Articles Pertaining to Recreational Land Sales

Guide to Buying Hunting Land
The Most Important Things to Consider in Purchasing Hunting Land
by Ed Covington

QUALITY and ABUNDANCE OF WILDLIFE

Quality and abundance of wildlife is what most people want and it is probably the hardest thing to determine.  The ways of researching the quality of wildlife are:

• Ask the seller.  You may get an honest answer and you may not. However, some landowners who are selling their land don't know the difference.

• Find out who has hunted the land before. If it is has been leased for hunting, get the name and phone number of the people who had leased.

• Call the local Texas Parks and Wildlife (TPWD) Biologist since they can be a valuable resource.  In addition, the local game warden can be helpful.

• Ask the neighboring landowner if they hunt or lease their land.  If they lease, then contact the people who lease their land.  Most people who hunt will try to help each other even if they are absolute strangers.

WATER

Water is a broad subject and is important to people in different ways, including:

• If you are a waterfowl hunter, you want an abundance of standing water in the fall and winter whether it is a lake or stock tank.  However, if you are a deer hunter, you would trade a dozen lakes for a good creek or two running through property.  The best of both worlds is a lake with a creek or two.  Tracks with a lot of developed water are hard to find and is usually reflected in the price.

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Hunting for Recreational Properties
Investors spot new opportunities in the great outdoors.
by Sara Drummond

Land is America's new stock market. In some parts of the country, people burned by Wall Street are putting their money into what Scarlett O'Hara called “the only thing that lasts.”

For example, Curt Eilers, CCIM, a broker/investor who owns PrimoTerra Realty in Naperville, Ill., purchased 160 acres of undeveloped land in California early last year and bought another 200 acres in the fall. He bought the land mostly for investment reasons, but he hasn't ruled out other uses.

“Recreational land investments provide an opportunity to gain appreciation equal to or superior to the returns of the stock market,” he says. “It starts with finding appropriate parcels.”

Eilers' property is zoned both residential and recreational. It is about 30 miles outside of Redding, one of the fastest growing areas in the state. However, it is off the local power grid because “you can get nicer land for less money if it is not on the grid,” he says. Other owners in the area rely on solar and wind power. “Cell phones work in many remote areas, and the Internet and media programming are available by satellite dish,” he says. “These newly available services make living in a wild-urban interface area much more feasible than in the past.”

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Maybe Metroplex residents think there's gold in the hills and on the shores of Silver Lakes Ranch.

The new development set a record for the fastest-selling community in national developer Bluegreen Corp., Kristy Robinson, marketing coordinator, said. The 2,300-acre planned community in Montague and Wise counties is two years ahead of its sales schedule.

"A lot of people are getting tired of the traffic and the noise in the city," Robinson said.

In about an hour, they can be away from all that, sitting on the back porch watching wildlife.

Silver Lakes is the wave of the future, real estate experts said. The development is cashing in on the trend to settle in rural areas within commuting distance of cities. and that trend is pumping up real-estate values and fattening tax rolls in Archer, Clay, Jack and Montague.

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Land for recreational purposes continued to be in hot demand, driving the market. Responding to rapidly rising prices, buyers looked beyond lands adjacent to metropolitan areas and into lower-priced markets farther away.

Throughout the state, buyers continued to snap up good quality properties, resulting in a dearth of listings in many areas. Buyers began searching out properties not on the market and making above-market-price offers.

Size Matters

The weighted median price per acre, an amount that corresponds to a mythical acre of land reflecting all regions of the state, rose 2 percent from $942 to $961 from 2001 to 2002. That small increase reflects a marked increase in the median size of properties moving in the market, from 101 acres in 2001 to 107 acres in 2002. Larger tracts typically fetch lower per-acre prices than smaller tracts.

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College Station – Folks in West Texas know all about hot, but now the word refers to more than just the climate. They are looking at a hot land market as well.

The Amarillo-Lubbock-Abilene region posted one of the hottest Texas land markets through the first three quarters of 2003, the Real Estate Center at Texas AandM University reports.

“While farming and ranching remain important influences, recreation is emerging as the highest and best use of rangeland on the Texas Rolling Plains and in the Panhandle,” says Dr. Charles E. Gilliland, research economist at the Center.

Nonagricultural buyers have discovered these parts of Texas and in recent months have been the dominant buyers. Encouraged by low interest rates and meager returns on other forms of investment, these new land barons are putting money into rural properties.

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Effective September 10, 1999, new federal guidelines require appraisals for federally insured loans to be in much greater detail. Congress wants all homes receiving federally backed guarantees be given a clean bill of health.

The new rules may cause delays in closings and confusion with regard to inspections. Closing delays may occur because of the shortage of appraisers qualified or willing to undertake the extra work and face greater liability. Potential buyers, real estate agents and lenders may be confused about the need to an inspection following a FHA appraisal. On November 8, 1999, the Texas Real Estate Commission asked HUD for clarification on this issue.

Prospective buyers of rural or fringe property generally inquire about the tax status of the land. They want to know if the property qualifies and receives the agricultural use (ag use) exemption. A substantial tax saving may be achieved if it does.

While the question is valid, any answer is suspect. The Texas Tax Code (the code) affords no land a tax reduction known as an ag use exemption. The confusion stems from the misuse of terms.

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