, and landslides, are negligible here. Tornadoes only wipe out towns occasionally, flooding only in weird weather years, and snow only if it is winter. (yes, all in jest)
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Post by shellymay on Jun 22, 2019 17:07:05 GMT
I am with Tom, Missouri or Kentucky, they are similar and construction is booming everywhere.........Tennessee is another state that is nice....
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Post by Tim Horton on Jun 22, 2019 17:18:41 GMT
G'day... Everyplace has its "issues" Whether it is weather, work, people just being piss ants...
You want work, "adventure", "winter", to the max think about the the north of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan. The oil fields, diamond and other mines, and all that support that are always looking for labor.
Don't cash in the return half of your round trip ticket first thing when you get there.. Many wish they hadn't.......
Good luck.. eh..
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Post by AD in WNC on Jun 22, 2019 20:27:37 GMT
Let me ask a loaded question: how easy is it to move from Australia to Canada? Aren't both of those countries part of the British Commonwealth? Might be a bunch easier to make the move to Canada first... Also, can't you still homestead in Canada? Land free just for living on it sounds like a good price to me.
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 23, 2019 1:12:41 GMT
Let me ask a loaded question: how easy is it to move from Australia to Canada? Aren't both of those countries part of the British Commonwealth? Might be a bunch easier to make the move to Canada first... Also, can't you still homestead in Canada? Land free just for living on it sounds like a good price to me. Never even looked at Canada, though I do have friends there. Swapping from a climate that is hot 3/4 of the year too one that is cold 3/4 of the year just doesn’t seem like then smartest move. Especially with the bones starting to feel the age a bit more. So that does narrow things down a touch. Of course last resorts are always an option, rather spend a bit of time making it happen to an easier climate first. Dollars wise free land while nice isn’t a must, funny thing is I can afford land is the US, but not in Australia. Land is much cheaper and more fertile there despite a much larger population than here in Aus to get 5ac here in the back of nowhere that is a fixer would cost over $300kAUD
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Post by AD in WNC on Jun 23, 2019 2:22:48 GMT
Let's add another thought: if you moved to Canada could you not get a camper and spend the winter months in the deep South (US) fixing houses for old ladies in Florida? What kind of Visa would that take? A tourist one perhaps? Wouldn't that be much easier to get than an employer sponsored one? I don't know the process, but there are lots of Canadian license plates in Florida in the winter, so it can't be that hard. Again, just a thought...
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Post by farmerjack on Jun 23, 2019 14:19:21 GMT
Friends from Canada here in the Northwestern part of the U.S., go south for the winter. They do everything legally, so are only allowed to be in down here 180 days a year. If they stayed over the 180 days, they would not be allowed to come back. If they were illegal, we would give them all kinds of freebies, and could stay for ever. These folks spend all kinds of money down here, not costing our government anything. Sounds like property in places of the SE are a lot cheaper than the west coast. Am sure the U.S. is likely many other countries, you can pick where you want to live, by weather, jobs, environment and other reasons. Have always lived in the NW and wouldn't live else where, like many folks living in other areas.
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Post by ceresone on Jun 23, 2019 23:22:59 GMT
Security? Missouri prison systems are begging for guards.
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 24, 2019 2:59:01 GMT
Security? Missouri prison systems are begging for guards. Might be hard to qualify as a foreigner, but worth looking in to. Been 10 years since security but have a current PI License.
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Post by LauraD on Jun 24, 2019 12:56:35 GMT
Security? Missouri prison systems are begging for guards. Might be hard to qualify as a foreigner, but worth looking in to. Been 10 years since security but have a current PI License.
It may not be as hard as you think. We allow non-citizens into our military, so why not as security guards?
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Post by aussiedarren on Jun 24, 2019 14:15:23 GMT
Certainly worth a look
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Post by Maura on Jun 24, 2019 23:01:22 GMT
Not all of Canada is the arctic. Check some weather maps. You might like British Columbia. The coast rarely drops below freezing.
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Post by comfortablynumb on Jun 25, 2019 0:23:07 GMT
Here in Penciltucky its nice... winters are mild, below freezing is about as low as it gets, unless a storm rolls over, be even then, it doesn't last long. Springs are wet and rainy, a few months of summer is hot and dry.
Land that isn't near a city is reasonable. In northern WV, a lot of rural properties come with free gas.
It's either a cold wasteland or a dense jungle... depending on what side of the yr it is.
Penciltucky is a happy medium, you'll get a nice winter most of the time but you wont freeze. You have a nice summer and won't sweat to death.
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