I do a fair share of investing in Florida and maybe I can help a little.

True or False -It is hard to borrow money for land.
False. As a poster stated, it is very easy to borrow money for raw land. However, most banks and lenders want to be able to get "theirs" if you were to default so most, if not all, lenders require a 20% investment in raw land. The same holds true for second homes, businesses, etc. I have purchased a few houses to flip and they will hand out money like water if you have 20% down. That way, if you default, they can "liquidate" the property and easily get their money back out of it and maybe a little more.

Another point to remember is that most of us have some equity in our homes. This equity can be used to help with down payments and even buy other properties outright. This tactic is used alot to buy raw land. For instance, I bought my house for $92k in 2002 and it was worth $152k in 2005. I borrowed $50k against my house to purchase another house in an estate sale. The loan is interest only and works very similar to a credit card in that I can use it as needed. My brother used his equity line to purchase additional properties as well.

The old saying is that you have to have money to make money but the truth is that you just have to have good credit and you can do about anything.

I am looking to purchase asmall tract in the midwest (80-320 acres) and I will likely then try to lease it to farmers. The bank loves it and there are a number of programs to assist with the purchase. Further, it is considered investment income because the lease programs with the farmers allow me to make a little off of the land to offset the costs of purchase and I have ready made food plots on the place in the farmer's crops.

I make a payment on the land, the farmers raises and sells his crops of which I get a percentage, and then I have food plots supplied by the farmer. You cannot ask for much better. The only flaw in this logic is that many of the small farmers that do these deals are going by the wayside quickly and they are a dying breed.