Texas ranch properties, sometimes pre-stocked with exotic animals, are commonly available, but must be considered with care.

  Owning a hunting property were you, your family and friends can go to hunt is a lifelong dream of many sportsmen. Some save for decades to purchase a much-wanted property from other family members, while a few lucky individuals manage to come into  more money than they have ever seen in their lives and decide that they can take some of their new-found millions and buy a ranch or farm to hunt on.

  It is sad to say, but a million dollars does not go as far as it use to. If you are a young guy, it is entirely possible to blow a million on a weekend in Las Vegas, and there are many very interesting guys and gals who will help you do that. Great fun, but nothing to show for it when the money runs out, except often trouble of one sort of another. I was infected with a very bad case of  young once, but survived it.

  At least when buying land you are investing in something tangible. After all, they aren’t making any more of it. The price is always going to go up, right?  Not so. You can lose your shirt at this too if you are careless and forced to sell when the market is down. Land investments for hunting are going to be money sinks into which much is put, but there will be little or no return for decades. There will be continuous drains for taxes, improvements, repairs, fencing, feed for stock and so on.

  If you have  a pot of money that you want to invest in hunting lands here is the way to go about it. The value of your property is not how much of it that you have, it is how much of it you can bring to a higher degree of productivity and keep that way.

 First, decide how much money that you can reasonably afford to invest in the property. Put that in a separate account. Then take one-third of that to actually buy acreage. One third of it for immediate improvements and the final third is held in reserve for unexpected and continuous operating expenses.

  It is a serious error to put all of your money in your initial property investment, although this will purchase more land. With increasing and rising expenses you also need to have a hefty pot of cash to improve and operate it. Don’t get caught up with competition with your peers in trying to see who can accumulate the largest property or properties. If you do this, you are very likely going to be forced to sell at a loss, should you have any financial reverses.

  Remember, one-third property, one-third improvements and one-third reserves. That simple rule will get you off to a good start. Salesmen work on commissions. They are eager to close on the most expensive properties that they manage  to make a nice paycheck from the sale. They have their, NOT YOUR, best interest at heart.  However attractive the properties are, do not under-estimate the  considerable costs of maintaining these properties over the short and long-term.