1. What are your goals in buying a property? Investment, income, recreation, hunting, peace of mind, or all that and more? This is the first question you should answer when you begin the process of looking for a property.

2. The next step is to find out what type of properties that are available and meet those goals.

3. Then you should figure out your budget and how you will fund your purchase. These two things must be done together. Both will vary some, based on the other. For more information on how to pay for your investment see this post, “Land Purchase Funding Options.”

4. Once you have these taken care of, you need to figure out where you would like this investment to be. This area can be very limited or very open. I would suggest leaning toward a more limited scope though. Too broad of a base will lead you to feeling a bit overwhelmed and under prepared.

5. Next you should visit the area. Spend a weekend in the part of the world you have selected and see if you like the area and if it meets your goals.

6. Now its finally time to start screening properties. The first thing I suggest is searching the Internet. Many of you are already at this point. Please, may I humbly ask you to go back, and complete steps 1-5 before going on. You may find it helpful to write down your findings from each of these steps. There are many search sites out there. Look around. This is very important to educating you about the current market in your chosen area.

7. Once you have done all of this, contact an agent. Find one that specializes in land transactions. Let the agent know what properties are of interest to you and why. Let him know the answers to the questions in the first 5 steps. A good agent can serve you best if he has a complete knowledge of your goals, budget, funding, needs, likes, and dislikes.

8. In step six, you should have prepared a list of many, many properties. Once you have made this list and given me the information in step 7, your agent can help you screen out some properties and screen in others.

9. Then schedule a time for first meeting with the agent. This is a time for you to look at potential properties and to get to know your agent. Looking at a few properties with you will help calibrate your agent as to what you like and dislike. It may change your mind about some things as well.

10. It may take several meetings to find a few potential candidates. Once you have looked at properties that you really like, narrow the list to two or three that meet your needs best. Please keep in mind that there is no “perfect” property. All properties have issues and the likelihood of you finding everything you want, exactly the way you want it, is very slim. Find those that fit the mold best.

11. Then look carefully at these properties. Spend time investigating these properties. Get a feel for what the property is and what it is about. Don’t forget to look around the area surrounding the property. Compare the property to the goals you set out in the first step. If it fits these goals, the location is right, and it is within your budget, then it is time to compare it to the others on your shortlist.

12. Rank the properties in order of your preference. Then figure out what each property is worth to you…regardless of the market, regardless of the listing price. Each property will have a personal value to you. A value that is consistent with how you will use the property. This might be more or less than the listing price. I would suggest that you go after those that you value more than the listing price, or at least the ones that are as close as possible.

13. Now is the time to really turn the top candidate inside out. Make doubly sure it is the best fit for you. Make sure there are no issues that you cannot live with. Ask any questions that you have left at this point. Understand the property. This is where you do most of your due-diligence. (making sure the property is suitable and what it appears to be)

14. Now you are ready to make an offer. Do this in writing in the form of an offer to purchase. The seller will take an offer more seriously if it is a written one. I cannot tell you what to offer. I can tell you that most buyers do not offer their top-dollar right off the bat. Most buyers expect a counteroffer from the seller. You should expect one too. Don’t let the offer process get to you emotionally. This is a business transaction and should be treated as such. The buyer and seller are both out to get the best deal for themselves. You should not blame a seller for trying to sell a property for everything that he can get out of it. That does not mean that you must meet the seller’s price though. Remember that not all negotiating is on price. There are many conditions, terms, and other things that can come into play. Do not overuse these things, but protect yourself as best you can as well. Your agent should give you some guidance here.

15. If you have an offer and acceptance, move on to step 16. If not, continue the offer process until you have reached an agreement or ruled the property out. You should not offer more than the property is worth to you, or you can justify logically. If you rule the property out in the offer process, go back to your list and start at step 13 with the 2nd property on your list.

16. Contract! Once you have an offer and acceptance you will have a written, binding agreement to purchase the property, as long as the terms and conditions outlined in the contract are met. Now you should begin doing anything that the contract requires you to do. Getting financing, a closing attorney, inspections, whatever the contract calls for. Again, a good agent will help you in this process.

17. Once all of the terms and conditions have been satisfied and you are ready to fund the transaction, it is time to close on the property. Your agent will work with you, the closing agent, the seller and anyone else to schedule a time or course of action to get the closing completed. We complete many transactions via overnight delivery services, fax, and email today.

18. Close on the property. Get the keys, transfer utilities, make sure you are properly insured. Find out how the property taxes are handled and make sure you have a good understanding of that process.

19. Enjoy your new land investment!

Again, this is a logical process to proceed through when buying a property. Many people are overwhelmed by the process but it need not be something that people fear or dread. Taken one step at a time, you will find the property that is right for you, at the right price for you. There are many of these steps that I will need to be there to help guide you through. No worries!…An agent who is experienced and specializes in land transactions has been there, done that! You should know, however, that every transaction is different. I learn new things every time. 10+ years of experience has taught me many of the pitfalls to avoid, and the easiest ways to get from the beginning of the process to your owning a piece of rural property.

So what does all this have to do with land? Traditionally when returns decline in traditional investment outlets, investors start to look for investment opportunities outside normal channels. For instance, some have turned toward gold as an option. Now many are turning to buy land as a safe haven for their funds.

Let me give you an example. I first cut my teeth on land investing in 2004 in the North Florida area. I was associated with a real estate firm that all they did was broker land. In early 2005 the office was receiving a phone inquiry every 15 MINUTES! In fact, the office could not keep pace with enough land parcels to service the demand (who were ready to pay with cash).

Why was there such an influx of activity to buy land? I asked this question at that time to many perspective buyers. About 80% of them were looking for an investment option outside the stock market. If you remember, the stock market returns were flat for much of 2003 and 2004. So some investors were growing impatient with returns there and begin to research other creative investment options. In fact, the Miami Herald wrote a story about this in 2004. They stated that one of those creative options was to invest in land and suggested North Florida is where someone should invest. After that article, the land brokerage was surprised to experience a flurry of activity.

Conclusion: Stock market returns flat – investors seek other investment outlets.

The question now is: If most investors have currently lost money in the stock market are they going to search out other places outside the stock market to invest in? Absolutely!

So if you are going to invest in land, strike while prices are still low. Because when land investing becomes more mainstream as it was in Florida in 2004 and 2005 as some point there won’t be enough affordable parcels of land available to meet the demand.

How can we serve you? We can help you to connect with an affordable parcel of land that will meet your investment needs. Call 1-877-8VACANT (877-882-2268) or email us at info@vacantlandguide.com today to learn more.

I sold it about 20 years ago, regretting the need to sell. Even at 2008’s deflated prices, it would move today for at least 50 times what I’d paid, more likely 75.

Since buyer intelligence doesn’t explain my success, what does?

Time and proximity.

Time almost always appreciates land.

The other factor was proximity to a small town with a university engine powering its development…and all the land within convenient driving distance of it.

Current conditions favor buyers of rural property.

First, the economy is pointing down, and economists are fighting over how far it will go and how long it will last. The immediate future looks bleaker, rather than brighter. Unemployment is up; corporate profits are down. Stocks are down by almost 50 percent. Everyone thinks it’s a good day when the Dow Industrials fall by only 200 points.

Second, big banks with their securitized mortgage portfolios are now depending on the U.S. Treasury to offer them something more than what their “toxic loans” are actually worth. These banks are not lending much to anybody, including each other. Buyers of residential property in cities and suburbs are locked up and locked into circumstances where lenders don’t want to risk their money and borrowers can’t find mortgages.

Third, the housing market is getting worse. Some seven million residences are expected to be in default over the next couple of years and more than four million in foreclosure. Prices have fallen by 25 to 50 percent in most places. Their direction continues to be down. Some sales are occurring at those new valuations.

That’s part of the “good” news; here’s the rest.

Mortgage rates are relatively cheap.

Mortgage credit is available in the countryside through the federal Farm Credit Services (click on a state to find local coop information); credit unions; and locally owned banks.

Sellers, who have their property listed in these unfavorable conditions, are motivated. They know that prices are down and buyers are precious. They know that the valuations of a year ago are inflated.

I’m not gloating over these circumstances. I’m simply reporting where I see the real-estate market.

I would advise buyers to look for land that has some, or all, of these features:

• 20 acres or more
• “reasonably divisible” under local ordinances
• buyable at a price pegged to comparables sold five to seven years ago
• physical and legal access, either with adequate frontage on a public road or with a recorded right-of-way easement of sufficient width, usability and without restrictions
• acreage confirmable by survey or deed-mapper program
• boundaries in the deed coincident with boundaries on the ground—no boundary disputes or encroachments
• general warranty deed preferred; special warranty deed is second choice
• fee-simple ownership, including minerals; be wary of property where minerals have been leased or sold
• no environmental deal-breakers—endangered species or their habitat, wetlands, floodplains, archeological treasures, soil instability (landslides, earthquake zones); water pollution, on-site dumps
• no conservation easement or other significant use restrictions
• adequate water for your purposes
• mostly useable terrain—not to steep, wet or otherwise inhospitable
• building sites
• woods that have present or future timber value

As for location, it’s pretty simple. Find a place within a 45-minute drive of a major university located in a small town or city. (I’m not talking about small liberal-arts colleges and community colleges.)

Universities, like land-grant institutions, have a core set of facilities and payroll that will be carried through a recession. In better times, the institution will grow along with our population and its ever-increasing demand for educational credentials and training.

Budgets for public universities are likely to be cut in a recession, but universities don’t disappear.

Faculty are ready buyers for undeveloped country property and older farmhouses.

Universities generate business around them. A university and its micro-economy always drives land prices up in the surrounding area.

Get in now at the right price, and let time turn your profit.

2. Visit on a cold, rainy miserable day.  Look for water problems on the roof and at the foundation.  Is the creek high or in flood?

3. Visit at night and on weekdays.  Is night-time lighting offensive?  Traffic?  Noise?  Odors?

4. Submit your offer in the lowest low of the off-season.  Early January is a great time to buy rural property outside of the South, especially when the seller’s Hummer bogs down as he’s driving you around.

5. Never confide in a real-estate broker or agent who is working for the seller. Never reveal your finances or your best price.  Never tell such a broker or agent that you love the seller’s property or that you need to have it. NEVER.

6. Rework the standard broker’s purchase contract with your lawyer.  Delete what you don’t like and add language that you want.  Do this before you present your offer. Read the contract you submit.  Make sure that you understand the meaning and implications of phrases like, “___ acres, more or less,” “Warranties to survive contract” and “Time is of the essence.”

7. Have your local lawyer with you when you present your offer to the seller or his agent. Have your lawyer help draft any last-minute changes that are needed to get the deal done. If you’re not confident in your negotiating ability, have your local lawyer dicker with the seller over price and terms.

8. Ask both the seller and his agent to disclose in writing all material defects, both latent and manifest, in the property and its title that would negatively impact your possession, use and enjoyment.  Buying “as is” does not exempt a seller from state-established disclosure requirements; it means that the seller refuses to fix/repair anything the buyer doesn’t like.

9. Let the property you’re buying help you pay for it.  Sell something from what you buy at a higher price than what you paid.

10. Location, Location, Location.

Location is important, but it’s a factor that a buyer can use to work down the seller’s price.  In buying country property, location has three meanings.

First, it’s the proximity of the seller’s property to local goods and services.  A farm ten miles from town may not be priced lower than a property five miles from town, because farms, locally, are valued for other factors not their proximity to town.  A remote property—far from a publicly maintained road—should be priced lower than one with road frontage, all other things being equal.  A buyer who does not need or want proximity to town or public road should not be expected to pay as much as he would for more convenient property.  Use the absence of location and access to your advantage.  Hunters looking for hunting tracts should look for land that’s comparatively cheap owing to its remoteness.  If the seller’s property is close to town, complain about its closeness.

Second, location involves the proximity of the seller’s property to the buyer’s principal residence.  The buyer, not the seller, puts a value on this location factor.  Use distance from your home in your negotiations with the seller.  Even if they’re pretty close to each other, complain about the stress of increasing traffic—a fact of everyone’s life.

Third, the seller’s property is valued higher or lower according to what’s around it. A public trash station opposite the seller’s entrance decreases value.  Complain in a resigned voice about something around the seller’s property.  A pretty open field across the road may become the next mega-development—it’s possible.

Some people decide with their heart or their gut, depending on gender. Love-at-first-sight matches can work out just fine. But many snap decisions are emotional and financial disasters—in both mates and real estate.

Don’t get me wrong. You should fall in love with a country place. I’m as dopey about this romance as anybody.

It’s just that the thunderbolt kind of love — that mysterious mix of emotions, hormones and other stuff — is a bad basis on which to invest money.

Yet, many otherwise smart-enough people buy a place in the country based on whether it sings to them on their first date.

I did.

I heard the song; I sang; I even inhaled.

Using $5,000 from my parents in 1970, I bought what I thought was 100 acres about 30 minutes north of Amherst, Massachusetts. Later, I discovered that I owned only 60 acres.

That rocket ride to the altar taught me not to buy land that lacked an acreage number in the deed. All your “DUHS!” are coming though loud and clear. But I was 25…and in a buying fever.

Three other writers were similarly afflicted.

Michael Korda tells In Country Matters (2001) how he bought a 1785 house on 20 acres in Dutchess County, New York in l980 for $250,000—in less than an hour on his first visit.

Before shaking hands, he writes that he could see almost nothing since sheets of rain were pouring down in a heavy fog. He never walked the fields. He only “glimpsed” two barns. He never inspected the house, just a hurried walk-through on a miserable afternoon.

Consequently, his self-deprecating book tells of an owner throwing tons of cash at numerous problems in the house, outbuildings and land—all of which could have been discovered before he made his offer.

Korda boasts that he became “…pretty good at writing checks….”

Laura Shaine Cunningham, A Place in the Country (2000) and Jeanne Marie Laskas, Fifty Acres and a Poodle (2000) also bought places on impulse.

Cunningham writes: “The love of city people for the country is a mad love; it feeds on impulse and pays no attention to fact. We, the buyers of country places, don’t really want to know too much about them before we take possession. …we never dwell on the nasty mathematics of cost or hear the ‘mort’ in mortgage.”

Cunningham, too, became skilled at writing large checks after closing.

Laskas writes about her purchase price: “If I have learned anything about money in my thirty-seven years of living, it is to ignore it. …never, ever add numbers up.”

Deliberate ignorance helps her buy a “house with an identity crisis…something like a chalet stuck onto a trailer.” She says that “this house needs me.”

The pond is choked with “lilies a la Monet.” The fields are carpeted with multiflora rose, an almost indestructible shrub, making the land unsuitable for crops and even pasture. The barn is a “crooked old thing.”

She finally admits. “We are stupid. And this multiflora is a symbol of our stupidity. We bought fifty acres of thorns.”

Fools learn from their own mistakes; wiser folks learn from the goof ups of others.

No need exists to be a witless buyer of country property. Here’s what to do.

Organize a process. Approach buying country property as a logical process of becoming an increasingly skilled investigative land reporter. The object is to learn before you buy, think through before you spend.

List the information you need to acquire, tasks you need to research and their rough sequence. Revise the list as you acquire more information and new questions. Develop a research routine and go through it on each target property.

Get an agent’s help in unfamiliar territory. Work through a buyer’s broker–a licensed agent who represents your interests, not the seller’s. You might even find an exclusive buyer broker who only works for buyers. Buyer brokers split the seller-paid commission with the seller’s broker, but their loyalty and fiduciary responsibilities are owed to their client, the buyer.

I advise working with an Accredited Land Consultant (ALC). These Realtors have earned a special status in their profession through considerable experience in land sales and extensive education. ALC information can be found through the Realtors Land Institute.

Certain agents also concentrate on horse properties, farms, bed-and-breakfast operations and timberland.

Find an agent with whom you are intellectually comfortable, who shares your nuts-and-bolts approach to evaluating property.

Get specialized help. Line up your team of experts before you get serious about a target. You will need a local lawyer advising you before you make any offer. You may also need a surveyor, consulting forester, farm analyst, minerals consultant, physical engineer, soils scientist, excavator and contractor, among others. Get their thoughts on a target property before you submit your offer; during escrow is often too late.

Visit land with a cop. If you are prone to impulse buying, never visit a target property without a cop to enforce your no-buy-on-the-spot rule. An old friend who thinks like a CPA would be a good choice.

Become your own university. Making yourself smart about what you’re doing will save you money.

Become knowledgeable. Learn how to research land. Research-based knowledge strips risk out of a purchase. Never depend on the kindness of strangers.

Determine what a property is worth to you before you make an offer. Your price is what you can afford given the assets of the target property and what your plan is for it.

Your price has nothing to do with the seller’s asking price, an appraiser’s opinion of market value, tax-assessed value, replacement cost, insurance value, comparable prices of recently sold or currently listed properties or what the guy at the local gas pump thinks is a “good deal.”

Never exceed your price.

Fear ignorance. With country property, what you don’t know before you buy can hurt you down the road. If you buy it, you own it–broken and otherwise. Nothing is more chancy than taking a flying leap into the unknown.

Buying property on the basis of emotion and impulse is gambling in a game where the only money at risk is yours. A few people will luck out, but the odds are always against luck. Take it from four writers who played the game wrong.