We are prayerfully going to find our slice of heaven in the next couple of years. Rented houses since we got married right after I joined the Army and never saw the need to buy anything until now.

Been a lifelong leaser until 2 years ago. Shot my biggest buck in my life on my own place. It is true that I miss hanging in deer camp with my hunting buddies, but it’s nice to have to abide by my own rules. It’s also nice that I’m investing in hunting instead of losing money hunting

For all those that have replied that they own, how many acres do you have? Looking 5-7 years down the road I'd like to buy. If it were just myself and a son in law/grandson from time to time I think I could be happy with the right 500 acre place. After hunting huge acreage all my life I fear I'd get bored. After hearing some of the comments here, maybe not.

We own 100 ish acres. Not huge, but it is ours.

Get as much as you can afford and maybe a little more, if you can swing the payment. You'll get your money back and maybe a little more. Get as much as you can handle alone. It won't seem too small when you're handling it by yourself. Don't make plans on grown kids being that much help, no matter what they initially say. They have their own dreams, lives, and families and that's as it should be. 'Seen many "ventures" where "Oh, we're all one, big, happy family and everyone's really into it!" crash and burn.

My dream ranch is a pie-in-the-sky place where I'd have to have "staff", and I'm not a people person (nor do I speak Spanish good enough).

I have 70ish acres. Only Smith&Wesson, here's my analagous take on land ownership. It's a lot like a high school athlete that is looking to play at the next level and contemplating his/her options, DIII, NAIA, DII, FCS or FBS level, at a base level any of those are all doing what they may love, playing - hunting but there are definite differences. Lease hunting large property is the FBS level of hunting, lots of game, big game, lots of out of pocket costs, generally, and it goes down from there as you move down in land size, athlete size/speed/skill. Smaller than 300 acres of land ownership I'd compare to playing DII or lower. Generally less game, less size, less "big play" opportunity, sports analogy speaking. Again, this is a general depiction and individual properties/teams/games/conferences can vary. Having played DII football and baseball, end of day, my main desire was to continue playing into college, regardless of level for the joy and love of playing. Land ownership vs land leasing I see in a similar lens, what motivates a person and makes them happy and content enough as it relates to hunting and land stewardship should be at the core of any decision made. That said, I personally wish I had doubled or tripled my purchase size back 15 years ago.

Some of the most sage advisement right here^^^^

When I started looking for land in 2020 I was wanting around 300ish acres give or take; manageable size, build a small barndo, enough room for me, the wife and kids. Looked at a few places but nothing jumped out. My wife sent me a 125 acre place about an hour fifteen from the house, I glanced at it but let it sit in my inbox because it was too small. About a week later she had some buyers who wanted to look at it and asked if I wanted to come along. Well we get there, I unload the buggy and after a few min I saw what a great place it was. We had a powwow with the buyers and after they confirmed it was not for them, we made an offer with the agent on the spot.

Yes, it was smaller than I had liked, but had everything we needed ( two cabins, barn, water well, etc.) and I’ve improved upon it since then by replacing blinds, feeders, did significant cedar clearing, etc.). But it’s in a high game population area and we have had no issues filling tags with appropriate animals. If I would have waited, I wouldn’t have found a suitable property until July of last year AND missed out on an approx. 50% appreciation via the property I bought. It's a manageable size to maintain and I spend a lot of time there not doing much of anything other than filling feeders, trimming some brush and piddling around on the tractor or looking for arrowheads. It's a relaxing place to be and its very therapeutic to be out there.

On creeks note….everyone was all gung-ho when we bought the place. I maintained it pretty much by myself from day one but interest from 4/5’s of the family has waned. My wife loves it but rarely has time to go, and my boys haven’t been there in over a year. So yes, choose wisely and make a decision based on what YOU can do and want, not the opinions of non-participants.

Also factor in that 5-7 year timeline, prices will appreciate approx. 8% year over year.

So your gonna be lookin my at significant cost increase in 5 years

Which sucks because I'm planning on buying in a few years, hopefully not 5.

a person can only do what they can do, but I expect Rual land in Texas to keep increasing significantly for the foreseeable future. I was having a conversation yesterday talking about when I first got licensed back in 08' I could find a ranch around Freer for about $900/acre, same thing with the area between Rocksprings and Garvens store.

Now Duval County is in the low to upper $3k/acre range and that same stuff between Rocksprings and Garvens Store can be from the low $4000's to the Mid $6000's depending on the place.


Stuff in Frio County we were selling for $1800/acre in 2010 is now high $4k's to mid $5k's.


Land has appreciation has far, far outweighed inflation.

Yep, it's ridiculous. Kinda depressing, actually.

You can also try buying some crap piece now, with no intention of hunting or using it, just flipping it, to park some money. If it's half-way close to any growing area, you quite possibly could "trade up."

Dad bought a simple field, off Ackerman Road in San Antonio, not far from our shop. 'Had a guy farm it for ag valuation. He sold it and, with a little help from his father-in-law, bought 163 acres between Luckenbach and Grapetown...for $250.00 an acre in 1968.

I'll wait. $'s doing ok where it is.

Yep. Raw land is 10,000 an acre here.

Talked about this with some guys over coffee yesterday morning. These guys are medium to large size ranchers who both own and lease land. They also hunt. One has a lot of places and he can certainly afford it. Actually all of them can do as they damn well please in life. But, they can’t make it rain.

The agreement is that it’s like leasing cars or women. There is no return on investment on leasing but you do get a lot of variety and different experiences. There was no consensus on the troubles each causes. But, each figured that divorce is super expensive and selling land had a positive cash flow with taxes attached.

Whatever you choose to do with your time and money, make sure you do it while you can still make it to the bathroom without any assistance.

We have 108, when we were looking we were expecting to keep our acreage to around 50-75 acres as we were looking around Rocksprings. We came across one that was around 90 acres with some amazing views and the beginning of what could become an awesome home. After several attempts to come to a deal With the owners we moved on. I had a couple landowners reach out via FB who had their places up for sale. The first had potential but not utilities or cabin (it was being built) and was literally across a valley from the place we had tried to come to a deal on. The second was further than we had considered by about 30 minutes which put it at 2.5 hrs from home but was close to a decent sized town and was turn key fully furnished. The whole family went when we saw the second place and we all agreed we wanted it.

Fast forward almost 3 yrs, ppl want to come out and hunt and offer to help but actual help is hard to come by. I do all the work, which I don’t mind and there’s plenty to do. So keep in mind during season and off season things will break so be prepared, it helps to have some home repair skills and a willingness to get on some equipment to get things done. I think my most helpful friends has been my ranch neighbor. I help them when I’m there as much as I can and they reciprocate. It helps they live there full time until we migrate out there.

Do it as soon as you can if that’s your dream.

I just use daughter's place. Doesn't cost much, just hog hunting and visit her side of the family. Help as much as I can but they have to do the 'heavy' lifting. Maintenance is continuous and can be expensive, tractors and planting, etc. They consider it an investment but haven't broke even in 5 yrs. I looked for land, pretty pricy and they beat me to it. GKs show up once in a while. Determine what you want, long or short term and go from there.

Congratulations on your place. The whole looking for a place is something I doubt I'll ever do again, but...never say "never." It was exhausting, particularly with what some sellers expect the buyer to accept. "Oh, there's a well, but we're gonna keep that part. We'll make you a good deal on the water." Or "I haven't finished the exact route of the easement first, but, you will have to go right by my brother's house." Then, later, you meet the brother in town (Rocksprings ) and he is a complete and utter ahole. I won't even go into the seller's daughter that was in a wheelchair, and had an infant, and pets, inside, in a mobile home, and had show sheep...not in the mobile home thankfully.

We have 250 ac in western Young County.

For what I want and what I can afford leasing it is. I have 1,100 acres less than 2 hours from the house for less than $2k. Been there 15 years. 50 acres around there now costs $600k thanks to the covid crowd and you really couldn't hunt it. If I owned a place I would be the only going out there and wouldn't be often. My friends who own bought 20 years ago and probably had a little help. If I bought now I would have to live on it and sell my house and find a job paying $200k in the sticks and wife would definitely leave me lol.

Thanks, I’m with you on the searching part, but I have heard that the highway 277 which we have frontage on is now in development to become an interstate. Pros and cons to it so now I’m keeping an eye out for my neighbors who may be wanting to move to add acreage and a potential new entrance off the neighboring highway what won’t be interstate frontage. If things get bad and I can’t find a neighbor who’s looking to sell we may need to consider selling and moving someplace else but same general area. Hope not but being realistic as I don’t know how that’s going to affect my hunting and primarily my peace out there.

I wouldn’t hold my breath on 277 becoming an interstate any time soon.

Interstate 69 has been in the works for several decades now…