The Everything Guide to Living Off the Grid (8 page)

San Francisco is a city with microclimates and submicroclimates. Due to the city’s varied topography and influence from the prevailing summer marine layer or winds that come off the ocean, weather conditions can vary by as much as 9°F (5°C) from block to block.

• Artesian aquifer:
  An artesian aquifer is an aquifer, or underground river, that is confined between layers of rock. Because it is confined, the water is under pressure, which causes the groundwater to flow upward through a well without the need for pumping. If the pressure is high enough, the water may even reach the ground surface, and then it’s called a flowing artesian well.
  
• Natural boundaries:
  Mountains, rivers, forests, and lakes can be wonderful “fences” to secure the edges of your property. Not only do natural boundaries protect your real estate investment and ensure you will not have encroaching neighbors, they also provide a natural secure periphery to your property.
  

Geographical Warning Signs

As you decide on your property location, the general feel of the land and condition of the house and outbuildings are not the only things about which you should be concerned. You should look at any geographical threats in your area.

• Active earthquake faults:
  You can find out about earthquakes and faults all over the world by accessing the U.S. Geological Survey website at
  earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/
  .
  
• Floodplains:
  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the agency in the United States that maps and delineates floodplains. Just because your piece of property hasn’t experienced a flood in the past doesn’t mean it won’t in the future. Although you might have heard about 100-year floods, flood risk isn’t just based on history anymore. Unfortunately, many of our wetlands have disappeared due to urban spread. Because those places the water used to naturally flow into are gone, the water is forced to seek other outlets further upstream. You can go to the FEMA website to order floodplain maps (
  www.fema.gov
  ).
  
• Landslides, mudslides, avalanches, and alluvial fans:
  Hillsides, hilltops, and basins are very popular places for building homes; unfortunately there are some geographical hazards to watch for in these areas. Landslides are caused by several factors: water saturation, slope degeneration due to construction or erosion, soil deterioration due to freezing, thawing or the loss of cover vegetation, trembling from earthquakes and aftershocks, and volcanic eruptions. Mudslides are fast-moving landslides generally associated with steeper terrain. Mudslides start out as shallow landslides, but gain momentum and debris as they race downhill. Unfortunately, it is common for mudslides to pick up rocks, boulders, trees, and even cars.
  

Avalanches develop or build up on slopes between 25 and 55 degrees and start on slopes that have reached between 35 and 45 degrees. Avalanches generally occur after a significant snowfall covers a steeply inclined mountain that already has a considerable snowpack. If the new layer of snow does not bond to the original layer, there is a danger of an avalanche. Not every new snowfall triggers an avalanche; other factors include temperature, angle of the mountain, wind direction and speed, and type of snow.

Landslides can vary in size. They can be as small as the movement of a single boulder in a minor rockfall or as big as thousands of tons of earth and debris that fall to the bottom of a slope or a cliff. Every year, landslides in the United States cause approximately $3.5 billion in damage, and kill between twenty-five and fifty people.

One of the best ways to determine whether your property has the potential for any of these geographical hazards is to look for an alluvial fan. From the sky, alluvial fans look like a river of sediment—sand, silt, gravel, and often larger objects—running down the side of a mountain that end up fanning out at the base of a mountain or hill. Sometimes these fans are so large, it’s hard to see them from the ground, and so you should use something like Google Earth to view your prospective piece of property. Alluvial fans are geographical markers indicating that a landslide, mudslide, or avalanche has occurred in that area, and, if the conditions are repeated, can occur again.

Paying for Your Property

Now that you’ve located your property of choice, how do you plan on buying it? If you are looking at a piece of land and are planning to build, you need to understand that in today’s financial climate, getting a loan for a piece of land is often much harder than getting a loan for a home. For land purchases you have three options:

Cash

The best way to purchase land is to have cash. Not only are cash purchases clear-cut and uncomplicated, you also have more bargaining power when you can pay in cash. If you pay with cash, you will not have a loan payment or additional interest added to the cost of the property.

Seller Financing

Quite often, when a seller is offering a piece of land, unlike a home, he has some financial options in the sale. Often sellers are willing to finance your purchase. This transaction works well for both of you; the seller will be able to earn a higher rate of interest than he would at most banks and you will be able to make payments to the seller rather than to a bank. Although seller financing might seem like a nice, friendly transaction, both you and the seller should be sure that expectations and terms are very clear and in writing. You need to have a lawyer help you with the purchase documents to ensure, for example, that you hold title to the land, but the owner holds a lien on your property. You need to have in writing who is responsible for any property taxes and what happens to the property should you default, or if either seller or buyer should die. Seller financing can offer you some interesting and beneficial options, but be sure to protect yourself and your investment.

Bank Financing

If you are going to approach a bank about financing land, you will need to have detailed information about your plans for the land. You will need to have information about zoning, soil samples, easements, and your building plans. A local bank is going to be your best chance at financing land. Local banks invest in their communities and can be more open to the needs of their customers. However, if you plan to finance your land, you will need a fairly substantial down payment. Many banks will require anywhere from 20 to 50 percent down. You will also be subject to higher interest rates than you would with a mortgage because land financing is riskier. Once you build your home, you can approach the bank about refinancing the loan as part of a traditional mortgage.

Traditional Mortgages

If you find that you will not be able to pay cash or come up with a large down payment, your credit isn’t strong enough for conventional financing, and your seller is not interested in holding a note, another option is to buy a piece of property that has an existing home on it. That way, it will be easier to get financing. If you are in a rural area, you might be eligible for certain United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans. Even if the home is not exactly what you want, you can either renovate the existing home or build another on the same property. Before you start looking for property, you should visit with a trusted banker and see what kind of loan and the amount of loan the bank would be willing to make to you. Having this information in hand gives you better bargaining power because you are prequalified. Sellers are more apt to go with a lower bid on property if they are assured the buyer will be able to get financing.

Temporary Housing

Once you buy your property, you might need some temporary housing until you’ve finished building your new home. Whether you’ve hired a contractor to build your home for you, or you’ve decided to build it yourself, you should always assume the worst when it comes to a building schedule. It’s better to count on not getting into your house until the spring than to be living in insufficient temporary housing midwinter.

The first step in finding temporary housing is to determine your budget and your needs. If you are building in a temperate climate you might be able to get along with a less substantial shelter. However, if you are facing a cold winter or damp spring, you will want to be sure your temporary housing is well insulated and suited for your conditions.

Recycled Options

Recycling can not only save you money, but it also diminishes your carbon footprint by reusing and repurposing items already created. Consider using 20-foot or 40-foot shipping containers for housing. Solid and often insulated, these large metal boxes can provide you with many options for
housing. There are a variety of websites with images and ideas for shippingcontainer homes. One that has garnered a lot of attention is the site run by Keith Dewey, owner and designer of Zigloo.ca, at
http://zigloo.ca/zigloo_domestique_hd
. A website called
Greenupgrader.com
gives directions for creating a home from pallets (
http://greenupgrader.com/2387/recycledpallet-house-disaster-relief-housing
) for temporary housing. There are also prefabricated temporary shelters made from recycled materials that can be purchased for under $10,000.

Shipping containers can be readily modified to accommodate a range of creature comforts and can be connected and stacked to create modular, efficient spaces for a fraction of the cost, labor, and resources of more conventional materials.

Mobile Homes and Trailers

Mobile homes and trailers are another option for temporary housing while your home is being built. You can purchase a used mobile home or trailer and move it to your property and have all the comforts of home. There are websites that advertise used mobile homes across the country, like
MHBay.com
at
www.mhbay.com
. There are also companies that rent mobile homes and trailers, like Pope Housing (
www.popehousing.com
). that specialize in temporary housing for people whose houses have been destroyed by fire or natural disaster or who are building a new home and want to live on their property.

Tents and Yurts

Depending on your location, you might be able to temporarily live in a large tent, like an army surplus tent. Tents are often used for temporary housing after a disaster. Many new tents offer cut-outs that allow you to place a small stove and stack within the tent. Some off-gridders in Hawaii have successfully lived in tents for years.

A yurt is a round structure, somewhat like a tent, that is generally made of a feltlike material laid over a frame lattice of wood or bamboo. Yurts were
traditionally used by nomadic tribes in Central Asia and can be used in all climates. Yurts vary in cost, depending on the manufacturer and your specific needs, but a 30-foot-diameter yurt can cost less than $10,000. To learn more about yurts, go to
Yurtinfo.org
at
www.yurtinfo.org
.