BiggerPockets

Where are you located? I have a guy here in Missouri that does land financing and has a lot of programs to offer. Would target rural areas to find those lenders.

Brian Haskins

I have yet to hear of credit lines secured by land James. That said, I am sure there are some lender programs to get you some cash out, but I would imagine the LTV would have to be very low these days.

Let us know what you find, curious for the answer myself.

How about a BP hunting and fishing trip on your parcels!
Set up a cabin with 10-12 rooms and charge a few thousand for the week with an all inclusive hunting tour, room and board! Sounds like a blast and your visitors can chat RE investing.

Timber harvesting possible?

Sounds like great deals. I'd love to hear the details...

That was the point in the original question. Since I cant really use the land itself was there a possibility of using the lands value to obtain a valuable line of credit when needed to fix up and flip these deals that I am now comming across on a regular basis.

I know it used to be done for farmers who used the value of their land and or crops while waiting for the harvest and its sale to feed the family and for the seed for the next planned planting.

I remember this from my youth days, but never did like farming so I have not ever looked into how these types of loans were done.

But being able to pick up these deals now (using the land value) and then also gives me the possibility of selling off part of the land as needed for liquidity and or willing it to my successors to set them up. There are just too many possibilities with pieces like this that are going to become more rare as time goes on.

I am considering do it despite the current restrictions. It is a great deal indeed.

James, how do you determine the value of the land if it cannot be used in any way?

I can currently only go by the county assessor value, which is supposed to be current market value. But we all know how that has changed recently. It used to be fairly accurate but recently is just about like any else's comp values.

The restrictions placed upon a piece of land for it to be restored is supposed to carry a certain time limit for nature to restore things to the normal natural balance. I have yet to investigate when those restrictions would and could be lifted.

If the restrictions are practically permanent then the land is useless and so would be the value of the land. But what I am seeing is that due to the economy there are a lot of larger parcels of land that are being lost by owners because they just can not keep up economically and forget to pay their taxes.

These lands are being lost due to nonpayment of taxes. I am seeing this as becomming a common theme. I takes a while to secure these lands due to the reclaimation period. The original one I came across does have restrictions, but I am finding others that have no such restrictions.

I am looking at the long term trend here, and believe that a sluggish economy will only increase the likelyhood that people will simply "walk away" from these lands as opposed to losing their prime home locations. There are opportunities here for future thinking people and most restrictions can be removed or changed just like zoning changes.

While it does take work, the small purchase price will more than make up for the extra work in due diligence and other changes needed. Basically these are REO's that are owned by the county, not any financial institution. And like the banks they really dont want to own the lands.

James, I can all but guarantee that you won't find one bank that will allow you to borrow against the land. Most banks won't touch land in this type of a market. Try to do a 1031 exchange for something with cash flow. Not easy but possible. You could also sell the land with owner financing and try to flip the note for a discount after a bit of seasoning. Good luck!

Dont throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.

Locally I here hunting fees are sometimes higher than pasture or farmland values.

How far from major metropolitan city s?

those hunting camping rights MAY well surprise you/they used to be minor/not so any more.

That kind of land here was in HIGH demand and I believe still is on a lessor basis.

How much are your holding costs??further tax costs? can you get that reduced by appealing assessed values?

If all else I would try to put those on a low as possible credit card. I doubt as others say you will find a lender as your thinking of them. Or anything else you can finance to pay these things?

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me and will turn around when economy turns,but when? So you HAVE to be able to pay ALL holding costs!!(or your right back where previous owner is today!!)_ If you want to birddog those leads and need to 'turn them,let me know,,,I will 'look'

what kind of trees are on there??Height? species? timber has little value today but MAY improve when things get better.

In the mean time,check out who owns in between property to best roads,,,and see if those are soon available. Putting larger tracts together of smaller ones has value also!!

Just to update those who were interested in the large tracts of land that were available.

The 96 acre tract with all the restrictions was not available at auction time as the taxes were paid up by the owner.

The 92 acre tract of land with limited road access but no restrictions on it was included in the auction and several investors fought over it. It ended up going to one that I know and his winning bid was 68K.
That will give him 6.8K in interest over the next year, if reclaimed, and if not he then ownes the land worth 168K.