If anyone's interested, this is the most recent plan I have for the first floor of the house I'd like to build.

Sporkflips - I'm sorry I have no suggestions for you and my guess is your dream is so out of the norm here that you probably won't get a lot of feed back. But I wanted to say if that's your dream, pursue it and keep searching for sites that are more attuned to what is still a very alternative lifestyle. My own son and his girlfriend would be right there with you as they too, are attempting to create something very out of the norm. There is what seems to me a growing segment of the millennial generation who will opt for lifestyles very reminiscent of the idealistic communes of the 60's - but with better stewardship of the land because let's face it, some of us hippies were just in it for the party ;-) I love your attitude about not being afraid to fail because that's where the best possibilities come from. I wish you success in your pursuit and hope you'll do follow up posts on your progress/process.

Deb

What's wrong with searching on the MLS? (Flashes of Portlandia here, and overly complicating something essentially very simple.)

What is your budget? You can start by searching craigslist as well as realtor.com, trulia.com and such sites for land in the size you want and the price range you want. Once you find areas with prices that work for you, go visit and get a feel for the place. That way you can drive around and look for sale by owner as well as talk to realtors in the area.

You might try the search in the opposite direction which is to visit areas and find ones you like, then start looking for land there. You may end up preferring less land in a more desireable area than more land in a more remote area.

Are you familiar with Earthships? That is what your plan looks like to me. You may find more specific info if you google that.

Here is a link if it still works to greenhomes in my state. I actually visited the first one. https://www.greenhomesforsale.com/category/green-homes-in-new-mexico/

And here is a link to Earthships http://taosearthships.com/

Best wishes in living your dream!
lafdr

Thanks all for the responses!
Thank you Deb! I will keep searching for sites with communities of people with similar goals, I would like to purchase land with other people if that becomes a possibility. I would like to share things as they progress, I'm not really sure of any sort of time line though but maybe you will see another post of mine in the future haha.

MLS had never come up before while I was searching for land! I will look on there now.

My budget is.. essentially however much money I manage to save up before I do this. I wish I could go visit the places I'd like to live but I have no means of transport other than my bike and I live in the midwest currently.
What I am interested in is purchasing an acre or two of land, or as many acres as I can get. for around 1000 dollars. if that is possible. I have heard of people finding opportunities like this but I realize this may be not be possible..
I am familiar with earthships! That's a lot of what inspired this design, with the rammed earth tires as thermal mass and the green house room along the side. Thanks for the links though, I will check them out

Look on land watch.com. A simple search pulled up several 1+ acre properties under 5K. You would obviously need to search them for their proximity to towns. A 15 minute bike ride from a good sized town doesn't seem like it would have extremely low valued properties. Generally the more accessible a property is, the more expensive it is. But land watch is where I have found most raw land over a 2 year search period.

Sporkflips I'm from the midwest also, suburban Chicago, although we moved to NC 3 weeks ago. If you are anywhere near Fairfield, IA, you'll find a lot of like-minded people attending Maharishi Univ, learning all aspects of sustainable living. My niece is currently attending school there after a couple of false starts at other more traditional schools and a few years of 'knocking around'. She loves it and seems to have found her peeps ;-)

Have you considered couch surfing your way to places you'd like to investigate? It's also a great way to network if you work it right - tell everyone you meet what your plans/dreams are, you just might stumble onto someone who knows someone..... Last spring I picked up a young Belgian man in a local coffee shop. He looked totally out of place, slightly scruffy, hiking gear, big pack (reminded me of one of my sons!) and was making his way (by bike and train) to Vancouver so I brought him home, gave him a bed for the night, hot meals, a hot shower and set him up with future couch surfing contacts in WI and CO. You never know who you'll meet or what they can offer. My oldest son couch surfed his way from Chicago to Mt. Rainier and ended up living in Salt Lake for a while when he hit it off with one of his hosts. His secret weapon is he always made *good* home made pizza for his hosts and they would fall all over themselves to help him out. Figure out what you have to offer and use it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Couchsurfing

I live in Oregon. I don't want to come across as trying to discourage you - your dream is great and doable, But I think your budget is unrealistic for land that will suit it.

Approximately 60% of Oregon qualifies as desert by virtue of receiving less than 7 " of rain per year. At least some of the raw land with suitable rainfall won't work for you because it is on a steep slope, or in a hole, making it basically a seasonal wetland, or is not "buildable" under Oregon's land use laws which aim to preserve farm and forest land as farm and forest resources rather than sprawling exurbs. Farmable, buildable, bare land near a town will not be inexpensive. Pick a town you think you'd like to live near and then try trulia or zillow to get an idea of property values in that area.

I think climate & terrain diversity in the west may be more than what one finds in the midwest. The map in the link below gives some idea of the difference. The inexpensive land I saw on the landwatch.com website looked pretty dry.

There are many like-minded people, both young and old in Oregon. IMHO you would be better-served moving here and renting or sharing housing with others for awhile before you start looking for land. Or try dlm200's idea of couch surfing. Meet some people, explore some different towns and different parts of the state, get a feel for the wet winter/dry summer climate, etc.

There is a group near Cottage Grove that builds cob houses and sometimes offers work trade apprenticeships (cobcottage.com). You might check them out and maybe google "sustainable living Oregon" for others?

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: US Precipitation map

I'm curious.. if you're in the midwest, why are you picking Southern Oregon without really knowing the area? Which part of "Southern Oregon" do you mean? So. OR / the Rogue Valley part is rather expensive these days, so it might be hard to find what you're looking for price-wise that would allow you to build alternatively.... With that said, there are communal groups there and people with similar goals (Portlandia is based on some reality, after all.) I would try to connect with some of those groups rather than starting fresh? I also agree with the advice regarding the climate in Oregon.... Medford gets something like 18" of rain a year. Would that be enough to self-sustain?

I have looked on landwatch and found some properties that look interesting. I was thinking much farther from a town than a 15 minute bike ride, not sure where the 15 minutes came from. I would be willing to ride for over an hour each way.

Before I continue I'd like to say that my post is essentially theoretical as I haven't even decided if I'm going to stick around in this reality yet. This is why I'm thinking of places that I haven't been to. As far as Southern Oregon is concerned, I was looking for somewhere that is warmer than where I am (NE ohio), and near mountains. What I mean is, those were the biggest things I was looking for. I figure that if I were going to actually attempt to purchase land I would certainly have to go there and figure out if a specific plot of land would work for what I'm trying to do.

I was looking at some areas around klamath falls, but they seem to be outside of my budget. Really, I would like to go to spain but from my research it seems that is farrr outside of my budget.

I was mostly just trying to find more information by posting here. For example! it is good to know more about the climate, I was aware of the extremely variable rainfall throughout the state but I didn't know that most of it received so little. I had just read that certain parts receive a lot of rain while other parts receive very little. But it sounds like the areas you're (gone2far) describing would not work for what I'd be trying to do. Another area I've been thinking about is some part of florida. I guess another big consideration that contributed to my thinking about Oregon is the social environment. that is not to say that I expect to find only a certain kind of person in a certain area, just that there seem to be more people in oregon thinking along the lines I am than in florida BUT there is of course a very important exception that I know of (since I'm sure there are lots of exceptions I don't know of) which is.. The Venus Project in Venus Florida. while I'm talking about that, I would highly suggest for everyone to look up the venus project or watch Paradise or Oblivion.

Anyways.. I guess I was in a different mood when I originally posted here. I currently am not sure what else to say because I don't really have a desire anymore to work for my life.

I guess it is also pretty discouraging that the things that seem most advantageous with what I want to do are social things... I am such an extreme coward. I don't answer the door or the phone because nothing that anyone could have to say to me would be worth experiencing that anxiety. But most people think this is some kind of joke that I purposely am playing on myself. What they do not realize is that even doing something on purpose is not on purpose... but free will is so controversial.. and also misunderstood since many people think it means the same thing as "choice".

oh well.. anyways thanks for the information, I will probably get another spurt of enthusiasm in the future and come back to look more into what you've shared with me before inevitably losing hope again..