My Texas Land Blog

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.

The best thing about being a freelance web designer is that you can drop whatever you are doing and take off for that side trip in a moment’s notice. I kept trying to convince myself that I needed to plan out my trip before spending $40-50 on filling up my truck’s gas tank. Besides, the weather was dark and storms were heading in.

Well, I was on the way to the hill country after lunch:) The clouds opened up and I decided that now was a good time to go! I decided that the first area I was going to survey was going to be Harper, Texas. Harper is North about an hour and ten minutes from San Antonio depending on where you live. I calculated a direct route on my GPS and it got me into the town around 2:00. What a splendid and beautiful drive! I was reminded how beautiful Texas was and my mind kept drifting back to what it must have been like to be a pioneer family living off the land in the late 1800s. I saw several abandoned old stone buildings on the way.

The views were fantastic. Unspoiled land and gently rolling hills as far as the eye can see. I think I only saw about 1-2 cars in Harper, but the town did have a post office, BBQ joint, beautiful convenience store (looks like an old trading post), a large school and some churches scattered throughout. I did not take much time scouting out the town. I was interested in finding some acreage and getting an idea on prices. Out here, the land is much cheaper than Fredericksburg…but I think Fredericksburg slighty wins with better scenery and views. However, I don’t think the triple in price per acreage (11k per acre!) is worth it. In Harper, the land is going for about 60k for 10acres, still too rich for my blood, but I’m sure something can be swinged. If you don’t mind living about 15mins away from Fredericksburg and Kerrville, then Harper might be fore you!

Next week, I’ll check out the small town of Mason, Texas, just north of Harper. It’s even more remote, but I want to get an idea of what the terrain looks like and a feel for the place (and cost of acreage). Until then, stay tuned.