Land for "ECOS" house in SOMD

I've been keeping my eyes peeled for land in the Southern Maryland area (I currently live and work around PAX). I would actually prefer to live near La Plata (closer to family), but anywhere south of there would work, or maybe even Upper Malboro or up toward Crofton. Anyway, this is a pretty broad area, but land is just so incredibly expensive around here (I'm from Ohio originally, where land is nearly cheap as dirt itself). Do a lot of people just stick signs out front of property or farm land they want to sell? I haven't seen much listed on SOMD.com (only 7 listings right now). Zillow/Realtor/etc have a number of properties available, but I'm just wondering if perhaps there is another way to find land for cheaper (probably would mean not having the realtors involved). I need a minimum of about 2 acres, preferably closer to 5.

The purpose of all this is to build a super efficient, completely off grid, self-sufficient, and natural house/greenhouse/homestead. I've been researching this extensively for the past year or so, and have a lot of construction and gardening experience. I initially put together the website for this project (ecoshouse.org) to try to make a documentary on the building of and living in the "ECOS House". That's still probable, but of course the first step is getting the land.

Any help would be appreciated.

-Ben

Cheaper land in King George Co across the 301 bridge. Less traffic that way too.

If you're trying to go off grid, then the closer to Pax the better. For that I'd say go south of the base. You definately need to be south of Waldorf. Traffic (carbon emissions) is just going to get worse and worse.

Thanks huntr1. I'm divided as to how far I want to be from friends and family. Everyone is either Pax, or La Plata and north up to Baltimore. Also, if I go on a site like Zillow.com and search recently sold land, there are plenty of properties sold for great prices. Maybe it's being sold between friends or family? Or maybe I'm just too focused on the list price, and I need to go in with a low offer and see if anyone bites.