My dad and I are looking to purchase property in central Illinois for deer hunting. We would like a property to have tillable ground to help pay for the cost of the property. Obviously price is the key factor in what we can afford to purchase. We have seen prices from $5,000 to $16,000 an acre recently. What should we look for in a potential property to make it worth the large investment? Thanks for any and all advice.
$5K - $16K per acre.... "What should we look for?" O.o Uhm....out of state land? Is there anything cheaper there at all? Maybe old coal mined ground that's rough and over grown? There is a lot of it here and it's easily half of what good ag ground brings. For the difference in price you could buy an old dozer and level out some fields and place them where you want them. Outside of that, overgrown land with a few small fields with neighboring properties that are ag fields should be cheaper but little income. Or if you want hunting and income then just the opposite, good fields surrounded with good brush and grass and just pay the high price.
We have been looking at Peoria, Fulton, Woodford, Tazewell, Schuyler, and Marshall counties. The $16,000 an acre was for highly productive mostly tillable ground but yeah its outrageous.
Deer tracks and deer poop. If you like hunting that should get you a good start. J/k anyway, I know the feeling of expensive ground. Here in Iowa there are counties with cheap land and counties where you'd think there was oil in them thar hills.
Location of the property to deer hot spots. Possible Crp contracts. History of deer being harvested on the potential location. Water source. Potential building site. Possible tillable acres. Fair market value. Future development. Zoning issues. Crazy neighbors? Railroad tracks? Flooding issues? Resale potential? Local economic situation.
This is very interesting to me. Buy farm land for the hunting? Then use the cash rent to pay for the taxes and loan payments and have your own hunting land? I have a buddy who is a VP at a bank in charge of farm loans. Hmmmmm
Public land receives a lot of pressure around the area we are looking at property. We realize that the property probably won't pay for itself over a short period of time.
I would say bedding cover is very important and the hardest thing to add easily to a property. It is much easier to add food to a property. Make sure the property has areas of cover that will hold deer year round or if it doesn't at least on the neighbors property. Then you have to pull them off of theirs and onto yours.
If I were looking for hunting land I'd want ridges running perpendicular to the prevailing wind, access to the property from the downwind side of the property, usually east side. Thick bedding areas, some type of water source. Like John said, bedding is key, but bedding without proper access makes for rough hunting.
Look for those rolling hills and a piece of property that has the only water source around. Character differences including pines to hardwood and overgrown to agro fields. You can always clearcut to get money and then control burn to make the fields of your choice.
Honestly...I would look for as much as you can get for as good of a deal as you can get. Give me 10 acres or more and I'll get deer to it...no matter how many years it takes depending on condition of it when I get it.
35 thousand for 40 acres? thats less then a 1000 bucks an acre. They dont make anymore land. Id buy it. Where is it? I might buy it just to flip it later. $875 is cheap even if its all rocks and trees. now if you missed a 0 on that 35,000 and its 350,000 then yeah depending on what it is that might be high.
