So I was born and raised in Colorado and I'm now in my 40's. Colorado is quickly turning into California and I can no longer live here with what is happening. I'm a HUGE gun guy and shoot all the time and instruct NRA classes. My wife is a surgical nurse at one of the best hospitals in the country(she has serious skills). We want to down size and get a smaller house but add a shop building and 2 to 10 acres so we can shoot on our land and enjoy some out door projects. We would need to be near a hospital so she could get a surgical nursing job. We will have about $50-75K for a down payment and dont want to spend more then $250,000 including our down payment to keep our mortgage as low as possible. With that budget, could we buy land outside of a town/city and build to our specs? We have not moved in many, many years and dont know where to start. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!!!

I wonder about checking out Zillow. That could give you an idea, but since you don't have it narrowed down, it might be challenging or daunting.

If CO is turning into CA to you, I'd skip Lincoln and Omaha. There's Norfolk, Grand Island other mid sized towns.

2-10 acres are probably part of a development and subject to stipulations.
You can find 20 acres which is likely stand alone.
It will run $45k to $100k, but you can build as you want.
You might be around a small town and likely 30 minutes minimum from Omaha or Lincoln (hospital).

If you go west to grand island or Kearney or scottsbluff (maybe north platte) you can likely get closer or farther from the hospital.
Lower cost of living.
Love north of north platte in the Sandhills.
There is a doctor’s group at the small hospital in pender, not the usual set up at smaller hospitals.

Thanks gentleman! I'll look into those! I dont want to be in a "subdivision? or HOA type situation. I want to be left alone and be able to shoot and do what I want.

Don't buy property in Douglas County, lest you be annexed conquered by Omaha.

Stay far away from North Platte.  It just blows.  Little to do.  Poor dining.  Poor shopping.  I was born and raised in the area and will be escaping from there this weekend (moving to Omaha area).

Since she is a nurse; she can get a job at any hospital in the state. They are all looking for nurses; maybe not surgical nurses but nurses in general.

Closer you get to any decent size city the price of land will go up. Get out in the boonies and grass/pasture land can be had for 1k-2k an acre.

Appreciate it guys!

Just curious as you posted the same thing in the MO hometown forum, which state are you planning to move too?

I have lived in CO, MO, & NE...

Not sure if you’re still in the looking stages, but as it relates to your wife’s work as a surgical nurse, the big regional hospitals outside of the metro areas are in Scottsbluff, Norfolk, North Platte, and Kearney.  Seriously skilled surgical nurses would be in greater demand there.