Tramping across a piece of raw land is a lot of fun for me, but I start with checking on timber and mineral rights and giving each piece a once-over with Bing Birdseye and Google Earth beforhand. Many County assessor office sites have aerials with the property boundaries already in overlay form.

store.usgs.gov has digital topos that you can download for free to overlay on the Google Earth image, too. A free toolbar lets you get latitude and longitude so that you can find corners via GPS.

Shale gas plays are worth a good $1,000 an acre in lease bonus these days (up to $5,000/a for parcels above 300 acres), and good timber brings similar amounts. Consider them in the calc of what’s “cheap” if the rights come with the land. You can find gas shale area maps (Marcellus, Utica, Fayetteville, etc.) on the Internet quite easily. Timber has to be seen – by you or a professional forester.

Many of the cheapest properties you’ll find have conservation easements. Some of them don’t allow anything more than walking on them: no ORV’s, hunting, logging, roads or construction allowed. It won’t turn over easily. The right land is fun and very profitable, but do the research!

Enjoy the great outdoors!

Tally

These are some great tips for land investing, that are still true today! I guess you would agree that particularly in this time of tight credit, your recommendation to start small so you don’t need a loan is very valuable.

Cheers,
Thomas
http://Landprofit-Formula.com/blog