Rent undeveloped land?

July 14, 2008 6:01 PM

I plan on spending the next few years living in different places for several months to a year at a time. One thought I've had is to get a small trailer RV or something like this, and rent land to park it on for however long I'm sticking around. Is this possible?

I've googled a bit, but I'm not coming up with much. Any suggestions for how I would find people with land that would be into renting it?

Just to clarify, I'm not looking for very short-term rentals, and I'm not looking for RV parks/campsites. The idea would be to be able to stay on nice, undeveloped land for reasonably cheap.

Thoughts?

posted by SampleSize to home & garden (16 comments total)

If you're going all out, I've been admiring this myself lately.
posted by rokusan at 6:25 PM on July 14, 2008

In RVing, you can boondock in lands owned by the US Bureau of Land Management. That's not RV parks, it's undeveloped, and it's free.
posted by Houstonian at 6:35 PM on July 14, 2008

Hate to say this rokusan, that space is cool but I find it hard to believe it's inside of that particular garbage truck. A) seems more spacious than that truck seems like it would be. B) where are the windows? There are windows visible on 3 sides when you're inside but none on the back or sides of the truck.
posted by miss lynnster at 6:36 PM on July 14, 2008

That's not a garbage truck, that's a 300,000 euro Unicat: http://www.unicat.net/en/intro.html

It appears more spacious in the photos because the top part pops up when it's parked.
posted by thewalrus at 6:41 PM on July 14, 2008

You could buy an towable RV trailer (sometimes called a fifth wheel trailer) for cheaper than one of those turtle houses (if low cost is your objective.

rokusan, that is an awesome link. miss lynster, the top raises to give you more headroom and reveal the windows.
posted by Frank Grimes at 6:43 PM on July 14, 2008

Related to the OP's question, it's what's known as "dry" RVing... where you don't have any facilities to hook up to. Consider the following:

Electricity (solar panels?). Can you calculate the total kilowatt-hour draw of everything you'll be running in your RV? This will help determine cost of panels + inverter + batteries. Space and room for batteries?
Cooking: Most likely propane tanks.
Water supply for showers, doesn't need to be potable. How many showers will it last for?
Water supply for drinking.
Sewage capacity. Where and how often will it need to be emptied? A very nasty, disagreeable process.

Fuel mileage and cost of fuel, any RV that I'd consider big enough to live in long-term probably gets about the same mileage as a Hummer. Some may be diesel, oddly enough diesel is more expensive in the USA right now than petrol.
posted by thewalrus at 6:46 PM on July 14, 2008

Oh, I forgot to mention. If you're going to be anywhere with cold weather you'll probably use a propane heater as well, which can run off the same supply as the stove. I have no idea what a tank of propane costs in the USA right now but the total expected consumption is something you might want to work into a year's cost-of-living budget...

As for finding land, it depends a lot on where you are. The BLM as previously mentioned owns huge chunks of the western US. If you are somewhere in Washington or Oregon states you can usually find some locations far outside any major city where it's cool to park an RV and live on empty land. The process (at least in western WA, or in the deep mountains of BC) may go something like this:

Drive east until you hit the Cascade mountains (or Rockies, whatever)
Find a town formerly dominated by the logging industry and locate the closest thing it has to an organic grocery store/farmers coop.
Ask around about renting land to park on. Negotiate deal.
Proceed further up a road into the densely forested mountains. You will know you're on the right sort of road if it has a dead-end or eventually turns into an impassably gravel logging road with no outlet. The poverty of the region is directly proportional to the percentage of older "manufactured homes" in the area.
Your neighbors will be a mixture of libertarian/gun nut types and old hippies.

That's specific to Whatcom and Skagit counties, YMMV.
posted by thewalrus at 6:54 PM on July 14, 2008

I am sure I first heard about these on metafilter -- but I don't know where. Kind of a cool option.
posted by nnk at 6:54 PM on July 14, 2008

Consider a Tumbleweed House
posted by cior at 6:57 PM on July 14, 2008

One thing to keep in mind is that places like RV/trailer parks exist not only to provide the services that people need (electricity, gas, water hook-ups) but also because towns and counties regulate where mobile homes can be located for extended periods of time. You probably wouldn't have any trouble parking your RV somewhere for a few days or a week, but much longer and you could get the attention of code enforcement authorities. You won't go to jail or anything, may just have to pay a fine and move your RV.

This is not only an issue in cities or suburbs, even rural areas often have restrictions on temporary residential structures. I don't know where you're planning to travel and I really know about the US, so things might be (and probably are) different if you end up anywhere else.

That being said, however and wherever you find places to park for a while, call the local agency that's responsible for land use regulation to check that it's kosher. In the U.S. most cities and sizable suburbs and exurbs will have their own Planning Department, and rural areas will own do the same sort of thing on a county level.

YMMV in libertarian states like Wyoming, Montana, New Hampshire, etc.

Of course, this is all moot if you just don't care and are willing to up and leave if you get slapped with a fine.
posted by jk252b at 8:38 PM on July 14, 2008

Find a town formerly dominated by the logging industry and locate the closest thing it has to an organic grocery store/farmers coop.
Ask around about renting land to park on. Negotiate deal.
Proceed further up a road into the densely forested mountains. You will know you're on the right sort of road if it has a dead-end or eventually turns into an impassably gravel logging road with no outlet. The poverty of the region is directly proportional to the percentage of older "manufactured homes" in the area.
Your neighbors will be a mixture of libertarian/gun nut types and old hippies.

This process sounds pretty universal to me, whether or not the town has a functioning economy or not. Showing up, not looking like a weirdo, talking to people, and looking at bulletin boards is going to be how you do this in the west. But then, out west distances are really large -- are you really sure you want to be half an hour from a small town with one crappy grocery store and no cafe?

Speaking for the west (don't know about the east or midwest), what you describe is mostly done by very poor people and marginal-by-choice people -- not warm fuzzy hosters of MeetUp parties. So even though that may not describe you at all, that is the social category of people that normally show up looking for remote land to rent, and you may be judged accordingly.

The Tortoise and Tumbleweed don't look so great for extended towing -- that Lusby house has a claimed dry weight of 5400 pounds, which will require a heavy-duty truck for towing plus adding trailer brakes and so on, and doesn't even account for your clothes, your food, or anything else. They are "mobile" in the sense that you can move them across town or from one hippy commune to another, but they aren't what you would consider exactly ideal for dragging around the country for a year. (Not to mention that the costs are pretty high for what you get, too. Over $400/sq foot for a fancy shed?!?!)

It's a fun fantasy, though, that shows up on AskMe pretty often. Think through the logistics with some care (eg water, food, power, maintenance, safety, email, paying your bills, etc) and give it a try in your area for a weekend with a borrowed or rented RV to see how you like it before committing to a $47,000 towable housette.
posted by Forktine at 8:38 PM on July 14, 2008

however and wherever you find places to park for a while, call the local agency that's responsible for land use regulation to check that it's kosher. In the U.S. most cities and sizable suburbs and exurbs will have their own Planning Department, and rural areas will own do the same sort of thing on a county level.

As someone who lives in the west, I would categorically say that this is the last thing you would want to do. There is very little ability to or interest in oversight of this sort in the rural west -- local government in most places has neither the staff nor the political will to micromanage land use in the way that is normal in the east or in Europe (with striking exceptions in parts of California and in areas with a lot of moneyed residents).

Attracting attention to yourself is the reverse of what you want to do -- you want to fly under the radar screen, and deal with problems only as they arise, rather than seeking them out. You're mobile -- if the county tells you to move, you can shrug and move. Asking permission is unlikely to provide good results, and won't exactly endear you to your neighbors or landlord if you get county planning or law enforcement people sniffing around looking for violations.
posted by Forktine at 8:43 PM on July 14, 2008

Forktine might be correct about the West, but the OP never said anything specifically about the West.

I suggest you follow my advice if you go most places in the West Coast, Midwest, South East, East Coast or New England. The Supreme Court has given municipalities broad powers to regulate these things, and most do it quite extensively.

I also wonder how getting your landlord slapped with a fine while you jet town will endear you to anyone more than preventing it in the first places. A valid point that Forktine alludes to is that, ultimately it's the property *owner* (not renter) who is responsible for complying with building and land use codes.
posted by jk252b at 8:56 PM on July 14, 2008

I can only speak from my experience. I have lived in an RV for going on 2 years. There are a plethora of RV parks where you can stay as long as you want with no worries, power, water, laundry facilities, etc. As far as staying on nice, undeveloped land for reasonably cheap, we are currently living on the farm of my SO's brother in law. I don't know how else we would have found a place like this. But, it is good living. It is rare to find good water supplies and power on undeveloped land.
posted by wv kay in ga at 10:09 PM on July 14, 2008

I wasn't suggesting SampleSize buy one of those amazing Unicats -- that was a custom job anyway -- but it's a heck of an inspiration on use-of-space interior, no?
posted by rokusan at 9:27 AM on July 15, 2008

Far enough south in the US, in the ¨snowbird¨ areas, this sort of thing is common enough that people might advertise that they are renting land for RV parking. In other areas you will just have to ask around once you arrive. It will be easier to find a place if you are self-contained and have a plan for using an RV dump, don´t leave a mess on the property.

As far as contacting municipalities, know the local laws, then discuss the situation with your prospective landlord. Don´t go poking the authorities with a stick without their go-ahead, and if you and your prospective landlord disagree on this situation either come to an agreement or keep looking.

Yes, no water and power on undeveloped land. If land has a well or an electrical drop put in, it´s by definition no longer undeveloped.

Boondocking is also possible on US Forest Service land. I wouldn´t put many miles on one of those tortise shell homes on rough dirt roads though.
posted by yohko at 10:16 AM on July 15, 2008