In the old days people generally only bought land and improved Real Estate in the areas in which they lived or traveled often. Today, thanks to the blossoming of the Internet, one can purchase land all over the United States from the comfort of home. While there are some cautionary measures to be taken, the profits that can be realized are immeasurable.

Why land?

Unlike improved Real Estate (IE a house on land), raw land can be purchased for much less. When you see homes appreciate, what do you think is appreciating? Is it the decaying materials used to build the home? Is it the look of the home? In fact, the large part of the increase is because the raw land the home sits on has went up in value, which is normally due to demand.

Buying a home can be a very stressful situation. For many, this is not even an option because of large down payments needed and/or credit and employment issues. It is extremely common for raw land to be bought and sold on owner financing. If you look around, you will see millions of acres of land up for sale daily where the potential buyer simply needs to say yes and start making payments.

Land comes in all sizes, locations, and prices. You do not need to be a rich mogul to get started building your land portfolio. In fact, if you have a couple dollars to your name via cash or credit, you can start right now.

It's all about profit!

Every single day of the year land is being sold at wholesale prices on the Internet. The Internet has made it easy for owners of land to sell their parcels and many offer their land under retail value for a quick sale. The Internet is also full of sellers who own land and don't know the real value of their land. I have seen parcels being sold for as little as 20% of their real worth!

By purchasing land online you can gain land at wholesale prices thus gaining instant equity. Additionally, you can have enough room to sell that land at a discount to another party and still make money. Cash is king, so the more you have, the better deals you will get. However, even if you have little cash, you can still get super deals on land with owner financing.

What to look out for.

As with anything in life, there are some risks associated with buying land online. However, you can reduce or practically eliminate your risk by doing some common things. First, make sure the seller is going to issue you a WARRANTY DEED on the land you are going to by. Do not accept a quick claim deed. Ask your seller if the title has any liens, judgments, or back taxes. Sometimes the answer is yes. This is not a bad thing though. Simply figure in the amount owed into the purchase price. Many times a seller will lower the price of the land to move it before more penalties are assessed.

Many times sellers won't have pictures of the actual lot for sale, but the general area. This normally happens with parcels that are cheaper because the seller might not live in the area and it is not financially viable to travel there to take a picture. When this is the case, make sure the place exists first and then do some research on the area. For example, go to a search engine and type in the county, city, subdivision, or other data that is identifiable like a lake.

Finally, ask the seller what the taxes and HOA fees, if applicable, are.

There are many places online with land for sale like MartinelliDevelopment.com, who offers land with guaranteed approval on financing. If you decide to try the auction route, Ebay.com is a good start. Most of the land sold here is cash only. Buying land online is a great way to make money and build a solid land portfolio for future wealth.

Copyright 2005 JakeTruman.com

Jake Truman is a Real Estate & Stock investor and Credit informer. Website: Real Estate. He has published a book on Credit Help, which is available at his website.