Buying Rural Land for Long-Term Investment or Short Term Rentals

Everyone is familiar with house-flippers, who buy rundown houses in promising areas, completely rip through them in a matter of weeks to bring all the systems up to snuff, and then put these houses right back on the market for a profit (well, usually for a profit). There are probably ten or fifteen popular cable network shows which are now dedicated to this practice. rural-investment.jpg

Everyone is also familiar with developers, both commercial and residential. They scoop up land, and only months later it is developed into a mini-mall or into another housing community and resold for a nice profit (or so they hope). We see the whole building process going on around us, with the “For Lease” and “For Sale” signs already up before the ground is even broken.

What about one of the safest and most fulfilling land investments, one that you only hear about when it goes up for sale and someone compares what was paid for it vs. what it is now selling for? Long-term rural land investing is what I have in mind. It is more than just a way to hold an investment for its future value; it is something that you can enjoy and use even while it is in your possession.

Is there anyone who has owned rural land over time who’s had a BAD experience? Is it boring waiting years to turn a profit? Not according to the people I talk to. I never hear about a boring life; instead, I hear stories about the great life they’ve had during all the years they’ve owned the land, and often their hopes that someone else will buy their land to experience the same wonderful lifestyle.

If you just can’t relate to what I’m saying, listen to how Roberta Grimes sums up her experience.

Buying rural land when we were young was the best thing we have ever done. It gave us a great lifestyle, a place for our hobbies, a wonderful environment in which to raise our children; and now, as we reach retirement age, our rural land has made us rich!

My husband and I bought 160 rural acres in 1978. We had some trouble affording it, since we were only in our thirties; and then after we had bought the land we had to afford to build a house besides. But we scrimped and budgeted, and we made it happen. My husband developed a weekend vineyard, and for many years I grew our food while I dabbled in horse-showing and horse-breeding; over twenty years, as we could afford it, we built stables and barns and a swimming pool and a dock so we could boat on our lake. Our three children happily grew up with fields and woods and horses and the lake: living on our land was like living on vacation.

Time passed. Our children grew up and moved away to pursue their individual dreams. My husband and I retired and moved south, and that was when we realized that while we had been enjoying our rural lifestyle, civilization had been creeping closer. We had been saving for retirement, but it turned out that we needn’t have bothered. Our 160 acres of no-longer-rural land turned out to be worth more than twenty times what we had paid for it some twenty years before.

What we did in the seventies was tough. It required that we live and work in the boonies, and while we loved that, it did limit our employment options and therefore our income. Not so any more! With the advent of the Internet, more and more people are finding that they can work from home, so for them to choose a rural lifestyle is hardly any compromise at all. Having seen how our rural purchase turned out, we have only one piece of advice: going out beyond the edge of development and buying the best land that you can find is the smartest thing that any young couple can do to create a fantastic lifestyle and start upon the road to being rich.

Now, that’s the kind of thing that I often hear, and I can’t help but smile every time! There may be no 30-minute reality shows that take people from start to finish of a 20-year land investment. However, it’s a lifestyle that many people out there have lived, or are living now.

Maybe what is holding you back is the thought of being out in the boonies. You worry that it means poor internet options, or maybe a long commute to work. While that may have been a concern in the past, today it’s much easier to maintain a city life in the country. Baby Boomers are buying rural real estate all over the United States, and it’s stories like the one above that make it clear why it’s all worth it.

For instance, if you walk into a hospital you will see doctors, nurses, and other staff with ID badges around their necks. Guess what is holding them in place? Yep, it’s a lanyard. However, there are several different uses behind lanyards. You can find them at schools, given away as gifts, used on keychains, and a variety of other uses.

However, there is one reason why they are extremely popular in today’s world and it’s because they’re a great promotional tool. Companies love the fact that lanyards are inexpensive. You can also purchase them at bigger discounts if you’re willing to buy in bulk. The end result is a lot of long-term advertising for a minuscule amount of money.

Brand name clothing lines like Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, as well as many others utilize this simplicity to continue branding themselves in the world as we know it. Keep in mind; it’s not always the big name companies that take this course of action either. A prime example of this would be a local school that is having a fundraiser.

Schools are the perfect platform to sell lanyards, because kids want to support their team’s colors at games or just during school hours. Parents do as well, which means it’s an inexpensive way to create money for the school. Our local school offers lanyards with the name of the high school and the colors for $5.

It’s one of the cheapest items to purchase, which makes it a steal for most parents on a tight budget. Since the actual cost isn’t even close to $5 the school is creating additional revenue.

Another arena that has made lanyards popular is professional sports. Just head to the local apparel shop and you’re bound to find sports team names and colors on lanyards. They are usually right at the checkout counter. These can be anywhere from $10 to $15 depending on where you purchase it. The point is; professional and collegiate sports teams know how big of a money maker this type of industry can be.

Over the years there have been several reasons why lanyards became popular. They were once used around swords, knives, and pistols. Later on people took advantage of them to keep their ID badges handy. Now they are more of a decorative choice, but can help keep your ID, keys, or even your camera more secure.

If you haven’t ever owned a lanyard we definitely recommend one. It can be a great conversation piece with friends, family, co-workers, or even someone admiring it from afar.

The findings are based on 2008 numbers, which put the total at 1,178,350 total infections. However, the impact of the statistics are diluted somewhat by the statement that “20 percent of them don’t know they are infected.” So the numbers are projected figures, not actual findings.

It is likely that these numbers are reasonably accurate as the CDC has studied infection rates since they first announced that HIV was on our shores in 1981. It is almost thirty years ago to the day that researchers announced the first HIV infected person in our country. Since then, almost 600,000 people have died as a result.

Conservative estimates puts infection rates at around 50,000 new cases a year. That’s one person every nine minutes. Many of the new cases come from drug use, but there are still too many being infected through sexual contact.

According to Dr Michael Kolber, a professor of medicine and director of the Comprehensive AIDS Program at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, most infections are completely unnecessary.

“People do not need to get HIV, it’s a preventable disease,” Kolber said. “But we also need to identify individuals with HIV and get them into care, which will reduce transmission.”

HIV helped bring the term “prevention is better than the cure” to popular culture. It is still the case now. With advances in medical science, drug therapy and new antiviral drugs, it is possible to prevent the spread of HIV. This is something that scientists and society at large needs to get into the minds of the vulnerable groups.

Simple measures like being careful with needles, always using a fresh one, practicing safe sex and being tested regularly are just some of the ways people can minimize their exposure to the disease.

Drugs are available to lower the risk of infection. Antiviral drugs have been proven to prevent transmission, but availability is limited. Our healthcare system is only geared up to look after those who can afford it, which is why the most at risk groups are those that cannot.

Data from the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance System, which collected data on gay and bisexual men in 21 major cities throughout the country showed that their control group had a 7 percent infection rate. That’s despite increased education, awareness and availability of condoms.

Researchers now conclude that not enough gay and bisexual men are getting regular HIV tests. Yet, even among those who did get tested in the past year, many are newly infected. There is still much to do in increasing awareness of the disease, and keeping it in the minds of themost vulnerable groups.

The research indicates that racial attitudes towards health may have a part to play. Of all gay and bisexual men who participated in the research, African-Americans were most likely to be infected but unaware of their infection (14.5 percent), followed by Hispanic men (6.7 percent) and white men (3 percent).

“African-Americans make up about 12 percent of the population, but 50 percent of the new infections,” Kolber said. “And it is usually in the urban areas among the lower socioeconomic, lower educated individuals,” he added.

African-American men are disproportionately represented in HIV infection rates. Many women are infected from men, with needle use a close second. Attitudes towards gay relationships in African-American neighborhood pushes the problem underground.

Add to that the heightened levels of poverty, lack of adequate healthcare and there is a distinct challenge to address here. Among Hispanics, the problem is much the same, although the statistics are different.

An estimated 1 in 36 Hispanic men will be diagnosed with HIV, compared to 1 in 106 women. Of those men, 75 percent of the infections will be through male to male sex. Again, the attitude in Latino society towards gay sex, poverty levels and poor access to healthcare exacerbates this problem.

It is, as always, those on the lower steps of the social ladder that are most at risk. We have much yet to do to reach these people and educate them on the risks. We also have to make great efforts to reach out to these groups and make testing and treatment available to them.

There are already many projects making clean needles and condoms available to all parts of society, but it seems this needs work too. It’s ironic that as one of the world’s leading donors to HIV and AIDS causes around the world, we can’t seem to take care of our own.

A different CDC report, published in 2010, said that infection rates in America’s poorest neighborhoods is around 2.1 percent, which is 4 times the national average. Of these infections, three quarters of them were homosexual or bisexual males.

Drug use contributes up to 20 percent of new HIV infections each year. Many other countries in the world fund programs that provided clean needles to addicts. This was shown to reduce infection rates through dirty needles. Until 2009, such programs were barred from federal funding, so were purely small-scale private or charity-run. That ban was lifted in 2009, so we should see funding made available.

Despite our wealth, despite our leadership in technology, medicine and drug therapy, the United States has the highest per capita HIV infection rate in the world. The perception is that HIV and AIDS is an African problem. That is something that needs to change if we are to combat this infection.

With President Obama having launched his National HIV/AIDS Strategy in July 2010, it is hoped that we can get our own house in order. With complaints already from AIDS charities saying it isn’t enough, and it doesn’t mention the funding, only time will tell how effective it really is.