If only my parents had taken my advice I would be the one telling you what to do. You make the money in the buying like said earlier. Even when the market stalled in 2008-9 I was able to finally get my parents to buy and they made $60k on 100 acres in one year.
You have to know which seller really wants the money and which seller has on the market wishing he can get what he is asking.
I'd look around the Coleman area, wait dont, leave that area for me.
Ive looked at so many properties on Lands of texas and other publications that I can tell you how long they have been on the market. I stopped on a trip with my uncle one day and he started reading the ad and I interupted him and told him the price.

Yep... I didn't read the rest of the rant...Everyone should be as lucky as "The rancher", when it comes to buying your place. Evidently he has the answers.

This is all fine and good until you buy in a mature or turning market.

Everything doesn't always go up, up, up at a rate that exceeds your cost of borrowing.

And in response to the obvious coming rebuttal, Texas land has been a fantastic market for the past 20 years. That hasn't always been the case and won't always be the case in the future.

Some really good info in this thread along with some humor...I like it!

One could make a good case that the Texas land market is a bubble that hasn't popped yet...on the other hand some area's continue to rise beyond belief...buying ranch land is much more dangerous "flip" than a convential house..."caveat emptor" does apply here gentlemen...

not really. I can build/buy a house to the same specs/floor plans, etc. as another house.

Property is non-homogenic....no two are alike. I'm talking about bigger properties here, not 50 or 60 acre tracts.

Ranch property in areas like South Texas and the Hill Country, where I specialize, has consistently risen over the last 20 years.

Property that was bought for $1100 or $1200/acre in the hill country is going for $4000-$6000/acre or more.

Property in South Texas that was bought for $300/acre in the early 90's is being sold for $2000-$2800/acre raw land.

That's a heck of a ROI.

Land in Texas has NEVER been a bubble. Land prices and housing prices are going up at rates never before seen in this state. This will not change. More people are moving to Texas than any other state in the nation. This is going to continue, with the population expected to double by 2040. Where will these people live? Where will the water come from to support the population growth? These are questions that we need to consider.

Nope. The difference in land and houses is that you can build more houses. But land is a finite resource. And as I've stated, if you do your research and are patient there is very little risk in raw land.

We are coming off a plateau in Texas ranch RE values. So yes, it doesn't always rise. But now, if you're sitting on land right now in Texas, you're making money hand over fist.

"But now, if you're sitting on land right now in Texas, you're making money hand over fist...

It all depends what you paid for it my friend...

and if you own any mineral rights on it... :-)

I am aware of Hill Country and South Texas prices...if you think they will rise ten fold over the next 20 years that would be the Hill Country at $60,000 per acre...that would be something to see!

This is also a great link as well...
http://recenter.tamu.edu/data/rland/

Land in Texas has NEVER been a bubble...

Try pre 1984...then look at the next seven years. Texas has been very lucky compared to other states. We might not always be as lucky in the future.

Most of the people moving to Texas are moving to DFW or Houston Five county area...they follow the good jobs!

The water issue needs its own seperate post, lol!

So if land was selling for $3700 an acre in 2008 and bought for $2700 an acre in 2011 then what happened? Same land will only sell for $2700 an acre today. There was a bubble, though a small one but still down 20% in many places. Stock market would have been better with zero costs and 10% upside. My friends have made their money on mineral rights and what is producing now. All the land appreciation is just gravy which they could have made in the stock market alone and more.

Where I hunt you can get the land for the same price it was 8 years ago for raw land. Lands of Texas still shows the same places for sale for years now in our area less than 2 hours from Dallas and a good hunting area. Luckily there are wiser people than the sellers/agents trying to break up 300 acres into 60 acre mesquite plots and call it great hunting. People buying today are more educated than ever before. Now 5000 acres in the brush country is a different story and the buyers are in a different league.

I keep coming back to this thread for my daily laugh. Most of you folks wouldn't know a "ranch" if it slapped you in the face.

I'll never own one...I'm hung up on tree farms and improved pasture for hay production.


Find an area you like and go make offers in the area. Everything is for sale, it's just a matter of $ matching up between the parties involved. Sometimes you can fall into good situations.

Your post above about having "bought more land than I'll trade in 30 years" caused me to make a note to check on that. Just sat down with a calculator and extrapolated the numbers. If you run the numbers from the last 17 years that I've been doing this through the next 13 years it comes to just under 109,000 acres. Not too shabby, but I'm sure no where near all the acres you've traded right?

No wonder I'm tired. However, in all honesty, I think I'm done for a while. So I doubt that I'll go much past the ~75,000 I've currently traded.

scoreboard







or is it?

. I've been slapped in the face by quite a few. I think ranches and I know each other pretty well.

I just answered a challenge. And he very well may have bought more land than me. As you've seen, I was smart enough not to take the bet.

But I never started that sh**.

I Sell and List Ranches in North Texas and there are several good spots in my opinion to look at when wanting to invest in land.

For those not discouraged by the bs. Another good resource besides landsoftexas is Texas real estate magazine.

I was surprised at how many properties are listed there that are not listed at other sites. And there are always some good sleeper properties there.

Universities too for donated/gifted properties they intend to sell.

Or in ETX just about every corporate owned timber tract is up for sale even if it's not listed.

Speaking of ethically challenged LOL

Well that depends on if it should have gotten hit with a gift tax @ both transactions.