Interestingly, quite a bit of this land was purchased on the basis of a “romantic atmosphere” seen only in old cowboy films and serials. A German investor came over to West Texas and fell in love with the desert because there was “nothing like that back at home (in Germany)”. A German author that made a living selling fictional books about the old West and cowboys had never set foot in America! Fortunately, due to the decline of the dollar, this German author was able to buy country property and live the lifestyle he made a living off of.

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! I came in through Harper which I loved and wrote about it in a previous post, but Doss is something else. As I passed Harper, the area got much hillier and it seemed every mile had a creek that you had to drive INTO (because of the rains, I assume) . 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.

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 was used for hunting as there were still hunting stands (not the word I’m looking for!) around the area. 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 1 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. This highway was darn clean. It was funny seeing the highway “skittled” with colorful license plates from all over the country: California, New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, Florida. What’s strange is that these states are weather and sightseeing meccas. What they doing here?

“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 millions 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!

Gas companies are going to love you.

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.

Update: Check out a digital map I made of the Texas Hill Country. I’d like to hear your feedback on it. Does it help give you a better idea of the area?

Well, I saw a cool topic the other day at thelandjournal.com which ran some interesting statistics…

United States Population
July 1, 1900 = 76,094,000
July 1, 2006 = 298,444,215

United States Land Statistics
Developed: 66 million acres
Rural Residential: 73 million acres
Crop Land: 349 million acres
Range and Pasture Land: 788 million acres
Forestland: 747 million
-USDA Economic Research Service

Crop land alone is enough to handle the United State’s population. Nonetheless, I think part of the worrying comes from thinking about states like Florida. You always seem to hear land being developed and spiraling out of control, but in reality, according to those stats above, there’s still plenty of land to buy and enjoy. I guess the real question is, how much beautiful land is left? :)

“Why is it so hard to find small acreage for sale?”

I think it depends on what you are looking for. Obviously, in the metro areas, you’ll find small lots (smaller than an acre) for sale, or maybe a couple of acres. However, when looking for country land, your objective probably is to get more than one acre, if possible. So, this reminded me of a little story (from the book, Country Property, Dirt Cheap) I read recently about a guy who asked that very same question. I took some liberty and added some authentic Texas flavor to it:

Snobbish City Man (SCM): Hey dude, why IS it so hard to find small acreage for sale in the country?

Texas Rancher (TR): Howdy, well, there are a number of good reasons why any good Rancher worth his salt don’t wanna break off a small part of his holdings.

SCM: Like what?

TR: For one, many people who live in the country don’t want neighbors, they like being away from others, especially city folks.

SCM: Actually, that’s one of the reasons why I am looking for land. I like being out where no one is. I’m tired of the city life.

TR: There’s another thing. State law limits how many times I can break a parcel into small pieces before I have to contend with local sheriff and the subdivision laws.

SCM: I never thought of that.

TR: Then there are the expenses.

SCM: But you’d incur some expenses in any sale, regardless of the size of the land.

TR: True, but with a small parcel, there’s not enough profit. If I sell a large parcel to you for $120,000, I’d make some money. But if I sell a small parcel for $5,000, it’s not worth the time and the trouble. That’s not all…

SCM: Oh Gawd, What else?

TR: Son, many of the ranches around here have been owned by the same generations. Over the years, a man gets mighty attached to the land. His pop and his daddy–all probably fought and died for it. Just down yonder, in Harper, a mother lost half her children to the Kiowa Indians in 1886. Can you imagine that? You’d think she’d curse the land. Probably want to leave the godforsaken place. But, she sweated and bled so many years trying to make a living off it that she was not going to quit. It becomes almost like a part of the family, your right hand. For instance, take my ranch. In 1892, that’s over a hundred of years ago, my grandpappy built the farmhouse we live in, and he cleared with his own hands the land that we still till. My dad was born in this farmhouse, and I wouldn’t sell off a square foot of this land.

TR: Beautiful country.

TR: A man can still get lost out here, forget there’s people and things that ain’t so simple as this.

TR: I’d die for it. In this day and age, how many people would say that about their home?

SCM: Well, I just wanted to buy a small piece of…

TR: Son, buy a big ranch from someone who is retiring, a ranch with some valuable tillable ground, as well as some rough land or timber. Then sell off the cropland, but keep the timber for yourself. Or, rent out the cropland for a few years before you sell it.

SCM: But I don’t have enough money to buy a big piece of land.

TR: Well, then find someone who has recently bought a large ranch…160 acres or more, maybe. The new owner won’t have any special feelings towards the land, and if he’s already farming or ranching the other land, maybe he wont’ need the buildings. He might be willing to sell off the barns, along with a few acres.

As you can see, it’s an interesting idea. What if you found someone who also wanted to buy a small parcel? Get a group of like minded individuals together and then you can all purchase a big ranch and then split it up. By combining your resources, you could take advantage of the fact that large parcels are easier to find than smaller parcels.

But, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Keep watching this blog and I’ll tell you why it’s actually more difficult in the long run…and a bad idea based on my own experiences running a small business.

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.