You cannot become a good land investor by just going to school. One becomes good at it by learning from mistakes....either someone else's, or your own. I learned early on from some of my own oversights, and since then I have enjoyed helping my clients avoid their own.

Please! If you get in the mood to buy or sell undeveloped land, call me first. I may even try to talk you out of it if you have not yet done your "deep-diligence."

1-SOIL:
It is critical when you buy that beautiful acreage, that you know how the soil will support cattle grazing, fracture a house foundation, or just stick to grandchildren playing, when the frozen wet ground thaws in the spring.

2- BOUNDARIES:
When considering land boundaries, it is critical to "trust no one, cross-check everyone" where the legally binding boundary lies. I had one case where the seller and his neighbors had held adjoining parcels in their families since the 1800’s. When they went to sell they insisted the fence line was on the boundary. My buyer bought the adjoining acreage just to acquire a critical access roadway. But when the surveyor showed up, turns out the roadway on the other side of the fence was already in the first parcel…the fence line was 50 feet off. And the county’s own GIS system maps had it wrong, having based their map on an aerial view of the misplaced fence-line!

3- WATER:
The for-sale ad says "Has its own well." Sure it does (wink). But how deep is it? What is the static pressure level? How much has the potentiometric (static) level fallen or risen the past 10 years? Has the pump had to be lowered in low-rain years? What neighbors have regularly used some of the water and might expect to continue? Has the well ever run dry, even just a few moments, and for how long before it re-charged? Has the water ever turned red? Clogged with smudge? Which over-lying aquifer is there, and is it one that filters out bad materials, or just a solid-rock formation that allows seepage to well-pump depth through cracks in the rock? (Did the seller accidentally drop some anti-bacteria chemical down the well the day before tests for water quality?)

4- ACCESS:
Who still thinks they have a right to traverse your land? How strongly, and how long, are the surrounding landowners obligated to let you drive across the corner of their property to get to yours? Who covers the costs of access-road maintenance and snow removal? (If it's on a school bus route, it may be plowed more reliably.) You're in a nice, secluded lot with a long driveway...Who's going to plow the snow on a dark winter morning at 7am so you can get the kids to school and you to work?

5-TAXES:
Did the previous landowner qualify for enormously reduced (agricultural) property taxes, but you will be bumped (way) up to "Non-owner Occupied" residential tax rate? The difference out of your pocket could be many thousands of dollars per year.

In short, buying undeveloped land is a lot more complex, not less complex, than buying many suburban homes-with-lot. In a housing development, many of these complications have been resolved by the developer. But when you buy land near the Black Hills, it is sometimes the first time it has ever been sold to anyone, since homesteading. During that 100+ years, many, many forgotten, misunderstood, disputed and misrepresented "facts" could have accumulated to cloud the land deal that looks so simple on the surface.