LandBook: The small landowner's guide to buying, improving, maintaining and selling rural land

by Neil Shelton

This isn't one of those books that will teach you how to make a fortune speculating in real estate. There are so many of those on the market that I’m assuming the reader already has all the hot, steaming, piles of cash he or she has ever dreamt of possessing . Rather, this book tells you how to get the most useful enjoyment from land that you actually intend to live on – and you won’t need your vast fortune to do it. You’ll learn a few things about your ownership of land too. LandBook is a compendium of good things to know if you own a small tract of land; and these are even better things to know before you buy one. In my four decades of dealing with rural property, I've discovered that there are myriad ways to approach the purchase and management of rural real estate if one has a bountiful supply of cash; but, having never found myself in that particular position, I wanted to share some of the knowledge and techniques I've learned with folks who can't, or won't, hire a specialist for every need. My intention isn't to teach the reader to be his or her own attorney, broker, surveyor, or excavation contractor. Rather, I'd like to show you how to do the things you can for yourself, and how to recognize the things that require professional help. We'll cover how to buy and sell land in ways that are both ethical and profitable, but we'll also dwell on practical knowledge you'll need as a how to measure and locate your boundaries, what to expect when you hire a well driller, how to maintain a long, unpaved driveway for yourself, or how to negotiate the local courthouse to your own benefit. This, and much other Real World stuff. In short, this is a handbook, or owner's manual for your land, a LandBook, if you will. I hope you enjoy it.

Genres: Nonfiction

154 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2014

Reviews

[Connie Ferrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

really enjoyed this book which is like a popourii I of interesting facts and suggestions about land ownership

It gave me a good inexpensive way to more or less permanently fix our rutted driveway and introduced me to realities of buying land. Humorously, well-written it's is a charmer to read and good to have nearby as a resource.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good, quick read. Gets right to the point with no mindless filler.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

It isn’t often I laugh out loud reading a book on land financing and surveying, but here we are. Very useful book, but had to dock one star because I wish it contained just a bit more detail in the early chapters on selecting the land you should buy. As a total beginner, I’m looking for more information like how many acres and what types of features are optimal for different uses (firewood, livestock, etc), ways to potentially make income from land... Overall though, a helpful and surprisingly entertaining book!

[Ryan MacInnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for those who know nothing about buying land. A few of the tips and tricks feels really outdated but what do I know, maybe a lot of land work is outdated.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helped my husband and I understand the basics of rural land purchasing, including what questions to ask when considering land. We knew absolutely nothing about this topic, but thanks to this book, we feel like we have some solid working knowledge. It's written by someone who was part of the 1970s back-to-the-land movement, and who has experience buying and living on rural land, and experience in real estate. (Also, it's funny!)

[Barbara Bamberger · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Of all the things on Earth that money can buy, none of them quite compare to the earth itself, that is, to land.” This simple but profound statement opens the new, updated edition of LandBook, by Neil Shelton. Shelton knows land. Besides being a real estate expert who has practiced everything he preaches as a back-to-the-land proponent living somewhere “deep inside the Ozark forest,” he created the websites OzarkLand.com, the first online land sales outlet, and Homestead.org, featuring weekly articles for those who live, or would like to live, the homesteading dream. This latest, larger and more extensive edition of Landbook includes three new chapters with big color photos. There are more maps and diagrams and instructions for understanding them. After helping you through the land purchase -- stuff like auction sales, quit-claims, interest rates, deeds and registrations that make up this sometimes daunting process -- LandBook moves on to the next stage: the things you need to do to the land once you get it, including clearing and road building, with detailed illustrations to help you understand the actual work involved. House placement, well digging, fencing, and pond building all are covered, examining the where (on a hill, through the woods, along the property line), the why (where will the water collect, how much forest or garden do you want) and the what/how of these crucial decisions, with before, during and after pictures. Shelton’s wisdom can help you protect your land from fire and flood as well as from the taxman and the banker; he offers stats on owner financing that may surprise you. It’s important to note that this is not a book about flipping – it’s about getting the acreage of your dreams, a place to live on and care for. Still, Shelton is knowledgeable about strategies for selling your land and moving on with minimum hassle, if that becomes necessary. Appendices cover typical corner markings for your survey adventures, samples of various kinds of documents, and a glossary of legal and land-related terminology.