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TOPS Bunker: The Original Prepper Survivalist Podcast
Formerly known as the OGTX Bunker...
We are now TOPS Bunker. The Original Prepper Survivalist Podcast. By no means are we the actual, original podcast within the preparedness genre, but we really wanted to have a mascot for the show and of course, that had to be the hairy man himself... BIGFOOT. If anyone was to be crowned, The Original Prepper Survivalist, that title should most definitely go to Sasquatch.
As if y'all couldn't tell, we like to keep things light and fun. And in most cases, that includes this show and as well TOPS Bunker Group on Facebook. We get serious when we need to... mad when we have to... but most days we're just kickin around Survivalist and Preparedness ideas and mindsets to help our listeners and ourselves, be the best modern-day Preppers we can be.
Be sure not to miss a single episode of TOPS Bunker - A Podcast for Preppers.
Prepping - Surviving - Living - Thriving
Keith & Rhonda & Jeremy & Buddy
TOPS Bunker: The Original Prepper Survivalist Podcast
220 Buying Bug-Out Land - Pitfalls to Avoid with Christina Bowers
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Today we’re talking about one of the biggest decisions a Prepper Survivalist can make, especially if you are an aspiring Homesteader: Choosing the right piece of land to purchase. Whether you’re looking to start a small off-grid setup, build a full working homestead, or to simply move your family toward a more self-reliant lifestyle - real estate choices matter. The land you buy determines your water options, your food production, your security, your daily challenges, and your long-term success.
To help us break down what really matters when buying property for preparedness, we’ve invited a special guest who knows this world inside and out. Christina Bowers, owner of Bowers Realty Group, is a real estate professional who’s helped countless people find homes and land that fits their goals, their budget, and their overall survival plan. She’s ranked within the top 500 real estate agents in Oklahoma City Metro and is on track to close over 7 million in sales this year. She understands soil, zoning, utilities, inspections, access, and all the hidden details that can make or break your homestead dream.
So, if you’re considering a move, planning for the future, or just want to understand what to look for in a property built for resilience and self-sufficiency, this episode is for you.
Christina Bowers - 405.615.2093
Christina@Bowersrealtygroupokc.com
- Complete Guide - How to Buy Land When You’re Broke - Paperback
- Land Buying Tips from the Pros - Paperback
- Land Investment Mistakes: You Need to Know - Paperback
- How To Buy Land When You're Broke - Paperback
- The Practical Homesteading Encyclopedia - Paperback
- How To Buy Land Cheap 5th Edition - Paperback
- How To Buy a Homestead Property, Complete Guide - Paperback
Preppers… Survivalists… Off-Gridders… Homesteaders… and the like…
Welcome… to TOPS Bunker…
A Podcast for Preppers
Our Email is… SHTF@Topsbunker.com
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Don’t forget to check the Show Notes, in your Podcast Player, for a link to help support the show, valuable products and gear, and extra info on this episode.
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We’ve got a great show for ya…
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Today we’re talking about one of the biggest decisions a Prepper Survivalist can make, especially if you are an aspiring Homesteader: Choosing the right piece of land to purchase. Whether you’re looking to start a small off-grid setup, or build a full working homestead, or to simply move your family toward a more self-reliant lifestyle, real estate choices matter. The land you buy determines your water options, your food production, your security, your daily challenges, and your long-term success.
To help us break down what really matters when buying property for preparedness, we’ve invited a special guest who knows this world inside and out. Christina Bowers, owner of Bowers Realty Group, is a real estate professional who’s helped countless people find homes and land that fits their goals, their budget, and their overall survival plan. She’s ranked within the top 500 real estate agents in Oklahoma City Metro and is on track to close over 7 million in sales this year. She understands soil, zoning, utilities, inspections, access, and all the hidden details that can make or break your homestead dream.
So, if you’re considering a move, planning for the future, or just want to understand what to look for in a property built for resilience and self-sufficiency, this episode is for you.
So, Let’s get started.
Buddy
So here we go
07:21.90
Keith
Yeah. And, and when it comes to, uh, when it comes to, uh, preppers and survivalists, um, and homesteaders, all of that off graders, um, we're always in the back of our mind.
07:22.99
Buddy
Christina.
07:34.31
Keith
If we haven't already, we're always looking for the buck out place that could be, you know, an acre of land away from other people or, you know, as as secluded as possible or where there are other people who have are like-minded and, ah maybe to set up a cabin, maybe to set up a house, maybe to have your forever home.
07:52.06
Keith
ah maybe to have a homestead. you know There's all different types of people that are in within our our listening audience that ah that are interested in different types of things. But the problem is that but most people, and this was including me before I took my journey ah into buying property, um most of us don't have any clue on what the realities of it are and how to actually do it.
08:14.77
Keith
We all think that we're just gonna go get a loan, buy land, we're gonna have a house on it, and we're gonna do all these cool things, and we're fists in the air, we are strong. That's not how it works.
08:25.98
Keith
Um, it, it, it can be a very long and drawn out process.
08:29.06
Buddy
Thank you.
08:30.55
Keith
Um, what I have told everybody throughout all these podcasts that we've done is, uh, get a realtor, get an expert, get somebody to help you because there are pitfalls and things that you will, that will make you suffer and you will, you will spend more money than you think you had. We spent a lot of money and we still had a realtor, you know, just from doing all the trips and there's so many different ah you know, each time we went out and looked at properties, we were talking about, you know, six to eight hours worth of driving in a day, you know, with hotel expenses and gas expenses and going to all these different properties that didn't even work out.
09:09.60
Keith
And we could have saved so much money and so much time if we had known certain things. So there's a lot involved.
09:13.90
Buddy
Well, you bring up a good, yeah, you bring up a good point there that you really don't know what you don't know when it comes to this. Um, you know, I bought, i bought a home, uh, along the way.
09:21.37
Keith
Right. Right.
09:24.71
Buddy
And, uh, there's just so many, so many things you don't know. And a realtor is a subject matter expert and it's going to be there to run the traps for you. And, and they're going to know the things you don't know.
09:37.22
Buddy
And, you know, it might be a phone call to ask a question, um,
09:40.99
Keith
The one thing that I found out on my, on our my and this is my third ah ah real estate problem transaction that I did in my life. And the one thing that I found out early on is that the realtor that you hire works for you.
09:55.91
Keith
The realtor doesn't work for the seller. The realtor doesn't work for the bank. Now they might be associated with different things and that is possible. it's It's integrated, but the realtor you hire works for you. They're under contract balance.
10:09.46
Keith
from you.
10:09.83
Christina Bowers
Yes.
10:10.51
Keith
So they do everything for you. Use them as a tool. And that's why we have people like k Christina coming on tonight. Christina, welcome to the show. And I say, let's jump into it where do you want to start, buddy?
10:20.34
Buddy
Thank
10:23.20
Christina Bowers
Yeah, thank you. Thank you guys for, um, for inviting me on. So you're very right. Having the right realtor in your corner can make a world of difference because some realtors just aren't experienced with doing land or, you know, like a major project, like a homestead.
10:37.69
Christina Bowers
And you want to make sure that you have like the right person in your corner. So that is for sure. um I would say,
10:46.01
Christina Bowers
I would say i would also find somebody that you are really similar, like in your beliefs as well. Just, just in case that way you feel better about who you're giving your money to, because whether you're paying your agent or the seller is paying your agent, which is majority of the time agents can get the seller to pay for the listing agent and the buyer's agent. We can, we can negotiate our commission.
11:08.23
Christina Bowers
in your offer to the property and ask for that seller to pay for our commission because as buyers you're spending, oh my goodness, you're spending so much money just in investigations and inspections.
11:20.00
Christina Bowers
um That's something really important that you want to make sure that you do because you only have a very, very specific time frame in which you can get these inspections done per your contract. And if you have an agent that does not know that contract from front to back and you go one day over the inspection period without either saying, hey, you know what, we found all these things. We either want you to fix them or hey, we found all these things. We don't want to purchase this anymore. We want to back out. That's your opportunity to do that. And if you're one day past that or one hour past that,
11:50.93
Christina Bowers
then you were then you can get stuck buying the property as is and you're gonna have to find another way out of the contract which either means losing your earnest money, um you can get sued from the seller for non-performance, or you can just walk away entirely and help the seller just let you go. Sometimes that happens but having a good agent in your corner is super important especially this is one of the biggest financial decisions that most people make in their life and this is also one of the stepping stones into building wealth and that's ah that's another reason I'm here not only Am I experienced in land and home?
12:23.07
Christina Bowers
um I'm an experienced investor. And um I started in real estate probably, let's see, I bought my first investment property when I was 22.
12:34.00
Christina Bowers
So 2012, I bought my first investment property and I didn't get my license till years later. ah I've been in real estate for over a decade now. and And my clientele is about 98% referral just from people that I know.
12:47.46
Christina Bowers
who trust me and send their friends to me. And so so having the right agent in your corner is definitely, yeah.
12:52.13
Keith
You're a go getter right from the start.
12:57.38
Keith
22 years old buying your first house. That's pretty pretty amazing. That's very impressive.
13:02.91
Christina Bowers
and And I grew up, I grew up, my dad, he's an investor, and my dad would buy properties and we would move, he'd buy a foreclosure property and we would live in one room.
13:13.62
Christina Bowers
And he he's amazing. he He would rehab the whole house by himself. And then as soon as the house was looking great, he'd buy another one and we'd be living in another ran down house while he would rent that one. And he's built a portfolio now of I think over 40 properties um and a couple of commercial buildings.
13:31.24
Christina Bowers
And he's really the person that I learned all this from. So as soon as I saw that, I was like, you know what, maybe this is something I should be doing too. And that's kind of, that's kind of how I got into my real estate journey is just,
13:43.12
Christina Bowers
seeing that and thinking, oh, I can make money doing this too. And I can help other people. That's why I got my license. I saw, I saw how much this changed my life and the projection. This could, mean, this is going to change my children's lives. Just the way that I have my business set up, um, is something that's going to benefit my family, hopefully for generations, if I can teach my, my children to do the things that my dad taught me.
14:05.02
Christina Bowers
Um, so yeah.
14:06.73
Keith
Well, you know, and it's funny because you get lot of people, you know, like some people grow up in military families. Some people grew up in academia families. Some people grew up in, know, restaurant families. You grew up in real, I mean, like buddy, you grew up on a, on a farming family, you know, a ranching family, whatever.
14:22.42
Buddy
Yeah.
14:22.46
Keith
And she grew up in a real estate family. This is something that i never even thought of. You know, she was, she was seeing it from, you know, from adolescence. She was watching it actually happen in front of her face.
14:34.33
Keith
That's, That's a lot of experience. That's a lot of life experience right there for the profession you chose.
14:41.21
Christina Bowers
Yeah, thanks. And I had had a great role model. And he he just bought these houses to the point to where I was probably, i would say eight 10, he finally bought our homestead. And that's where I grew up at.
14:52.38
Christina Bowers
um And, you know, we had horses and chickens and cows and four-wheelers. And so he started doing, he had his home homestead base set up and then he started going out and using those properties as leverage to purchase other properties through the bank and just accelerate that investment and that return that he gets off of all of his properties and built this empire.
15:14.59
Christina Bowers
That if he didn't want to work, he could just sit back and retire or he can just keep going out and doing, he does multiple things. But having that as a mentor, i learned so much just by watching that.
15:27.48
Keith
Nice.
15:28.36
Buddy
Yeah, that's that's a good story there. and And, you know, I think they write country music songs about stuff like that. By Dirt, you know, I throw that in there a lot. so
15:39.93
Buddy
So, ah Christina, tell us a little bit about yourself. I mean, you've kind of slowly, what what why do you do what you do?
15:48.42
Keith
I think she told us everything about herself.
15:50.13
Buddy
I think so. but there's some I'm trying to dig out some more.
15:51.03
Christina Bowers
Almost, almost. um Well, my family, I'm i'm married. um My husband is a combat veteran and he's also in law enforcement. So we are very, you know, pro-America, pro-law enforcement.
16:06.35
Christina Bowers
and We really try to support those things in our community. i am What I kind of call myself is I'm a work-at-home mom instead of a stay-at-home mom. I'm a work-at-home mom. And so not only do I run our brokerage, I have about eight agents underneath me who who practice independently. I'm not a team, but I do have other agents underneath me as a broker.
16:25.51
Christina Bowers
And then I also homeschool my kids. um I just feel like, you know, ah have some beliefs on our you know, Oklahoma's 50th in education, and I'm just not happy with that. And and with my values and stuff, um I decided to move my kids to a homeschooling thing called Classical Conversation. It's a Christian-based type of homeschooling. We meet weekly and it's kind of kind of in the classical education system of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. And i'm teaching I'm trying to teach my kids to become independent and maybe one day become entrepreneurs and help me build this empire bigger or go and find something that they enjoy, but you know something that can teach them just to be not just better people, but contribute to the society in a positive way.
17:11.82
Keith
So do you have a homestead now?
17:14.46
Christina Bowers
I do. Yeah, we have we have about five acres. um and We have chickens and geese. um i'm I'm finishing off fencing off our property because really like to get them a horse and I'd like to get a cow, a couple cows. But yeah, we have a we a creek that runs through our property and it's pretty secluded and um we're really lucky where we're at.
17:36.26
Keith
You said you're going to, just a personal question. You said you're running a fence. Are you doing that with like a T posts and, and a barbed wire are you actually building an actual fence?
17:45.43
Christina Bowers
So the size of our property with our neighbors, our property is pretty long. um And so it's more long than it is wide. And so on the size of my property, I share with the neighbors, it is barbed wire and T-posts.
17:59.70
Christina Bowers
um So on the back, I'll probably do the same. On the front, I'd like to have like something kind of nice and cute that way to bring up but the ah market value in my house a little bit.
18:09.07
Keith
Yeah, that's smart. That's good.
18:11.12
Christina Bowers
Yeah, anything I do in my property, I try to think of how will this benefit not only myself, but if I ever decide to sell this one day, yeah know, I just don't want to put money into something and not get a return. So I need to have a positive positive before I make a decision because I'm kind of but very, very, how would I say, I'm very strict with how I spend my money.
18:32.29
Keith
Good.
18:32.96
Buddy
Yeah, that's awesome. You know, and I have to say that her husband's awesome too. He's a, he's a very dangerous man. He's a, he's an awesome, awesome guy, man. He's one of my favorites there.
18:44.65
Buddy
Uh, don't get to spend a lot of time with him and spend a couple years, but like to definitely make that connection again. Very, very good dude. Um,
18:52.76
Christina Bowers
I think, I think to be successful in business, it it always helps to have a spouse or a significant other that can really help you. They can help push you to become a better person. There's somebody you can bounce ideas off of. So when looking for a significant other, that was something that I really, ah really searched for hard. Somebody that loved God and somebody that would be willing to, you know, be my battle buddy whenever it came to whether it's faith, family, or working, you know, in all areas of my life.
19:23.05
Buddy
So I have a question here. So let's say that I'm looking for a homestead and, you know, I'm trying to go across state lines, you know, maybe a couple states over.
19:34.87
Buddy
I don't know anybody a couple states over, and especially realtors and stuff. How would I go about, but let's say it's Tennessee. I want to move to Tennessee. I don't know anybody there. How would I go about trying to find, you know, property there that, you know, I would be interested in?
19:50.49
Christina Bowers
Right. So you could call me. I have connections in almost every single state in the United States. The only two states I don't have connections is is Alaska and Hawaii, but I just need to go there so I can visit.
20:02.66
Christina Bowers
But um you can reach out to me and I could connect you with an agent, especially knowing you personally and your personality, your beliefs. It would be easier for me to find you somebody that way. um But yeah, I could find your referral partner down in that area that could take care of you and I could already pre-vet them for you, make sure that they know These are the things you're looking for in that way that you guys can connect.
20:23.64
Keith
Yeah. And a lot of real estate agents will do that. And, and you can also get ah a small little cut, you know, just for, I don't i don't know what you guys call it in the business, but what we, referral fee.
20:32.80
Christina Bowers
Yeah. Referral fee.
20:34.29
Keith
Yeah. We went through an agent, uh, that we, cause we were looking at land in another state and, um, I won't mention the real estate company because honestly, wasn't terribly happy with them for a couple of reasons, but, um,
20:46.65
Keith
this guy worked his butt off trying to help us find places, hours and days and days he spent helping us. And and each one of them just kept falling through. Then we wanted to go see some property in Missouri, another state that wasn't his area, but he knew people and he hooked us up with somebody who helped us, you know, get that, get that whole thing.
21:07.07
Keith
and And he was able to get a referral referral from it, which was really good. ah the One of the, the problem that I had with my real estate company, you might understand this because you said you have people working under you is a broker is that the property we bought, which we love, it was, uh, the real, the realtor was the realtor that I was using.
21:28.23
Keith
So he was actually working for the seller, but because it's a conflict of interest, he is one of his underlings or people that worked under him as our realtor.
21:31.04
Christina Bowers
Okay.
21:37.94
Keith
And I, and I feel personally, I feel like behind the the scenes, they were, Talking to each other and working it out, you know, the best, you know, the best way they can for themselves.
21:49.32
Keith
Because I think that there are things that happened, I won't mention but there are things that happened in our, our process, our contract and this and that, I feel my realtor could have fought more for us on.
22:00.93
Keith
And I, but and I think that that person backed off because they were actually working for the other person. They were like the underling of them. I think I really feel that's what happened because, you know, we, we were very generous in making ah the deal work for both of us, the seller and us.
22:07.69
Christina Bowers
Yeah.
22:15.85
Keith
And I feel, I still feel like they could have done more for us on that end. So I would say, be careful, you know, ah make, make sure the person, that you're using work.
22:26.48
Keith
There was a couple of times where I had to actually raise my voice to my realtor and be like, look, man, you work for me. And that guy, he doesn't want to, he doesn't want to work today because he's got something.
22:32.06
Christina Bowers
yeah
22:34.93
Keith
Every time we want to try and do something, he's got something to do. He can't, he can't come. He can't you know help us. I'm like, this is, you work for me. You don't work for him. So stop making excuses for him and get on the phone and get him over there. I want this to happen.
22:47.27
Christina Bowers
Right.
22:47.36
Keith
You know, it was, it was kept constantly feeling like, like they were working together to me. That's what it felt like.
22:52.48
Christina Bowers
Right. Yeah. And a lot of other states, dual agency is illegal. In the state of Oklahoma, we're allowed to And we have to you know explain to both parties, like I won't tell them your financial situation, you know vice versa, but you you're trusting that person's word.
23:07.10
Christina Bowers
And um there's some really great there's some really really great people in Oklahoma who are real estate agents. But there are a couple, there are a few that just... They're just not great. And so that's really, you have to be very careful because i they're not supposed to.
23:17.47
Keith
You do have to be careful. You do.
23:21.91
Christina Bowers
They're not supposed to. so We're not supposed to share anybody's information. And we're supposed to just be very.
23:24.44
Keith
That's right.
23:27.67
Keith
For instance, we actually bought a, ah you know, we we paid for the inspection of the house and somehow the seller got a hold of it. And we didn't give it to them.
23:35.72
Christina Bowers
Right.
23:36.68
Keith
we they they should They should pay for their own inspection. we didn't get We didn't offer it to them, but they got it. And I ah believe they got it through our realtor. That's the only way they could have gotten it.
23:45.87
Christina Bowers
Right. So it's pretty common in Oklahoma or actually our contracts written in a way to where it says any inspections that have happened in the property that will share it with the seller. That's the contract for Oklahoma State's out whenever we're going under a contract on houses.
24:00.34
Christina Bowers
And um that's mainly due to like, you know, if we're wanting to ask for a few items to be repaired, say you're buying like a single family home in a neighborhood or just a home in general. um And you we do the inspections, we deliver inspections and we're like, hey, you know, these are the items we're wanting you to fix.
24:15.12
Christina Bowers
And then we give them the full report, which really benefits you, especially if you're not asking for a lot of items. They see. they because these home inspectors they'll find nail that's not in the roof correctly that's popped up a little bit they're so good they can find every single thing wrong with these houses and those are the best inspectors to use you know you want to make sure you get an agent that has some very very strict inspectors that will find everything wrong with the house because if the seller won't fix it you have a really good hit list to go off of if you want to continue moving forward with the house um and then speaking of inspections inspections for a home
24:24.75
Keith
Oh yeah. Yep.
24:48.88
Christina Bowers
versus, you know, raw land where somebody's going to do a homestead. i mean, it's a vast difference in the type of inspections that you'll get, and we can get into that during this podcast whenever you guys want to. um but But yeah, that's it's it's pretty common to to share that home inspection with the seller. It really benefits you more than what you would think.
25:07.70
Buddy
Yeah, it seems like to me people, i mean, they want a homestead. they They fall in love with the know thought of homesteading and and eating their own garden, food from their own garden, raising animals and and doing the things and homesteading. But it seems like to me they would people would focus more on maybe the land than they would the house. And it seems like they would overlook You know, there's on that property, if there's, if it's not raw land, there's going to be a house and that that's part of the whole, you know, the whole package there. So have have you seen people that just get fixated on land or maybe just a house?
25:51.59
Christina Bowers
Oh, yes. When when showing houses, that the wife loves the house and the husband's worried about the land or the shop, and somehow we have to get everybody to come together make an agreement because I've had many instances where the husband just loved the property. I mean, there was everything he wanted, but, you know, and the house kitchen was too small. or there was It's hard to find something that both people can agree on, especially once you get into the inspection period.
26:14.27
Christina Bowers
you When you first start and you can finally get something that both people are just fully in love with, you're like, right, let's do inspections. And then you've got to re renegotiate and you have to talk to your buyers and and fill them out.
26:25.43
Christina Bowers
throughout the whole process. It's, it's very emotional for a lot of people and it's very, very stressful. People don't realize the amount of stress. I would say 70% of my clients get pretty stressed out when we're, especially first time home buyers or somebody that's really making a big investment like a homestead.
26:42.35
Christina Bowers
Um, you know, it's a very, very emotional process and, and a lot of people aren't mentally prepared for it.
26:48.57
Keith
Well, it's personal. It's a very personal thing.
26:50.11
Christina Bowers
Very personal, lots of money.
26:51.30
Keith
Yeah.
26:51.69
Christina Bowers
Yeah.
26:52.43
Keith
and And I can tell you, I've said this before when we were talking about looking for land for homesteading.
26:52.84
Christina Bowers
And,
26:57.19
Keith
and I would say i would just add in into what you were just saying is make sure that your better half, your other person, the other person involved here actually wants a homestead, actually wants to be a homesteader because you could, you know, if you get that thing, you're you're on, you're you're going.
27:07.42
Christina Bowers
Yes.
27:13.40
Keith
There's no stopping once you you get going.
27:13.73
Buddy
That's a good, that's a good point. I mean, if both parties don't buy into it, I mean, homesteads work and people don't realize it.
27:20.67
Keith
It's a lot of work.
27:22.07
Buddy
They, they romanticize it, I guess. And, And, you know, they see a couple YouTube videos where somebody walks out to a garden and picks, you know, a crop that they put in, you know, three months ago and then it goes in fries, fries it up for a video, you know, or whatever they may do, fix a dinner with it.
27:30.03
Keith
Right.
27:39.09
Buddy
And they don't understand that there's work involved in it. So.
27:41.73
Keith
I work from morning until night every day. And I do have my personal time.
27:44.39
Buddy
Yeah.
27:45.51
Keith
I make sure I get in there, but I'm i'm working all day. on sos but Right like minutes before I jumped on this, I was upstairs working on the ah the dishwasher. I got it opened up, ah sitting upside down in the kitchen floor right now, working on it. And my alarm went off. I'm like, shit, I got to get down there do the podcast. I mean, there's always work going on.
28:04.10
Buddy
Yeah, i think that's I think that's something people miss, but I i don't know. I grew up on homestead. have not been on one, and I'm not afraid of it, no, but I do know the work that goes into it.
28:13.49
Keith
You're not afraid of it.
28:18.14
Buddy
And, you know, those 10-, 12-hour days, you know, sometimes 16-hour days, you know, you just, it's part of life. Some days are four-hour days. Some days are 16, you know, just part of part of the experience.
28:28.96
Keith
Mm-hmm.
28:29.56
Christina Bowers
and right Right. Yeah. and And when you guys are looking at you know, when our homesteaders are looking at places like land to purchase, there are so many things that we could get out of the way before you even purchase it, before you even make the financial decision to stick with this homestead. there's There's tons of inspections to do that'll make you feel better about your decision or make you decide, oh my gosh, I'm so glad we did this. If I would have known, i would have never followed through with this loan. We walked and found something else.
28:56.18
Christina Bowers
And a lot of raw land that doesn't have any homes or just no utilities whatsoever, right? There might be you know, say electric to it. But, um, a lot of questions that a lot of buyers that I see with inexperienced agents,
29:08.07
Christina Bowers
um They don't ask like, hey, is a seller selling this land with oil rights or are there any covenants and restrictions on this property, which would be like, you know, no mobile homes or your house has to be this size.
29:21.64
Christina Bowers
um If you build a shop, it has to match the house. There's there's a plethora of crazy covenants restrictions. Some people put on these properties whenever they sell because they could be a neighbor and they'd not want the property to look a specific way. So,
29:33.75
Christina Bowers
They can put their thumb on you. And if you don't pay attention to your covenants and restrictions, if there is any on that land, that can really get to be annoying after all It's almost like being in an HOA without being in an HOA.
29:45.63
Keith
ah You're right. That's true.
29:46.95
Christina Bowers
and And ah a really good a really good section of land or you know a really good, how do I say this? you want to see if the like the land's in an unincorporated area, which is really mainly ran by the county.
30:00.28
Christina Bowers
And so an unincorporated area, you might not have to have permits. um People can't really tell you what to do with your property. You can, as a homesteader, you're going to want to go on there and do whatever you want to do. And you don't want your neighbors to be able to tell you how big certain things are. If you want to build a shop or greenhouse, you don't want to have permission that you can put it in a very specific spot.
30:19.77
Christina Bowers
ah That's never any fun. And then a few other things. um you want to You want to make sure it has water. So, I mean, if you're going to do, you're going to want to have a well expert come out. So in Oklahoma, we have, it's called the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
30:36.15
Christina Bowers
And as an agent, we you know, we already have that connection to the company. Most agents who do land have the have a connection with a well company. What they do out is they can they can go online through the Oklahoma Water so Resources Board and tell you all the wells in the area, the water wells in the area, how deep they had to drill. And they can give you a quote like, based on the wells in your area, this is how deep we would have to drill. This how much it would cost you to put water on the property before you even buy it. So you would have an idea of a hit list of how much you need to have saved up to start your homestead.
31:08.97
Christina Bowers
And the same thing with a septic, a septic company can come out and they do what's called as a soil profile. And they tell you if the soil is good or bad, what type of, you know, um septic system you can put in. um and when I was speaking with, there was a, there's a guy, he owns a vet septic service ah in Oklahoma city. And he was telling me that on large portions of land, some people, you know, you can get a regular septic. um You can get, on, let me pull it over here.
31:37.46
Christina Bowers
Sorry about that. I had to pull up my notes. um So you can get an aerobics. You can get an aerobics system, which is mainly in places that have really bad soil.
31:42.94
Buddy
Thank
31:47.26
Christina Bowers
But he was telling me anything over 40 acres, like a big section of land, most people would think of a lagoon um as kind of disgusting. um And he was telling me that um lagoons work for over 75 years or one of the least maintenance ah type of septics that you can get put on your property.
32:06.00
Christina Bowers
And you would think, oh, you know, a lagoon sounds kind of disgusting. It probably stinks. But he even said that with, you know, access to light and some water, he's like, you can't even tell that there's lagoons out there. Like if you go ah major highways like Loves, if you go to Loves where you're stopping you, maybe you're dumping off your camper or something, a majority of them have lagoons there. They just look like ponds to us because we don't know that's a lagoon.
32:27.75
Christina Bowers
So, um you know, if the the soil and everything's too bad and you don't want to spend money on aerobic system, which can be very expensive, you can always put a lagoon. But he did tell me that he would only put a lagoon on like a big majority of land, 40 acres or more, because if it's on something smaller, most people are not educated about lagoon. So it just grosses them out and it turns them away from the property altogether if it's like a smaller section of land.
32:52.57
Keith
We learned about lagoons when we were doing our our property search. And we actually looked at a couple of properties that had one ah had a lagoon and it automatically just turned my stomach thinking about i'm like, well, I got, I got go look at this before I even want to, you know, make a decision on this place.
33:04.59
Christina Bowers
Thank
33:07.26
Keith
And I don't think they took care of it very well because i I could smell, I mean, it was pretty stinky when I got up to it, you know, but yeah it should be the way the lagoon works is it should it should, it should purify everything as it comes out and organisms and different things, you know, do their business and they, they, they make it, they make it so that it doesn't stink.
33:12.56
Christina Bowers
you.
33:25.13
Keith
But if you don't work it properly, My real estate agents, both of them, that you know, we worked with, they said lagoons are the best way to go if you got enough land.
33:34.71
Christina Bowers
that
33:34.70
Keith
It's the it's the cheapest, easiest way and it it they'll last forever. And it's definitely the way to go. But you got to know what you're doing.
33:41.38
Buddy
Yeah, and i think the the light goes in and does its thing that, you know, natural light will go in and kill a lot of those bacteria and stuff.
33:41.67
Christina Bowers
Yes.
33:46.30
Keith
That's right. That's right.
33:48.12
Buddy
Now, I was involved in ah a property for a while in texas East Texas, and it had a lagoon. And you just couldn't keep the dogs out of it. They they thought it was a pond.
33:57.22
Christina Bowers
Hello. Hello.
33:58.57
Buddy
Yeah, and the dogs would want to come inside and cuddle up to and stuff.
33:58.84
Keith
Nasty.
34:02.14
Buddy
And it was just, it was a thing.
34:02.93
Keith
Hell no.
34:04.42
Buddy
So, yeah, there's there's pros and cons of a lagoon for sure.
34:08.57
Christina Bowers
Yeah, and then and then if you're purchasing a home in a neighborhood, it's it's so much easier. um The inspections, you know, are, I would say the inspections are a little bit easier. doing a standard home inspection. you You get a trusted home inspector. It comes in. he gives you a hit list of all the major you know, all the major units are HVAC. I mean, they do everything. They go on top of the roof.
34:29.69
Christina Bowers
um I would recommend having licensed roofer show up the same day and especially in Oklahoma, have a foundation person come out. Other states, you probably won't need it, but in Oklahoma, we we rattle a lot down here.
34:41.92
Christina Bowers
And so a foundation like but ah foundation inspection is very important and it's free. the That's you whatever you can get in the documentation on the house before you present present your your request to the seller.
34:57.55
Christina Bowers
it helps you out so much because not only if you can't come to an agreement with the seller, now that seller has to disclose all that information to the next buyer that comes in and tries to purchase the property.
35:07.04
Keith
That's right. That's right.
35:08.62
Christina Bowers
So it really, it's it's such a strong thing for you you to use when you're negotiating because not only can you say, hey, can you fix these items? You could also say, hey, instead of fixing these items, how about we knock down the purchase price?
35:20.67
Christina Bowers
I mean, there's so many things that you can negotiate at that point in your contract that would benefit you.
35:27.64
Buddy
So I have a question and guess it's my own personal knowledge. About a year ago, noticed there was a law change nationwide on whether, I guess, who's going to pay the fees, commission fees.
35:42.51
Christina Bowers
Oh, the commissions.
35:44.60
Buddy
And it looked like the the realtors got screwed in that whole transaction.
35:48.64
Christina Bowers
so Well, it
35:49.27
Buddy
What was up with that?
35:53.64
Christina Bowers
it's it's started out mainly, i feel, ah due to some agents not properly disclosing how their listing agreement works with their sellers. So, From my understanding, um agents got sued because the seller originally did not know that they were paying for both agents. So originally, last year, before this law changed, I would come to you and say, hey, buddy, I'm going list your house. um I want 6%.
36:18.59
Christina Bowers
And I always articulate to the seller that I'm splitting my commission with the other agent. So I'm taking 3%. And the other agent's taking 3%. I'm just using 6% as an example. Like, that's not a set rate.
36:30.76
Christina Bowers
throughout the United States is just common in our area. Um, so I would take 3%, the other agent would take 3%. Well, when it came down to the closing table, whenever the sellers seen the, um, the ultra settlement statement, which is like your final numbers for closing,
36:46.76
Christina Bowers
they would notice that the other agents commissions coming out of their net proceeds. And they're like, what? We didn't know that. And either the the agent didn't articulate it correctly or the sellers didn't read their contract correctly. Either way, the Department of Justice and the people who are suing agents won.
37:05.60
Christina Bowers
And so they split it up to where now if I want to ask, I'm representing you as your buyer's agent and this other agent has it listed, that listing agent only negotiates their commission directly with the seller. So if I'm listing your house, Keith, I would say, hey, um on my end, I charge 3% of the purchase price.
38:10.25
Christina Bowers
Home inspections can easily get over $1,000 $2,000 depending on if there's a well and septic and If there's a pool and how big the house is and and the land, and there's there's so many different things that come out of their pockets while they're trying to purchase a home. So having a good agent in your corner that can fight and say, hey, we're willing to offer you this, but could you also pay my commission? How about closing costs for my buyer? If you can pre-negotiate a couple of things on the contract, that also helps.
38:36.91
Christina Bowers
ah Many times whenever I'm sending in my buyer's offer, There's a, there's a special provisions that we can put in. And I always try to put in there, if any wood destroying organisms are found that the seller will ah do a full barrier treatment of the home at no cost to the buyer.
38:53.55
Christina Bowers
And so now I've already negotiated in termite treatment before we even done the inspection. And if the seller agrees to it, then he's already agreed to fixing that. If that becomes a problem.
39:02.81
Keith
See, that's, this is why it's very complicated. You need to have a realtor because that we got our, our, uh, contract specifically. And it said that there was no termites found when we moved in, I found termites. Now they weren't near the house. They were, they were out behind my shop, but,
39:19.49
Keith
There were termites, a lot of them. And I had to fix that because I didn't i didn't know enough up front to look at that, to actually pay more money to the inspector for different types of things. Because inspections, you can you can i' a la carte them.
39:33.07
Keith
you know for The more money you want to spend, you may want to spend a little bit less.
39:33.55
Christina Bowers
Mm-hmm.
39:36.58
Keith
you know and And you're right. That's money coming right out of your pocket. You need to have a realtor. It's very important. Do not do this on your own if you can help it.
39:46.27
Christina Bowers
Exactly. Another thing that real that a lot of people kind of overlook, depending on the type of loan they have, um like a VA loan and FHA loan, they're very strict on this specific rule, but say that the property you're purchasing has a well, um you're go to your inspector is going to want to inspect the water. So they're going to want to have the water tested. They send it off, it comes back, and it tells you what kind of bacteria is in it or if there's any bacteria in it that's harmful. and And on an FHA and a VA loan, if it comes back positive for any type of bacteria, then the seller has to fix that per your loan.
40:17.84
Christina Bowers
That's like a non-negotiable item. If that doesn't get fixed, your lender won't let you close. um It's not very expensive to fix, but it is something that's important because a lot of people, if you have like if you're buying cash or conventional,
40:31.97
Christina Bowers
And you decide, hey, you know, that's not that big of a deal. Anybody that's pregnant that drinks that or young children or elderly people, they can get they could die from drinking water that's got a little bit of bacteria in it.
40:43.73
Christina Bowers
So it's super important to make sure that you you have an agent on your side that explains these things to you. Because if your loan doesn't pass because the seller won't the seller won't fix the water or whatever it is, then um you're going to you're going to lose. You're going to be out all that money just to do that.
41:01.92
Christina Bowers
for it to not work out.
41:03.10
Keith
Yep.
41:58.67
Buddy
um Okay, so we'll go from here. All right. ah ah One of the questions I have is, it if somebody wants to start this process, what is the first steps in the process?
42:10.99
Buddy
And then my second question would be, and I ask all the you know pretty much everybody that comes on, what is your everyday carry? I want you to purse dump. so
42:21.32
Keith
That has nothing to do in real estate, but go ahead.
42:23.38
Buddy
Yeah, so yeah get to it.
42:23.40
Christina Bowers
Oh, yeah.
42:26.60
Christina Bowers
Okay, so to answer your first question, I would say reach out to your local real estate agent that you trust. Somebody, whether if you don't know somebody, you know ask somebody. Somebody knows a good agent or look up reviews. That's the most important thing because they're going to connect you with a lender who works well with them. You want you want a team that that enjoys working together. You know you don't want two separate for people that are clashing. So a lot of agents have a lender that they work very well with and things go much more smoothly if you're working with somebody that you like.
42:52.50
Christina Bowers
And then to answer your second question, I call i carry a Glock 36.
42:57.10
Keith
Oh, nice. Okay.
42:58.36
Christina Bowers
Yes.
43:00.76
Keith
I carry the Glock 26, a little small, but that's, that's good.
43:04.29
Christina Bowers
That's cute. I like it.
43:05.26
Keith
It's cute. Yeah. But i'm I'm a big guy. So if it fits on my, you know, fits on me concealed very nicely. ah I used to have a full size and it just, you know, stuck out, you know, like three feet away from me.
43:15.43
Keith
It was like, just didn't work.
43:16.10
Christina Bowers
Yeah. Yeah. as a real As a real estate agent, we have to be very careful. We meet a lot of people that we don't know. And so it's it's very good to
43:21.74
Keith
Oh yeah.
43:24.89
Christina Bowers
to stay strapped just in case somebody needs to get clapped. You know what I'm saying?
43:29.89
Keith
That's good. I like that. ah Do you have, um um we're going to put your contact information in the show notes for everybody to look at. and And it doesn't make a difference what state you live in. you can You can give Christina a call or or an email or something and ask her questions and see if she can help you out in in whatever area you need.
43:46.96
Keith
um Is there any kind of a link that you want to or anything you want to promote before we jump off?
43:52.36
Christina Bowers
Yeah, you can find me on Facebook, Christina Bowers, Bowers Realty Group Broker. um If you just Google Bowers Realty Group, OKC, my contact information is on there. i am also on Instagram.
44:05.72
Christina Bowers
um And I can I can I'll send you the link that you can put in the comments if anybody wants to directly contact me.
44:11.33
Keith
Cool. Yeah.
44:12.95
Christina Bowers
My email is ah Christina at Bowers Realty Group OKC dot com. But we'll also have them put that in the comments.
44:20.62
Keith
Outstanding. ah Yeah. And look, we want to get you back on for more of this because we got, there's so much more we need to touch on. And this is a really big topic for prepper survival with homesteaders. But I also want to probably maybe, maybe get you on to talk about homesteading since you're involved in that. So.
44:36.31
Christina Bowers
ah I would love to.
44:37.38
Keith
Be great. Yeah. Christina, thank you so much. You've been great as ah as a guest for us tonight. I know you're a little bit nervous at in the beginning, but you had no reason to. You knocked it out of the park.
44:47.31
Christina Bowers
I appreciate it. Thank you so much for inviting me and um and I look forward to coming on again.
My Prepper Brothers and Sisters…
… Choosing the right land to purchase for your bug-out location and homestead is a big deal. The very ground you stand on becomes the foundation of your security, your productivity, and your future. But it’s also the place where dreams take shape, where a lifestyle of stability, independence, and purpose can truly begin.
A heartfelt thank-you to Christina Bowers for sharing her guidance and helping us see what’s possible when we approach real estate with clarity and intention. Her insights remind us that a good piece of land isn’t just dirt, it’s potential. It’s a chance to create something lasting and generational.
If you’re thinking about making that move toward self-reliance, remember: every great homestead starts with one decision, one step, one acre. With the right preparation and the right mindset, the future you’re working toward is absolutely within reach.
Stay Prepped… Stay Happy….
Thanks for Listening… And Goodnight…
