We’ve heard that Texas land is still a bargain compared to the rest of the country. However, I recently listened to a talk given by Manfred Chemek, CEO of an international real estate investment firm, at the 2008 Realtors Land Institute that was held in San Antonio. Mr. Chemek stated that due to the weak American dollar, many foreign investors from Europe and the Middle East have begun to buy large tracts of raw land in Texas.
Had a lead on some “cheap” land way out in the Northern region of the Texas Hill Country and I decided to make a run for it yesterday and check it out. The drive was much longer than I thought–nearly 2 hours from Northern San Antonio to my destination of Doss, Texas. The whole drive was beautiful, but nothing could prepare me for the beauty I would see once I got to Doss.
It has been a few months since I’ve updated this land search blog, but worry not, I’ve been busy. I have not given up on the dream. As a matter of fact, the desire for my own place in the country seems to increase on each day’s passing. Interestingly, I was recently contracted to do website work for a large real estate development company in town. I’ll keep the name close for now, but they deal in country land. What a refreshing surprise it was. I hope to learn more about the real estate business and how country property sellers think. More on this later.
Driving on FM 385 from Junction to Harper , the inside of my truck smelled like a BBQ pit. I had stopped at Cooper’s BBQ stand in Junction and had lunch at the Llano River (meat was too salty, and the tea too sweet. Be sure to catch the OTHER Cooper’s BBQ in Llano. That one is amazing). I was not intending to go as far as Junction, but I figured what the heck I’m already in Kerrville, might as well mosey a few more miles down the road and take a look at some property that I saw in a local newspaper. Again, the weather was wonderful, if not a bit cloudy.
For the past three months, I began to develop a daily routine of methodically checking the classifieds ads of my local paper. As soon as the paper boy slammed the newspaper through my mail slot in the front door, I’d turn to the real estate section of the ads. I worried that if I didn’t do this right away, someone else may beat me to the punch and buy that perfect piece of Hill Country property.
I’ve been meaning to take another drive out into the Texas Hill Country this week, but with the price of gas, I’ve been having second thoughts. With my truck, it takes about $50-$60 to top off the gas tank. More importantly, I started feeling a little disoriented with my search for land in the Hill Country. I was getting excited about the journey, rather than the destination. My mind started questioning my heart:
What is your plan? Do you know what you are looking for?
After a couple of days of a freak cold front (in the mid 30s!), tomorrow is shaping up to be a beautiful day. High 60s, low 70s. No clouds. Blue skies. Perfect, the epitome of Texas. Looks like I’ll be taking a drive out West again. I see some acreage going for about 2,000/acre. Gotta check it out. Will report back.
Have you ever had the feeling that by the time you get around to finally purchasing your own piece of country land, there might not be any left? The last time I checked, they weren’t making any more land. I wonder if I am alone in that thought.
Well, I saw a cool topic the other day at thelandjournal.com which ran some interesting statistics…
One of the websites that I have been visiting lately is a virtual community over at city-data.com. They have a nice forum for people who are interested in learning more about Texas (or any other state). I saw an interesting question the other day:
“Why is it so hard to find small acreage for sale?”
It was an ugly drizzly day in San Antonio on Tuesday. I got up at 6:30am to take the truck in for it’s quarterly tune up at the local dealership. I wanted to be the first one there so I would not have to wait. Well, bad idea. All the cars that did not get finished the night before were scheduled to be worked on first thing in the morning. So I waited for about an hour before getting my truck back. I was not planning to head out into the Hill Country that day, but the urge to start looking for land was unbearable.