If you look at real estate listings in the U.S...

If you look at real estate listings in the U.S, you'll notice that in some of the rural/low income parts of the countryside you can find plots for sale for dirt cheap.

(As low as $2000-5000 for a half acre plot)

Obviously, these properties are in the middle of the sticks, but they're often surrounded by wilderness and nature.

>I want to buy one of these plots.
>pay the $50 in taxes each year
>sit on it for awhile
>either sell it later on for profit
>or sit on it and maybe build a cabin on it one day

Is there some kind of catch I'm missing?
Why is this not an obvious steal?

Pic related is a half acre plot listed on Zillow for $6000

Because the capital gains are nonexistent, and often negative. You could get lucky and the govment might pay you a million dollars to build an expressway over the top of your land, but that would be gambling, not investing.

But what about the intrinsic value of owning land for that cheap? (With minimal taxes)

There's value in being able to say that: "if worst comes to worst, I'll always have a place to live"

i know an investor who did this. He's been doing pretty well but it was in an area that was building and expanding refineries and chemical plants. Just make sure it's an area with some type of growth.

I really like the feel of owning land for the sake of it. Wish biz had more timber general threads.

I feel like owning land is way more valuable than most people think.

Especially when we're getting flooded with immigrants and our population is through the roof.

There are worse things to spend your money on I guess. But don't try this as an investment strategy. If you look at the historical prices of that land, you can bet your ass it hasn't gained any value over the last 100 years, adjusting for inflation. Cheap land is cheap because no one wants it. Use the 6 grand as a deposit on a cashflow positive house in a state with cheaper house prices. U.S citizens are extremely lucky because you guys have low house prices and high rent so making money is easy

Yeah you're probably 100% right

I just feel like spending money on something stupid like this now would be a cool venture. It would feel good knowing that I owned my own piece of property.

Worst case scenario I just keep it in my family

I don't know if the US has this, but what are the zoning laws? Maybe it's just an agricultural plot and you're not allowed to build on it? That's usually the case with dirt cheap plots in Europe.

Also expect zero infrastructure, probably for miles - no sewer, no power, no running water, no landlines, shitty dirt roads, no stores, no schools, maybe not even postal service or cell phone coverage.

Take care that you're not buying a liability. Clearing the undergrowth, repairing fences, keeping brooks or drainages from clogging, cutting down old or damaged trees before they fall over and injure someone - maintaining land is a hell of lot of work. And if you're living nowhere near it you can't just check up on it after a storm, so you may receive a hefty county bill for some shitty tree that fell on a road or tore down a line or some shit like that.

I also agree with the other posters that the real returns of land alone are probably negative. At least plant some trees and sell the lumber after a few decades.

If you want to buy it as a novelty and you've really thought this through - sure, nothing wrong with it. But don't expect steady returns. And it'll be very illiquid, it may take you months or years to cash out if you ever need or want to sell it.

And in case this wasn't obvious: Never trust the pictures on an online ad.

not to mention they actually own the house, none of that leasehold bullshit like I have in the UK

good point on liquidity

>Is there some kind of catch I'm missing?
>Why is this not an obvious steal?
Liquidity issues, risks posed by macro-economics.

well you will probably be better off owning SP500 if you have a 20-30 year investment time frame, but no there is no catch except property taxes, and a general lack of services.

I have been looking around Washington coast, and the Sound for a second home (income tax dodge house). They start at around $250,000 for water front.

There are a lot of beautiful ocean/sound view properties, but about 100% of the Sound has been built up due to pre-fab homes.

It can be expensive getting a drainage field installed, septic tank, electrical hookup, and cable depending on how rural you are.

But all three of those basic services are actually becoming cheaper and easier to install.

There is a lot of land in the USA, what state/region are you looking at?

I've been thinking about trying to get 5 acres around where I live. Im planning on turning it into an income stream on a 5 year plan by planting nut trees and trying some other things like bee keeping ect. Some of my family members have about an acre of pecan trees that produce a few thousand dollars a year in income.

central california, texas, where?
That sounds like a cool business plan, but how long does it take for nut trees to start producing income, and is harvesting equipment expensive?

I'm in the middle of said stix. Its hard to find smaller plots bit if u contact the real eatate places in small towns you may find some old rancher willing to get rid of 5 or 10 acres. Land is about $2,000 an acre here and if you dont mind some faggot renting some of it you can negate the taxes. They will be more than 50k a year. Especially with a cabin.

Been trying to do this myself. Buy land with a pond or pay for one latter. U can rent equipment but may as well pay the same price or less for faster pros.

Trying to do the same thing here.

>muh well water
>muh septic
>muh fucking $2,500 meters..

Its doable and hinters love to come rent little cucksheads.

I guess time will tell.

Also it will get broken into being in the middle of nowhere. So get cameras and wireless internet.

If you are looking for land like this, go to the tax sale for the county you are interested in. They usually have one once a year.
You will get a much better deal there vs. buying from some dirty shekelstein.

Just come to kansas and lease your land to cattle ranchers. / sell the mineral rights to some of it to local drillers at 14%. Lease it to hunters. Yiu can rent it out various ways until u can buy a cabin. May as well make a better investment and just buy this shit latter tho.

just name the state please.
I have been interested in farming for a while, but the only farming I have seen that makes a good ROI is meat farming, where I live (strawberry, lettuce, garlic) you can barely make any cash flow from owning farms, and huge companies will beat you in pricing /genetics and sheer volume.

Where I used to live (lumber farms) were owned by government or old old railroad companies, but still.... your lucky to make enough to pay your taxes.

We might it the eth pump and dump faggot got hit by a low hamging dick from a hang glider.

Here in kansas and oklahoma you cant throw a rock without hitting a pumpjack. So electricity isnt much of a problem. If you move near a natural gas well and water supply its not bad. Well watter sucks dick but most people use it for doing dishes and shit and just keep drinking watter in the fridge. There is a big difference in safe watter and good tasting drinking watter. Less hassle just to fill up a tank in town or get 5 gallon drinking jugs. Just one of the many small problems of the country life to break. Its worth it imo.

it is hard to get loans for raw land, the government prefers to give loans to properties that are rented for residence purpose.

That sounds like Mexico and Africa.

Properties drop in price for a huge reason, when you need your water trucked in.

Go black walnut.

After about 2-4 years weed out the shitlord trees. After 7 can sell nuts. Get you a flame throwing drone for bag worms and a pruning saw.

Sell at about 30 years old and replant.

They say its 1-2k per tree right now and near 9 maintenance after a bit. Pecans are a hit tho and dont have to wait 39 years or replant. I thought they only produce every other year tho?

You're basically speculating. It's similar to penny stock trading. You might win big or you might be stuck holding a giant lump of dirt.
If you don't 'need' to make a bunch of money then I guess buy some land and wait. If it increases in value, sell it. If not, build your cabin and beat your dick miles from normies.

Kansas and oklahoma line pretty much. Unless u growing beans or corn your best bet is just work the cattle market and hope theres some oil.

True. But if you have a home to loan against or refinance every year you can get them. They prefer rental real estate but land is land. U really cant move it and they can always repo and sell if they want. So its not terrible hard.

Lol. Yeah but its just because we are a collection of small shit towns. There is good watter in and around town but its hit or miss out of town. Example being my bro lives 13 miles down a dirt road. City water. The house we are looking to buy has rural water so probably safe to drink but taste like shit and down for maintenance often. There is a city line a mile down and i used to lay them. Pretty sure i can even borrow a trenching macgine and hook up a meter.

The problem isnt having to truck watter in or any shortage. Its distance. And the cost of replacing water wells is kinda high. Most people just deal with it rather than spend the money to refurbish.

This. U can also find alternative uses for it and get the last appraisle value and taxe payments from the county so u have a good idea of wtf u pay

Mate you forget that these plots have no water gas or electric hookups and are useless without a structure

>Blocks with high rates of crime have dirt cheap prices
>get a bunch of friends to buy out entire blocks
>Renovate the blocks sell it at a 5x mark up

In agriculture the key is to do everything as cheaply as possible. You can hire someone to shake the trees if they're big but ideally you prune them so they grow out not up. They live in GA I live in CO so I will not be growing pecans. Most likely looking into a few varieties of nuts including almonds. I want to give it five years and my goal is to just make a few thousand a year as an income stream, nothing full time or large scale. Just harvest once a year. I've also looked into different livestock like sheep, alpacas, ect but the margins are very thin. Again the key is to have basically very little expenses.

Can you retards show an example of your $5000 plots of land? Nothing shows up on Zillow or anywhere else

>sell it later for profit
Dude. It's in the sticks. That's why it's worthless.

No one wants to live in the sticks. I know people that have retired to the sticks and moved back to the city because they couldn't take the desolation and banality of living in rural america.

>It would feel good knowing that I owned my own piece of property.
>I feel like owning land is way more valuable than most people think.
>There's value in being able to say that: "if worst comes to worst, I'll always have a place to live"

It seems like this is more of a personal interest for you than an investment. You need more data from an area to determine whether or not it's going to make you money; in some areas it is a good investment; in others it's not.

Plus, if the land isn't perc'd for a septic system it could be worthless, and sometimes that's why it's cheap.

>find rapid growth area
>buy land near the city, somewhere that will probably be populated in 20 years.
>wait
>sell land for 100x the price when someone wants.

here's a few

as someone who moved from a major city to the sticks, cannot possibly disagree with you more. i wish i could go even more remote.

a lot of the people ive met who are from here have a disdain for the cities (and sometimes for the people from them, as cliche as that sounds it's true sometimes); there's a genuine cultural difference, despite being only an hour away. the retirees you mentioned probably weren't into that. besides, you can live in rural america and still be only 40 minutes from a metropolitan area, visiting when you feel like it.

lots of people love this lifestyle, there just aren't any jobs here, so people have to work at like the only local factory, or as a waitress.

Place to live? There are homeless shelters with better accommodations. The lots you're talking about have literally fucknothing and are likely far from everything and have nothing to even hunt.

>Yeah you're probably 100% right
No, he's definitely 100% right.
>I just feel like
Do yourself a favor and never make any investment decision that starts with that phrase.
>spending money on something stupid ... would be cool
Now you've won me over. You should do it.
>my own piece of property
How are you not owning property if you take that other guy's suggestion and buy a house to rent out?
>just keep it in my family
Here you go kids, a great half acre of wasteland that you will have trouble selling. I could have bought some blue chips or an investment property but I thought it would feel good to do this instead.

>in 20 years

Most people don't want to wait that long to see a return on investment, and if they do, they buy about 50 of those $10,000 plots.

Better choice is to buy the land and develop it yourself, but you need way more than $10k to make that happen.

Same in aus like 10k for huge plots

>hack into country's infrastructure ministry
>find out about any planned roads before the public
>covertly purchase land in the way of new roads

>The lots you're talking about have literally fucknothing and are likely far from everything and have nothing to even hunt.

Rats, bugs, and grass make good food too desu.