Have a Backup Plan

So, you can’t leave the city because of your work, but you recognize there’s a cause for concern in our current climate?

Before you run out and get yourself in terrible debt, let’s make sure you think this through thoroughly. It’s obvious that you have a source of income, yet what you don’t have is a backup plan for when things get nasty.

Find a food calculator and start storing up both food and water for your entire family. To this stash, add a decent collection of first aid supplies and any prescription medications your family members need.

Ideally, you want a year’s supply, but do what you can with the budget and finances you currently have available. If you can only do 6 cans of soup to your stockpile each shopping trip, then do that and it will eventually add up. Be sure to stockpile household goods and toiletries for the same length of time for every household member. Simply do a search online and you can find a wealth of stockpile calculators.

Once you are satisfied that if things got nasty, you could “bug in” your home then start the process of purchasing and creating your own bug-out location. When you start to look for your properties, there are a few things you want to look for and some red flags to take note of.

Do’s & Dont’s

• Look for property that is high and dry. You can search property appraisal websites for your area and there should be information on whether a particular piece of property is in a flood zone. You will be “strongly encouraged” to leave these areas and you will be met with force if you don’t comply.
• No surrounding neighbors or very few. While your suburban property may be surrounded on all sides by neighbors, in a bug out location you want to avoid any unwanted attention.
• You want to find a property that already has a well, sewer, electricity and a rock covered driveway. If you have to add these, you will pay a few thousand dollars. You can collect and filter rainwater, use a composting toilet and just leave the property entrance plain without any rock. In fact, if you wanted to have at least a few truckloads of mulch brought in to make a roadway it’s possibly cheaper than a rock delivery. You can add solar panels for your RV if you want to go fully off grid.
• Seek out a piece of property that is surrounded or butted up against a national forest or protected wildlife zone. This reduces the chances that you will have big housing developers come in and start destroying the natural beauty of your property.
• A long driveway that curves or winds as to prevent people from seeing onto your property. Hide security cameras in the tree line along the road so your will get a notification if someone enters your property.
• You want something that’s zoned as either rural or agriculture. Avoid anything else as other zoning labels can potentially prevent you from having farm animals or from putting gardens in your front yard.
• If you have a smaller sized family, aim for a piece of property that’s less than an acre but still big enough to raise both food and animals. Avoid oddly shaped properties that aren’t square or rectangular, this can cause issues with grazing animals or planting food trees.
• Bonus points if you can find a piece that already has an area cleared off for the RV you’re going to purchase as well as any vehicles you may own. You can certainly rent you own machines to move earth around, but again you are looking at other large sums of money.
• Aim to spend somewhere between $5,000 to $10,000 for a piece of property in today’s prices. Don’t be afraid to haggle if the property has sat on the market for a while.
• The smaller the town, the better the chances you’ll find a decent piece of property for not very much money. Avoid the largest cities and stick with something that’s around a medium sized town.
  
  

Once you’ve obtained a suitable piece of property, you’ll need to decide what kind of “hunting cabin” you’ll need to support you family. You can of course, buy an expensive made to order tiny house or up RV. If you chose this option, you’ll sink yourself into debt so try to avoid brand new or made to order options. As part of our family’s relocation, I looked into the prices of various tiny houses and found them to be about as expensive as some double wide mobile homes.

Currently, there are parts shortages all over the world, and both RV manufacturers and tiny home builders are backed up because they can’t finish current builds. Add to that a reduced work force and you’re looking at waiting a long time for something to come available. You’re in a queue and you aren’t moving forward for a while.

Another reality is that in the last two plus years, there has been an incredible strain on finding used RV’s in decent shape with no roof damage or leaks. With lock downs, people naturally wanted an escape and family’s set out to purchase their own mobile escape before you even thought about needing one. Now that many individuals are back in the work place, RV’s are up for sale at decent prices but don’t expect to get them for cheap.

Adding to your concerns is the reality that mechanics who specialize in motor home engines and electrical mechanical work are like freaking unicorns. How do I know this? Because my family has a motor home and we had to wait a few weeks for just some simple work to be done because all their workers suddenly developed sickness and could take two weeks of “vacation”. Not only do you need a specialized bay to work on these mobile monsters, but you also need a lift and tools that are specially designed for the girth of RV’s.

Ideally, you want to find an RV that is local but be willing to drive up to an hour to inspect one. Do not take the word of the seller, do your due diligence. In one interaction we had, someone was trying to sell an RV that clearly had roof damage and the site was recently wet and smelled of bleach.

As someone who has spent hours and hours researching different RV’s, allow me to pass on the lessons I’ve learned so you too can avoid as many lemons as possible. Stay away from motor homes, fifth wheels and anything made before the year 2000. I’ve already touched on why you should avoid motors home above, but with fifth wheels you will need a special attachment and a truck that can handle the towage capacity of the fifth wheel.

If you already have these two things, by all means get yourself a fifth wheel. One complaint with these however is that some owners have noticed that once set up and detached, the tripod can cause issues even damaging the sleeper that sits above the hitch if not done on suitable terrain. And finally, anything made before the year 2000 is going to most likely look outdated and probably has some damage inside due to usual wear and tear.

Aim for a pull behind style and be willing to either purchase a truck or SUV that can handle the towing weight (if you will be mobile) or rent/borrow a vehicle to move it on site. Make sure you get in plenty of experience making turns with the trailer attached before you plan some big trip that you might not be ready for.

Do a thorough walk through and if the seller seems pushy or suspicious, don’t be afraid to walk away. If your spidey sense is tingling, there is probably a reason. A good seller should be friendly and allow you all the time you need to go over the vehicle from front to back and top to bottom.

Some things we noticed that threw up red flags for us were…

• Any signs of water damage from roof, sky light and window leaks that haven’t been repaired.
• Appliances that don’t function properly.
• Flooring that is soft or mushy when walked over.
• Any electrical outlets that do not work properly.
• Broken or malfunctioning awnings, especially over pull outs. Do not purchase an RV that has a slide out without an awning.
• Any fire or smoke damage.
• Any signs of bug infestation or damage they have causes to walls or flooring.

And above all, don’t be afraid to ask why they’re selling it in the first place. You have every right to play a thousand and one questions if you feel like someone isn’t telling you the truth.

If you find an RV with damage but you are willing to replace it, call around and speak to a professional. If you are really bold, ask if you can take the RV to a local mechanic if they have no recent paperwork showing that it’s received a once over. Do keep in mind that if you already have a full-time job, now might not be the time to become a DIY person. If you’ve never done home construction projects, you really need to take a hard look at whether or not you want to take on such a large chore.

An RV being sold right now in good condition can be priced somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000 for a medium sized vehicle for your family, but don’t be afraid to haggle the price down a bit. A couple with two children should ideally be able to find something in the $5,000 to $8,000 range if you are willing to drive even further way from your current location.

If you have any friends who are welders, plumbers, electricians, mechanics or handy men, be sure to have them tag along and point out anything that is concerning for the potential buyer. You might look like a weirdo bringing a few buddies with you, but you’ll not regret it if you end up with a gem of an RV.

So, now that you have found your unicorn and paid for it, you need to get it into the shop for a thorough once over and have the RV mechanics clear it for road readiness. If there are cabinetry repairs to be done, you don’t want to get in the boonies and have to drive almost an hour away for get supplies to fix them. Talk to your wife beforehand so that if there’s any changes she would like to see made, it’s done in the city. Do not move the RV onto property until it’s 100% ready.

If you are able to park your RV in your driveway without peeving off the local HOA police or government thugs, do so and start transferring your supplies into the proper places within the RV. If you are NOT able to park in your driveway or in front of your home on the street, then you will need to move the RV first and then move supplies into it as time allows. All of your shelf stable foods, first aid supplies and household items need to be easily accessible as you don’t want to waste time if you ever have to leave your home in the city.

Before TEOTWAWKI, you need to make security a top priority. Get yourself a strong gate and surround your entire property with a decent fence. The most affordable style seems to be a combination of “T” posts and a few rolls of wire that’s topped with some barbed wire. It doesn’t take as much effort to install or have the expense that a pressure treated privacy fence would. Get a few bundles run across the top if you have the income for it.

You can purchase some wireless cameras that can be strategically placed in the woods running adjacent to your driveway to catch anyone trying to trespass on your property. You will most likely need to recharge these once or twice every few weeks. Make sure that you get the cameras that allow you to access your cameras from both a laptop and your cell phone.

I apologize for the lengthy post but I’ve given you a few additional jumping off points to think about below if you’re going to go off-grid.

• Composting trench for humanure, kitchen scraps, used coffee, tree branches, grass clippings, etc.
• Solar Water Heater
• Annual Vegetable Garden
• Perennial Food Forest
• Medicinal & Culinary Gardens
• Bee Hives
• Rabbits, Chicken and other small farm animals
• Composting toilets
• Gray water filtration setup
• Solar A/C (for your RV)
• Mushroom Identification
• Wilderness Foraging
• Canning or drying your excess harvest