Hi

Currently live in Vancouver but thinking of moving farther out to a place where we can have horses, views of mountains and peace and quiet (with still some human contact)

Does anyone know where I can START to look at options? I just don't know where to search and how to gauge different places etc. Many thanks in advance for any tips or perspectives.

How are you going to make a living? If it requires internet access then that drastically limits your options.

Don't know what your budget would be, but if you have a relatively high budget there are places in Chilliwack and Mission where you could have peace and quiet, horses, mountain views but still be close to the necessities one would need. If you desired to stay in the Lower Mainland area, interior is another option, near Merritt for example.

Suppose it depends on your job needs and such.

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...oad-chilliwack

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...k-road-mission

Decide on an area you think you might like, then go online, google cabins or acreages, and all kinds of real estate will appear.

But be aware that the further you go from even a village, the less likely you are to have services laid on to a property, the less likely it is that you will have internet or even a cell phone, and the more likely it is that local government will have very restrictive rules and legislation governing what you can and cannot do, what kind of sewage field/tank/ that you have.

Vet and farrier are going to be a consideration, people in some remote locations have to haul their horses down the mountain every time a shoe falls off.

I was thinking: writing, and increasing self-sufficiency. Oh and maybe trading. It all requires internet access. Dang.

Why are places here even 1-2 Million.

Goodness! That's insane. Canada is crazy expensive.

Thank you. Know any desirable areas? As in quiet, safe for the most part, some isolation but not too far?

Very good point. Doctor too huh?

I can't say I've needed a doctor but a good farrier is critical. Also an equine chiropractor.

We went for quiet and isolation, 20 acres with 3 bedroom decrepit house 60 km from the nearest town of any size (ca 5,000 people). No services. It would have cost us around $1,000 per km to have the telephone wire extended from a "major" gravel road 6 km away to the edge of our prop0erty, and then extra to have it installed in the house. That was around 1997/8, so much more probably now.

No electricity, so we relied on a generator ..... if we had lived there permanently, we could have obtained a huge generator for around $5,000-10,000 or so that would rune lighting, fridge, range, etc.

If you tour around, you will also see that most "remote" places have outside lights burning around the house all night. We found evidence that the first owners of our property, who tried to run a small farm, had tried to install outside lighting. Protection from human and animal investigations.

We sold it for $20,000 more than we paid for it, and it was sold again 2 years later for even more.

Acreages closer to town were selling for $1 million plus back around 2000.

You've really missed the boat for really cheap land, especially after covid has encouraged lots of people to move away from cities.

Don't forget a lot of land in BC is Crown land, as much if not more is First Nations land, and you cannot just move onto either. Crown land has to be accepted for separation and division for sale.

As for safe and quiet ....... quiet will be anywhere more than 20 kms from any village or small town ... except for wild life noises and visits. We had a resident bear on our property, and a bobcat that patronised us. Not forgetting deer, birds, etc etc. We never saw a wolf, but they were around.

Safe ........ from what??

Our place was broken into 3 times. The first was during the first winter ....... it is accepted in isolated areas that someone lost or caught in a snow storm or other emergency may break into an unoccupied cabin/house for shelter, as long as they do no damage. It is also acceptable that they may light a fire to keep warm, and take food if necessary. The guy that broke into our house left everything neat and tidy, tried to light a fire in the unusable wood stove (the chimney pipe had a great hole in it), and we had not left any tinned food behind.

The other 2 break-ins were done at the end of our last 2 winters there, and it looked as if someone was trying to furnish their cabin .......... some tatty cheap carpet runners went, solar lights, etc, along with OH's hiking boots and our wellies. They didn't take any furniture, no tins of food/pans/etc.

Drugs are everywhere, more in sight in some places than others. There are the usual "young thugs". and young'uns on a spree.

If you go too far, you won't have any real service from the RCMP, at least not in a hurry, no doctor/dentists/optician, no fire service, no ambulance service, satellite or radio telephone only.

We reported our last 2 break-ins to the RCMP in town (60 km away), had to provide a list of what had been stolen, which really amused the Corporal when he saw what had gone, and left with "we'll try to keep an eye on it WHEN we go out that way."

It seemed to us that about 20-30 km was the limit for services such as fire and ambulance ..... and they are usually volunteer.

I can think of some nice areas ............. up in the Bulkley Valley around Smithers (pop. ca 5,000), and its neighbour Telkwa, around Terrace (maybe), maybe around Prince George.

The Okanagan is hot, and property more expensive.

The problem is to find land that is available for sale at a reasonable price. That almost certainly is not in the Lower Mainland.

Do be aware also that in BC it is all but impossible to get a mortgage for what is classed as recreational property, and that is most of the smaller acreages around. Lots classified as farm or ranch cost more per acre, and you would have to get permission if you wanted to take it out of production.

It is also all but impossible to get insurance for places such as we had, so all repairs etc have to paid for by the owner.

How about a big animal vet?

Yes, mentioned above. There are lots of equine vets around here so it's a matter of choosing the right horse vet (and once you've found her doing all you can to stay on her list.) Go ten miles north though and, if you have an emergency, they'll send you the cow vet. Go another 50 miles and the cow vet is all there is. The horse boards (and I'd suggest Chronicle of the Horse) are full of stories of people in places where there are no vets, hay is $40/bale and horse keeping is marginally possible. In any remote or non-horsey place you need a trailer and then you need a three-quarter ton.

Of those properties only one looks viable for horses (the other one is too small) and that one looks questionably habitable by people. A million and a half seems a lot to live in a shed but that's less than 900,000 quid; table stakes in the UK horse property game. We started with something not a lot better than that here and with some repairs it's quite nice now. Some repairs meaning new roof, windows, siding, bathroom, kitchen, wood stove, floors, garage, hay barn, horse barn, fences, furnace, driveway, water heater and so on.

It may be that the OP is not prepared for the general cost of rural living. Multiple vehicles are needed and rack up the miles just going to buy routine stuff such as roofing, windows, siding ... A tractor and possibly a snow blower attachment are an initial cost. Fences are alarmingly expensive or your can get cheap ones and pay for the horse hospital as needed. If you have summer grazing then you need winter hay, that's a few thousand dollars and you need somewhere dry to put it.

It costs a whole lot of money to live this cheap.

That nice Mr Musk has your back...https://www.starlink.com/

Is Chilliwack a frightening place (for people)? Perhaps because of gangs, or religionists, or meth labs? I wonder at the agent's

"This may be the best property offering in the Chilliwack market today."

It wouldn't be the best property offering if it was in Detroit so I suppose Chilliwack is somehow worse.

That property is currently frightening for horses, all that barbed wire would have to be replaced before moving there. If it's needed to keep people out, like at a junkyard, then a horse fence is needed 3' inside it.