Off-Grid Land for Sale in Arizona

What the word means here

The word gets used loosely. In our listing data, it is seller wording, and we do not verify it. For us it means three things at the lot: no utility electric service, no water main, and no sewer. Everything else is up to the lot. A parcel can be off-grid and have a well, or be a block from a power line and still be sold as off-grid because the owner never connected it.

Power is the clearest example. Among the 7,580 active vacant listings with parsed descriptions, 359 say power is at the lot and 267 say it is nearby. Most say nothing, and silence is not a finding. Before you buy any lot, ask the local utility in writing whether service reaches it and what a line extension would cost. The utility's new-service office gives the estimate, not us and not the seller.

Where the off-grid listings are

Mentions by county, counting active vacant listings whose descriptions say off-grid:

• Mohave: 264.
• Yavapai: 97.
• Coconino: 91.
• Apache: 78.
• Navajo: 55.
• Cochise: 30.

That is where the cheap acreage is, and the trade is the usual one: less money, more work. The cheap land page covers what the low price does and does not include, and Yavapai County land shows the listings around Seligman and Ash Fork.

Water

Water decides whether the lot is usable. There are two answers: haul it, or drill.

Hauling means a tank on a trailer filled at a fill station and emptied into a cistern at the lot. It works, and it is a recurring cost and chore. We do not quote a hauling price because we have no current one from a hauler; call two haulers or fill stations near the lot and ask what a tank costs delivered.

Drilling means a well, and Arizona requires paperwork before you start. Outside an active management area, you may not drill or deepen a well without first filing a notice of intention to drill with the state water department, on its form, naming the landowner and the legal description (A.R.S. 45-596). Inside a management area, even an exempt well needs the notice. Depth and yield vary by parcel, so the best guide to what you would hit is a well log from a neighbor. In our active listings, 552 mention an existing well, which is worth asking about on any lot you consider.

Power

Solar is the default. A modest array with batteries runs a cabin, and propane or a generator covers the gaps. We cannot give you a county permit rule for solar arrays, because we have not found one we can cite. Ask the county planning office whether a solar array or a cabin needs a permit on your parcel before you spend money on equipment.

Septic and the road

A permanent building usually needs an approved way to treat waste, and counties handle that through permits. 211 of our active vacant listings say a septic system is already in. On roads, 131 describe dirt access and 535 paved access. In northern Arizona a graded county dirt road is fine when dry, and snow or monsoon runoff can close it. Check the road's maintenance status and recorded legal access before you rely on it.

Our off-grid listing

The one lot we list under this topic is on Hidalgo Road near Seligman: five acres, priced as shown on the listing page, with a cabin already built, plumbing in, solar installed and hauled-water hookups. There is no well and no utility power. The road is dirt. We have not verified zoning, HOA status, the septic system or legal access, and the listing page says so in the feature list. If you want that cabin or one like it, read that page first and confirm those five items with Yavapai County before you make an offer.

If you want a lot with power at the street instead, look at land with utilities.

What to confirm before you buy any off-grid lot

1. Legal access: a recorded easement or county-maintained road, not just a track.
2. Power: written word from the utility on distance and cost.
3. Water: a well log nearby, or a fill station within a reasonable drive.
4. Zoning and the county's permit rules for a cabin, RV or septic system.
5. Deed restrictions, which some older subdivisions use to ban RVs or cabins.
6. Flood zone, since washes cut through a lot of cheap desert land.