It's going to happen. One day, maybe in our life time maybe in our kid's life time. Elon Musk wants to terraform the red planet back to green and blue. Let's say it works and we can now travel to our neighboring planet. You're the first investor to be blasted off to Mars. How would you go about purchasing land? What kind of land would you purchase? (natural resources, flat land, waterfront, etc.) How would you protect your land? This is the wild, wild, west...I mean Mars. 

Now this is for fun, so please don't take it seriously. You can be as creative as you want.

All I can say is the due diligence process would be out of this world...

@Scott Passman

Haha buyer beware!

PM me and I'll provide you instructions on where to send your payments. It's currently going for $100 an acre so get it while the market's hot!

@nathan g at $100/acre the returns would be unreal! Although, financing for this kind of investment would be quite alien to me. Perhaps I can probe for some extraterrestrial sources of income to get a lender or some foreign investors to believe me.

@Nathan G.

Luckily you can buy Mikes1AcreMarsBucks (good for 1 acre) for the low low price of $80.00 U.S. Only good for purchasing Real Estate on the Red Planet.

@Nick Rutkowski . Well currently it’s like buying property on the moon, which you can actually do but it’s unenforceable which means your “deed” is worthless.

In all seriousness, (looking at this from an engineers perspective), colonizing mars to a permanent level is going to take most of this century if not longer. Fun discussion though!

"moon, which you can actually do but it’s unenforceable which means your “deed” is worthless."

False: As exulted ruler of mars I declare all deeds purchased with "mikes1acremarsbucks" true and correct and good for all debts on Mars public and private!

@Nick Rutkowski

Considering the fact that you can buy stars and areas of the Moon, this is not so silly.

Sell sell sell!

@Nathan G.

Lol good one.

@Scott Passman

Don’t do too much probing! Russia might catch on!

@Caleb Heimsoth

There goes my dreams and aspirations for being the first RE investor! Darn....haha

@Daniel Smyth

Maybe I can pull a Walt Disney and buy up all the land and then turn it into a theme park.

@Nick Rutkowski sorry to burst your bubble but the United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty says you can't own Mars. You are far from the first person to ponder this question. There is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to Extraterrestrial Real Estate. It is out of this world...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_real_estate

Originally posted by @Joe Splitrock :

@Nick Rutkowski sorry to burst your bubble but the United Nations 1967 Outer Space Treaty says you can't own Mars. You are far from the first person to ponder this question. There is an entire Wikipedia page devoted to Extraterrestrial Real Estate. It is out of this world...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_real_estate

Darn, yeah my owning Mars idea isn't working too well. Maybe in the future changes could be made to own Mars. Hopefully the new idea will take off like a rocket. Ha ha ha.

@Joe Splitrock

I would make the argument that the UN has no sway or control over another planet. Because I would be denouncing my earthly citizenship as my spaceship pulled out of orbit enroute to my new home. My new country Mikenation would not join their silly little club so they can argue with each other over my ownership. 

@Mike Cumbie  you are a realtor, so tell me how do you spin those -100 degree temperatures and the fact that no plant life can exist? Correct me if I am wrong but sub-zero dessert landscape on a water less planet seems like a tough location. Even for someone of your excellent marketing skills. @Russell Brazil can probably help you sell some lots. Just get Jeff Bezos to run a shuttle between DC and Mars. It can be HQ3. I heard Bezos is shopping for a planet after his bid to buy earth fell through.

I own Mars acreage that I may be willing to part with for pennies on the dollar.

Dr Manhattan has already claimed Mars

@Joe Splitrock

Sick of raking leaves? Now is the time to grab these large already cleared 1 acre lots on Mars. No annoying code requirements to prevent you from building your dream home today! All of our lots are certified Pest and Mold free! You also won't find any lead based paint. Stunning views like the Kodiak without the worry of being mauled by a bear! Call for your personalized showing today! They won't last!!!

How is it we have not discussed the true problem here.    All these oxygen breathing earth privileged people thinking they can just "buy" something that is not theirs.   The native chemoliphotrophic microorganisms have all rights to the planet.   Just because it will take millennia for them to develop into to multi-celled organisms does not make them "inferior".   Stop Gentrification of Mars!!!!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithotroph#Chemolithotrophs

Note:   For those with an underdeveloped sense of humor this is what we refer to as sarcasm.  

I will buy low knowing a recession will be coming...

Everybody knows that there is always a bust after a BOOM, especially to Mars...

trump can easily sell many of his followers deeds on Mars. 

@Nick Rutkowski if there are aliens who sell the land, I would study extraterrestrial creature psychology and see how we can motivate them, and turn them into "motivated sellers".

@Nick Rutkowski

I'm in! How much for my share of the theme park?