Google Earth · North America
35 layers covering the United States, Canada and Mexico, each one its own tickbox. Turn on what you're screening for — well depth, wildfire, radon, water rights, distance from the cities, state gun and homeschool law, military sites, where a real internet connection still reaches — and switch off what you don't care about. The land you want is what's left uncovered.
$49 for all 35. Yours to keep.
Not sure yet? Start with your own state's county ranking, free →
Customize it
Every layer is an independent tickbox in Google Earth, so the map is whatever your search needs it to be. Worried about tornadoes and the border? Tick the risky zones. Want to stay an hour from a city, not in one? Tick the metro rings. Want a climate you can grow in? Lay the climate classes underneath.
Most layers only draw the problems, so unshaded doesn't mean "no data" — it means "this is fine." Stack the ones that matter to you and read the gaps. Try it on the right.
What you get
Water: well depth, water rights, rainfall. Hazard: wildfire, seismic, radon, the risky zones. People: metro rings, population trajectory, emergency access. Cost: property tax and public land. Law: building codes, state gun and homeschool law. Security: military installations, nuclear strike zones and Cold War bunkers. Plus broadband, remote-but-connected counties, temperature and growing season, and Canada and Mexico at their own grain.
Built from NOAA, USGS, USFS, EPA, FCC, USDA, the Census Bureau and the Department of Defense, plus their Canadian and Mexican counterparts and state statute. Every layer names its sources, so you can check any number back to where it came from.
Every layer ships with notes on how to actually use it as a filter and where its data came from. The full set adds four ready-made recipes and an honest account of where the map stops being trustworthy.
.kmz files for Google Earth Web, Pro or mobile. No account, no plugin, no
login, no subscription. Yours to keep. To get notified of updates,
join the mailing list.
See every layer, what it draws, and where the data comes from →
Start free
This is what I look for, built into one layer: every county in a state ranked 0–100 against the others on water, privacy, hazard and access, each one clickable for the scores behind its colour. It's how I'd start a search, and it's free for your state — all 50, DC and Puerto Rico are built.
It's one person's criteria, though. When you know what you are screening for, the layers are how you build your own map.
Pricing
Your state's screen is free for an email address. The complete map is bought by email: write to support@preparedground.com, pay by reply, and the files come back the same way. Nothing here is a subscription: you keep the files, and to get notified of updates you can join the mailing list. Current release 2026-10-02 — what changed.
One state, every county in it ranked — free for an email address.
Free free · for an email
Pick a state, leave an email, and the download link comes by mail.
Best value
The complete set, one file per layer.
$49 USD · one-time
.kmz — load only what you needEmail, pay by reply, files by email. Google Earth Web, Pro or mobile.
Something that isn't in the set, built to your criteria.
$100 USD · one-time
Not parcel-level: no flood determinations, title, or listings.
Your shortlist on the map: 5 properties, a pin and a boundary each.
$50 USD · one-time
.kml backNot a survey. Email to order; pay by reply.
Sources
NLCD 2021 land cover, NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, USFS Wildfire Hazard Potential 2023, EPA radon zones, US Census, Zillow ZHVI, and state water-law doctrine. The datasets are free. The work is in assembling, reconciling and scoring them — which is what took months, and what you're buying.