Doesn’t this seem like the weirdest category of real estate to invest in? In my post on May 6 about turning raw land into passive cash flow, I hinted that I would talk about what buyers do with this land.
Personally, I don’t want to own any land that is way out away from any civilization, doesn’t have anything on it, and in a lot of cases just looks desolate. But to my surprise, there are a lot of people that do want to own it.
Here is a quick list of the types of buyers we have found for this type of land and a short explanation of their reason.
- RV’ers and Campers – they just want somewhere to go camp on their own and don’t want to have to pay a fee or be near anyone.
Truckers – apparently while they are driving back and forth across our country, they see all that land and want to own some of it.
Hunters – now this one makes sense if there is wildlife on the land. - Investment – we have had buyers that view the land as a long-term store of value; if purchased right, that’s probably true.
- Bragging rights – I had one buyer (a young male) who wanted to own a bunch of land so he could tell women that he dated that he was a land baron. Hmm?
- Off-gridders – now most of us have heard of people like this; they just want to live “off the grid” so to speak and this works for them.
- DIY’ers – these people want to do things their way and have their own place to do whatever they want.
- Vanlife people – if you haven’t heard, there are people that like to live in a van and travel around; many want a piece of land that’s their own to go to sometimes.
- Recreation – I have heard all kinds of stories from buyers telling me what they do on their land that I just throw into the category of recreation; these include, motorcycle and ATV riding, rock-hunting, hiking, fishing if there is a lake or stream nearby.
- Preppers – these are the people preparing for an apocalypse or similar…maybe they were onto something given the COVID pandemic of 2020.
As you can see, there are many reasons that buyers have for owning this raw and rural land. Most of this occurs in the western states, but Florida seems to work well for some people.
Here are a few stories I’ve heard from buyers that I thought were pretty out there and weird.
- Movie setting – a movie producer bought some land to use for a setting for parts of a movie he was filming because it was easier than going through the permit process to use state land or private land.
- ATVs in the water – the land these guys bought was in Florida and most of the time was flooded with 1-2 feet of water. This bunch of guys loved to ride their ATVs through the water. They kept getting in trouble for riding on other people’s flooded land, so they bought their own flooded land.
Here is a list of states where I have bought and sold land.
- Texas
- New Mexico
- Colorado
- Arizona
- Nevada
- Oregon
- and, Florida
So, there you go. That’s the demand side of the equation.
If you’d like to have a conversation about land investing or have more questions, feel free to email me or set up a call with me. I’d love to hear what you think.
For now, be safe and take care of your family.
Mark