Buying Hunting Land

Status
Not open for further replies.
4 Hours

There be some land around here that supports good deer, squirrel and assorted other game animals like turkey that could be picked up. Not dirt cheap, but reasonable compared to Dallas prices. It is however 4 hours east of you. We have several hunters from the Dallas area that hunt in our club where I'm President. Our camp is about 38 miles east of Texarkana east of the Red River and boundaries Lake Erling in South Arkansas.

We have a good deer herd, moderate turkeys, abundance of squirrel and rabbit, good population of coyotes, bobcats, and on our lease a gator or two.

Pine Plantations are usually priced high, but if you have the timber rights to it when you pick it up, you can recoup some of your cost by selling off the pine. Same with hardwood, but my advise is to hang on to all the hard wood you can to support your wildlife.
 
I just wish I could find some land that was even for sale up in our area. Most is sold before it even has a chance to hit the market. Many other farms have several groups who anually come by and give the same "well if you ever think of selling blah blah blah"

It makes it very tough to find land much less afford it.

Sorry for the FIB slam, all in fun Ill folks!
 
I've owned several small busineses and a farm. I have a pretty good idea of what tax write-off's are and aren't. The land I was talking about was in the 70's when a real good income was $30k a year

Is the land a good investment?? Maybe. You're going on the "greater fool" theory of investing. "I know $_____ is a lot of money, but 10 years ago is was only $______" My point is, go into it REALLY thinking about the dollars invested, the taxes, upkeep, and the work involved.

I have a friend that had a place in Florida. It about doubled in a little over 2 years so he sold it and walked away with over $125,000. People were going nuts. Now the value is down about $75,000 and the guy that bought it is crying the blues.
 
Try buying hunting land in Michigan where it goes for $3-$5K per acre in the lower peninsula.
Click to expand...

...and you can't find prices that low anywhere in the midwest near I-94, 69,
70, 65, etc. Too much of the good stuff is already crowded as it is.

20 acres is a good start. You don't need 300 to sustain deer since they
do cross property lines.

Access to utilities, water-well flow rates, zoning (allowing for a residential
construction) and road frontage are all important considerations for
investment. The number of future splits off the original is a factor. Mineral
rights? You guys still have those in TX when you buy just the topsoil?

Of course, you can always hunt with an outfitter where they have the land and the blinds. You just "rent" things for a week for about $1K.
Click to expand...

Holy moly --how big are the deer getting pulled out there? Or is this just
the Grosse Point, MI/Carmel, IN/Naperville, IL tourist price?
 
I bought my place for $50 an acre in 1969.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and I was working on a crew putting on hot tar roofs for $4.00 an hour to work my way thru college. That was killer money then. Average house payment was maybe $80-100. A REAL good 2 weeks was $175-200 take home. I graduated from Purdue with an Engineering Technology degree and started working for Deere & Co for $10,800 a year.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, and I was working on a crew putting on hot tar roofs for $4.00 an hour to work my way thru college. That was killer money then. Average house payment was maybe $80-100. A REAL good 2 weeks was $175-200 take home. I greaduated from Purdue with an Engineering Technology degree and started working for Deere & Co for $10,800 a year.
Click to expand...

"Nothing ruins a good story like some ******* who knows what really happened."
-- Uncle Herbivore
 
One problem with all this high-dollar land is the school taxes. If you don't have the Ag Exemption, the "highest and best use" evaluation by the local school district will burn your billfold.

In 1939, my grandfather bought some land for $24/acre. In 1979, the school taxes were $35/acre Per Year. You can make a lot more money raising condos than cows, so I let the developers have it...

Art
 
In 1939, my grandfather bought some land for $24/acre. In 1979, the school taxes were $35/acre Per Year. You can make a lot more money raising condos than cows, so I let the developers have it...
Click to expand...

"The power to tax is the power to destroy."

We make a fuss about the misuse of the power of Eminent Domain to take property and transfer it to another private owner, but real estate taxes have been doing that for a long time -- it's a stealth form of Eminent Domain. Just tax the original owners until they have to sell to the developer.
 
I had the good fortune to grow up going to a hunting and fishing place on the weekends in Erath county 2 hours southwest of Dallas. It has good deer, turkey, dove, quail (some years), ducks, bass and crappie fishing.

My family bought a ranch with 7 other families in 1974 when I was 5. It had been a fishing camp at one time so there was a small one room cabin for each family. I grew up seeing most of those kids on holidays and most of the weekends in the fall. 32 years later I am still friendly with all of them. There were ground rules drawn up but I don't remember them specifically. They are all really good people and for the most part we got along. Several were in business together and had a business downturn in the early 90's, and needed to sell. It sat on the market for a year until my Dad decided he wanted to get out of Dallas and be a rancher and he bought it.

I wouldn't get a place without some water already on it. Building pond's takes money, and just because you get a dozer to build a damn doesn't mean the soil will hold water. Game fences take money also, I prefer planting food plots and drawing deer in. The agricultural exemption can mean several thousand a year in tax savings, but it means you are now running a small ranch or farm rather than just a hunting place.

It used to be cheaper to go west of Dallas but with over 1,000 natural gas wells drilled in the 10 county area to the north, west, and south of Fort Worth in the last 4 years prices for land have shot up considerably.
 
I bought my place for $50 an acre in 1969
Click to expand...
.

When one remembers that it would take $500 or more today to buy what it would take $50 to buy in 1969, i'd say Vern got a decent deal but nothing that was other than average for the times. Remember now, most people weren't making anywhere near the high five or low six figure paychecks that seem so common these days, not even close. The minimum wage was $1.25/hr. in those days iirc, and you could do reasonably well if you made anything in the $2.50 range on up depending on what area of the country you lived in. Today that $2.50/hr needs to be more like $25.00/hr just to have barely kept up with inflation since '69.
 
When one remembers that it would take $500 or more today to buy what it would take $50 to buy in 1969, i'd say Vern got a decent deal but nothing that was other than average for the times.
Click to expand...

A fellow who owns 130 acres bordering me just put it up for sale for $170,000 -- and refused to accept a counteroffer of $150,000.

And mine has creekbottom land, with a big fishing and swimming hole.

I'd say the land I paid $8,000 for in '69 is now worth at least $350,000 to $400,000.
 
Vern,
Well, i did say it would take at least $500 or more to make the same $50 purchase, lol. Just goes to show how dramatic the past few years of run-away price increases in real estate have really been, no?
I think some of the other posters may be a little younger and thought you 'stole' that land for $50/acre, but i remember very well what that 8 grand you spent used to be worth, and what it could have bought back then too. I wish i had been in the same position as you were at the time.
 
I think some of the other posters may be a little younger and thought you 'stole' that land for $50/acre, but i remember very well what that 8 grand you spent used to be worth, and what it could have bought back then too. I wish i had been in the same position as you were at the time.
Click to expand...

But you're not supposed to tell them that!

Let the whipper-snappers eat their livers out.:p
 
I just picked up a copy of Woods & Waters, published in Perry, Florida. Land prices anywhere from $2,500/acre to $20,000/acre. $5,000 to $8,000 for 20- to 40-acre tracts are common pricings.

I saw one 1,100-acre tract at $4,400/acre...

It'll be interesting to see what happens next year or in 2008, if what I'm reading about an expected recession plus beaucoup repos of ARM mortgages is anywhere near correct.

Art
 
Bosque County is 2 hours South of the Metroplex. I suggest you look elsewhere.
100 acre tracts and smaller are nonexistant. Realtors are starving to death. Nothing is for sale because the Barnett Shale is here and people are getting some income off their land for the first time in many year. 2nd Largest ranch in the county recently sold for $2,500/acre. That was for over 7000 acres.
Smaller places cost more $/acre.

Land is an investment and a liability. It rarely supports itself. Appreciation is a good thing, but I believe we are at a high point in the cycle. When looking at the land, see if you can make the payment (if financing) and the upkeep, and taxes as well.

Avoid buying with others whether relatives, friends or strangers. I did it and while not a bad experience, there were problems I'd rather not experience again.

Pick a county and look on the internet for real estate agents in that county. Then you'll get an idea of the value. SOuthwest of DFW don't expect to get any mineral rights with it. 5 years ago you could get them all. Now you can't get any.

Good luck in your search.

Smoke
 
As for deer......

If you do find a place....

You can hunt on a few acres provided deer have the desireable cover, water and food. Or a path to the missing piece. The problem arises if your neighbors decide to high fence, getting to be common now. The can fence deer off your place....or just change travel patterns.

I have a place that is just over 200 acres and has well over 200 Whitetails, some have scored over 200 B&C. But expect a LARGE feed bill to sustain those numbers.

If you decide to highfence your own place, set up your deer program BEFORE highfencing. You wouldn't beleive how many people bought land here in the last 15 years that put up a fence only to discover that they had NO deer INSIDE the fence.

Smoke
 
One of my fathers friends bought 10 acres in 1957 on Long Island N.Y. for $75 and acre to build his house on. Which he did. Back in 1987 when visiting on vacation he told us a devoloper just offered him $75,000 an acre for putting a subdivision in.
He told the developer to go fly a kite because "I don't want any neighbors".
Land sure has outpaced wages.:uhoh:
 
by Lou629, Well, i did say it would take at least $500 or more to make the same $50 purchase, lol. Just goes to show how dramatic the past few years of run-away price increases in real estate have really been, no?
I think some of the other posters may be a little younger and thought you 'stole' that land for $50/acre, but i remember very well what that 8 grand you spent used to be worth, and what it could have bought back then too. I wish i had been in the same position as you were at the time.
Click to expand...
Lou what I was referring to is Vern didn't "steal" his property for $50 an acre.
It's he made a very wise decision buying the land he did with $8k.
This is banking 101 but that 8k in the bank would be about 100k today vs 350-400K today like Vern said. Just makes me wish I made a wise investment like that years ago other than my house.
Jim
 
Why would an avid hunter put out $100-500k for land? Why not use that same amount and go somewhere besides the same old section of land year in and year out, such as Canada, Africa, Argentina, South Dakota for pheasants, Nebraska for prairie chickens, Colorado for elk, Wyoming for antelope, Montana, Texas, Idaho, Alaska, etc., etc..
 
Why would an avid hunter put out $100-500k for land? Why not use that same amount and go somewhere besides the same old section of land year in and year out, such as Canada, Africa, Argentina, South Dakota for pheasants, Nebraska for prairie chickens, Colorado for elk, Wyoming for antelope, Montana, Texas, Idaho, Alaska, etc., etc..
Click to expand...

There was a time when rural land was very cheap (even allowing for inflation.) In those days, it made some sense to buy land for hunting -- especially in states like Texas, where there is little public hunting land.

Nowadays, buy the land as an investment and future home site. The hunting is a bonus.

Having said that, it's hard to put a price on the ability to walk out your front door and hunt all you like. The day may well come when that will be the only place you can hunt or shoot without making an expedition of it.
 
Around here the public land is just about overrun with people during hunting season. Deer head for the private land where they won't be bothered as much. If I want to hunt, I have to reserve a spot with an outfitter ($800), pay for lodging ($130/day) and food ($30/day) and that doesn't even count the money for pretzels, beer, poker, jerky, and little Debbie snackcakes:D . Then there is the gas that my truck inhales. Must be nice to step out off your back porch and start hunting.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

P
  • Locked
What is the smallest amount of hunting land you would buy?
2
Replies
28
Views
5K
Charshooter
C
A
  • Locked
Buying hunting land
2
Replies
30
Views
2K
MCgunner
M
H
  • Locked
WTB Hunting Land Wyoming
Replies
4
Views
794
jim in Anchorage
J
B
  • Locked
Where to buy land to hunt?
Replies
3
Views
2K
Bruz
B
F
  • Locked
Hunting Club Seeking 3 new Members - Twiggs County, Georgia
Replies
1
Views
683
F-Tosh
F
Back
Top