[hardtootell-2]

Here's a coupla more that require some work and investment but you might be able to do them cause you have the space and presumably less restrictive zoning. Your chances of success increase if you have a well planned business that is sufficiently capitalized.

1)Rent out shipping containers- when they are not rented you have a place to park them. Either buy a used truck to deliver them or arrange with a local carrier. You could provide them with containers for their use as partial payment for deliveries and pickups.

2) Look into growing and bailing hay- it is one of the simplest crops and is important for livestock.

3) Live Talapia retail for 5.98/lb where I live. I am pretty sure they could be raised in a greenhouse. They grow quickly and are omnivorous.

4) Consider simple value added activities like grinding grain to make flour or bottling bulk maple syrup into fancy containers and selling it at a farmers market. There are a huge number of these that are possible. There are huge and successful businesses in my area that just wash, chop and package vegetables.

just my 2 cents

[Pretorian]

I'm sorry to be a party-pooper but I think property tax is a fair and necessary thing, as far as taxes go that is. First of all your house will be worth exactly nothing unless there is a some sort of an infrastructure /security thing going. Secondly, if there are no property taxes you wont simply be able to afford to buy your property. I know a couple of countries with no property tax and I can tell you that RE prices are simply batshit insane there, losing any possible grip with reality. Thirdly, a property is a proof of your financial health. You have a property, that means you can afford to entertain local tptb with means for thier waste /ets.

[vtsnowedin]

Dusla, Your in Vermont as I am. Yes the property taxes here are totally out of control. The only thing you can do is read your town report with a sharp eye and a hard heart. Then go to town meeting and vote NO in a clear and loud voice on EVERY appropriation and budget item.Including the school budget. As things get tougher others will wake up and join you and you can start winning and reduce the towns expenditures. Until then you can pay the taxes or sell out. It's a hard truth that only rich flatlanders can afford to hold Vermont land today and a crime that they let them put it into current use so that you and I subsidise their investment.

[SeaGypsy]

As wage and company taxes falter property taxes will accellerate. Don't assume stability or cost of living based factoring.

[hope_full]

Property taxes here in Hampton Roads are OUT of control. We're scooting up close to New England for having wholly outrageous real estate taxes. For our modest abode (three blocks from the druggies in the 'hood), we pay $4,400 a year. My neighbor a few blocks away (better area and a crick behind her little house) pays $7,000 a year.

The newspaper recently published an article showing what city workers earn. The wages were - across the board - way higher than private sector jobs. The city official quoted in the article said, "We have really good people here and they could leave the city and go find employment in the private sector elsewhere, earning far more money."

Hmmmm.

When you're paying long-time clerical workers $60,000+ a year (with full benefits, too) to type and file, that's kind of a specious argument.

People like to say, "my home is paid for; I have no worries" but how on earth are people on retired incomes paying these $400 - $600 a month property taxes?

Lastly, Norfolk just approved a massive light-rail project. Initial budgeted cost was $250 million. Now they're saying it'll be $330 million or more. There are two cities paying for this (with some federal grant money thrown in), but actually, cities do NOT pay for things.

Their citizens do - and in this case - we'll be paying for this 8-mile train ride for many years.

[SeaGypsy]

That's why everyone says working for the Guvernmint is the most secure, they will simply rip off the privates to prop up their incompetent club.

[SteinarN]

Property tax is a perfect tax to transfer wealt from the low income and middle class to the rich and super rich. A low income household or person can pay a substantially larger portion of the income in total tax if they live in a high property tax state than a person with a high or very high income living in the same state.

I find it outrageous that a low income person working full time might pay a HIGHER percentage in total tax than a high income person working full time. Taxes should be paid by income only and not by what standard or what neighbourhod your house happens to be in.

[SeaGypsy]

If it were means tested that would be what's called fair. Property taxes are not meant to be fair, they are for the life of the property not the owner's career.
They are also used to push out retired and underemployed people by stealth; thereby attracting more lucrative buyers who can in turn afford to pay more tax.

[dsula]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SteinarN', 'I') find it outrageous that a low income person working full time might pay a HIGHER percentage in total tax than a high income person working full time. Taxes should be paid by income only and not by what standard or what neighbourhod your house happens to be in.

[vtsnowedin]

I'd say that the gas tax is the closest you can get to a fair tax. The more fuel you use the more you pay and the more you damage the roads. That assumes of course that the tax money is actually used to build and maintain the roads which is only partly true today. It is called a user tax. The education user tax would be the income tax. What do you do with an education? Make money. The more money you make the more benefit you got from your education. The property tax was fairer when most all income derived from your land or shop and even today rich people tend not to live in hovels so they pay a proportional share based indirectly on income. Without property taxes the rich would buy up and hold all the land and convert the rest of us into renters and squatters. The tax forces them to use it or market it making it available to the population at large.
The problem comes in with these current use programs that were promoted as tax relief for little old ladies but end up being a tax subsidy for the rich and government waste and mismanagement of the funds once they are raised.

[Pretorian]

I knew one old woman who always complained about her poverty and unfair treatment and all, yet she owns a $1M condo in a nice part of a town. Her pension is about $180-200. No property taxes, the city taxes the hell out of local businesses.
Another owns a 500k condo that is locked and she lives in the shitty house in the countryside. No tax.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
')The problem comes in with these current use programs

[PeakOiler]

I paid my annual property taxes today. Ca. $1400. That's about the equivalent of 175 lb of shelled pecans @ ca. $8/lb.

I have seven pecan trees on my property and plan to have more in the near future. Perhaps I could sell pecans in the future to pay for taxes...

Revi: If you read this post, can you tell us how many lb or fl oz (or liters) of maple syrup would you have to sell to pay your property taxes?

For that matter, would other po.com members care to estimate what they could grow and sell from their property to pay the taxes?

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PeakOiler', '
')That's about the equivalent of 175 lb of shelled pecans @ ca. $8/lb.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PeakOiler', '
')That's about the equivalent of 175 lb of shelled pecans @ ca. $8/lb.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
')The problem comes in with these current use programs

[Outcast_Searcher]

This may not be workable, but what if you plan your doomstead to be in a relatively low property / low property tax area?

For example, I've priced land in eastern KY, and good land there might cost a tiny fraction, for a farm, of what acerage in a crowded area in New England would cost. And, at least at this point, property taxes are generally fairly low.

Given how overpriced property is in places like NYC, and much of CA, I know people who have greatly benefited from moving from a place like that, to a fairly low cost of living place with reasonable property prices - and just banking and living on the difference. (Ordinary homes, not farms).

Property price arbitrage for fun and profit.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hope_full', 'P')roperty taxes here in Hampton Roads are OUT of control. We're scooting up close to New England for having wholly outrageous real estate taxes. For our modest abode (three blocks from the druggies in the 'hood), we pay $4,400 a year. My neighbor a few blocks away (better area and a crick behind her little house) pays $7,000 a year.

[Tyler_JC]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '8')) I'd say that the gas tax is the closest you can get to a fair tax. The more fuel you use the more you pay and the more you damage the roads. That assumes of course that the tax money is actually used to build and maintain the roads which is only partly true today. It is called a user tax. The education user tax would be the income tax. What do you do with an education? Make money. The more money you make the more benefit you got from your education. The property tax was fairer when most all income derived from your land or shop and even today rich people tend not to live in hovels so they pay a proportional share based indirectly on income. Without property taxes the rich would buy up and hold all the land and convert the rest of us into renters and squatters. The tax forces them to use it or market it making it available to the population at large.
The problem comes in with these current use programs that were promoted as tax relief for little old ladies but end up being a tax subsidy for the rich and government waste and mismanagement of the funds once they are raised.

[rangerone314]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rangerone314', 'S')tuff like this is why I wish I had the "12 Monkeys" virus in a vial, along with a few vaccinations against it for my family.