Land ownership helps rural economic development: Can we Land a Hand?

Land has always been involved in what we now call, rural economic development.

Those who owned no land in rural communities were almost always poor. The larger the landholding, the more prosperous the owner was likely to be.

The desire for land and its resources motivated European settlement to the New World, and the expected benefits of land ownership lay behind America’s westward expansion.

Cheap land was the stimulus that drove American settlement and economic growth for 250 years. Communities grew in step with the degree of diffused ownership.

As our economy shifted from farming to manufacturing to services, new growth engines came into play. But in rural areas, land ownership continues to be a ladder for individual betterment. And to the extent that it’s “spread around,” in Barack Obama’s words, communities benefit.

In the 40 years that I’ve watched public efforts to promote rural economic development, I’ve never seen much focus on encouraging land ownership by lower-income individuals. The preferred strategies invested in public infrastructure (highways, water and sewerage systems, communications) and public intellectual capacity (planners, agencies), and provided public capital (loans, tax breaks, buildings, subsidies and labor training). Read more

Deal Killers: Ten Common Pitfalls in Land Deals

People are constantly asking me why land deals are so special, and why the time and cost required completing them far exceeds that associated with traditional residential or improved commercial property deals.  In this report, I will discuss the high points of some of the major roadblocks I’ve encountered while trying to close land deals.  Each topic mentioned here deserves, at the very least, its own in-depth treatment, and this report will most likely raise more questions in your mind than it answers.  The goal is to make you aware of what my grandfather told me when I was first wading into the land business, “You’ll never know everything about any deal, and if you know that then you’ll be smarter than most of the folks trying to make a living in land.” Making money at the land business is all about knowing how to uncover flaws and wrinkles in a piece of land, and then managing your risk as you move the deal to the closing table. Read more

Land in the country provides sounds and silence

Well, February’s finally gone.

Those of us who live where glaciers once roamed and have a selfish interest in a little global warming are in better spirits.

This is a quiet time in the country.

Everything is brown, about 377 muted shades.

The cattle pastures are gummy and sour from being dumped on all winter. Trees stand bare and dark against the white slope of Devil’s Backbone. The dirt is wet. Mud rears its ugly head, hungry to swallow an unbuckled galosh.

The average temperature has risen a little since January. This morning is warm. Melissa’s two Tennessee Walkers are flaked out flat on the ground, sun bathing. They look dead, but usually aren’t.

Sugar maples pump their sap without fanfare. It’s nice that we can make syrup without harming them. Robbery normally involves a victim and strong language spoken loudly. Read more