Why is this land (almost 500 acres) so cheap?

[PRyker]

I was looking at land on ebay and found this:



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=15841&item=4353906211&rd=1



So whi is land is SOuth Dakota so cheap? I know that it does not have road access, utilities and nearby town but there has to be another catch? Is this land acceptable for farming? Anyone know their rainfall amounts? temps? snowfall?



What is the catch?



Phil

 

[ARedetzke]

You're only bidding on the downpayment. The land costs 126,000. Kind of a screwy way to auction something off.

 

[PRyker]

I know that. But $126K for 480 acres is VERY CHEAP!!!! why so cheap?



Phil

 

[Hohn]

If you've ever driven through the Dakotas and Wyoming, you'd know why land is so cheap-- there's a lot of it relative to the demand and the populations.



The entire STATE of WY has less than 500,000 people!



JLH

 

[cpeters]

400-500 acres is not much land when it's wide open and you can see 100,000 acres your 500 will be really small.

 

[PRyker]

cpeters,



I dissagree with that. no matter how you slice it 500 acres is a heck of a lot of land. 1 square mile if I am not mistaken. Whether I can see beyond it or not is irrelevant to me. The question is is this a legit sale or is there some reason why all of this "cheap" land should be steered clear of?



phil

 

[RT66DOC]

1 sq. mi=640 ac. no? 1 sq. mi. aka "a section" Out there in the wide open spaces they speak of ranch sizes in terms of sections, e. g. "The Lucy Ranch in NM is about a 100 section spread. "



PS- 100 sections ain't all that big out there - take a look at a couple of Ted T. 's places. Vermejo (bigger than Rhode Island) and the historic Ladder Ranch (Louis L'Amour) come to mind.



All that said, 500 acres is a nice size piece of land. At least it's enough to get pretty far from the madding crowd (so to speak) anyway.



I think what we have here between cpete and phil is the difference between a MD perspective and a TX perspective.



Phil, to shed a little more light on this perspective thing - if you haven't already had the experience - next time you get a few days off head out to Amarillo and order yourself a steak at the Big Texan.

 

[moparguy]

Phil, you're right, 500 acres is a lot of land. Not quite a sq. mile or section, that's 640 acres. But in the wide open spaces out west, it's not much. And the price is cheap for a lot of the developed areas in the USA, but does not strike me a super deal for the area.



No road; putting in a all weather road is a very expensive deal, utilities; who knows, could be 10k or 100k. Water again, who knows.



A lot of us like to think we could be back-to-the-land types and be self sufficient, I've kinda done that at times, let me tell ya, it's harder than most think.



If one wanted to buy property for investment purposes, you gotta have a market, to have a market you need to have roads, utilities (at least water) and very deep pockets.



Before I invested in property like this, I'd visit it, talk to locals, and see what else is available.



Good Luck, RJR



PS, to answer your question, I suspect this is a real deal kind of offer.

 

[RT66DOC]

Well said, Moparguy.

 

[Rotty]

I think you stated it in you post,

"it does not have road access, utilities and nearby town".



How are you going to get to it? Are you planning on building on it and where is the power/telephone coming from, also water/well.

Yes, you can live off grid but there is a price to pay for that too.



Do you know how much it cost to build even a gravel road to access to property? It is not cheap. At ~$100 a load for rock times how many feet/ miles to where????

A load of 4-6" rock only goes about 25-50' plus 2-3" on top of that plus 5/8" final, plus culverts, etc.

How many creeks/rivers and ravines have to be crossed. What about trees/brush... permits, permits, permits.

Also, if the property is not directly accessable from state/county/city roads, what about easements??$$$$$$?? "lawyer$$" need I say more?

I could go on and on... .

Yes, it sounds nice on the surface, but dig a little deeper. Developing property is NOT cheap. Ask me, been there, doing it now and sometimes I wonder?

 

[JPope]

In addition you may want to check on who has the mineral rights, or has filed a mining claim that is still valid. Maybe someone else will have them and can come and go and do their thing for minerals, oil, gas, coal, etc. and you may have to put up with the mess. :{



Another thing to consider is water rights. You may have the right to drill a well for limited personal use (i. e. house use) but anything beyond that is getting into agricultural use (horses, cows, farming) which may be severely restricted.



Would you have right to access to your land through someone else's land, access might be restricted, and the other party(s) have no intention of relinquishing those rights.



Western land can be interesting in a lot of ways. Pays to do the checking and ask lots of questions and get answers in writing.



Ebay land is often sold by bidding for the downpayment as previously pointed out as pointed out by ARedetzke.

 

[TPCDrafting]

Not to mention prop. taxes in SD aren't cheap.



AND nobody has mentioned to be sure yer not moving in next door to DL5treez!!! :-laf :-laf - 'course that's likely why it's so 'cheap'

 

[jponder]

The descrip said there were valid easements so he has servitude to it. Large timber tract in the southeast can go for lower per acre than that.



Who says he has to have a fancy gravel road, he's got a dodge truck dont he. If that guy is selling at that rate on ebay then the land probably goes for less up there.



Mining right could be tricky, someone could show up and start digging.

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

The entire STATE of WY has less than 500,000 people!

And let's keep it that way!!! :-laf

 

[smartineau]

And let's keep it that way!!! :-laf

Can you spare some room for two more?



I am trying to get the boss to retire to Wyoming, she keeps saying Idaho.



steve

 

[DKayser]

Water!

Water rights! Water rights! & Water rights! There were more killings over water than sheep out here, DK.

 

[jrobinson2]

I was looking at land on ebay and found this:



Anyone know their rainfall amounts? temps? snowfall?



What is the catch?



Phil

From the add:



ELEVATION & CLIMATE

Elevation is approx. 3,000 feet and average winter temp. about 29 degrees with average summer temp. 73 degrees. Average rainfall approx. 23 inches and annual snowfall is 16 inches.

Taxes, $1. 75 per acre.



It looks like my kinda place, 21. 5 miles of county gravel road then 2-1/2 miles of do it yourself road



A simple rule to live by:

"If your neighbors are close enough you can pick 'em off without a scope they are to close"



In my area (rural Utah and Nevada) $250. 00 an acre is fairly common for undeveloped property with no access and no water rights, irrigation water rights can go in the $2000. 00 an acre range separate from land.



Jared

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE AD BEFORE YOU BID. YOU ARE BIDDING ON THE DOWN PAYEMNT ONLY



Blah Blah





You are bidding on the down payment only! The price of the land is $126,000 (minus your down payment) financed at 9% interest with low monthly payments of $1,129 over 240 months.









Hang on reading ... ... ...

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

UTILITIES

This is raw, unimproved land that is not serviced by utilities ( water, power, telephone, sewage, etc) of any nature. :-laf Any cost for such utilities would be solely the buyer’s obligation and the seller has absolutely no estimates as to such expense. While the buyer has the right to drill domestic water, The success of a well is not guaranteed





MINERAL RIGHTS

A Prior rancher reserves an undivided 50% interest in any mineral rights, gravel, and fossil rights that might have been owned, thus 50% of whatever the prior rancher owned will be transferred to a new buyer.

 

[cpeters]

If you decided to live off the land you would need alot of firewood to stay warm with no visible trees you would have to haul it in from somewhere else, which could make for a long winter. I guess I am looking at it from a TX perspective, down in the south tx brush country you can drive someone around all day in 2 sections of land see tons of animals and alot of brush they think your a huge rancher, out in west tx you can see 2 sections of land from your front porch with the naked eye, you may need to drive across 5 or 10 sections to see a mule deer.