After four and a half years of living in a tiny apartment, I’m ready to get out of here and into a house of some kind. My wife and I have started searching for a home with lots of land and a huge structure to store the 19 or 21 vehicles I have. After some searching, I think I found some budget gearhead heaven, and one property is basically a personal airport complete with a home, two-car garage, hangar, and a landing strip!
As some of you have already noticed, I’m officially married! Sheryl and I tied the knot on October 1 inside of the Experimental Aircraft Association Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In planning our wedding, we found that EAA was far cheaper than more traditional venues. For the price of $5,000, we rented an entire museum filled with aviation history.
Our guests got to walk around and learn about planes while having some cold snacks. You’ll definitely hear about this venue when the real pictures come in, but if you’re looking for an inexpensive, vehicle-themed wedding venue, consider a museum.
Now that we got that huge event in the books, Sheryl and I are now looking to move out and spread our wings. There’s nothing wrong with my apartment; my rent has gone up just $100 over all of this time, which is rare in my area. It even has semi-modern appliances and enough space to store car and motorcycle parts.
Heck, there’s a whole Honda Spree in my living room!
But things started feeling cramped when Sheryl moved in during 2020. Somehow, it seems like our space got smaller, even though it realistically didn’t. And when I moved in, I had just three cars and two motorcycles. Now I rent out a bunch of spaces in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. So, we’ve definitely grown out of this place. Thankfully, Sheryl and I will soon be in the market for a house, and we’ve started looking at what’s out there.
Amusingly, Sheryl and I have two vastly different desires. I want a place that could conceivably store most of my vehicles, and I’d love for that place to be somewhat secluded, away from a homeowners association. My vision for this is essentially a country home with a massive pole barn. Meanwhile, Sheryl would like a place with a better kitchen than the one we currently have. And she’d like to have a home office, as well as a room just for our little conures.
Thus far, searching for this type of property has been quite fun. As it turns out, there are tons of properties for sale offering outbuildings and extra garages, perfect for storing cars. Some of these properties are quite incredible. Check out this one in East Peoria, Illinois.
It comes with a pond and an artsy home, plus a pole barn that would fit my RTS bus with room to spare. I’d love to sit on the park benches next to the pond and watch the sunset. And for a gearhead, this place is just a lift, a heater, and some shop air away from being perfect. And it’s $324,900, which could be worse! But we can do better.
At some point, my house search gained “airport” as a search term. Now, this was done mainly as a joke, but to my surprise, you can buy entire airports. Most of these things cost in the millions, but there are a few private properties out there with their own landing strips. Here is where we’re finding car nirvana, a carvana, if you will.
Located in Jackson, Michigan about an hour outside of Detroit, sits one awesome property. The listing on Trade-A-Plane starts off by saying that you get a whopping 28 acres. And on that property, you get a four bedroom house with three bathrooms. The house is over 50 years old, and it definitely shows its age. The kitchen could use some updates, as could the exterior.
But this hits the spot for Sheryl. There’s a bedroom for the birds, a bedroom for us, a bedroom for her office, and a bigger kitchen than what we have now.
That’s nice enough, but this property is absolutely perfect for vehicles. First, as aerial views show, the house has a very long drive and tons of land obscured by trees. Not only do you have loads of space for cars, but you can wrench without neighbors staring you down.
Attached to the home is a two-door “oversized” garage. It’s unclear how large that garage is, but it’s at least two cars, probably more. Located behind the house is something special. Built at some point in this house’s past is a 40-foot by 40-foot hangar. That was built to store a plane, which would take off from the property’s own private air strip.
Oh yes, this property comes with a 2,100-foot grass runway. So not only do you have plenty of space for cars, but you have your own personal airport! The seller says that high performance aircraft have used this strip before. I bet it would be perfect for a cool little plane like a Cessna 172. And that’s not all. Since we’re talking about 28 acres here, there’s a wooded area that apparently can be used for hunting and it comes with some frontage on a nearby river.
If you’re not into flying, I see another opportunity for this place. You could probably set up your own personal dirt track or backyard mud pit. Vehicle tracks in satellite photos seem to suggest that may be what this place has been used for in recent times.
Perhaps the biggest surprise to me is that you get all of this for $489,900. Sure, you have to live in cold, rusty Michigan, but there’s so much room for activities! And you’re right by Detroit, where you’ll see all kinds of awesome cars in the summer. If it weren’t for the fact that we’re still waiting a little bit on the money, I’d be telling Sheryl to light up the seller’s phone.
Alternatively, maybe aviation isn’t your thing? There’s another property that’s been pulling on my heart strings. Located in Annawan, Illinois is a property with an unexpected feature. The house is fine, with three bedrooms and a single bath. It would definitely need updates as it doesn’t even have a dishwasher, but the home would definitely work for our needs.
This one is gearhead nirvana, but for different reasons. Walk outside and you’ll spot three outbuildings. The sizes of these buildings isn’t noted. Sadly, we don’t get a peek inside of anything but the home, too. But the outbuildings are all pretty big with large doors. And this property is perhaps even better than the last because it’s even further from civilization.
One of those outbuildings is noted to be a former car body shop and other a garage. Alright, so there’s your workshop right there, plus additional car storage.
But here’s the kicker, apparently you get a 20-unit storage complex with the purchase. Each unit measures in at 10 feet by 20 feet. The seller is renting the units out for income, which is pretty neat. But what I see here is 20 extra covered parking spaces on top of the three other outbuildings. Or you could modify the complex and have yourself a huge warehouse.
Unless you become Ron Dauzet, you’ll never run out of car space! And you get all of it for $355,000.
Sheryl says that she wants to start collecting forgotten front-wheel-drive cars from General Motors. So we definitely want a lot of space. This is another place that I wish we could get right now before someone else does.
I’m really excited for the coming future. Hopefully, I’ll soon be out of this apartment and away from people who like to accuse me of stealing my own cars or of running an illegal car dealership. No, I just have a lot of crapboxes and nowhere to put them! But with an airport or a whole storage complex in our hands, we can have everything under one roof.
Do you know of any cool gearhead properties that won’t require millions of dollars and a kidney? I want to know!
One thing to ask when looking at these giant properties: How long does it take to cut the grass? Also, given that both are in somewhat snowy areas, you would need to budget for some way to get the snow off those loooooooong driveways.
Also, find out what property insurance is for a place like that — I know when I had a summer place, the rates were heavy because “you have a volunteer fire department trying to save the foundation.”
Aside from that, I am astonished at what you get for your money in the States. Those types of properties would be 7 figures near a larger city in Canada.
Since they’ll be living there full time, it sounds like they’ll just *HAVE* to go buy a fire truck to lower their insurance rates.
I look forward to the series of articles searching for the best personal fire truck.
Those types of properties would be 7 figures near a larger city in Canada.
They would be in the States too. These locations are very remote.
Buy for acreage, and build your own barn.
You should be considering more than just how much garage space you can get per dollar. How about quality of life? You are shopping for the kind of place to buy that people stay at for many years. Maybe forever. Do you really want to freeze your ass off in some rust belt state? You are a Transwoman in a Lesbian marriage and here in Northern California that is just everyday life. It’s probably not so in the backwoods of Michigan. We have great weather year around. Cars aren’t rust buckets. The property you two invest in will actually go up in value. I’m just south of Sacramento and 1 1/2 hour to the west is San Francisco and 1 1/2 hour to the east if Lake Tahoe. Both are places you will probably love. I know prices are higher here, but you get what you pay for. Please consider a big move.
As I writing this California is passing Germany to become the fourth largest economy in the world.
Right…because everywhere else we’re just mouth breathers. Married Lesbian couples aren’t out of the ordinary here in South Alabama either.
I came here to say something similar. It’s worth considering who your neighbors may be in some of these places, even if you don’t have very many and may not see them terribly often.
I am feeling some serious Sacramento love having been there for a few days recently…. But are there not parts of CA that are pretty “Idaho-adjacent”?
Yes, there are a couple of plans that some people are working on, but will never happen. Northeastern California and Southeastern Oregon want to form the new 51st. state of Jefferson. There is a second plan that in phase 1 would transfer the same area in Oregon to Idaho. Then later on that area of California would join them to become the state of Greater Idaho. Those people are smoking way too much Northern California weed. Never going to happen.
If my lady and I could work remotely I would 1000% buy the house In Annawan. Plenty of property for activities and plenty of storage for my gear and a storage business to help cover the cost of my shenanigans. Sure it would be a big change from NY but honestly I don’t care. I can just imagine the garden I’d have and the home gym I could build… Okay back to reality.
Meanwhile, just across the border in Canada, none of those properties would be under 1 million loonies.
Okay but now you can’t buy any of these places, rule #1 of the internet, don’t tell people where you live, or you’ll have weirdos showing up on your doorstep
the coolest setup I have seen is a 100X50 Morton Building with about a 1/3 of it fited with walls and ceilings inside the building. the rest had cement floors and enough space to park a dozen cars, mor if you had those handy storage lifts. He also had 2 acres and a parking area ut front that you could pull in one end of his property and out the other with a perimeter privacy fence to keep out the lookiloos and people always asking “is that for sale?”
That’s my ideal house. 5,000 sf steel building with attached kitchen/bath.
congrats on the marriage/wedding!
1. You are correct to avoid HOA’s – AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. I literally had the sale of a house fall through because of pyscho HOA people killing the sale over a fence issue. Never again.
2. Native michigander here – that location is probably pretty solid, in terms of not being too far from Jackson/Lansing/Detroit. Don’t know the specifics around there, but I image it’s pretty rural, and not too picky about property rules / vehicles being out / etc. With your requirements, I’m sure you’re all over that haha.
The HOA advice cannot be upvoted and repeated enough.
There are two types of HOAs – Type 1 is run by a nosey stick-in-the-mud with an inferiority complex, and Type 2 will be at some point in the future.
I had a hard time convincing my wife how common it was to own one’s own airstrip, so I drove her past a couple within 10 miles of our house. She just thought they were unusually long yards until I pulled up the airport info for one.
Only problem I see there is keeping the maintenance up if you want to use it as a runway. Mudding and smooth grass don’t coexist.
Good luck with the search! If you see anything in Central IL that catches your eye, we can always use an official Autopian presence here.
Me and my wife are considering moving to (or near) St Louis for this reason. Compared to what you get in PA (where I am from) or Phoenix (where we are now) to St Louis (where she can work) it’s mind blowing.
Yep, the key is to move where the snowbirds summer. Never have to fight the boomers that way, because if they want to live here, they already do.
I’ve always thought the hype around the chicken was a tad overrated. It’s good but not drive-across-the state good. Though my views on the food could be shaded by the environment always being incredibly noisy and full of screaming kids. I’m from Midland (thanks Dow for Agent Orange, dioxin and whoever owned the dams but was too cheap to do maintenance!) and back when my extended family would gather, it would occasionally happen at Zender’s.
My favorite spots there are now the Frankenmuth Brewing Company and Tiffany’s.
As for chicken in the mitten, Krzysiak’s House Restaurant in Bay City, Lansing’s Eastside Fish and Fryz and the Painted Lady Saloon’s broasted chicken in Manistee are all wonderful.
As I get older and more anti-social, moving to a secluded estate somewhere looks more and more attractive. Just me, wife, dog, cars, workshop, and the internet. Must be nice roads though.
While the only properties I know of that might fit your criteria are in Alabama, might I suggest the website landwatch.com to help with your search. Sometimes it has stuff on it that does not show up on the more traditional real estate sites. While a lot of the property is just land, a good portion of it also includes homes and out buildings.
Does Jackson come with those awesome rotaty beam ham towers?
On a more practical note…mortgage rates are way up. Have you done a pre-qual?
This is the first then I thought when I saw your picture of the last property. Since I can’t post images, I’ll just leave this here (sorry for the quick and dirty MS Paint):
As a Jackson County resident, I think you guys would be ok there. Jackson, the city, has some history in car manufacturing (and a local, appointment-only car museum I’ve never been to, and, of course, the fun http://www.marshallmotorsclassics.com used car lot). There are some ok restaurants, and Ann Arbor isn’t far away.
The Gilmore Car Museum and the Kalamazoo AirZoo are about an hour to the west, and both are worth repeated visits. Their’s an R.E.O. museum in Lansing, but it’s a little rag-tag.
The smaller towns in Jackson County are a little Trumpy (some of the Whitman kidnap planers live in Munith near me), but Jackson itself isn’t, really. My totally subjective personal ranking system would give the city a solid B for diversity, but the county as a whole drags my over-all ranking down to a C-. Taxes are generally low (especially compared to the Ann Arbor area), so the city services aren’t awesome but generally adequate.
The roads are crap, but they are well plowed in the winter and are being improved.
but the great thing about a lack of diversity is that there are very low crime rates.
So high diversity = high crime? Can we not do things like that here. It’s a car site.
That clown is a Russia loving assbag. Nothing but trash.
I know right, no meth’d out white trash scum in my nice diverse neighborhood. It’s great!
Time to prioritize a report button right next to that edit button.
gotta go tattle when others cause your cognitive dissonance to flare up, eh ?
Wow…I’ve been looking at similarish things lately – house outside of town, hopefully with a large detached garage (or land enough to build one) – and they’re all well over $1M. I either need to win a lottery, or be ok with a 7 figure mortgage.
The property in Jackson has the makings of a great 700 yard range. Just sayin’
We made the same move during the pandemic. I got a 1970s passive solar home in the *middle* of 30 wooded acres that has a separate workshop (holds my 911 and 5 bikes with workbenches to spare) and a 30×60 barn. It wasn’t marketed well and we got it for right under $300k. Didn’t put our own eyes on it until we showed up with the dogs and motorcycles. Zero regrets.
Being invisible from the road is clutch. We’ve sacrificed a bit of Appalachian view, but you don’t know I am here unless I tell you. I’d take the Michigan place over Illinois for that reason alone if price were not a consideration.
Added bonuses:
– Stellar, low-traffic roads EVERYWHERE. Google ‘Back of the Dragon’, it knocks the ‘Tail’ out of the water
– I had to get a tractor. Tractors are rad.
Have you run Back of the Dragon personally? It’s been on my list for a while, but I haven’t found another reason to travel that direction.
Many times. I’d say it is a touch tighter than the ‘Tail in places, but a longer ride with less traffic. And I’ve yet to see a speed trap there. There are a whole network of good roads here.
I just bought a 1965 3-bedroom house on a 1/2-acre lot for $300,000. I couldn’t imagine getting all that extra land and buildings for not much more.
What a great idea for a wedding venue! I think my fiancé would veto a reception at the Klairmont Kollections, but it’s worth asking …
I was there, it was so freaking cool to have the whole museum to ourselves!
Make sure the internet doesn’t suck out in the sticks.
As someone without landline internet for the past 13 years, Starlink freaking rocks! The other satellite ISPs (e.g., Exceed and Hughes) are absolute garbage in comparison. I’m surprised they haven’t gone bankrupt yet. And, at the airfield home, she could put the antenna on one of those masts for a completely unobstructed view.
The other option is the home internet from the big cell providers. It used to be only in cities, but now is expanding rapidly and is pretty quick. Anywhere you have a cell data signal, you theoretically have 4G or 5G speeds.
You have to be careful about that too. I get 5G on my phone at home, but none of ATT, Verizon, or T-mobile would offer home 5G service in my area. Apparently they only offered it in their more remote locations where there was less demand for 5G mobile service. I’m in a weird situation where cable was never run down our street but the area is rapidly growing, so lots of kids on their phones.
It sure would be great to have someone from The Autopian in Michigan, near the Motor City, with David leaving for La La Land. That property in Jackson looks pretty nice.
Oh, how I wish my job could go remote. These are some great properties.
Since you have an option for more remote work, places like this are very appealing. Myself I like the room and option to store vehicles. I would not do general public but for a family member that needs a place to put a toy for the winter or work on for a bit, sure.
Now to find the money and job that allows me to do that.
Go for the one in Annawan, it’s only a few miles to Rip’s in Ladd, which has the best fried chicken in the world. But only on weekends.
Well, I have to disagree on the fried chicken – try the chicken in Frankenmuth, Michigan (Zehnder’s or Bavarian Inn, same company).
Once a year, my grandmother would take the whole extended family to Frankenmuth for a chicken feast. Great, now I am hungry and plotting a trip to Michigan!
Shoot. I did a reply fail and put all my MI chicken thoughts in a separate comment ????
And looks like the comment system turned the drumstick emoji into question marks… -face palm-
Well, Rip’s is dirt cheap. The breasts are big enough to fill the whole plate. They serve it on a slice of white bread, which soaks up the grease and tastes amazing.
Oh, and while you’re waiting, they bring you a paper boat filled with crispies. Orgasmic crispies.