Weekly Survival Real Estate Market Update

Doubling Up Before the “Crunch”
This is a unique time in survival real estate. Never before have we seen so many people actually wanting to purchase a family retreat for the coming hard times, but as last week’s update alluded to, most people are struggling to complete their purchase due to the lack of capital, usually because a current real estate asset has yet to sell.

These times call for more purposeful thought and planning in order to come up with a solution. One idea is to bring two or more like minded families together in order to increase their buying power and their odds of survival when the retreat is activated. Although the monetary side of such a deal is delicate, it can usually be worked out with simple terms and conditions put down on paper, it is the personality issues that become exponentially diverse and could pose a major problem that may lead the parties to regret such a partnership.

One solution for someone who cannot immediately move and has a trusted friend or family member who is like minded is to purchase a retreat and move that person onto the property as a caretaker. This person(s) would have their ‘rent’ reduced such for such activities as ground maintenance/improvement, receipt/inventory and storage of supplies shipped to the retreat (off site delivery is recommended), building of additional structures and emplacements and a myriad of other daily activities to keep the retreat in tip top shape. A spin-off of this would be two or three families purchasing a larger retreat and move the caretaker (who may or may not be one of the buyers) onto the property for services rendered.

In today’s world of reckless abandon it is an idea that some will consider absurd, but it is a solution that with careful thought and planning can be a life saver in the future. There are many parcels that are out of reach for the average buyer, but with several families in concert together they can purchase more acreage, many with multiple dwellings or a single main house that will someday become the retreat’s ‘lodge’ once everyone builds their own home on the land.

For example, there are several parcels for sale northwestern Montana in great locations that have good acreage and are already set up for two families, having multiple dwellings with plentiful water, sun exposure and defensible terrain but run above $750,000. That is out of reach for the average buyer, but perfect for two or more families willing to ‘double up’ for the hard times.

So, logistically this solution is fairly easy to coordinate and pull off. Now, to tackle the issue of ‘who’ do you choose to double up with and how. Most preparedness minded people are low key and may not have friends that share similar views so they will be stuck trying to find someone in the dark. Well, the best advice is to find another person or family that shares similar views on critical issues, especially moral and ethical values. As to where you would meet them, who knows, maybe you have overlooked some folks at your local fellowship or home school group, give it some careful thought and put it to prayer, God will lead you. – T.S.