How GoOffGrid screens off-grid property, what the score means, and what you get in the full report. See also how the scoring works.
GoOffGrid is a pre-purchase screening tool for off-grid land. Enter any US or Canadian address or GPS coordinates and it returns a free 0-100 viability score showing whether that specific property can realistically support off-grid living — before you spend money on site visits, surveys, or earnest money.
Six factors determine whether land can support off-grid living: water access, legal restrictions, solar energy potential, natural hazard exposure, food-growing capability, and buildability. GoOffGrid scores all six for any US or Canadian property using government data — rainfall and aquifer records, zoning and road access, peak sun hours, flood and wildfire maps, growing season and soil quality, and slope and septic feasibility.
Before buying off-grid land, verify five things at minimum: (1) legal access to the parcel — not all land touches a public road, (2) water availability — well depths and rainfall in the area, (3) zoning and county restrictions on off-grid living, (4) natural hazards like flood zones and wildfire risk, and (5) whether the terrain allows building and septic. A GoOffGrid report screens all of these from public data, then gives you a prioritized checklist of what to verify on-site.
The score starts each property at 100 points across six weighted dimensions — Water (25%), Legal & Access (20%), Energy (15%), Natural Hazards (15%), Food Production (15%), and Buildability (10%) — then subtracts points for specific problems found in the data, like deep water tables, steep slopes, flood zones, or missing road access. Roughly 75 deduction rules and 10 compounding rules are applied, and each dimension gets a confidence rating based on data quality.
GoOffGrid pulls from authoritative government and scientific sources: FEMA flood maps, USGS seismic and groundwater data, USDA soil surveys (SSURGO), NLR PVWatts solar modeling, US Forest Service wildfire hazard data, Copernicus satellite elevation data, 30 years of historical climate data via Open-Meteo, and OpenStreetMap road and surface-water data. Canadian properties additionally use PVGIS solar data, BC GWELLS well records, and 22 years of MODIS satellite fire history.
The score is a screening tool, not a substitute for on-site due diligence. It is calibrated against dozens of test properties across the US and Canada, and every dimension carries a confidence rating (High, Moderate, or Low) that tells you how complete the underlying data was. Use it to quickly rule out bad properties and focus your in-person verification budget on promising ones — the full report includes a checklist of exactly what to confirm on-site.
Living off-grid is legal in most of the rural US, but the details are controlled at the county level: some counties require a connection to the electric grid or an approved septic system, others have minimum dwelling sizes, and some have no zoning at all. GoOffGrid's Legal & Access dimension flags road access problems and surfaces county zoning information where available, plus state-level frameworks like Oregon's land-use laws or Vermont's Act 250, so you know what to verify with the county before buying.
Yes, for informational purposes. GoOffGrid looks up county zoning designations from public GIS systems covering roughly 571 US counties, and identifies states and provinces where rural land is commonly unzoned. Zoning data never affects the score itself — it's surfaced so you can verify the rules with the local planning office, and every report includes direct guidance on which office to contact.
GoOffGrid screens water availability using nearby government well records (depth and yield), 30-year rainfall history, and detected surface water like creeks and ponds. Water is the heaviest-weighted dimension at 25% of the score, and the full report includes estimated well-drilling costs for the area. It can't guarantee what's under your specific parcel — only a test well can — but it tells you what wells in the area look like before you commit.
Yes. GoOffGrid covers all of Canada with full scoring, using Canadian-specific sources like PVGIS solar data, MODIS satellite fire history, and BC GWELLS well records. Where Canadian data is thinner than US data — for example, soil quality or groundwater outside British Columbia — the score applies conservative adjustments and lowers the confidence rating rather than guessing.
The free score shows the overall 0-100 score, the score interpretation, and how many risk flags were detected. The $79 full report unlocks everything underneath: sub-scores for all six dimensions, every deduction with its reasoning, each risk flag explained with a recommended action, development cost estimates (well, septic, solar, road, land clearing), property-specific written analysis, a before-you-buy checklist, and a downloadable PDF.
A risk flag marks a potential deal-breaker that deserves attention beyond its point deduction — things like sitting in a FEMA flood zone, very high wildfire hazard, no verifiable legal road access, or extremely deep water tables. Each flag carries a Warning or Critical severity, and the full report explains every flag in plain language with a recommended next step.
Either works. You can enter a street address, a place name like "Perry County, TN", or GPS coordinates in almost any format. For raw land without an address, GPS coordinates are most precise: in Google Maps, right-click the parcel and click the coordinates that appear to copy them.
Yes. Your full report lives at a permanent private link, and the PDF can be re-downloaded at any time. Reports are not listed publicly or indexed by search engines — only people you share the link with can see them.
Have a property in mind? Screen it free — the 0-100 score takes about a minute.