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The original was posted on /r/offgrid by /u/Designer_Tip_3784 on 2024-11-12 11:16:17+00:00.

This seems to be a constant concern for people. I’d like to give reasons why code can be your friend, not your enemy.

I grew up off grid, in the 80s and 90s. Idyllic setting, 3 other houses within 3 miles. If you’d asked my 26 year old parents at the time, they’d have said they’d never leave that valley. There’s now dozens of houses up there, clear cut mountain sides, population of the county has more than doubled, and no one in my family owns that land.

In 2013, I bought a pretty ideal piece of land in my home area, and built an off grid house. The dirt road I was on was a mile and a half long. In the next decade, I watched as 13 more houses went up. In 2013, I had no plans of leaving, by 2019, I knew I wouldn’t stay, sold in early 2023. My house was on the market for 5 days before I accepted an offer.

My house was only solar, water from a natural source, and septic. I built to the local regs, and built to code. I entertained 3 buyers, each wanted to have the house inspected, and each did. I sold it for enough to buy a parcel 3 times the size elsewhere, and take a couple years off work while I build another house and a shop.

I have a friend in that area living on the same creek. They have a bit larger parcel, and built a house they built however they wanted. House of a similar size to mine. They’ve been trying to sell since 2020, and haven’t. They feel it’s wrong that the offers they’ve gotten are hundreds of thousands less than what I took.

Code and permits make selling easier, and your pool of comfortable buyers expands. When selling, a house where only one person knows how the water and power works is a negative value. Areas change, your personal needs will change. Don’t cripple yourself in the future with your choices of today. Building is time consuming and expensive no matter what, and building to code adds a tiny fraction to the time and expense.