Yep, the US (I have no clue about Canada) has specific types of loans that are available for first time home buyers. It makes it easier to get a loan with a smaller or no down payment. There's a lot of restrictions around it: I'm pretty sure it has to be your main dwelling, etc.
I wish. Wont be for a while yet. Got $22 in savings and a part time job. House is in the parents name to save me taxes. Wont be selling the apt for probably 5 - 10 years. It's complicated.
what i like about it is: - lots of game and fish - GREAT SOIL for gardening - lots and lots of water - lots of timber onsite - insane amounts of FREE salvage firewood on Crown Land - Multiple access roads all around........and towns nearby (well....not nearby but a half days drive) - remote - off grid - neighbors in these types of rural areas are very friendly and everyone looks out for each other. (even the First nations vs the rest of us.....people set aside racial differences and help out NO MATTER WHAT) going to be a while before this ever happens. but i can dream.
Bushy, have you seen information about "Secret Garden of Survival"? Here is a link: http://secretgardenofsurvival.com/ It is an interesting concept where you have a perennial garden that does not look like a garden to someone looking at it. If that property has that great of soil for growing, you might consider this concept for the garden.
^ goods stuff! I'm all about Zombie gardening......piles of compost and good soil, with squash, zukes, cukes, spuds, garlic , onions, etc. Self seeding and self sustaining with minimal watering. And every year they produce more than you can handle..... and herbs....the rosemary plant i started at the ex GF's place in Delta, years ago......is now a freaking huge shrub, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6' wide x 4' deep ' 4 feet tall. also into gardens as a FOOD attracting mechanism......DEER LOVE GARDENS.......I like deer meat......the real garden would be in a animal secure green house, the outside garden would be a food source but also a deer source. that area up there is HOT is summer.....wicked hot pepper and regular pepper growing season!
This is exactly the type of place my brother and I always dreamed about getting if we ever make it back up to Alaska...a nice place to homestead and go all "Dick Proenneke" on it. I've recently been committed to a semi-rural, but still city/suburban location - but I'm WAY happier than I was in the "cookie cutter" cul de sac we were at previously. Keep that dream alive, man - and even if this particular spot isn't meant to be (right now), now you know what to look for and there's some reassurance that properties like this are still available/attainable.
I love the "One Man's Wilderness" book they made (loosely) from his journal entries. I've seen the video on youtube, but I really need to buy a DVD copy of it.
WILDERNESS RAVES! (they are actually super popular here....small groups of people, drive hundreds of KM's into the woods, rave all night long and camp out. ).
I've come across the remnants of one in the mountains before... Dozens of empty craft beer bottles, food wrappers, old fire pit, and a neat little pile of frozen man scat.... Thankfully I had more pressing matters to attend to at the time, so I didn't have to clean it up, but still, dig a cathole man.
Had you considered setting up the equivalent of a limited liability company, applying for a business loan using the apartment and the home as collateral, and then doing guides/hunts and renting the space? It sounds like you have quite a few people on this board that seem willing enough to spend some time there, and the size of the place would easily do for some mini-survival courses etc. as well as rentals for scout troops, etc. That would be hilarious, to have a ESEE FORUM TIMESHARE COMPANY, INC.
"Dear Hipsters, We pooped in the woods before it was cool, but we dug catholes. You should dig a cathole too, but you've probably never heard of it." There.