I'm a big advocate for the Rich Dad Poor Dad philosophy that an asset puts money in your pocket and a liability takes money away from your pocket.

Curious to what wealthy posters on this forum and land owners think of this. If you're paying a land mortage and the land isn't income producing (yet), is buying land worth it in the long run? What income producing ideas have you implemented in your land ownership to offset your expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, upkeep) etc?

Too many factors to make a blanket statement.

Raw land, ag exemption, no improvements, potential growth area, good ground water…good investment.

Raw land, POA dues, building restrictions…maybe harder to make the numbers work really well.

Plus 100 other variations.

We're far from wealthy at this point but we just made our largest investment to date when we purchased 15 ac with Nueces River access with cash in January. We purchased it as a flip, but when we saw the place we knew it was the perfect place to keep. It meets all our wants/needs list: it has water, game, tillable soil and is remote while still being within 2 hours of our home. It's obviously an asset as we paid cash, however, it's going to do much more to protect and grow our wealth.

First, it took a good chunk of cash out of depreciating dollars and into an appreciating asset and I've slept like a baby about that since. Second, it has a value add component and we bought it right. With a little clearing work, a new electric service, repairs to the existing well and a new septic system we will force a lot of appreciation. Third, we just had a container delivered that we are going to build out into a tiny cabin that we can use as a STR and at least one RV hook up to provide some cash flow.

We are confident this place will be popular as a STR and if it's not, we will have a great bug out place. We will have fertile soils, game, fresh water and lots of piece of mind with that in the back pocket. We're going to plant some fruit trees and berries. We want to have a whole home genny, solar and will have propane. The goal being to have a place that can sustain us for a period of time if needed. Those damn preppers are looking more and more right everyday.

Finally, we feel like that we should be able to access equity if the right deal presents itself in the coming years. We also have a grand mental picture of building a home out of 4, 40' shipping containers near the top of the slope on what our neighbor calls "the plateau", she'll face the East with an entire view of the Nueces River Valley and Chalk Bluff.

If you have an opportunity to buy land now, even with debt, and you can get it with the right amenities that you can make pay for itself or perhaps even cash flow I say do it. I personally feel like any "rural" acreage within a 2 hour drive of the I35 corridor between SA and DFW has a high probability to appreciate.

Do you have something in mind or just kicking ideas around?

Bought 32 acres this year. Paid cash, got the timber exemption & plan to let it sit. Only cost to us will be the tax on Ag. It's close to town, loaded with tall pines & hardwood, has great county road frontage, electric & community well water easily available. The houses - more like estates really - close by are amazing. We can sell off 12 acres at any time, recoup a chunk of money & still keep the 20 acre minimum for the Ag exemption.

So, yes, it can still be a great investment, but I think you need an Ag Exemption of some sort to make it really work. We could already sell at a little profit today if we wanted to.... but, what to do with that money?!? It's why we ended up expanding our real estate portfolio to raw land.

I don't even know what all we can do exemption wise yet, haven't even looked. I know my neighbor runs boar goats that he says cover his taxes, I don't know that he gets any exemption for them.

I was also told that we have the deepest well in the entire subdivision, by over 300' deeper actually, and that I have more acre feet than I'll ever use and can sell some of that back to Edwards Aquifer Authority. Again, something I have not investigated yet.

I need to do that this week.

Definitely maybe.
If you had purchased acreage in a number of different areas of TX 10-20 years ago and sold it this year you'd be pretty happy. You would have had some carrying costs (i.e., liability) but you would have come out way ahead. Just by buying, holding, selling.

barnag said:

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I'm a big advocate for the Rich Dad Poor Dad philosophy that an asset puts money in your pocket and a liability takes money away from your pocket.

Curious to what wealthy posters on this forum and land owners think of this. If you're paying a land mortage and the land isn't income producing (yet), is buying land worth it in the long run? What income producing ideas have you implemented in your land ownership to offset your expenses (mortgage, taxes, insurance, upkeep) etc?

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Buying land is always worth it in the long run. Always! It's the only asset you can buy at any price and it will one day exceed said price. This is assuming there isn't an outside force such as a hostile takeover or the rapture but at that point you have much more to worry about.

Land is the asset and the note is the liability which I'm sure is a very simple way to explain it and also something you're well aware of.

Speaking strictly on putting money in your pocket the land will still do that even if money is going out via interest and taxes. You're increasing equity by paying down the principal and gaining appreciation. If you stuck your cash in a bank and waited until you could pay cash you would save on interest but lose out on years of appreciation.

Bottom line. Buy now buy often.

IMO: Land- even empty land- is still an asset. There will be upkeep and tax costs associated with it, BUT there are many tax write-offs and grants available to just leave land undeveloped to help cover those costs. If it's fenced, there are always cattle ranchers looking for new lease pastures, or hay farmers looking for a hay field. Depending on the size, hunting leases are also an option. I personally wouldn't let the land just sit - there are far too many passive-income options available for land owners.


Land is ALWAYS an asset. It's pretty much the only thing that is never going away. It's a commodity that society will always need and desire. If you can, you should capitalize on that.

Regarding income possibilities, if you're near a city and anywhere close to a major thoroughfare lease it to a company that does 18 wheeler parking.