A Prepper’s Basic Approach to Suburban House Hunting

It may be a dream for many preppers to have the sprawling and isolated rural survival retreat but for many of us that is just not possible. This prepper needs to stay close to the city for work and other reasons. With that said, we have always felt that it’s possible to be adequately prepared to shelter-in-place in just about any locale.

We have lived in our home for 20 years now and the city has absorbed our once quiet semi-rural property. We always knew that someday we would move out of this home and into a another place but that plan was delayed when the economy took a dump in 2008.

It doesn’t look like we’ll be moving in the near future either. Statistics are showing that home sales are on the rise and it’s my hunch that they’re rising due to the enormous amount of foreclosed homes on the market that are being offered at extremely attractive prices. We have several vacant homes in our ‘hood that are being offered as “short sales”. One in particular is priced at well under half of it’s $92,000 assessed value. Now seems be an excellent time for renters to acquire a home of their own but a lousy time for homeowners looking to use the equity that was once available.

When we moved into our home, it was the basic house built during the 1950s and it was a mirror image of the original structure that stood on the property before that. We’ve remodeled our home to fit our preparedness needs. The remodeling was a good investment but if I had to do it over again, I would have tried a little harder to find a home that already had some, if not all, of the features that I’m about to describe.

I’ve compiled a list of basic features that I would want to see in our next  suburban “retreat” and some things that I would avoid.  Keep in mind that this information comes from the Midwestern perspective and may not apply to other areas of the country.

Here’s the starting features that I would look for:

A BASEMENT …Our basement serves many functions. It’s a shelter, a family room and a warehouse. It’s the ideal place for preps since only our family and closest friends will ever have access to this space plus it’s not visible from any point on the main floor. I would look for a home with a large, dry basement with tall ceilings.

BRICK or STONE VENEER SIDING: I consider this to be cheap “body armor” for a house.  I know, you’re probably thinking that’s crazy but every now and then I hear about shooting in which a bullet or two travels through several walls and ends up in the house next door. I would look for a place that had as much masonry veneer on the outside of the home as possible to protect from an accidental stray bullet.

SUPPLEMENTAL WOOD HEAT: Multiple ways to heat is a priority for this family. I would look for a home that had a functional wood-burning fireplace. I tend to favor wood as a supplemental heat since natural gas is so inexpensive right now. A zero-clearance fireplace will heat a fairly large area if/when the power goes out and they’re usually accepted by most insurance companies.

BURIED UTILITY CABLES: I like the idea of having the electric cables underground.  Every year someone makes the news when they’re killed by a live power line knocked to the ground by wind or ice. I would look for a neighborhood with buried cables and make sure that I had the buried cables mapped so they wouldn’t be cut by any digging.

METAL ROOF: They’re fireproof and long-lasting. There are some metal roof styles that even look like expensive shingles.

An ALTERNATE WATER SOURCE is important to our preparedness plans. I would look for a home situated near a permanent natural water source. This is not only for drinking purposes but also for back-up water for the fire department to use if necessary.

ENOUGH BACK YARD to garden, run our dogs and have a firepit. I would look for a piece of property that had more backyard than front yard. Our emergency cooking plans include cooking outside over wood so a firepit is essential. I would also look for a yard that was not easily visible from the property on either side or behind.

SHADE TREES…. Power outages in the summer… it happens. Having some shade can make a big difference. I would look for hardwoods trees like maple, walnut or oak that could also provide some sort of free food source to tinker around with.

A Couple Things that I would Absolutely Avoid:
HOAs and CC&Rs
Personally, I just don’t understand how anyone could willingly move to a neighborhood with covenants, conditions and restrictions. I have enough bosses in my life without inviting more into it.

Sewage Lift Stations
I would not move into a home or neighborhood that relies on a lift station to move it’s wastewater around. Every system that I have been around has had problems and that’s the last problem I would want to deal with after a disaster.

There it is, my list of basics for house-hunting. Your mileage may vary.

Ben

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