When we bought our country land a year ago, we had just a vague idea of where our land boundaries lay. There were some crude markers still standing at our property corners with bright pink tape tied around it, but most were knocked down by wind, deer, and tractor. As months went by, grass, weeds and dirt covered them—it’s amazing how fast Mother Nature swallows up what is left and forgotten.

Since we plan to build a cabin in late spring, I figured it’s time to plan out some ideas on where to place the cabin. I needed to get a general idea of where my boundaries resided before moving forward with a site plan. A professional surveyor will be hired as we get closer to construction time, but for now, I decided to use a combination of Google Earth, Microsoft Bing Maps, a hand held GPS, a metal detector and a plat map to get a pretty good idea of the land borders. Since Google Earth had old outdated satellite imagery for my land, I had to use Microsoft Bing Maps and its “bird’s eye” feature to get a sharp aerial view of the property. I snapped a screenshot of the bird’s eye view and took it to the land. Once there, I used my plat map to find the first marker (my plat map used the old “metes and bounds” surveying method which basically says “from the West bend of the Pedernales River, walk 400ft to the big oak tree. Then, turn left and go 142ft to the ½” bar set in the ground”…yea…this is the old school way of doing surveying, no surprise since my property is part of an original Spanish land grant). The problem is, once I found the first marker I could not find anything else. Using my GPS (Garmin etrex Vista H), I stood over the first marker and flagged my location (the GPS accuracy in these consumer models are accurate only up to about 15-5ft. With Google Earth, I’m able to import these GPS waypoints and overlay it over the satellite image of my property. This helps immensely with pre-visualizing the boundaries of my property—but the problem is that the GPS accuracy is + or – anywhere from 15-5ft. Of course, you would never build a fence or house with that kind of variance in data, but like I said previously, this is just rudimentary for now.  On my printed satellite map, I also marked a dot on my first marker. At home, I will compare the marked dot with the GPS waypoint for even more accuracy. I would do this for all other markers I find along the way.

There was one more problem. I could not find the other markers. I walked over a certain spot about a hundred times and according to the plat map the marker was supposed to be there. I then got out my Garrett ACE 350 metal detector and after a few swings was able to locate an interesting metal contraption I hadn’t seen before. It seemed to be a piece of pipe joint that the surveyor used to mark this spot. I thought that perhaps I was mistaken and found something other than the marker, but I later was able to uncover 2 more of these things on locations identical to the points in my plat map. Some of the markers had steel spike struck in the ground with a colored cap denoting the surveyor’s name. The marker often was laying down next to it. I took my axe, sharpened the edge of the marker and hammered it back in the ground.

Before I knew it, 4hours had passed and being winter, I was losing light. I knew I had to make the long drive back to the city ….and to the rat race.   Soon, that rat race will be no more.

hills, oaks, and freshly cut grass

It may have taken 4 years, but I finally did it. I found my piece of country land in the Texas Hill Country that I can finally call my own. Not only did I accomplish the dream, but I also fulfilled a few other bucket list items along the way, which I’ll share through future posts on this site. Most importantly, I’m going to share the tricks and experiences I went through, including the lessons learned when searching for rural land.

Now, with the land purchased, a new set of experiences are about to emerge: What can I do with it? What are my plans? How do I read my survey/land plat? What kind of fence should I build? Do I want a small cabin or home? What can I grow out here? What about animals? Power…what about electricity? Rain water harvesting? As you can see…the adventure is just beginning…

On the way to Doss, with goat on the backroads

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.

First off, Doss is 19 miles northwest of Fredericksburg–very isolated from any city. It was founded in 1849 on an old gristmill and distillery on a beautiful creek by German immigrants. In 1960s, the population of Doss was estimated to be 22, but today it’s just a little bit bigger. Today, the “town” still only consists of a small post office, a general store, fire station, and a church.

My destination was just a few miles ahead. I was looking for 30 acres for sale according to a real estate catalog I found that deals in rural land tracts. The price was still out of my budget, but what caught my eye was how lower priced it was compared to the going rate that you usually find in this region of Texas. I decided to drive to Doss because I had never been there before, and interestingly, not one person I talked to has ever been to Doss, much less heard about the place! All kinds of creeks were overflowing and I caught a few white horses crossing the them, as well. I was also greeted by goats and loose livestock on the roads. Wow, no fences?

This was truly like how it was back in the old days. The days when animals were still wild and allowed to roam free.

Horses early morning drink

Well, it was sort of like that. there were still all kinds of fences separating tracts of land. Nonetheless, I finally got to the area that I was looking for and had to make the long drive up a hill on a gravel road. I put the truck in low gear–better traction this way. Once I got to the top, I passed a few small dogs snapping at my truck and saw a shack in the back, I guess they are not used to seeing vehicles pass this way. Once I passed the only neighbor in site, I got took a right at the fork of a road and eventually came to the top of a hill that overlooks the Texas hill country. Breathtaking….but a major problem: The land for sale was rugged–very rugged. Apparently the property is being used as a hunting tract. It was very secluded and isolated. I like isolation and being with nature, but this was too much! Pretty area, but way too much work will have to done to make it liveable and worth the 2 hour trip it took to get there.

I headed back home that afternoon and realized that this was a common theme in real estate ads — when a property is described as “good hunting area”, it means that the area is very rugged and isolated.

This was the last of a series of road trips that I will be taking for a while until I start planning out how I am going to look for land. This was as far West as I was going to go for my search, so I wanted to be sure that I knew what it was like out here. A billboard in town said Junction, Texas, was the “porch to the West”. I have to believe it. The area out here looked like a combination of the Texas Hill Country + West Texas. Huge swaths of rocky hills were sliced open to give way to one of the best scenic highways in Texas, I-10.

“They be buying up all the land here,” said the lady at a small gas station in Junction. “They buy those ranches here and then leave back to their home states. A single year of their mortgage in their home states is enough to buy a nice ranch here,” she twanged. “Besides, ” she continued, ” they all complain how crowded it is over in California.”

I had stopped at the store there to pick up some local papers for my land search. I figured I’d check the classifieds and find out how they compared to realtor listings. The prices were about the same–there were some nuggets in there, though. One man was selling 28acres West of Kerrville for around 38,000. Said he just wanted to get rid of it. I bet he sold it less than three hours. This was one of the cheapest I’ve seen. I once talked to a man who advertised his land on craigslist, a famous classifieds system that is available only on the Internet. He said he sold the land for more than 3x what he was asking for in only less than 2 days! The buyer bought it sight unseen.

More about my travels in the next day or so.

To my surprise, I soon realized that not many people advertised rural land for sale. Even when they did appear, many of the properties included ranches and homes on them. Since I intended to visit the land for short periods rather than live permanently on it, I didn’t want a house that I had to pay for. Therefore, I concentrated on finding raw, unimproved land.

Most of the newspaper listings were for large tracts of land: 240 acres in the millions of dollars, 100 or less usually went for around $400,000. Occasionally, smaller acreages were advertised: 30 acres for $200,000, 16 for $130,000. I’m aiming for 20+ acres at a price around $65,000. Impossible? We’ll find out.

After a few weeks of this newspaper routine I saw property followed what looked to be a pattern. In parcels more than 100 acres, a price as low as $600 per acre wasn’t uncommon! But, for tracts less than 20 acres, $3,000 or more per acre was the asking price. In other words, as stated in my little story of the “Texas Rancher and the Snobbish City Man”, the greater the number of acres in a parcel, the lower the price per acre. One of the reasons was because it’s just too much a hassle for large land owners to break off small parcels for such a minimal profit.

I also noticed another pattern: The closer the land was to Fredericksburg (my target area’s largest town), the higher the acreage price. However, this didn’t really bother me because I actually prefer an isolated spot away from town.

By the way, if you’re on the real estate hunt like I am, be sure to catch the Sunday editions of the San Antonio Express, it contains the largest rural land listing of any day of the week.

I’m beginning to doubt that I will find property by waiting for it to appear in the classifieds. Classifieds seem to be used only be realtors looking to make a quick sale and they’ll splash crazy numbers in hopes that there will be at least one crazy buyer out there amongst the thousands of people reading. I don’t blame them for doing that–it’s their job. I also realize that this is not going to be easy. I will have to get my feet dirty if I’m going to find cheap land out in the country, especially in the Texas Hill Country. However, before I do this, I’m going to compose a WANTED ad that hopefully will generate some responses.

What is your plan? Do you know what you are looking for?

Well, I know I want land. I want hills. I want trees. Huge oak trees, if possible. That’s all I want. Wait, no, I also want a small creek, if possible. I also need at least 2000 feet for an airplane landing strip!

What about horses? Don’t you dream of being able to ride around your property on horseback and watch the sun rise?

I don’t know what I want, or do I? How far am I willing to drive for the land? 25 miles? 1 hour away from the city?I don’t even know what the Hill Country consisted of! I figured it’s time for a good old fashioned exploration tool…

A map.

I purchased a large Texas Hill Country map at the local book store this morning, the kind that requires the help of two people to open up. Immediately, this put the whole Hill Country into perspective. The big picture. Sure, I’ve heard of Fredericksburg, Boerne, and Kerrville, but I now realize that there are small towns that I’ve never even seen: Bankersmith, Tivydale, Doss, Cherry Spring….and look, the rivers and creeks outnumber the roads! Some towns only had one road passing through! I got on my knees and took a closer look. The Hill Country began to sink in…

Surely, your land has to be out there, somewhere.

A quick measurement from the southernmost part of the Hill Country (San Antonio) to the northernmost (San Saba) shows that there are over 200 miles in a straight line. A rough estimate will show that there’s over one thousand miles to explore!

I tacked the map to my office wall. It covered half of it. It looked great. The journey awaits. Now, just need to figure out what it is I want, devise a plan, and do it!. I know what I want, but need to think with my head, not my heart.

I’ve always been captivated by rural Texas, especially what is known as the Texas Hill Country. Having visited there and helped an old couple in Wimberley, Texas, I decided that this is the kind of lifestyle I want–a dream as old as America itself; give me a piece of land to call my own, a little town where everyone knows my name. It’s a dream we are dreaming with a new heart-and-gut-felt urgency. More than the romance of the country, it’s a promise of safety, of comfort, and old-fashioned values. Old-fashioned values….

Now, I’m not the richest person on the block, but I’ve been saving up for that perfect acreage I’ve spied from the corner of my eye. I just need a bit more time. I hope that by starting this blog, I can stay focused on my dream. I also hope that others may learn and share their own viewpoints on their own quest for land. This is not a real estate website and I have no association with any realtors. I’m just a guy in his 20s hoping to purchase land in the country and to fulfill a life long dream. I look around and see lots of old ranchers, retirees–but I don’t want to wait for that age. While my friends party and hit the nightlife in the cities, I’ll be gazing under the stars and hoping life goes as slow as possible because Lord knows that life is too damn short.