Who is behind all of the land grabs?

Tonights Deep Thinking w/B-man

It’s super common to get offers for our land through the mail.

I haven’t kept track, but there’s dozens of letters every year from all sorts of different “companies.”

Some of the offers aren’t bad, but I’m not selling and they all go in the recycling bin.

But it still begs the question:

Are there really that many American companies looking for vacant land to flip for a buck? Or is there something greater going on behind the scenes??

China??

Bill Gates??

———————

Bears?

Aliens?

Alien Bears??

(I’ll cheers anyone who gets the “alien bears” reference lol)

What letterhead are the offers on? Company name or some brokerage firm? Anything legit will probably be a certified letter or a knock on your door. You are just north of Duluth right? Could be some developers poking around.

It’s probably China that says they’ll buy my house and vehicles every week too

I would guess it’s just investors seeing if someone will sell for below market. A lot of people have land they inherited or have had so long they don’t know how much it’s actually worth or they get an offer and wonder why they’re paying property taxes for that parcel they never go to or something. It’s pretty low effort and if somebody actually showed interest they’d then do their due diligence and only go through with it if it looked profitable for them.

Ice Cap wrote:

What letterhead are the offers on? Company name or some brokerage firm? Anything legit will probably be a certified letter or a knock on your door. You are just north of Duluth right? Could be some developers poking around.

It’s primarily for our land in Polk County, Wisconsin.

It’s in the middle of nowhere, so it wouldn’t make sense at all for developers.

Dead end of a dead end road in the country, nearest town is 8 miles away with 1,000 people.

There’s isn’t a watermain, sanitary pipe, stop light, or gas main for miles (things required to be near for successful developments).

There is a small lake across the street with a steep/rustic boat landing being the only access. I don’t think either are any kind of driving factor but I’ve been wrong before.

The offering companies have been from all over the country. From Florida to California to New York and everywhere in-between.

I could see them wanting to resell as recreational land (what it is now), but is there really that many companies/investors that are so insistent on doing that???

I think that area is probably pretty high median age. If gramps gets an offer for what seems like a lot of money with 0 research he may be crazy enough to take it. When in reality its a low ball. Not much cost involved either to just mail those out.

Youbetcha wrote:

I think that area is probably pretty high median age. If gramps gets an offer for what seems like a lot of money with 0 research he may be crazy enough to take it. When in reality its a low ball. Not much cost involved either to just mail those out.

That’s always kinda been my assumption, but there’s just so many offers???

They’re all pre-typed and computer generated with the blanks filled in with names, parcel ID’s, dollar amounts, etc.

Different wording from each company, but they all have the same end game.

And they’re definitely sent out in masses and not just targeting a specific property (they’re typically stamped as bulk mail and never have a “real” handwritten pen-indented signature)

Well, I live in Buffalo county and I also deliver this sort of stuff to mailboxes.
We do the boxholders, meaning every box gets one.
What we deliver is always local realator company’s sending these out.
Never seen an out of state entity looking to buy up property.

Maybe someone in realator experience will pipe up.

Didn’t Xcel energy just sell some land for like $7 million to a company that flipped it to Amazon for $70 million? Maybe a stretch comparison in this case but is what came to mind when I read your question

One of the things I do at work is manage a small subsidiary of our parent company that owns several thousand acres of land down in Florida. I get no less than 20 letters in the mail every week from random people/companies wanting to buy our land site unseen. Most are lowball offers – I’d say less than 5-10% are even somewhat close to a value we’d sell it for. Most of the people giving the offers are people who try to get it for cheap, get it surveyed/plotted/engineered and flip it to a developer.

Capitalism is doing a number on the housing stock and real estate market in our country.

B-man wrote:

That’s always kinda been my assumption, but there’s just so many offers???

They’re all pre-typed and computer generated with the blanks filled in with names, parcel ID’s, dollar amounts, etc.

Different wording from each company, but they all have the same end game.

And they’re definitely sent out in masses and not just targeting a specific property (they’re typically stamped as bulk mail and never have a “real” handwritten pen-indented signature)

You should try contacting a couple and let us know what you find out

Between local realtors, some random ones like the OP posted, and the stupid lease robberies where they put solar on productive land and pay you pennies……I’d wager we get ~50 per year minimum with the real number probably closer to 100.

“They aren’t making any more of it”

buckybadger wrote:

Between local realtors, some random ones like the OP posted, and the stupid lease robberies where they put solar on productive land and pay you pennies……I’d wager we get ~50 per year minimum with the real number probably closer to 100.

“They aren’t making any more of it”

They kind of are….the farmers are draining more and more potholes every year.

Thank you, China.

gim wrote:

Thank you, China.

I wouldn’t be surprised.
The world has big plans for the superior region. Mainly mining. They want the Copper, nickel, and helium. I think they are preparing/ hoping to forever change the landscape of that region. Any land close will likely be going way up in value should these mines be built.

grubson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gim wrote:</div>
Thank you, China.

I wouldn’t be surprised.
The world has big plans for the superior region. Mainly mining. They want the Copper, nickel, and helium. I think they are preparing/ hoping to forever change the landscape of that region. Any land close will likely be going way up in value should these mines be built.

Brings up a good question. Should foreign countries or individuals be allowed to own land in the U.S.? I see Missouri is attempting to pass a state constitutional amendment banning foreign ownership.

I think the land is far better off owned by someone with local interest. Any large corporation is gonna be more worried about profit than local environmental or economical impacts.
I think allowing our enemies like communist China to buy our land is beyond ignorant.

My guess it is Reuben and Remnar sending those letters!

It’s just like anything else people figure out there is ways to make money on many different levels and land is one of them. Remember when you used to be able to go to an auction and get a good deal. You might be able to go buy a box of screwdrivers cheap but most of the good stuff is bought from groups across the US. Since the invention of the internet goods can be bought and sold across the world.

Dutchboy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
Between local realtors, some random ones like the OP posted, and the stupid lease robberies where they put solar on productive land and pay you pennies……I’d wager we get ~50 per year minimum with the real number probably closer to 100.

“They aren’t making any more of it”

They kind of are….the farmers are draining more and more potholes every year.

Incorrect, but a typical generalization.

In the last 20 years the United States has seen about a 6-7% reduction in farmland.

Although in detail, the reasons are diverse…at surface level it’s all for one reason. The wealthiest people/corporations/companies are very good at making money. Land presents a lot of opportunities on that front. Wealthy people don’t get wealthy by accident. It’s often smart to follow their lead when it comes to investing.

I looked around on OnX at properties owned by companies and most of them I can’t find any information on other than the company exists. There is one though that looks like a single person in Arizona, whose website only lists small parcels in Colorado, that somehow also found some in northern Minnesota. From the website he mainly does owner financing; things like 1 acre is $4000 cash or $150 for 48 months.

This one I found is 10 acres in Waasa. Looking at the tax records OnX hasn’t updated yet but this company in AZ sold it to someone from MO in August.

I wonder if someone in MO really wanted 10 acres of swamp for themselves or if it’s just more investing and it just gets traded around until someone can unload it for good money.

Related to this my cabin neighbor listed his property for $245k which everyone though was absolutely insane. Well, it took 1.5 years but he sold it for $220k which is still insane for what it is, should be like 150k. If you have the money to sit on them until someone bites it’s probably a decent way to make money, there’s nothing you have to do like with flipping a house.

Lots of people own land as a corporation. Especially families and groups of friends. Its much easier to handle the ownership side when there is responsible parties. Living in a triangle of lakes, hunting, and farmland, its not at all uncommon to see even young people in their 20’s with an LLC just to buy land for duck hunting. With farmland from the Red River Valley nearby land buying has always been a good investment around here, it always goes up in value and can be easily rented. Lately alot of the lake purchases are done by people with LLCs in the cities and Chicago, and they rent out on VRBO and what not almost exclusively and rarely visit the property. Your probably right about the mineral concerns in Northern MN, that’s what happens when regulations are expected to be removed, mining becomes profitable again.

I can’t speak on bare/ag/hunting land, but I got the same thing on a rental property. Half were scams and the other half were looking to buy at significant discount during a red hot market, so basically a scam too.

Riverrat wrote:

Your probably right about the mineral concerns in Northern MN, that’s what happens when regulations are expected to be removed, mining becomes profitable again.

Mining would have been profitable now, but at least in MN that has been caught up in courts getting approval to move forward with.

Incorrect, but a typical generalization.

In the last 20 years the United States has seen about a 6-7% reduction in farmland.

[/quote]

6-7% in farmland nation wide. That’s a generalization if I’ve seen one.
In our region with multiple dry summers in a row has been the opposite. More rows and more drain tiles every year around here.

It’s no different than business now. Large investment companies are buying into smaller growing businesses and pumping money into them to make them bigger and shinny to sell to another larger investment company. It is just rich people wanting their money to work for them while they continue to do nothing and make a profit.

grubson wrote:

Incorrect, but a typical generalization.

In the last 20 years the United States has seen about a 6-7% reduction in farmland.

6-7% in farmland nation wide. That’s a generalization if I’ve seen one.
In our region with multiple dry summers in a row has been the opposite. More rows and more drain tiles every year around here.
[/quote]
Seeing the same thing around us but that probably isn’t telling the whole story either. Residential and commercial development is consuming a lot of farmland on a daily basis.

Grubson – You’re citing your super technical observations of “more every year around here”? Land isn’t a localized asset. These companies/businesses/people aren’t only looking to acquire land in one specific part of your backyard or county. The market is at minimum regional, and moreso national.

Per the USDA Farms and Land Study Data shared publicly, there was 878,560,000 million acres of farmed land in 2023.

In 2017 there were 900,000,000 million acres of farmed land.

In 2012 there were 912,000,000 million acres of farmed land.

34 states have fewer farmed acres of land today than they did 10 years ago.

The millions of acres of land that Bill Gates is buying along with the Chinese is not being farmed. It seems intentional to take land out of farming to drive prices up no?

I can’t stand China and it making investments in the United States. I do not agree with China buying a single square foot of American soil.

With that said, they don’t even crack the Top 10 of foreign countries who own land in the United States. #1 is our neighbors to the North.

This NPR link breaks down some foreign ag/timber land investments fairly well. It’s a couple years dated, but shows the general trend.

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/26/1184053690/chinese-owned-farmland-united-states