Mr. Rawles,
Thanks for the extraordinary services you provide and for being so generous with your time.
The subject of this letter has to do with a recent article on survivalblog in which the author explained the benefits of searching for homesteads using free, online resources such as Google Earth.
I recently bought and moved to a rural property. This was the culmination of over two years’ hunting for good homesteads at a fair price. So when I came across this place, I knew it was a bargain.
In my searches, I found other rich sources of information: especially interactive maps provided by county governments, with detailed info on specific properties. Such as the name of the owner(s) of record.
Real estate sites such as Zillow.com provided lots of information about specific properties, especially the locations and photos of homes and lots for sale. In my searches, I viewed many pics of people’s living rooms, bedrooms, rec rooms, offices, bathrooms, driveways, basements, back yards, decks, garages, and so on. Descriptions written by sellers and their agents provided additional info such as “seller is motivated” and “house cannot be seen from the road.”
So I agree with the author that free, online resources are a great resource for us preppers.
But there is a dark side of this technology. The resources I used to find my homestead are available to anyone else, right now. Think about that. I don’t even want to state the implications of that, outright.
How can one “disappear” a property from the ever-growing online database of aerial photos and data? – Dubya in Tennessee