In January 2024, I closed on 10 Acres of raw land in the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas. Buying property has been a dream of mine for at least 15 years. However, living and working in a large city made the dream seem unobtainable. Trying to find affordable property close enough to commute to my corporate job was a fools erand. And, then 2020 happened and the world changed seemingly overnight.
Remember toilet paper shortages, wearing masks, and the fear of the unknown? Community leaders, doctors and government entities were on the so called news every day with new guidelines and recommendations for how we should be going about our day-to-day lives.
No one knew what information was accurate and what information was helpful. Regulators started recommended keeping a distance of a minimum six feet, then mandating masks in public spaces.
People were scared! Early on in March of 2020 my boss at the time approched me on a Friday afternoon and told me to make sure and take everything with me when I left for the day and not to come in on the following Monday. We would be working remotely until further notice.
I have been a remote employee ever since. Working remotely enabled the freedom to begin looking for land outside the larger metropolitain area I was living.
I began my search for an affordable tract of land. There were several key items on my checklist for the land I was looking for. I wanted a minimum of 10 acres of unrestricted raw land. The land also needed to be somewhat remote, off of any main roads or highways, but close enough to groceries, fuel and essentials to not have to drive for more than 15-20 minutes to get the things I need. And finally, Close enough to family that I could drive to visit in a few hours at most.
Even with the freedom to expand my search outside of the city, finding the perfect property was much harder than I expected and frustration set in. I love to camp. Back in 2017, I built a small micro camper on a four foot by ten foot trailer and spent two weeks traveling all around East Texas and the Texas Hill Country camping at different dispersed campsites every night and moving along the following day. This trip had opened my eyes to all new areas of Texas that I had not been to before. I really enjoyed the trip and begin thinking of all the other areas of the country that I have not seen. If I couldn't find the land I was looking for, I should just go on the road and explore the country.
After purchasing the bus, I needed a place to park it and work on the transformation from a bus to a home. My parents lived two hours away from where I was living and allowed me to bring my bus to their property. I would drive up on weekends to work on gutting the bus, removing all of the seats, and interior panels, three air conditioners, and insulation in preperation for the conversion. Progress was slow but there was progress. Then in October, five months after purchasing the bus, I saw an ad on Facebook for Ranches for sale near me. I first ignored the ad, because I had seen similar ads before and they always advertise land for sale and then when you look into it, the land is usually in some new gated community with restrictions as to what you can do and what you can build.
This ad was different. After seeing the same ad a few more times over the next few days, I finally clicked on the post and started reading through the comments. One comment asked about restrictions and the original poster replied that there were no restrictions. Most of the comments were people complaining about the location. One particular comment mentioned that the location was two hours from the city in which I lived and mentioned the exact town the propery was closest to. I was familiar with the area and it sparked my interest. I called the number listed on the ad on a Thursday. The gentleman I spoke to informed me that they were having a one-day land sale the following Saturdy. He asked if I would be available for a viewing and if I would like to make an appointment. I set up an appointment for 10 AM on Saturday. After completing the call I called my parents. Their property was about an hour from the meetup location for the appointment. So after work on Friday, I drove the hour and fourty-five minutes to my parents house and stayed the night. The next morning we drove over for my viewing appointment.
I arrived at the location for my appointment suprised, to find at least thirty other people had the same appointment window as I did. There were about thirty guides that were assigned to show each prospective buyer the available land tracts all at the same time. At some point everyone loaded up in vehicles with their assigned guides and with police escorts we traveled approximately seven miles to the property.
The property was a four thousand acre tract that had been split up and sold off in smaller tracts with the smallest tract being 5 acres and the largest tracts being about twenty acres plus or minus a little bit. The property in general had all new gravel roads through out and all new power poles and lines. Each property had been marked with corner posts and the property lines had been cleared with a forestry mulcher. The location of the property was nesteled between two National Forests and was just minutes from a large lake with public boat ramp access.
On the way to the property, my guide handed me a map showing the location and the asking price for each tract. She asked which tracts I would like to see. I picked a couple 10 acre tracts that were right next to each other towards the back of the property and she drove me to those. We stopped at the first one which was at the crest of a small rise in elevation and I began walking the property. I spent about fiftenn minutes exploring the property and said this is it. This is the one that I want. I didn't need to see anything else. I couldn't believe it, I had found exactly what I had been looking for.
My guide handed me a sold sticker to attach to the sign and radioed in that my tract had been sold. After about ten minutes a gentlemen pulled up on a side-by-side to verify that I intended to buy and then congratulated me on my new land. I was then taken to a giant white wedding, style tent with a bunch of tables and introduced to the woman that would be handling the sale. I signed some papers which stated that I intended to purchase as long as I could secure financing and put down a small portion of ernest money that would be applied to the down payment upon closing and refunded if I could not secure financing.
Because of the quantity of tracts that were sold that day, it took nearly three months before closing day. That three months seemed to be the longest three months of my life. I started making plans and getting things in order. I purchased a small utility trailer, and other items that I knew I would need for the property. I signed up for Starlink internet and ordered the equipment. I purchased a generator and a temporary garage shelter from Amazon.
Closing Day finally arrived in Janaury of 2024 and I drove 2 hours to the title office to close in person. I took a cashier's check for the remainder of the downpayment, signed all the neccessary paperwork and just like that, the land was mine. At least the mortage payment was mine...lol. Got a few years until the title is mine.
The following week, I hooked up the micro camper I built in 2017 and pulled it to the property. My tract had a small clearing towards the front of the property not visable from the road. There was also a trail big enough to use as a driveway. I believe it was formally used by hunters to get to another clearing in the back of my property. The week after that I loaded up the utility trailer I had bought with all the items I had purchased in preperation. Shovels, a rake, The temporary garage etc. and drove to the property. In the first week, I setup the temporary garage, parked my camper under it. I also installed fencing around the clearing to keep my Boxer contained and to keep the wild animals out.
I intended to stay for the week and then return to my home in the city until I was ready to move, but I never left. I setup the Starlink internet and worked from the property. I was running the Starlink, the lights in the camper and charging a couple of EcoFlow batteries off a small generatior. I cooked food on a grill and a small Coleman camp stove, brought in water for drinking-cleaning, and my facilities consisted of watering the trees, wink, wink, and a five gallon bucket.
For the first eight months, I lived in the micro camper under the temporary garage. While I slowly started adding infrastructure. I built and outdoor shower with a propane camp water heater.
I built a small metal garden shed that I had purchased as part of my preperations, to store tools and equipment. I installed solar powered lights to cut though the darkness at night without the need for electricity. I cleared a right-of-way by cutting down a few trees and removing underbrush for installation of an electric pole and meter. I fnally brought my gutted bus to the property and started building out an insullated room in that I could heat with a diesel heater and keep cool with a small winow unit air conditioner. The rest of the bus remained uninsulated and stays cold in the winter and hot in the summer.
After the first eight months In the micro camper, I moved into the bus. I built a water storage tower out of some pressure treated lumber and food grade 55 gallon drums.
I connected an on demand water pump to a sink in the bus. Ran 100ft of extension cord to the bus from the new electric meter for lightining and small amount of electricity. Its enough to run the small 5000btu air conditioner, a small 12v refrigerator, a small TV, and keep my laptop, Phone and Apple Watch charged. I can't run much more than that on such long extension cords.
I recently purchased a small used 1-ton mini Chinese excavator from one of the neighboring property owners. I have started using it to clear underbrush and opening up some more space. I also just planted my first fruit trees, two plum trees and a peach tree, so hopefully in a few years I will have all the peaches and plums I can eat.
Over the last two plus years, I have made steady but slow progress on developing this raw land into my dream homestead. I am currently living in the bus and soon will be trenching for electrical lines to two 50amp RV style hookups. One for the bus and an additonal one at the edge of the driveway for guest to use with campers etc.
Once the electric is sorted, I will be focusing on clearing underbrush across the front couple of acres while leaving most of the trees. In the near future, I would like to start building a small cabin which once complete, I would like to start renting as a short term vacation rental. I'm hopeful that the income generated from the rental will help to build additional cabins accross the front of the property and eventually, my permanent home in the back of the property.
My long-term goal is to build this property into a self-sufficant homestead and to earn enough income from rentals to retire in the next ten years. I've got a long way to go, but I'll get there. I believe that anything is possible as long as you work hard enough for it. Which is the idea behind the name Basecamp Unbounded and my tagline "Life Without Boudaries".
If you'd like to follow my journey as I build out this property into my dream homestead and all my other projects and adventures, visit back here often and for videos of my builds and projects, check out my YouTube channel YouTube/BasecampUnbounded and consider subscribing.
