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How to Buy Land Cheap: 5th Edition
Loompanics Unlimited; 4th edition
127 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1981
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April 3, 2026
My edition of HOW TO BUY LAND CHEAP was the 4th, put out in 1991. Some things have no doubt changed since then but it still makes for interesting reading. I can't remember what I paid for it, probably around $10 back then, but even with the changing times one still gets a lot of good advice without paying big bucks for some guy's seminar or newsletter. A newsletter subscription can run a thousand bucks or more. A friend with money to burn subscribed to a couple.
There are only about 141 pages in my book and many pages were lists of who to write to in order to find pieces of property that are for sale. The author explains that governments, federal and local, sometimes have surplus land for sale. Universities, and school boards likewise. There are tax delinquent properties and foreclosure homes that counties and banks would like to sell. He tells you where to look. By the way, BLM in the book stands for the Bureau of Land Management.
Besides where to look, he gives you advice to consider. For example, if the area has fine schools and trade schools or a college nearby, that means high taxes for the school district. Being retired, that is one tax I can do without.
Examples were given of some properties found. The Celilo Ranch in Rufus, Oregon, was 168 acres with its own water spring, and hooked up for city water, sewer, telephone and other 'amenities' was sold at auction for $61,610. One guy bought a house in North Dakota for $750. Another example told of practically a whole town for sale, cheap. Some of these properties are 'out in the sticks.' To quote the author, "We even found a 23-room house in Eastport, Maine, that was even older than the type I described. This one was built for the Commanding General of the British Expeditionary Forces in the War of 1812. It had a fireplace in almost every room, and the original details were intact. The price was $11,500, which figures out to $500 a room. We didn't buy it because we couldn't figure out how to make a living in Eastport, Maine." In this day and age, someone working from home would probably enjoy it.
There is good advice in this book. Let me tell you what we did when we started looking years ago. To start off with, we knew the general area in which we hoped to buy some property for retirement. I then ordered some topographical maps from the government. These have more detail than any street map and certainly more than on Google or your GPS. They are much like military maps. You will need to teach yourself to read it, which isn't that difficult. These maps will show you trails and such things as mine sites and bridges that are not on any other map. One that I ordered showed a chemical dump site that a realtor was surprised to learn about. Be warned though that some of these maps may be aerial photographs. However, if you use a magnifying glass you will see great detail. One hint though, don't fold maps. Roll them up or the creases hide details. You can find information more quickly than with your GPS. One town we used to travel through had railroad tracks going through town. By studying my map I saw that by modifying my route I could take an overpass over the tracks. No more sitting there waiting for that freight train to pass.
So we would take a little weekend excursion with me armed with my maps, binoculars and compass. Sometimes we would drive to the various towns on the map but often took back roads to get there. This is where the binoculars and compass came in handy. I would look at water towers and compass bearings which I compared to my map to know exactly where I was. If we were surrounded by farm fields and I saw a line of trees in the distance I knew that was where the river was. We did a lot of sightseeing. Catching a local fair was always fun and we found some great buys in out of the way antique shops. Wherever we went we picked up fliers, realtor listings and local small town newspapers. And we kept our eyes open. In one town we saw a small school for sale. It was brick and had a fair size paved playground which would make for a parking lot. Besides living there, we could have opened a hobby shop and a martial arts studio, and maybe even rented some space for a small business. But we kept looking. There was an old movie theater for sale in one town. In another we actually checked out a church for sale. In every one of these towns there was a mansion that was probably owned by a doctor or banker in years past. One of these was probably bought cheap and the new owners were doing extensive repairs and improvements. These old mansions were built by craftsmen back then. There was another small brick school house in the middle of nowhere for sale. It looked like it was well kept. Another fair sized one story building had a huge garage attached. Some rich guy was storing his cars there and would have paid us to let him keep them there. No thank you. So we kept looking and would drive back home come Sunday evening.
We had just got home early from one of these recon missions when my wife sat down and opened a realtor listing we had picked up. She saw something that sounded good so she called the realtor. I could tell from the excitement in her voice that it sounded good. So we hopped back into our car and took off back the way we came. The realtor took us out to see the property and we couldn't believe it. It was perfect for us! It seemed that a company had big plans for the area and had bought up all this farmland. When things didn't go as planned for them, they had no choice but to sell the property. You could buy from 5 to 5000 acre lots. By using a stock loan from my company we could pay cash, and that gave us a better deal. We never regretted that purchase and lived happily ever after.
There is land and property out there, you just have to look. You don't need to rough it like I did with my binoculars and compass, but I strongly suggest one of those maps.
Happy hunting!
There are only about 141 pages in my book and many pages were lists of who to write to in order to find pieces of property that are for sale. The author explains that governments, federal and local, sometimes have surplus land for sale. Universities, and school boards likewise. There are tax delinquent properties and foreclosure homes that counties and banks would like to sell. He tells you where to look. By the way, BLM in the book stands for the Bureau of Land Management.
Besides where to look, he gives you advice to consider. For example, if the area has fine schools and trade schools or a college nearby, that means high taxes for the school district. Being retired, that is one tax I can do without.
Examples were given of some properties found. The Celilo Ranch in Rufus, Oregon, was 168 acres with its own water spring, and hooked up for city water, sewer, telephone and other 'amenities' was sold at auction for $61,610. One guy bought a house in North Dakota for $750. Another example told of practically a whole town for sale, cheap. Some of these properties are 'out in the sticks.' To quote the author, "We even found a 23-room house in Eastport, Maine, that was even older than the type I described. This one was built for the Commanding General of the British Expeditionary Forces in the War of 1812. It had a fireplace in almost every room, and the original details were intact. The price was $11,500, which figures out to $500 a room. We didn't buy it because we couldn't figure out how to make a living in Eastport, Maine." In this day and age, someone working from home would probably enjoy it.
There is good advice in this book. Let me tell you what we did when we started looking years ago. To start off with, we knew the general area in which we hoped to buy some property for retirement. I then ordered some topographical maps from the government. These have more detail than any street map and certainly more than on Google or your GPS. They are much like military maps. You will need to teach yourself to read it, which isn't that difficult. These maps will show you trails and such things as mine sites and bridges that are not on any other map. One that I ordered showed a chemical dump site that a realtor was surprised to learn about. Be warned though that some of these maps may be aerial photographs. However, if you use a magnifying glass you will see great detail. One hint though, don't fold maps. Roll them up or the creases hide details. You can find information more quickly than with your GPS. One town we used to travel through had railroad tracks going through town. By studying my map I saw that by modifying my route I could take an overpass over the tracks. No more sitting there waiting for that freight train to pass.
So we would take a little weekend excursion with me armed with my maps, binoculars and compass. Sometimes we would drive to the various towns on the map but often took back roads to get there. This is where the binoculars and compass came in handy. I would look at water towers and compass bearings which I compared to my map to know exactly where I was. If we were surrounded by farm fields and I saw a line of trees in the distance I knew that was where the river was. We did a lot of sightseeing. Catching a local fair was always fun and we found some great buys in out of the way antique shops. Wherever we went we picked up fliers, realtor listings and local small town newspapers. And we kept our eyes open. In one town we saw a small school for sale. It was brick and had a fair size paved playground which would make for a parking lot. Besides living there, we could have opened a hobby shop and a martial arts studio, and maybe even rented some space for a small business. But we kept looking. There was an old movie theater for sale in one town. In another we actually checked out a church for sale. In every one of these towns there was a mansion that was probably owned by a doctor or banker in years past. One of these was probably bought cheap and the new owners were doing extensive repairs and improvements. These old mansions were built by craftsmen back then. There was another small brick school house in the middle of nowhere for sale. It looked like it was well kept. Another fair sized one story building had a huge garage attached. Some rich guy was storing his cars there and would have paid us to let him keep them there. No thank you. So we kept looking and would drive back home come Sunday evening.
We had just got home early from one of these recon missions when my wife sat down and opened a realtor listing we had picked up. She saw something that sounded good so she called the realtor. I could tell from the excitement in her voice that it sounded good. So we hopped back into our car and took off back the way we came. The realtor took us out to see the property and we couldn't believe it. It was perfect for us! It seemed that a company had big plans for the area and had bought up all this farmland. When things didn't go as planned for them, they had no choice but to sell the property. You could buy from 5 to 5000 acre lots. By using a stock loan from my company we could pay cash, and that gave us a better deal. We never regretted that purchase and lived happily ever after.
There is land and property out there, you just have to look. You don't need to rough it like I did with my binoculars and compass, but I strongly suggest one of those maps.
Happy hunting!
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