government land?

[PaLady]

Does anyone know anything about the website www.governmentland.com? My husband and I are currently looking for some land to homestead out west and they advertise that there is land available for $1 and acre. I've never heard of such a thing...can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks )

[Old Vet]

The advertisement is correct. The only thing that you have to have is what is left out. There may not be water or rights to water there. There may not be electrity on the area or around the area. There may not be acess to the area. You won't find Government Land this cheep in a well populated area. So you may not Homestead an area that you can not get to except by foot.

[Jennifer L.]

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa030702a.htm

Take a look at that website.

Jennifer

[copperkid3]

The old adage that states, "If it sounds too good to be true......"

Having said that, I guess it also depends on what it is that you "THINK" this ALL entails.....if you're actually looking to head out to a remote area and build a little cabin in the middle of your 20 acres and improve the land by cutting down the trees and establishing crops, etc......then forget it......that went out years ago. If you actually check into this further (without forking over the $20.00 for the information packet that they are selling), I think you'll find that all that they are providing is information on how to stake a mineral claim to the land in question. Once you do this, the government is going to want to know what you plan on mining, require you to file various impact statements, etc. and most people don't realize that you won't be able to LIVE ON THE LAND as they had hoped and dreamed of......like homesteading in the "good old days"......
Now I could be wrong......but I believe that this has been discussed previously in earlier threads.....check the archives for further details/comments.

[Terri]

Land in the boonies is not expensive. Land near a place of employement IS!

[prairiebird]

Originally Posted by Terri

Land in the boonies is not expensive. Land near a place of employement IS!

That should be in a 'wise & witty' column!
robin

[Shadow]

Forget it cheap goverment land and free land to homesteaders does not exsist except in the scam artist cons. First thing they want is money for a catalog, sales list ect.

[kenuchelover]

Originally Posted by pnsm_112099

Does anyone know anything about the website www.governmentland.com? My husband and I are currently looking for some land to homestead out west and they advertise that there is land available for $1 and acre. I've never heard of such a thing...can anyone shed some light on this? Thanks )

It's a scam.

While the Homestead Act is "officially" still on the books, in reality nobody has been allowed to homestead for several decades..... red tape & lack of funding & stonewalling agencies prevent this.

(The govt decided it was a bad idea to allow homesteading on the remaining land.... there had been lots of taxpayer costs incurred re folk who homesteaded in totally unsuitable areas & then got their congressmen to dip into the pork barrel for irrigation projects & roads & such. Also problems with folk purportedly homesteading.... but immediately selling it off as soon as legally able to do so. For political reasons.... involving the lack of bipartisan cooperation in Congress, and the strong appeal that the "idea" of homesteading still being legal has with the voting public..... the govt never went & officially killed the Homestead Act, instead they let it die a natural death of old age).

Now, folk CAN file mining claims....& sometimes live on them. But the govt has been clamping down hard on this as well, with good cause. Companies were filing mining claims on things like riverbed SAND in the midst of pristine federal lands.... and then turning around & selling the land for developers to put resorts & houses on. In some cases, companies got title & resold lands at HUGE profits (we're talking tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in extreme cases) without ever making a penny off the "mining" operation that was the rationale for giving these folk federal lands at pennies on the dollar.

These companies give you the regulations & so on FOR A FEE.... but don't tell you that your application stands NO chance of being processed & approved (goes to a dead letter office in a defunct bureau with NO personnel to process applications, or gets deliberately snowed under with red tape, or gets turned down without explanation, etc).

[fantasymaker]

I would have sworn the organic act killed homsteading on federal land in 1986.

[SteveD(TX)]

I didn't see anywhere on that site that indicated that you could actually own, buy, or receive title to any land. It talks about claims. You will pay about information on staking a "claim". Whatever that is. Good luck. There is no more free land given away by the government, except for maybe a couple of cities that need residents. They might give you a lot for free; exactly what it's worth. And you have to build a house on it, etc.

BTW, I think there is a website where you can buy a few acres on the moon, also. Of course, the sellers don't own the moon or have rights to sell anything. But they'll gladly take your money.

[BillHoo]

Keep in mind that the website you noted is a .com and not a .gov site.

They have nothing to do with the government.

[Terri]

The gov. will give you the same information for free.

[hillsidedigger]

I have read of programs whereby state land in the Mat-Su region in Alaska is for sale for as little as $20,000 for 320 acres, sure is tempting to me to find out more about. No electricty and limited access, I imagine, farmable land but only with great effort?

[fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by hillsidedigger

I have read of programs whereby state land in the Mat-Su region in Alaska is for sale for as little as $20,000 for 320 acres, sure is tempting to me to find out more about. No electricty and limited access, I imagine, farmable land but only with great effort?

Farmable? yes but way overpriced!
I was involved in the sale of the makinzee point farms I kept telling them with the restrictions they were putting on the land it had negative value...no one belived me.
Later everyone was suprized when all the farms failed! (Dont tell me that some are still there they are but only at great cost to those who own them thus the farm its self is a failed project)

[Aintlifegrand]

Originally Posted by hillsidedigger

I have read of programs whereby state land in the Mat-Su region in Alaska is for sale for as little as $20,000 for 320 acres, sure is tempting to me to find out more about. No electricty and limited access, I imagine, farmable land but only with great effort?

Thta seems really too cheap fro that are. Many areas in Alaska are fly in access only and a host of others issues. Please make sure you check into all the details. That area is really nice, but that price seems not realistic.

[Terri]

Pnsm, would you consider buying raw land nearby? You could put up a cabin on weekends. Then, you could move in.

http://www.unitedcountry.com/search0...10958&RP=&FT=P

http://www.unitedcountry.com/search0...00701&RP=&FT=P

[SteveD(TX)]

Originally Posted by fantasymaker

Farmable? yes but way overpriced!
I was involved in the sale of the makinzee point farms I kept telling them with the restrictions they were putting on the land it had negative value...no one belived me.
Later everyone was suprized when all the farms failed! (Dont tell me that some are still there they are but only at great cost to those who own them thus the farm its self is a failed project)

"negative value"??

Are you saying that the seller would have to pay the buyer in order for the buyer to acquire ownership? A unique concept for me. And I've been a real estate appraiser for 23 years.

Most land, even some farm land, is sold with the owner intent on just owning the land, and not ever making a profit. "Hobby" farmers gladly pay huge sums for land knowing there will never be a profit. It's hard for a small to medium sized family farm to compete with the corporate giants in the business. If a family is lucky to inherit some land and keep themselves out of debt, a small truck farm or speciality farm with a proven market might do okay, provided your crop isn't ruined by floods or drought. But you won't get rich. Unfortunate, but true.

[fantasymaker]

[QUOTE=SteveD(TX)]"negative value"??

Are you saying that the seller would have to pay the buyer in order for the buyer to acquire ownership? A unique concept for me. And I've been a real estate appraiser for 23 years.
QUOTE]

Yes thats exactly what Im saying and like you most in government couldnt understand the concept.

You might not be famielr with the program so Ill tell ya about the value killing rule.
The land could only be used for agriculture no subdividing no using for a factory just agriculture THAT would be enough to make it negative value but they made it even WORSE! It was also comonly restricted to what type of agriculture and even more rules about that. (like loafing shed aisles were to be 38 inches wide not 48 so you could get a bobcat thru)

In an earlyer tpost you were talking of claims ,In govenment speak Claims are a right that ripens into patents patents are converted later to deeds

[fantasymaker]

I did a little reserch in to mat-su valley state agland sales and found one from this fall I think its pretty well done but you get an Idea of what they are doing .This land is running around $500 and acre and seems to me to be about $1500 an acre over priced.
http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/ag/BrochureAuction453.pdf

[SteveD(TX)]

[QUOTE=fantasymaker]

Originally Posted by SteveD(TX)

"negative value"??

Are you saying that the seller would have to pay the buyer in order for the buyer to acquire ownership? A unique concept for me. And I've been a real estate appraiser for 23 years.
QUOTE]

Yes thats exactly what Im saying and like you most in government couldnt understand the concept.

You might not be famielr with the program so Ill tell ya about the value killing rule.
The land could only be used for agriculture no subdividing no using for a factory just agriculture THAT would be enough to make it negative value but they made it even WORSE! It was also comonly restricted to what type of agriculture and even more rules about that. (like loafing shed aisles were to be 38 inches wide not 48 so you could get a bobcat thru)

In an earlyer tpost you were talking of claims ,In govenment speak Claims are a right that ripens into patents patents are converted later to deeds

You are aware, of course, that real estate has typically three (3) approaches to value. You are claiming negative value strictly from an Income Approach. Most raw land, in theory, has "negative" value from an income standpoint. But Market Value is defined as "the most probable price".....that someone will pay for real estate. If you are saying that the "most probable" price is a negative number, you know nothing at all about real estate. But that of course, is already obvious. Everyone who will pay someone to take your land off your hands, let us know.

And I know what a "patent" is. And all of you, who have received unencumbered fee title to valuable land using a claim that was converted into a patent that converted into a deed, please post your stories here. We really do want to know how you are getting this "free" land.