Just a rant because I feel like a whole cup of piss has been poured in my cheerios.

Guess we will be trading cows as our neighbors for city folk. The 50 acres on our back fence got bought up by a “local” realtor and a neighborhood is going in. Rumor is the 10 acre place (owned by wife’s family we aren’t real close to, but we take care of and graze) on our W fence also may be sold to be included. Hopefully that part is just a rumor.

I knew 1.5 hours East of Dallas wasn’t far enough…but damn I figured it’d be a few more years at least. Didn’t even know the 50 acres was for sale until it was sold.

I guess I’m just getting old and grumpy. Was looking forward to our daughter getting to grow up here without all that mess around us.

It's a crap shoot anymore with housing developments, gravel pits, bit coin mining etc...

Progress can suck

Happening everywhere within a hour or 2 of DFW it seems

It is, even out West.

I genuinely feel bad for you. I’m in a similar situation. I bought my property in a very secluded place. Next thing I know, the brush on the backside has been cleared for a family of horse owners. I’ll bet damn good money that they are from either California or Dallas, and think that they now own a 5 acre “ranch.” That’s their right, as much as I hate to admit it. It still sucks. What can you do?

Get on the THF and gripe!

I wish they were going with 5 acre lots. Heard it’s going to be 2 acre lots - potentially 1.5. Not even enough land to get some entertainment value out of watching these new found land barons conquer the wilds of Van Zandt county.

I guess I just do not get the point of leaving your neighborhood in the city to come live in a neighborhood in the country. Think if I was going to live in a neighborhood I’d want to be in the city so I didn’t have to drive 45 minutes for just about anything other than a Walmart.

Yeah, ultimately, I guess that’s all we can do. Legally, at least, which is all any of us will do or should do. This world is closing in on us, like it or not.

That sucks. I've noticed similar around our place. Used to be rare to pass a vehicle of any type on the dirt road. Now, I pass a car or truck almost every time coming or going. For us, it's a bunch of 10 or 20 acres lots that have been bought up, but as time wears on, I suspect those lots will get smaller and smaller.

Everyone has to have their 5 acre ranch, these days.

This is why I like it here. It’s geographically a PITA to get to all the conveniences city people think they need.

Even that isn't safe anymore. Our ranch in West Texas in the middle of nowhere with a fair weather road and property near us is being cut up into 50-100 acre places.

I think that's called White Flight. My ex boss lives in Ben Wheeler on 30 acres and they're building homes right across the street from him. To say he is upset would be an understatement. A realty company here in Lindale bought 130 acres down at the end of our road. I'm having visions of tract homes dancing in my head.

I'm in Van Zandt too and the same thing is happening over here. A property down the road is being cut up for a housing addition. Its going to suck for the new home owners because the owner of the 50 acre property nearby sold all the top soil off. Huge excavation with multiple dozers, trackhoes and long lines of 18 wheel dump trucks waiting to load. When they finish its going to be a 50 acre swamp.

Being very concerned about this I approached the people across the highway about buying their property. They don't want to sell right now as they hope to pass it along to their sons. The people on the north and east of me are career farmers and cattle people with the sons involved. The property on the south is owned by a wealthy couple who have expanded their 120 acre place into 300 contiguous acres. We are friends with them and I would hope he would let me know if they ever decide to sell.

I bought a place in 1999 that had 27 acres behind it and an easement between me and my neighbor for access. The owner lived on the south side of the property and on another road for access. He put it up for sale(not his home) , leaving the easement as the only access. I thought it was overpriced, and the easement would keep it from selling. Well, out of staters will buy anything it seems. It sold in 12 months. The easement was only 90 feet from my house and my neighbors. I knew there was going to be problems with the traffic and I sold our place and moved within 90 days. The person who bought it sold a year later to another local couple. They got some of my mail and called me to come get it. He started telling me about all the problems they were having (a nightmare) with the person who bought the land and built a small house and an arena with several barns for horses. I felt bad for them because it was a beautiful and peaceful place for the 17 years that we lived there. I kept in touch with them and the bad neighbors sold and divorced after 3 years and the new owners (still from out of state) have been great neighbors for them.

Hit us in the face in 2021, 330 acer concrete casting plant 1/2 mile down the road from us.
We moved across the line "Oklahoma" and live is good.

The neighbor that wounds more deer than he finds bought some additional acreage across the road and has someone with a small dozer putting a road in. I hope it's for his own use, but another neighbor told me he's trying to sell some of it and a different neighbor told me the dozer started up the last day of regular rifle deer season, right along their common fence...while he was trying to hunt ( ) and that a local real estate agent was operating the dozer. That sounds like busting a place up to me. 'First neighbor imagines himself an "outfitter" and it'd be just like him to imagine himself a "developer."

I understand everyone wanting their own slice of "retreat", but I hate to see fragmentation of old ranches, particularly way out from any town. The odds it'll turn into a few whack-jobs' "fiefdom", trying to control others, are great. It's happening a lot in the far western part of the hill country. You see 'em for sale all the time, where someone's dream didn't turn out like they thought.

'Something I've learned as I've gotten older - sometimes "developers" don't have a $%^&*() clue what they're doing, just plenty of bravado and a really stupid loan "officer" at the bank.

One of my good friends ranch is now bordered solidly on 2.5 sides buy sub divisions, it’s sad but now it can be bought by the square inch on a 1031 exchange if someone has deep enough pockets, and pocket gets deeper daily, I know that doesn’t help matters but your land just went up in value exponentially

240 acres next to me has been for sale for 18 mos; now it looks like they're chopping it 75-75-90, possibly. At least there's a CR between us.

Not living in Texas I had no real idea of the magnitude of this issue on the Texas landscape. I see the numbers but numbers don’t do this justice. The sheer numbers of people and the urban sprawl. I went to the Mesquite area for a funeral last year. The first trip there in 2 or 3 years. With all the new neighborhoods and construction it seems Mesquite will stretch halfway to Longview if things don’t slow down …

It is amazing but extremely sad to see. This is a hunting forum and hunting, concrete, and people don’t usually mix well.

Sorry so many of you are going through this.
Big Hutch

In the past 4 years there has been a 500 acre ranch chopped up into 30-70 acre tracks. A 300 acre ranch chopped up into 20-60 acre tracks. A 360 acre ranch split into and sold. All these ranches are within 2 miles of me. That was the main decision to HF my ranch. This use to feel like the boondocks, just hunters and ranchers on the roads, not anymore. And it seems that about 1/3 of these new buyers really enjoy shooting tannerite.

I hunted on 40K acres, 20 mi. west of Kermit, 16 years ago. Miles, and miles back down a caliche road. North border was NM. Somebody on his west border had sold 10 ac. tracts...on eBay. And people bought them! The game warden just rolled his eyes about them when I met him. (Just checking, no violation.)

People are stupid.

Yeah that thing is a mess. Roads are always torn up as well

Go drive 69 between Greenville and Emory.
All along the North side of the road the land has been subdivided into 5 acre 'Ranchettes' for sale. Already fenced with gates. A few folks have bought two lots giving them 10 acres.
I'm sure it would be funny to go into local cafe in Lone Oak or Point and listen to them talk about their properties. You would probably hear the faint sound of the theme from Green Acres in the background.

People should stop selling their land, but property taxes encourage most heirs to sell off larger properties intead of keeping it for generations.

Talked to my neighbor yesterday that is caddy corner from me. He has decided to high fence.

Asked him why and apparently he is having major poaching issues on his place (my north neighbor is as well and their stories are almost similar).

Cant blame the guy but it’s sure gonna change the landscape.


I’m not one for change.