BOOKS ABOUT RURAL LAND

I have spent all of my adult life appraising, brokering, buying and selling rural land all across Texas. During the course of my career, I have read hundreds of books and articles about buying, owning and selling land. I have particularly enjoyed the following. You should be able to buy any of them on Amazon.

BUYING RURAL LAND: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE FOR BEGINNERS
I wrote this guide as a primer for the beginning land investor. All of the books below are excellent; however, I recommend you read this one first as a foundation before reading the others.

FINDING, BUYING AND DEVELOPING A SOUTH TEXAS RANCH
Jim Cullen, well known wildlife consultant and ranch broker, is the author of this book. He lays out a step by step process for the individual who wants to have a successful hunting ranch in South Texas. It is one of the best guides on the subject I have ever read.

SHARING THE COMMON POOL: WATER RIGHTS IN TEXAS IN THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF TEXANS
Water rights expert and Texas History professor, Charles R. Porter explains in the simplest terms who has right to the water in Texas, who determines who has those rights and who benefits or suffers there of.

A BEGINNERS HANDBOOK FOR RURAL TEXAS LANDOWNERS: HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY WITHOUT SPOILING IT
Jim Stanley has written this wonderful primer dealing with native grasses, fauna, plants and wildlife and why they are essential to the conservation of rural Texas. It will be of particular interest to those interested in a wildlife exemption.

OWNING YOUR PIECE OF TEXAS: KEY LAWS TEXAS LANDOWNERS NEED TO KNOW
It is written by Tiffany Dowell Lashnet, Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist, Texas A&M Agri Life Extension. This is a handbook, the only one of its kind, that gathers a broad range of legal topics into one place. It is written for lay persons not attorneys. Subjects include; water law, eminent domain, fencing law, landowner liability, and special use tax valuation just to name a few. This book should be required reading for Texas landowners.

THE LAND FLIPPER: TURNING DIRT INTO DOLLARS
E. B. Farmer has spent most of his life buying, improving, subdividing and selling tracts of rural land. This book is an overview of the rural land investment business. He has subsequently written books on roads, owner financing and timber land.

LANDBOOK
This is an owners manual written by Neil Shelton. It deals with the myriad details of actually owning and living on a rural property. The book presents useful, practical knowlege about what you can do for yourself and the things you will need help with. It has a good discussion of water wells.

RAW LAND INVESTING SIMPLIFIED
Jay Mundy is the author of this book. It is meant to serve as an introduction to the various aspects that should be considered before undertaking investing in raw land.

BUYING RURAL LAND IN TEXAS
This is one of the classic reference books on the topic. Dr. Charles E. Gilliland, is a research Economist with the Real Estate Center in the Mays School of Business and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Agriculture Economics at Texas A&M University.

HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM RURAL LAND PROPERTY
Nicholas Maslaney is the author of this book about the overall process from buying to selling rural land for profit. This book is probably the most compressive of all the books in this list. It contains a significant amount of information.

DIRT CHEAP
The author is Beaux Blast. This is a step by step primer on finding undervalued land and tracts priced low in general for various reasons. It is geared to the extremely economical approach to finding and buying land. There are a number of takeaways in the book to include an excellent discussion of using the internet to find and market land.

TEXAS WILD: LAND, PLANTS AND ANIMALS OF THE LONE STAR STATE
Richard Phelan wrote this book which paints a big picture about the land, plants and animals of Texas. It is organized by geographical region for the Gulf Coast to the Trans Pecos. Phelan also weaves history, conservation and politics through out the book. I have included it in this list to provide the overall setting for a discussion of rural land in Texas. It is a beautiful book with some of the most spectacular landscape photography I have ever seen.

SUMMARY
The practical books above were, for the most part, written for the beginner or novice interested in investing in rural land. They are based on the experiences of people who have been involved in various different aspects of buying, selling and developing vacant land. I enjoyed reading these books and learned something from each of them. However, there is no guarantee of success in the land business and I recommend them for informational purposes only. This is a sample only, and there are hundreds of others available.

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Allen Realty Advisors represents buyers and sellers of fine quality rural land near Houston. We specialize in weekend retreats, country estates, farms and ranches, recreational property and investment land. Our market area is generally within 100 miles (two hours) of Houston.