It's true, I bought 2.8 acres with electricity and a well for $5k just a couple weeks ago. It can be done, and here are 4 tips that might help a few people in a similar situation as me find some land.
#1 - Be Prepared!
Yup, I was a Boy Scout and that is their motto. But it held true for me when looking for property. You can't buy anything for $5k if you don't have $5k. It can take years to come up with $5k, but you have to do it in whatever manner you can do it without stealing. Think outside the box for sources, because a bank loan is rarely an option. Some people could've bought my land on their credit card, so every situation is unique.
My property is at the very top left in the green area within the yellow box. Most of the rest of the land is the Ouachita National Forest. (Screenshot from Google Maps)
#2 - Shop Every Day
I found my property on craigslist 4 hours after it was listed. It was listed for $8,500. If you are prepared and see something come available, you are ready to pounce. Quick cash in hand for the seller can help you get the price lowered also.
There are tons of real estate websites out there for you to watch. Zillow, Realtor, Trulia, and many others that use the MLS system. My favorite was LandWatch. The properties listed on those sites have been officially "listed", so you aren't going to find many cheaper, for sale by owner properties. Its still very helpful to shop through Zillow, for example, as it will give you a good idea about prices and availability and restrictions/zoning in your area.
Looking beyond those popular websites that all use the MLS system is probably where you'll have your most luck. Craigslist is simple and quick, you should go there every day to do a quick search within your price range. Local newspapers, thrifty nickel classifieds, bulletin boards, look everywhere you can think of that will have properties available. People selling their own properties use creative ways to sell them instead of using more costly real estate listing services. HomesteadCrossing is an option for some people looking in the few areas they cover.
#3 - Lowered Expectations
This tip really was the key for me getting this property. There is nowhere to sleep or poop, for starters. As if that isn't bad enough, one of the adjacent neighbors has 4 confinement chicken production 300 feet long warehouse things. (Screen shot from Google Maps)
That's not sexy either. And its mostly an impenetrable forest. I'm not just going to be able to slide in with a nice garden, grazing sheep, and a big chicken flock right from the get go. Shoot, I was lucky it already had electricity, a water well, and high speed internet, most properties in that price range don't.
How low are you willing to go to get a dream started? We're all unique, you'll have to answer that for yourself. Joel Salatin is known to say "If you want it, you gotta WANT it." So I say Go For It!
#4 - Get Creative
This is useful throughout the entire process, from finding funding to searching for available properties and even while lowering expectations. Its very useful when looking at a property that is cheap.
An old shed that's about to fall over? Free materials for a chicken tractor and sheep shelter.
An old mobile home with holes in the floor and no heating or cooling? Storage, a workshop, a kitchen for processing livestock, or maybe just fixing one bedroom and one bathroom and living tiny inside it until the rest can be done in the future. Lots of underbrush and weeds and baby trees and everything else in a forest? Goat food, hugelkulture materials, mulch, bio-char, and many other avenues in the permaculture realm. A very tall Ham radio tower? No clue what I'm going to do with that yet, except put a few birdhouses on it. :) Think outside the box when looking at the property.
There you have my 4 tips for how I got my homestead for $5k. It will cost a LOT more than that over time, but it is a start. I made a YouTube video on this a while back if you want to watch that version of it.
Thanks to @silversmyth for helping pry the idea for this post loose. I'll end with a picture of Blue Mountain Lake, just two miles down the dirt road from the new place.
I apologize to those outside of my country or area to whom this probably doesn't help at all.