Hello everyone, 

My family is land rich, cash poor. My grandparents have lived off of oil & gas wells their whole lives, have millions of dollars worth of land, and are very complacent with this. My grandpa has thousands of dollars worth of checks scattered in the midst of his heap of paperwork on his desk and says "I'll get to it one day." This frustrates me so much. They collect annual revenues from small royalties, hunting and cattle leases, and have been selling off smaller properties lately to help them squeeze by. I will one day inherit said royalties and land (very small amount due to it being divided up between so many family members) but I'm just sitting here thinking, "Man, if I had what they had I would be selling property to invest in larger properties and gaining capital." I have gained a small amount of traction by convincing them to sell me a small lot in a nearby town for $500 that is due to be re-zoned soon and be part of a neighborhood. Basically it is a land-locked lot with no street access and the city will soon be building streets to these lots that random people own in order to create housing. I have the neighbor who is interested in buying my lot for $5,000 and am waiting on it to clear title. So boom - a little over $3K in my pocket all by simply asking my grandparents a question. On top of that, I contacted the neighbor on the opposite side with the same size lot who is willing to sell me his lot for $700. My idea is to sell both lots to the neighbor willing to pay for my one. He is interested in both now but we have not set a definite price. 

I give this example to show I know it is possible to capitalize on my grandparents' lack of motivation to do anything with their property. The only thing is I'm afraid it stops there...I go to pipeline lease meetings with my grandpa and am a part of things like that but as far as handing over the torch I think he thinks I am too young. It would be a dream of mine to have what they have and work to turn everything positive. My questions are what would you do in my situation? If I wanted to start acquiring my family's land and turn profits how would you go about doing that? Find smaller deals and sell until you get enough capital to start buying the large family properties? I am afraid that over time my grandparents will have to sell bigger properties, like the ones I grew up deer hunting on which are very sentimental to me, and I will have to watch my childhood be sold to some big-wig from the nearest metroplex. 

Just for reference between my grandpa, his two deceased siblings, and another landowner in town, they own 15,000 mineral acres of which roughly 5,000 are surface. 

Growing up and seeing what my grandparents do, it has always been a life goal of mine to be a land investor. Of course that's my goal, right? Lol. But seriously, it's what I am set on doing. Whether I own 5 acres when I die or 50,000, I will be in the game somehow. I have a pretty decent start using the leverage of my family but I have a large hunger for growth and in my eyes there is no reason I shouldn't be a bigger player in the game one day than they are right now. 

Please share your thoughts if you are an experienced rural land investor or if you have a similar family situation. Thank you!