Cheap Land
and Other Real Estate Bargains
You Can Immediately Call Your Own

Wouldn't you like to buy a thousand acre ranch and  have a mortgage of less than $1,500 a month?  My friend James did exactly that..

James wanted to brag about a land deal he was putting through.  It was miles from anywhere and the road was rock, not gravel.  We climbed out on a ledge at the lodge and he pointed across the way to some very high, vertical rocks.  This parcel of land goes all the way over to there.  He pointed to the right, two miles that way.  He pointed to the left.  Two miles that way.  He added the clincher.  A river runs through it, deep enough to swim in most of the year, shallow enough to drive across the rest of the year.  It hasn't went dry in the past 50 years.

He showed the place to me on the map and I murmured.. "42 feet of fall from one end of your river to the other."

"That means there's a waterfall in there somewhere," he said, perking up as we put pencil to paper to see how much value we were talking about..

He wanted to know the approximate cost of clearing the land, since it had been clear cut and all that was left was very thick brush and bramble.  "For a thousand dollars I'll clear every inch of it for you and never break a sweat."

He made me tell him how I could do it so cheaply, and he whistled at how much money I'd make on clearing his land for him for only $1,000.00.  The deal was struck, at the bank first, then at the foreclosure auction and he bought the land for a dab more than 25% of its appraised value.

News of the purchase rippled through this mountain community like wildfire.  "If I'd known it would go THAT cheap ----" 

There were three buildings good enough to live in.  One lodger, lodged in one of the smaller houses, not inside the big lodge that we kept for ourselves, pays enough in rent to keep James's mortgage current.

That was six years ago.  Since then we've hunted it, picnicked it, canoed it, swam it, crashed out, impressed friends, entertained families and now I live here in a 2700 square foot house -- for free and we have generally enjoyed ourselves as if we had our own private National Park with some very divine camping facilities.  You wouldn't believe the deer we have hauled out of (t)here and some that came back as the main event of a festival. 

About a year ago I told James I smelled natural gas under the surface.  He didn't believe anyone could smell natural gas, (and he's right, unless you happen to have a severe chemical reaction to it like I do -- and happen to be in the right place at the right time) and just to prove me wrong he had a big exploration crew come in.  They quickly offered him a deal for gas rights that paid off 30% of his remaining mortgage, and that was just for the first exploration lease.  They haven't even got (t)here yet.  They are busy bringing in the gas they've already found nearby.  Next year, when they renew the lease again, James will turn a big profit, and we still have our own little National Park, with facilities.

You'd think this deal was magic.