Here's a COSMIC QUESTION question for ya'. What if you just landed here on Earth and were looking for opportunity in investment property? What "kind" of land would attract you?
a) agricultural land
b) rural land
c) urban land
Let's say you could leave your footprint upon Terra Firma. How would you plan to establish it and watch it turn into something special?
Maybe you would be like this little "green" guy who grew up on a farm on a faraway galaxy. You are interested in agricultural land. You head out with a vision to create a working farm, maybe your brother will develop co-housing facilities, and you will live in a sustainable eco-village. You love good food. So you decide to grow and supply organic crops and dairy products.
On the other hand, having come all this way in life in a crowded space craft, you now yearn for a private estate where you can set aside 1,900 of 2,000 acres of rural land. You want to hang out in nature, ride around on a horse,create a trail system for equestrian pursuits. You will probably restrict use on 100 acres of such a parcel for a nature-education center so that other cosmic-environmentalists can get the Earthlings up-to-speed on how to take care of their planet. OR... Maybe too much nature kind of scares you. You don't really like all those noisy winds. You are an urban land kind of person. You want to design techonolgically-advanced systems in a "green" office building. Whatever attracts you, I say you have paid your dues, journeyed many miles, earned the reward....so GO FOR IT!
So now here's a real down-to-Earth question just for you real estate professionals. As REALTORS we are aware of the Law of Supply and Demand, and also aware that there is only "so much" Land..so when will you choose to invest in the land?
Tell you what I'd do. "In my mind I'm going to CAROLINA!"
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I've noticed, over the course of my life, that there are "places" that attract me. I can be driving down the road and my head will snap in the direction of the "place". Places of power, maybe? Anyway, my inclination with land is to leave it be, as much as possible. I grew up on an 800-acre church camp with an 80 acre lack (when Mama said, "Don't leave the yard," that's what she was talking about), and my grandparents had a 90 acre farm that had been bought by my grandfather's parents when he was 3 months old (I still own about 40 acres of it) which likely had a lot to do with my attitudes towards the land.
My inclination is to build a house that blends in with the land, that looks as if it "grew" there. Trails are fine - animals, after all, which we are, make trails. It's usually best, in my experience, to have my trails go right along where theirs do, because they've pretty much got it scoped out what works on that particular piece of property. IH35 here, for example, follows the wagon trails which followed the Indian trails which followed the animal trails - which follow the edge of the Balcones Escarpment where it drops off to blackland prairie and where you're likely to find water. Our 55 acres, just east of IH35, is half Austin Chalk (limestone soil), half Houston Black (black gumbo clay - rich, but a pain to work for a garden).
I'm not really into the "nature center" sort of thing - I prefer the real thing, myself. ;-) So I try to mess with it as little as possible.