Well, my plans to get up to Iowa to look at some properties got set back by that little thing called a "job." I ended up needing to go do some hail work, and now I'm almost finished packing my house, but with no idea to where I'm heading!
I'm putting my belonging in storage and so now the push is on to get out there and narrow my search for land! A funny thing happens when you start really looking, well, it's more like a couple of things happen when you get down to it.
One, all the great "deals" you use to find just about every day, well, they're all gone. Which reminds me of a quote by Donald Trump, he was quoted as saying that "the deal of a life-time comes around about once a week." I find this to be both true and false. The deals are out there, but everything that glitters is not gold! So you need to look harder.
So the other thing that happened once I really set out to find a deal, was I started finding a lot of great places. I started talking with people about different areas in the country and each one has a different area with it's own pro's and con's.
I have found some amazing deals on land in areas like OK, KS and MO. Places that I have never thought much of before. And with the real estate market like it is, there are some special deals to be made with people who are willing to "owner finance" or help out in other ways so they can get out from under the payments.
Sad reality of this market is people need to leave the places they dreamed about, so they can move to an area where they can find employment. I have seen real estate ad's from Colorado to Kentucky from people just about begging someone to buy their home so they can move closer to their new job.
So what has changed in my search? Iowa is not on top of my list as of right now. I took a closer look at the climate and choose to look a little farther south. One area that has a good balance of cheap land, good location for my job, and room to grow, is around the Ozarks in Missouri. Or more or less the general area where OK and KS meets south west Missouri. The area has good prices for someone starting out who's looking for a larger track of land. There's some hidden gems, and some not so great lots for sale, but the area in general looks like it could work well for both my Hail work, and if I want to add livestock. Not to mention the better wind and solar possibilities in OK and KS.
Another area that I have had my eye on since my childhood is Eastern Kentucky. I remember my parent's dreaming of one day owning horses in the Blue Grass State. Now I drive through the area any time I need to get from my home in Florida to wherever the hail storms are and keep telling myself to check out the area "some day." Land is not as cheap in KY, pretty, but not as cheap, but I did find that the houses are a better bargain. $50,000 buys a pretty nice house in some of the smaller towns around Danville,KY. So the general area is back on my list.
Hopefully my job will work out so I can drive through the area again, but maybe take a couple of days to look around. Then I can come back at the end of my season to really pin point my search efforts.
Too many great places in this country to live!
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