Sell my property?

Here’s the story. We have had a piece of land in our family for about 120-150 years. It’s in the smallest most rural county in all of Alabama. The town sucks(it’s not even a town technically), has no business or industry at all, and is 70mi from anything remotely productive. If you are imagining vast cotton fields and pine trees for a hundred square miles or so you are dead on.

I’ve lived more than half of my life there. It was my grandparents before mine and I use to stay with them every summer until we moved there to help take care of them. It’s a wonderful place with some good memories, but now that my grandparents have passed away I have no real reason to keep it except for sentimental reasons. I cannot see the property value ever increasing substantially and I have no ties to the area. Except for the the land I pretty much hate the area (boring, tons of rednecks, best thing in 10 miles is a gas station, etc).

The property is about 10 acres, has a small plot of planted pine trees, a decent sized fenced field (we had cows), two gardens, and a little apple orchard area. There are two houses on it. One is a two bedroom, two bath, brick, with garage, about 1,500sq/ft. The other is a 2 story, 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3000sq/ft home. The property also has a very nice multi room brick shop with it’s own bathroom and kitchen sink area as well as an outdoor shed big enough to hold about 3 tractors and equipment. I think I could get a pretty decent hunk of change for it.

My plan: Sell the property and buy/build a new home in an up and coming area along the eastern shore of Alabama. It’s a rapidly developing area that is springing up between the beaches and the city of Mobile. Brand new schools, new malls under contruction, etc.

If I sold it would it be better to use the money to make down payments on multiple loans instead of purchasing a home outright?

With owning the home I wouldn’t be pressed to find a buyer right away. After I find someone to rent/lease it I figure I could use the equity to mortgage another home using the rent from the first to support the mortgage until I can find a buyer for it. It might not be as investor savy but wouldn’t this method be safer since I would fully own the first home?

Hi ActiveAero:
I would recommend you sell the land and use only 10% for a down payment on an house. The money you borrow for your primary residence is the cheapest money you will ever borrow. Then I would do the following:

-Educate yourself on creative REI. You can accomplish this buy taking a few seminars and courses. I would recommend Legrand, Locke and Lindahl. The
three L’s.
-Once you learn the business you will have an edge on other starting out as you have money to play with. The key to your success will be to:

               Retail - Wholesale - Keep For Long Term Appreciation

If you wanted to be a dentist, you would go to school wouldnt you? Well guess what, most real-estate investors make more money than my dentist!

Best Regards,
Jeff Adam