Buying land for my off-grid AirBnb
Read the entire Sweet Pine setup story here: https://medium.com/sweet-pine
Part 2. So far I have purchased a vintage 1972 Airstream Land Yacht I plant to rent out as an AirBnb. Now it’s time to shop for some land to put it on!
There’s a whole slew of considerations when purchasing land. Each town has their own zoning laws and ordinances, some have rules about short term rentals, campers, land use, shore land, etc.
I made a list of all the towns within an hour of Acadia National park, then read roughly 5,000 pages of zoning ordinances to make sure they would allow an Airstream rental.
What else I considered while looking at lots:
- Enough acreage for privacy. I didn’t want anything that was right on top of neighbors both for their privacy, and mine.
- Some sort of interesting feature or location. Maybe a view, a stream, or something that made the lot a bit special.
- Not too wet. Some wet is okay. But not too much.
Actually visiting the lots was fun and sadly the quickest part of the whole process. After a site visit to check the vibes, my realtor would send me the deeds to read.
Maine is maybe unique in this regard, (I don’t know, I’ve never purchased land anywhere else) a lot of land has been subdivided from old family properties and have all sorts of weird restrictions in the deeds.
Some notable and funny things I came across:
- No chickens, but horses are okay
- No houses can be built within view of any other house (love this one)
- No home businesses except for massage therapy (??)
- No firing guns on the property
I ended up finding a 5 acre lot with no restrictions, close to a public beach and in a desirable location for both tourists and local residents (ie. Good investment). It’s not right on the ocean, but it’s across the street and depending on what we eventually build, there could be ocean views.
I called a guy named Bill at the town ordinance office to make absolutely sure I could do what I wanted. He said it was fine. Thanks Bill!
Buying unimproved land with a mortgage is the same process as buying a house, with a few additional restrictions. The bank sets the interest rate and you can’t negotiate or pay for points to lower it. And the down payment is generally higher with a shorter repayment term.
In my case I had to put down 35% and the loan is 10 years. I will absolutely pay this loan off sooner than that. I could have bought the land without a mortgage, but it has nothing on it currently, so I needed my cash to build some infrastructure.
From start to finish it took about 6 weeks to find the land and close.
Now I legally own a bunch of trees.
Next I have a fun logistical thing to plan (building a driveway and gravel pad) and a not fun logistical thing (setting up a business entity). Follow along for some boring tax content, but also excavators!
Read the entire Sweet Pine setup story here: https://medium.com/sweet-pine
