Some of the el cheapo places you can buy have negative value. E.g., the properties in Detroit and such that you can get for $100 or something. They almost certainly have years of back taxes on them that have to be paid. Which is why no one buys them. (And the “solution” of forgiving the back taxes would encourage others to not pay, making that side of the problem worse.)
Ditto former waste sites, tire dump sites, etc. The owners would give you these lots since you’d be stuck with the cleanup costs.
Beware of folks offering cheap property.
But there are remote chunks of small ex-farmland sitting vacant since they are too small to be profitably farmed anymore. Some can be had for a few hundred dollars in depressed areas. Expect any dwelling on the site to be of the “decayed shack” variety.
No, because you’re only leasing the rights to extract mineral resources from the land. The government still owns the land, and you’d have no rights to do anything on it not related to extracting oil and gas.
The government gave lots of land away in Alaska willy-nilly under the homestead act well into the 20th century, like into the 1980’s. Even today there are state programs in Alaska that either give away or sell land for extremely cheap to Alaskans who are willing to make certain improvements to it. See here: http://www.dced.state.ak.us/ded/dev/student_info/learn/homesteading.htm
The Genesee county, (MI) Landbank (Flint is the biggest city in the county, like Detroit but on a smaller scale) takes over properties that have been abandoned, condemned or let go for back taxes. They have what they call a “side lot” program where homeowners adjacent to Landbank-owned properties can buy an empty lot for as little as $25.00. Then of course you have to maintain it and pay taxes on the thing - which can be as little as $40 per year - but it’s yours free and clear. No back taxes or leins, just filing fees which bump the cost for a city lot up to about $65.00.
The result is good overall - people in parts of the county own giant lots and maintain them, sometimes planting huge vegetable gardens; the city/Landbank doesn’t have to pay for upkeep. I own a house in Flint along with the adjacent lot I bought through the program (I rent it out, no longer live there) and currently live in a house north of the city on three lots and am considering purchasing two adjacent ones. Just because I can. Except I would have to clear trees and brush from one of the lots to stay good with the township, which would be really spendy.
But to the OP - these are often worthless properties as they stand, unless all you want to do is own a compound or have a seriously huge yard that you then have to maintain.
You know, if you are the only house owner left on the block, this would be a great deal. I would love to own one whole residential city block. Would the town work with you to reduce the underground infrastructure when you tear down the other buildings?
That is, until all four streets need repaving, the sewer line needs replacing, or the water main busted. Your ownership extends to the middle of the street, and while the street and the sidewalk and the parkway are public right of way, YOU get to pay an assessed amount for the improvements.
~VOW
Hm. We have never had to pay for the town to repave, nor to replace sewers [in the case of my parents house or my house in Portsmouth VA] nor the time they replaced the sidewalks on both sides of the Portsmouth house [it was on a corner] That was always dealt with out of the normal tax money. One neighbor had to pay to get a water line repaired, they dug without checking what was there. They had a bit of an impromptu swimming pool for the neighborhood dogs briefly.
Yes and no. Property owners can certainly erect fences (unless they are part of a HOA and are restricted from doing so) but many suburban communities in the US are delivered by the builder or developer with no fences beween the adjoining yards.
Pretty much, afaik, it’s in California City, in CA, out near Mojave. Planned community that never took off, lots of smaller lots. Yes, price per acre, there’s cheaper land, but you can buy a lot there pretty damn cheap.
I sold my Fathers lot for $500, it was about 2 acres. There’s a couple of eBay auctions now going for a pittance.
Places where you can find land “$250 an acre” doesn’t mean you can walk in the door and say, “I’ll take one acre, please.”
If the parcel of land is a thousand acres, you gotta buy the entire thousand. Gone are the days when the patriarch of a family could go down to the courthouse and split up his 640 farm into 160-acre portions for his four sons. Nowadays, you have to hire a surveyor to do some research before he or she heads out to the 640 acres to retrace the property lines and document the monuments. Then the information is taken back to the office where the computer goes to work splitting up the land. There might be another trip to the field to set monuments at the corners of the new lots. Then a map is filed with the County. If it is accepted, only THEN can those individual lots be transferred.
That’s gonna drive up the price of the original $250 an acre!
You may return to your lawnchairs and beer and sunset admiration.
~VOW
Yeah but even if you had $20K in filing and surveying fees divided into 640 acres thats about $30 an acre to convert or $5K per son :D. Hardly a lethal financial blow for 160 acres of land.
In Alaska most State land sales programs are reserved for residents. The Mental Health Trust land office and University of Alaska land management will both sell lands to non-residents. Some prices I was seeing for cheap land in north central Alaska were around 10 grand for 5 to 10 acres.
Well its not like I plan on farming, just hiding from all those damn people. 40 acres, pretty nice square plot plunk down in the center and you are 600 feet from the nearest road. If I can pump 5-10 gallons an hour out of a well I can easily store water. My dad has a similar setup, he is on a mountainside and has spotty well performance at times so he has a water tank on the property 3000 gallons IIRC. Supposedly he can go for several weeks on reserves if need be with no real attempt at conserving with 3 people living there.
Except I would have to clear trees and brush from one of the lots to stay good with the township, which would be really spendy.
40 acres, pretty nice square plot plunk down in the center and you are 600 feet from the nearest road. If I can pump 5-10 gallons an hour out of a well I can easily store water. My dad has a similar setup, he is on a mountainside and has spotty well performance at times so he has a water tank on the property 3000 gallons IIRC. Supposedly he can go for several weeks on reserves if need be with no real attempt at conserving with 3 people living there.