I ran across this site awhile back and found that John T. Reed was full of straight talk and no nonsense.
I even subscribed to his monthly newsletter a couple years ago, but didn’t find it that useful. Anyways, check out what he has to say on Real Estate Gurus. Here’s the link– http://johntreed.com/Reedgururating.html.
About two years ago I got a call from the district attorney of Pershing County in Rural NE Nevada.
He said a woman claimed I sold her 40 acres of raw land using a title company. Then she never heard from me again and of course never received a deed. Well, I didn’t sell her the property. A con man in Florida copied verbatim my ad on my website, and put it up on Ebay.
He used a fake title company (based in Russia) and took this poor lady’s money and was never heard from again. The problem was there was no one whom had jurisdiction to go after and prosecute this con man. I think it now falls under the jurisdiction of the FBI (like this woman’s case would be a high priority).
Anyways, now I’m more careful and I never give out the APN (Assessors Parcel Number) publicly of the property I’m selling. This insures that if someone wants to investigate they have to talk to me and then they can call the county with all the correct pertinent information to confirm I actually own the property I’m selling. Fortunately, I have not had a similar incident since, but the lesson is to make sure you know whom you are dealing with before buying property or anything for that matter online.
I love investing in land. Land truly is the basis of all wealth. Why? Because land is the ultimate hard asset because all other assets support its value.
Plus, when you own land, you own a share of everything that can be produced on it. All the income, all the profits, for as long as you own the land. Plus, if you are like me, I hate doing maintenance, I don’t like dealing with tenants, and land makes me use my imagination more than any other asset.
The rural land I own in Nevada can be used for so many other things besides building my dream home. I can construct a dirt bike track or I can grow crops and sell them to local grocers. Maybe I want to advertise near the highway or sell advertising space. In fact, the only limitations are my imagination. When you by an apartment building or house the use is obvious… not with land.
Property cannot wear out, it costs less than buildings and the prices are always lower because there is much less competition. When I told my wife I wanted to quit my job to start buying raw land, she looked at me like I was insane. I explained to her that we could invest and sell at the same time and make an average of a 300% return on our money! She immediately smiled and said, “Go for it!”
