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Validus
Member
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# Posted: 10 Feb 2020 10:47pm
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I'm planning on building my own off-grid cabin but one of the challenges I'm running into is deciding which area to move to. There are some real estate websites with property listings but they don't let you search by these factors:
- Remoteness i.e. how densely or sparsely populated the area is.
- Building code requirements.
- Property tax rate.
- Distance to hospitals, post office, grocery stores, etc.
- If there are nearby police/fire/EMS services.
- Cell towers.
- Flooding, crime, and other risks.
I have a general idea of where I want to build my cabin (either Vermont or Maine) but when you're talking about an area that's thousands of square miles with hundreds of different towns, it gets a bit daunting. My plan is to live there for the rest of my life so I don't want to get stuck making the wrong decision.
Since I'm a web developer, I was thinking about making a web application to solve this problem but honestly it's not worth the effort if I'm the only one who's going to use it. If this is something you would use, add your email to this Google Form. If enough people sign up, I'll build it.
In the meantime, I'm curious what other search criteria or considerations you would have for finding and selecting a cabin property.
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frankpaige
Member
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# Posted: 10 Feb 2020 11:43pm
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If you build it they will come
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Validus
Member
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# Posted: 11 Feb 2020 12:24am
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I wish that were the case but as an entrepreneur I've done this many times and it's led me to the brink of personal and financial ruin. There's nothing more demoralizing than to work on a project for multiple years and invest thousands of hours only to have nobody care.
The only way I can be confident that I'm investing my time wisely is to have people send me positive signals. If you go out of your way to add your email to the form, it helps show your level of interest.
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 11 Feb 2020 07:42am
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Your catering to a very small market of people. Then you have to look at how many people will actually find and use the website.
There's almost no regional website that's primary goal is to sell remote property, that's prob for a reason. Also I have found that the remote pieces of land that actually hit these major websites is highly over priced.
I found our land on Craigslist, then googled it's location, closest home improvement stores, hospital, called the local building inspector and town. There was very few property's that meet our wants so this only took 2 phone calls and a few Google searches.
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frankpaige
Member
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# Posted: 11 Feb 2020 10:33am
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""If you go out of your way to add your email to the form, it helps show your level of interest.""
That is my red flag. Wish you well
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Validus
Member
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# Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:05pm
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Frank, so by saying "that is my red flag", you're implying I'm dishonest or some kind of scammer or something. What do you really think I would do with a few dozen email addresses? Why would I waste my time writing this post if I were only out to harvest email addresses? It doesn't make any sense.
The only reason I'm asking is because I'm trying to build an email list to launch the product to. If you build a product in secret and launch to zero people, it's not going to work out well.
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CabinBuild
Member
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# Posted: 11 Feb 2020 01:59pm
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Validus, I imagine dealing with MLS to get the listing information is going to be a pain and more difficult than you think. That said, if you end up creating it I'd be interested to check it out. Makes sense to collect emails for it as well so people can be updated if you decide to create it.
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Validus
Member
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# Posted: 11 Feb 2020 02:04pm
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CabinBuild, I have experience building real estate apps so I know what you mean. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. 
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