The Rogue Valley Homestead Program

A structured program for people buying rural land in Josephine and Jackson County, and for those already living on it.

A parcel is a legal document before it is a piece of ground. Zoning decides whether a house can go on it, and how many. A well and a water right are two separate records, and holding one does not give you the other. Access can run across a neighbor’s land on a recorded easement or a handshake, and the difference only surfaces when the neighbor sells. The Rogue Valley Homestead Program settles all of that before you write an offer, and stays with the property for as long as you own it. The same questions apply whether you’re buying a parcel, already own one, or are getting ready to sell it. I ran the workshop program at a 12-acre sustainable living demonstration site years before I sold my first house. The technical side of a parcel is the main event here rather than a footnote to the view. The due diligence pieces marked unique or best in class below aren’t standard in this market.

What’s included


Zoning Read Unique offering	What the parcel’s designation actually permits, whether that is RR-5 in Josephine County, an EFU parcel with its farm-income test for a dwelling, or a forest zone, confirmed with the county planning department rather than read off the listing.
Water Right Check Unique offering	The Oregon Water Resources Department record for the property, because a creek on the map and a legal right to use it are two different questions.
Well and Septic Review Best in class	I coordinate and interpret a licensed well and septic inspection.
Access and Easements Best in class	Whether the road to the property is a recorded easement or an arrangement, who maintains it, and its characteristics across seasons and weather changes.
Wildfire and Insurance Reality Unique offering	The property’s hazard zone on the Oregon Department of Forestry map, plus an insurance quote on the specific address before closing.
Connectivity Test Unique offering	Cell signal walked at the property itself, and the internet options at that address confirmed with someone who lives nearby.
Build and Use Plan Unique offering	Whether an ADU, a second dwelling, a tiny home, a cluster of cottages, an RV, or livestock is permitted at that address, checked against the county’s rules rather than the seller’s assumptions.
Systems Read Unique offering	Where the sun actually falls on the building site, what the roof and the rainfall will give you in a catchment tank, and whether the ground drains well enough for what you want to grow.
Farm and Forest Deferral Unique offering	Whether the property carries a deferral, what happens to it when you take title, and what the recapture costs if the use changes.
Written Parcel Report Unique offering	Every finding above in one document, with its source named, before you write an offer. Updated as each inspection result lands.
Direct Access to Jamie	The same person from the first parcel you look at through closing, with a reply within 24 hours, evenings and weekends included.

How it works

First conversation: You describe what you want the land to do: a house, a shop, animals, a garden that feeds you, a cluster of small homes, or a place nobody can see from the road. I tell you which zones in Josephine and Jackson County allow it. The ones that would turn it into a fight with the county come off the list in that same conversation.

Parcel screening: The zoning, the water record, and the access all get checked before anyone schedules a showing. Ruling a parcel out on paper costs an afternoon. Ruling it out after closing can cost tens of thousands.

Due diligence: Once you are under contract, the well test, the septic inspection, the insurance quote, and the planning department conversation all happen inside the inspection period. Each result goes into your Parcel Report as it lands, with the source named.

Offer and close: I write the contingencies around what the parcel still has to prove, so an answer that comes back wrong gives you a way out rather than a problem.

After you own it: Zoning changes, deferral obligations, and the question of what the place is worth all come back eventually. I stay reachable for those, years after closing.

The training that informs this program

In 2007 and 2008 I managed the workshop program at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland, California, a 12-acre demonstration site built around off-grid power, natural building, permaculture, organic gardening, and rainwater catchment. My job was to find the people who could teach those skills and put them in front of the public. I grew the program by 30 percent.

Running the program meant sitting in on it. Over 80 hours of day-long workshops in passive solar design, straw bale and rammed earth construction, water catchment and greywater, sustainable growing, and emergency preparedness, taught by the people who did that work for a living.

Before that I directed a residential outdoor school in San Joaquin County and taught for the National Wildlife Federation. After it came over a decade in solar, including seven at SolarCity and Tesla as a Senior Energy Consultant, with a place in the Megawatt Club for the residential systems I sold. My degree is a B.S. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Michigan.

The questions on this page come from that work rather than from a real estate course. How much roof it takes to fill a catchment tank, and what a south-facing slope is worth in December: that was the day job.

Guides available now

These are in the Resource Library, free to read:

Two articles go deeper: Oregon Water Rights for Property Buyers, and Before You Homestead in Southern Oregon: 10 Tests That Prevent Expensive Regret. The Parcel Reality Check quiz walks the same variables in about five minutes.

The expertise without the program

The Homestead and Land Session runs 45 minutes and produces a written Land Buying Briefing: the zoning and use breakdown for your target area, a due diligence checklist for this region, water rights and access basics, and what lenders want to see on rural financing. It costs $200.

Book a free consult