SwampCollie

No it isn't a total gamble at all. If someone puts up a smelting factory next to your block of land, petition the county planning committee to have your land rezoned industrial and sell it to another company looking to build. Companys usually don't just build plants in the middle of no where, unless of course it is some type of chemical plant, pulp mill, or a slaughter house. But factories like that always have other businesses/homes spring up around them. And if all else fails... mini-storage always makes money!

There are more ways to make money on real estate than there is to lose it. You just have to have the credit and the stones to put up some big money on an investment. Over the course of time, you will come out ahead... or at the very worst, break even.

What you have to realize though is this: As an investment, hunting land is a bust. Its quite often like a classic car... the more you use it....the less profitable it becomes. For hunting land, you want it to be fairly desolate. It takes a heck of a lot of work to keep up, and unless you are planning on running an outfitting service (which means you don't really get to hunt, which defeats the purpose of having it in the first place) then you have little or no way to make money off it. You can farm, which is expensive and time consuming, and you can even sell off timber, which is profitable as pulp is at an all time high... but once you cut... hunting with a bow gets pretty dicey.

The money in real estate is in buying and selling, not really buying and using or buying and holding. Sometimes its good to hold a good buy for a while so it can appreciate. Just keep in mind you are paying taxes on it while you are holding it. And taxes on the profits when you sell it, and taxes on it when you buy it.