Make Your Dream of Country Living a Reality!

Maybe since you were a child, you have had a dream of living in the country. Somehow, you wound up living in the suburbs or the city.

Still – you have not let go of the dream; the dream has not let go of you

Paul Ward is here to help you figure out how to make your dream of living in the country come true by overcoming obstacles and building creative solutions!

He analyzes your hypothetical situation below. Please keep reading!

Why You Want To Live In The Country:

• The air quality is better.
• You love the magic of nature – the stars, the wild life, the crickets at night.
• You want to grow your own food.
• You want more animals of your own.
• You want to host friends and family in the country.

Some Obstacles You May Experience To Living In The Country:

• Spouse is an urbanite or a suburbanite – a common situation.
• Distance to work – Is it practical?
• Starbucks addiction (Yes, this is a real thing.)
• Kids will be without friends.
• Grocery store at a distance – where is it anyway?

Solution:  Rent A Property Temporarily!

In Ventura County there are always properties for rent. Though landlords want to rent to people who plan to stay, you can approach the landlord with a proposal. You can offer them more money per month for 6 months. If the rent is $3,000, you offer $3, 200.

Rather than paying for a year’s lease, you may offer them all the money for 6 months up front or increase the security deposit so that they can use it to allay expenses after you leave.

After living in your country house for 3 months or so, your spouse may be able to wrap their mind around a longer or permanent stay.

Paul has great tips for overcoming obstacles to living your dream – Many properties in Ventura County are 3-5 minutes from town!

Listen to his show today for fixes for grocery store worries, Starbucks addiction, your kids and their friends, and more!

You may also contact Paul and his team at (805) 479-5004 or e-mail: paul@homeandranchteam.com.

Transcription

Farm Talk: Make Your Dream of Country Living A Reality!

It’s Paul Ward with the Home and Ranch Team and welcome to Farm Talk.  Imagine that you’ve always had a dream of living out in the countryside, and for whatever reason, life has thrown some turns at you; now you find yourself in a suburban or even urban setting, far away from Mother Nature. How can you make your dream a reality despite the obstacles in your life?

Let’s talk about why living in the country is your dream, what those obstacles to living in the country are, and finally how you can overcome those various obstacles and make this dream a reality.

First, you’ve always wanted to live in the country.  Maybe you did as a child and now you don’t. Some of the things that drive us to want to live in the country are air quality; it’s usually better than in a city. Also, Mother Nature draws us in; animals, birds chirping, maybe a wandering deer, crickets and stars at night – all magical experiences that want us to live out in the countryside. Maybe you want to plant a bigger vegetable garden than what you have now, and you want to grow your own food. Or the idea of inviting family and friends for a long weekend, that’s attractive to a lot of people. Maybe you want to have more animals of your own; a horse, maybe a goat, or a few extra dogs; things you cannot do in a suburban or urban setting. All things that you dream about, but for whatever reason, they are just not a reality.

Let’s face it a main obstacle may be your spouse; maybe you’re married to an urban or suburban person and they just cannot wrap their head around the idea of living out in the countryside. That’s probably the number one obstacle.

Another obstacle might be driving distances.  You’re thinking, “Gosh, it’d be nice to live out in the country, but is that really practical? I’d have to drive farther to work.” Another idea is just the grocery store. Where is the grocery store and what if we don’t have milk in the morning? Maybe somebody in your family has a Starbucks addiction (that’s actually a real thing) and how are you going to get that person to get over their addiction to move out in the countryside. And lastly, if you’ve got teenagers and they’ve got their friends and you’re going to take them out to Timbuktu, they’re going to feel like they’re not going to have their friends.

These are all obstacles to living in the country. How do you overcome all of these to make your dream a reality? One idea is the notion of renting a property temporarily so that you’re not uprooting your family permanently. You’re just going to make a temporary move, but you’re not permanently giving up your current life. I’ll give you some tips on how to make this a reality and then you can decide if the obstacles can be overcome or not.

There are always properties available for rent out in the countryside where I’m located in Ventura County, CA. You are probably somewhere else, but the rules generally apply most places in the U.S.  Typically, most landlords of countryside properties want tenants who want to stay. They don’t want to have a vacancy after a few months. I’m going to give you some tips on how to overcome those challenges. Say you’re looking online, and you see a rental and it looks perfect; you just can imagine yourself living there for all the reasons we talked about earlier. How are you going to try to secure that property? Let’s just say for example the rent is $3,000 per month. Maybe it’s more, maybe it’s less depending on where you’re located; but let’s just use the example of $3,000 a month. You’re going to approach the landlord and say, “Mr. and Mrs. Landlord, I would like to rent your property. I see you’re asking $3,000 a month. Would you consider a six-month lease for $3,200 a month?” Money usually talks and I would think that most landlords would at least listen, so you can offer to pay a little bit extra in exchange for a shorter lease period..

Another option is instead of paying extra is to pay the entire rent upfront.  $3,000 x 6 = $18,000 and you’re not paying any more than you would otherwise but just offering to pay the full rent up front. That may or may not be practical for you. Maybe offering a little bit extra each month is more practical.

A third alternative is to increase the security deposit. If the landlord is asking for a security deposit of $4,000, you can offer a security deposit of $5,000 and say to the landlord that should they not be able to rent the property for a month after you move out that a portion of that security deposit, let’s just say $1,000, could be kept by the landlord to alleviate some of the vacancy factor.

Now getting back to the obstacles, we talked about distance to work. Maybe your spouse isn’t set on the idea, the idea of the grocery store being farther. Maybe you’ve got teenage kids who are close to their friends in their activities. The idea of renting temporarily, not uprooting your family permanently, but just a temporary move might take some of the pressure off of them and see if a fulltime move is even practical. Where I’m located, some of the countryside properties might only be three or five minutes to town. How much distance are you really adding to your commute? Could you telecommute one or two days a week and not have to drive everyday to work? That might be an option. That is becoming more practical. People who are purchasing today, who would not have been able to purchase before, are able to telecommute at least one or two days a week. Maybe your spouse finds that living in the country is actually fun and that there are benefits to it that they didn’t even think about. After living out in the countryside for three months, maybe they could wrap their head around living out there full time, or maybe not. Maybe you’re just enjoying a temporary change of scenery and you’re going to go back to your suburban or urban life. But at least for a short while, you’re living your dream. The grocery store – it’s always a good idea to look and see what you need before you leave the house. Maybe you’re in a position where you can call home and say, “Hey, do we need milk? Do we need eggs? Do we need cheese?” That way you’re not looking for the milk the next morning and you just can’t get it. Then teenagers – teenage kids and their friends, they’re going to be wanting to hang out with their friends regardless of where you live. Maybe they are in a position to hang out with their friends at a friend’s homes and you’re able to pick them up on your way home from work and take them to your countryside home.

You might not be able to overcome some of these obstacles so living in the country is going to have to be put off for a little while longer, but maybe they can be overcome and the notion of renting at least temporarily a countryside home could be a reality.

We’d love to hear from you! As always, feel free to email Paul@homeandranchteam.com. I’d be happy to answer any of your questions and I look forward to your feedback.