Finding land...you never know where the lead will come from

Soon after realizing we would not find land meeting our needs in Northern California, I learned about cohousing groups. The basic idea is that a group of people form some type of partnership or corporation for the purpose of purchasing and holding land or existing housing. The group usually has a common desire to become a community with a shared organic garden and periodic shared meals. Cohousing is usually designed a bit denser than typical single family homes resulting in either lower cost or increased quality. Cindy and I liked the concept, so I got on the email list for the Santa Cruz Cohousing group. Cindy and I attended a meeting in 2003 and read up on the forum history for the group.

Cohousing ultimately did not work out for us. However, I kept my subscription to the email list and still do to this day. I learn about great speakers that are visiting the area as well as terrific home and garden tours. The most rewarding result of staying on that mailing list was learning about a parcel of land that was for sale to a group of like minded green building folks.

I'll tell the whole story about the Santa Cruz land in another post. The purpose of this post is to inspire you to try anything when looking for land on which to build your dream green home. You never know where your lead will come from. The idea is to let as many people as possible know about your land search. The bigger your network, the more likely a golden lead will find its way to you. Some things that should be part of your land search:

• Of course, you should have a good Realtor looking for you.
  
• Tell everyone you know that you are looking for land.
• Tell people you don't know that you are looking for land - use it as a conversation ice breaker.
  
• Sign up for a cohousing email list or newsgroup - this is what worked for me.
  
• If you see land you like, find out who owns it and make contact. You never know if they may want to sell to you.
  

I'd love to hear about how you found your land or interesting ways you are searching. Go ahead, leave a comment!