Advice on location

Location not a issue in alberta. Question is how many acres. Type of land. Aka all trees or open. House on it or not and so on.

Special areas ?

Special Areas are in the eastern part of the province.

I agree with thermo, location doesn't really matter, county wise. I am of course saying that from a older more experienced perspective than I once had, what I am saying is there are ways around everything legislated, Even ways around insurance requirements for mortgage purposes to do the things you want....true funny story.. the inspector for my county has been out to my place, his only concern was that I help offer advice to his kids in how I am doing things. He bought them a acreage and he wants them set up like I am!

another true story, A friend of mine, 30 minutes from Edmonton built a "Horse barn" on his property...I don't know the square footage ( 3000 maybe 4000) but you could put my house and garage inside it, its two stories, cement heated floor, 4 maybe 5, 14-16 wide roll up doors, insulated to r40. he built it for his antique car collection, never been a horse inside it.Didnt need engineered blue prints cause it was considered a "agricultural" building. Only thing the inspector said was...that's the nicest horse barn I ever seen, and as agricultural it didn't raise his taxes.

The only thing I am not a fan of is, and these things are now popping up everywhere, is these 1 to 2.5 acre rural subdivisions, where a developer bulldozes a hundred acres flat and divides it up, and registers restrictive covenants against the title of each property, limiting what can be built, and how constructed, and maintained. If you drive into the country around Edmonton or Calgary you will see these places, acres of well manicured lawn mono culture, with trophy houses, where you can see everything, and if you dare park a older car on the property a neighbor will complain. I would avoid these places.

very good affordable deals right now in rural Alberta. lots of rural properties 3 to 5 acres with older homes.

Lol therm0 .. peppercorn made me chuckle

Lol therm0 .. peppercorn made me chuckle

must have been my dyslexia, oldtimers, or short attention span kicking in.

Thanks for the feedback. Peppercorn, what you speak of is what we are afraid to end up near, these rural subdivisions. Our land needs to be treed, with a distance from the road, and neighbours. We are social and helpful neighbours, but need a degree of seclusion. A house isn't necessary, we are handy and can erect our own small house and then erect out buildings when expansion is necessary. 3-5 acres would be perfect for us. We are want an area where we could secure our property and hunkering down is a viable option through most situations. We are a family of 4 and will be expanding. Also, we are solvent, so being close proximity to a city for job prospects won't matter. I seem to be rambling, but we want to find our community, you know? We want to live around other people who share our mind, our view of self reliance. I wish there was a village of people like us to live separately from but next to.

There certainly are lots of places. What will matter is how far you want to be from services. Lots of smaller towns have their own healthcare centers and sufficient resources that trips to the big cities are essentially not required.

You can also live within 30 mins of a major center and still be in a very quiet and secluded acreage.

Remember that being isolated has lots of advantages, but there are also potential issues, especially with access to healthcare. For a while, we had to drive 2+ hours monthly when our child needed to go see a pediatrician for a fairly minor ailment that required follow up.

A small village with basic health services would be fine for us. Right now we live in an isolated community that has a dentist, a midwife, nurses and a doctor at the hospital. Anything requiring specialization requires a 2 12 hour flight. I hear you that trips to the city at 2 hours each way can be tedious! It seems like every price of property I'm looking at is cleared and neighbours you can see. And our price range is roughly 50 grand for land. I'm feeling highly discouraged. Maybe I cant find what I want in my price range in Alberta 🙁

I’m not sure what the prices are out there these days. The things you need to look for are rules for the county. Some counties have a moritorium on subdividing. And some have rules about what constitutes an “outbuilding”. In mine it has to be max 120 sq ft and 14 ft tall so not all regulations can be worked around and not all county regulators are pushovers. It’s best to find an area with rules you can work with. All of them that I’ve seen have a website that you can scan through. As long as you aren’t in a subdivision where they tell you where you can put your well, building etc.
When I was looking I put an ad in a paper. I know that was decades ago, but I would recommend is driving around and finding an area you are interested in and put an ad in the local paper or grocery store. Sometimes people have a piece of land they are sitting on and would sell if there is interest. Good luck!

I have seen 2000 and up per acre. Depends on distant from major city and whats already on land for services.

This is very good advice.
My parents live in a small town in NWO, all the services you could want, even a Walmart.

Now that he has a particular form of glaucoma, he is driving 4 hours every 1-2 weeks for an eye specialist in Winnipeg... which means that he is getting a ride and dependent on my mother taking time off work or one of his nephews driving him if they aren't busy. Seclusion is nice but consider what it will be like once the ravages of time start to kick in!