You cannot become a good land investor by just going to school. One becomes good at it by learning from mistakes....either someone else's, or your own.

Call me if you get in the mood to buy or sell undeveloped land. I may even try to talk you out of it if you have not yet done your "Deep-diligence."

It is critical when you buy that beautiful acreage, that you know how the soil will support cattle grazing, fracture a house foundation, or just stick to grandchildren playing, when the frozen wet ground thaws in the spring.

When considering land boundaries, it is critical to "believe no one" and triple-check where the legally binding boundary lies, perhaps wholly independent of the last 100 years' fence line location.

The for-sale ad says "Has its own well." Sure it does (wink). But how deep is it? What is the static pressure level? How much has the potentiometric level fallen or rose the past 10 years? Has the pump had to be lowered in low-rain years? What neighbors have regularly used some of the water and might expect to continue? Has the well ever run dry, even just a few moments, and for how long before it re-charged? Has it ever turned red? Clogged with smudge? Which over-lying aquifer is there, and is it one that filters out bad materials, or just a solid-rock formation that allows seepage to well-pump depth through cracks in the rock?

Who still thinks they have a right to traverse your land? How strongly, and how long, are the surrounding landowners obligated to let you drive across the corner of their property to get to yours?

Did the previous landowner qualify for enormously reduced (agricultural) property taxes, but you will be bumped (way) up to "Non-owner Occupied" residential tax rate? The difference out of your pocket could be many thousands of dollars per year.

In short, buying undeveloped land is a lot more complex, not less complex, than buying many suburban homes-with-lot. In a housing development, many of these complications have been resolved. But when you buy land near the Black Hills, it is sometimes the first time it has ever been sold to anyone, since homesteading. During that 100+ years, many, many forgotten, misunderstood, disuputed and misrepresented "facts" could have accumlated to cloud the land deal that looks so simple on the surface.

If you want to commit the act of "deep diligence" before jumping in to buy some land, then perhaps I can help. If you want to invest in land as an alternative to riding a Wall Street roller coaster of Asian equities, email me at Lee@BHhomes.INFO.