1. How long did it take you to find the right property

2. Where do you go to look for land that isn’t ridiculously expensive

3. How did you save up the money to purchase your property

I’m asking this because I am young but I would love to own my 40, 80, or whatever average parcel one day

The only thing I have never lost money on is land. Find what you like and make an offer. The worst they can say is no. Having a wife who is a realtor is a plus also. Most race horse deals are never offered to the public as they are found by word of mouth.

I don’t own a 40 but I have a little bit of acreage behind my house. I got lucky. It belonged to my neighbor and she owner-financed it for me. The payment wasn’t huge but that sucker rolled around every month whether I was flush or flat. It was a 15-year note and I didn’t think I’d ever get it paid off.
If you can find an older property owner who wants a steady income stream, owner financing is great.

I bought a foreclosure that wasn't too badly abused and just happened to be sitting on 20 acres. I have 2 more tracts of land that I got a great deal through word of mouth, no real estate agents involved with those two, just lawyers. Don't get in a big rush to buy. Keep a steady lookout and ears open. It may take a year or two, but a great deal later is much better than an ok deal now, IMHO. That will also give you some time to save more money towards it. The less you finance the better.

It took me 30+ years and 2 people dying to get the place that I roamed when I was a kid on thru my teen years. Buying it thru Alabama Farm Credit was the easy part.

Its all higher than giraffes coochie now On a serious note, I remember not too long ago, folks would say "This lands only good for hunting ain't nothing but swamps!" My how times have changed, folks will spend top dollar for property that floods just hunt a buck deer now...

Good folks I talked with them when a small piece came up for sale around the bend (25acres or so) but unfortunately someone beat me to it...

I entertained selling my place in this high market but I've about talked myself out of it.

Myself along with some friends have aquired alomst 1k acres in the last several years. First and formost you have to be dedicated and find the RIGHT acerage.

I looked at everything I could find with land for sale and looked at all the tracts from a I’m gonna live here perspective. Plus I didn’t want a cutover wasteland so I beat the bushes and found it. If I could sell it for the right price now I would buy a bigger tract.

Only u can define the right spot but ive learned a lil from my grandad hes accumulated most of his wealth from land... #1 hes more than patient #2 he always offers ridiculously low bids one example 170 acres with a house and timber was on market for 450k for a year and half he offers 200k and they settled at 240k cut timber for 130k and still has house and 170 acres and he renting the house

Make contacts with people in the business. Realtors, bankers, and the old cat at the feed store, church or wherever you roam. Pro tip...read the legals for foreclosures. I just found a 40 that is listed at a sheriff's sale that has a Listed price of sixty thousand. Some big hitters own property next to it, but I'm going to the courthouse for the sale on the chance that nobody shows up.

Don't be afraid to make the jump when you're young. I bailed on a 300 acre clearcut tract years ago because I was focused on raising my family. It sold for $300 an acre, and i had some friends lined up to buy it. We all bailed because we were young and stupid. That tract now has 20 year old pines on it, and is in an area with big deer. We could've flipped it or held it for hunting.

Get your finances in order and have a long term plan.

Ive been looking for land for 3+ years now and still havent found the right place. One thing for sure is they aint making any more of it.

Buying 40's and 80's , cutting the timber , then selling them to deer hunters. Putting profits toward larger tracts to keep.

You should never ever sell an acre of family land.
I don't know of anyone, who sold family land, that doesn't regret it.
My family is a shining example.
We've had 10s of thousands of acres in the past 100+ years and today there's only a fraction of it left.
I'd like to go back in time and take a hickory stick to my great grandfather and my pawpaw.

Has anyone bought land with a friend or family member?
Set it up in a rock solid lawyer drawn up contract that both parties agree to before purchasing?

Seems like having a like-minded good friend you could get more land but it might be more risk than it is worth kinda thing,

I'm not an expert, but did just buy my first piece of land.

The way we saved for a down payment is to figure out what we could afford for land payments, and then put that much in a savings account, without fail, every month. You are going to have to make the payment every month when you buy something. We also put a good portion of our tax refund in the account every year. That way it was not hard to sign the paperwork saying we would make the payment every month, as we had already been doing it for years.

We bought through Alabama Ag Credit, and they were great to work with. They required 15% down, but Steve told us to plan on 18% to cover closing costs. You can use a simple loan calculator to figure out what you can afford. The rate changes, but ours is 6.25% (just so you have something to plug in).

Some of the sites we used to look for a piece are Landflip and Landwatch. There were others, but that's the first two that come to mind.

My brother and I bought a piece together. We payed for a survey company to split it and did 2 separate contracts. He can pay his as he wants and I can pay mine as I want. One won't affect the other.

Exactly what I was thinking.
Do you have it set up that the other party gets first right of refusal should the other want to sell or something like that?

We don't, other than verbally. Would be easy to draw something up though. To make it easier to split evenly, we also agreed to split any future timber income, should there be any. At least with family, a verbal agreement is still good enough for me. Even if I had something in writing, I personally wouldn't be willing to sue my brother over a little $.