So, in an attempt to at least get myself on some kind of movement towards goal here, I printed out and filled out the form the realtor wanted me to sign, was approved to go look at the property and drove on out there.  About 6 miles out of town off a 2 lane highway that I know quite well, I parked next to the highway and walked up the very long driveway to view everything.  

On the way up, I heard the sound of water and noted a small creek running through it, the listing claims it runs year round.  There is also a water company that has piping out at the road, another huge plus, don't have to find water and dig a well.

At the top of the drive, around the corner, the pad came into view. Yes it's large, but the area surrounding it is larger.  I walked around, heard some machinery from the operation next door.  It's the same company with the pad on the property, but that pad has buildings and running fans and such.  The noise not loud and couldn't hear it on the far side of the pad - where there is more property and a place to clear out a dwelling space.  After probably 30 minutes of looking around, I looked at my email on my phone.

The realtor was giving specific instructions how to get out there, of which I didn't need, and then proceeded to say he had an offer at list price and probably would be under contract by this evening.  

It figures.  This has been my luck in finding land out here.  I suspect someone had been hemming and hawing about buying it and then the realtor probably got a hold of them and said, look, I have a real prospective buyer en queue, if you want this land, you're going to need to act now.  That's my guess, cause the listing isn't new.  

Okay, acting a bit more proactively, I just called the county tax assessor's office. The next tax lien sale is december 1st.  They didn't have  it up online, even tho they told me it was.  So I can come down there and get the list? Yes sir.  And miraculously, the new sale list is up online! lmao.  Ohhh and SEVERAL properties WELL within my budget for starting bids. I mean, I could bid on some of those for a while before having to fall out if it came to that.  If I can get that day off, I am going to go.

In other news, the boys went over to Maria's at her behest last night when I told Taylor I'd be home today and can watch them.  She wanted them over there for whatever reasons so she got them. And now? I just received a picture of the 3 year old's face covered in blood.  The 5 year old punched him in the face.  This isn't the first time those boys have gone over there and gotten into trouble.  I'm not sure what it is about Maria's place and them acting out, but it's turning into a pattern now.  The 5 year old is well out of character in punching his brother like that.  I've seen them get into mild shoving contests but never a fisticuffs brawl.  

The 5 year old is also going to be in serious trouble when both dad and mom get off of work. I suspect a good spanking, an extended time out, sitting on the couch will be his deal for a while.  The 5 year old's excuse? "Jaxon wouldn't catch the ball".  Jaxon is 3 years old. His attention span is that of a gnats.  He isn't as coordinated and gets frustrated easily.  Even if he didn't want to play catch, that is no reason for the other boy to punch him smack dab in the face.  

Back to lien properties.  Cause' I found the site that actually processes the tract numbers, comes up with info on taxes going back decades and also shows a map.  I couldn't find this site last time i was looking and I couldn't even see what I would have been bidding on and therefore didn't know where the property was or what kind of property it is.  Because what I don't want is one of the thousands of properties with gas wells on them in this region. They are literally everywhere, they have easements and you can't do anything with that portion of the property on your property. The people that sold these easements made their money off of it, now I guess they don't care what happens.

Anyway, the largest tract of land has no address and no location attached to it, no map available to view of it.  So how do you find out where it is?  I'll have to go down to the courthouse and ask them about that one.  Anyway, of the tracts with at least 5 acres on it, all of them sans 1 are completely wooded properties. They are all in the 1 to 3 thousand dollar range for starting bid.  They all appear to have access by either regular roads or forest roads.  Forest roads are easements and yes, you can drive on them.  Sometimes, these properties are in the middle of other properties, completely surrounded.  If there is no road or easement, you can't get to it without one of the property owner's permission.  And in these parts? Good luck with that, this is Texas and people don't want strangers on their land for any reason.  

Oh this is exciting! I can look at the satellite view of the properties, see what town they are located in, how much of it is wooded and cleared and if I'm interested or not.  I can tell ya right now, any properties completely wooded I am completely interested in. Any properties that have been completely cleared of trees I have zero interest in, except perhaps to buy and attempt to resell.  Ohhh there's so many of them that would make an excellent site for an RV park.  I don't even know how you would go about finding out the county requirements for zoning or such for such a land, or if they even care. From what I've seen, they don't care, but those parks are probably old as the hills and around long before any of the newer type of regulatory reaching that the government engages in.  

Even if not for RV park, resell potential.  The county evaluation of the properties is well beyond what the starting bids are and those evaluations are usually well short of market value. 

Oh well.  Just something to delve into now that I have found out how to get the relevant information at my fingertips without having to stand in a tax assessor's office for hours, looking up propertiesin their books.  

And there are small tracts in the city here.  They call this place a city, I call it a town, but whatever.  But again, I don't know what the zoning is on any of it and without that knowledge I don't know what you could put on those little tracts. Their just normal, house sized city lots. A mobile home put on one of them, fix it up nice and rent it out.  Or even sell it owner finance.  The possibilities....... 

 What kind of magic tricks does the Trump attorney team have up it's sleeve? They are claiming that the software used in Dominion ballot counting machines was made by a person that is on the Biden election team and that it was used to discard "millions of ballots".  That lady is appearing on some news circuits, but I doubt you will see her being interviewed on any mainstream media. Perhaps Tucker Carlson would take it up, but he's not "real" journalism.  I dunno, but their time is quickly running out, they best be getting with it if they think they really have a solid case with irrefutable facts to prove it.  Once the election is confirmed, they can squabble all they want, Biden will be the President and there isn't anything they will be able to do about it.  I have kept an open mind about software issues because of the state where the officials admitted that over 6,000 votes that were supposed to go to Trump ended up going to Biden, but that they had given them back to Trump and they tried to claim - rather weak and feeble argument - that "elections officials should catch it" by using data that shows how the precinct normally votes.  

Really? That is how you think such issues should be caught?  How about experts looking at the software and seeing if there are any issues in the software itself? Or intentional malware or software that is designed to dump votes to a given party?  That would be my FIRST thought if I were an election official.  And with the allegations coming out, I wouldn't call the company that designed the software, I would be calling independent experts to come in and take it apart and scrutinize every last line of code, if even possible before the election results are officially announced.  

So, as far as I am seeing it, we still have a major issue with this election.  It may or may not end up in Trump's favor, but it's certainly worth investigating and now, post haste.

Having said that, I'm prepared for whatever outcome, regardless of what anti-trump people say about trump supporters. Most of us are not whack jobs, illiterate, stupid, morons and lame-brains as these people continually say we are.  We won't riot in the streets and there will be no max exodus to some other country as the claims by a large number of "famous" people made before the 2016 election. To my knowledge, only one of them actually left.  I'm watching the Georgia run-offs, that's what I can say.  

I go by lots of RV parks, changing the subject, all the time.  Most of them are in county areas, outside of any towns or cities and obviously not highly regulated.  90% of them are run down affairs that have nothing but dirt driveways, overgrown weeds and grass, pretty gaudy looking places, yet they all are at least half full.  I'm guessing people living there, paying low monthly rates, but not all of them.  You see newer looking RV's parked in some of these places.

Just thinking. I don't want a run down affair, but it also appears it doesn't have to be anything near the extravagance I was initially thinking of.  A destination place would have to have a lot of amenities most of these parks don't have.  But starting out, it doesn't have to be a destination place.  It does have to have some extra land available to allow for activities such as 4 wheeling, picnics away from the RV's, playground, water features, perhaps fishing, stuff that has more than just a place to park.  

Regardless, from the looks of these RV parks, the outlay of money is the land more than anything.  It would be greatly helpful if there is a water supply and sewer nearby to hook into - versus a well and a huge septic system that would cost a lot of money.  There is a large property available just outside of town that is reasonably priced and already has a pad that could be converted into an RV park.  $114,000 for the property.  

The property would afford for the RV park and plenty of acreage outside of it for a house and living.  It's definitely in county territory, well enough outside of town and it appears to have access to utilities.  I'm looking into that one.  Yes, I know I said I wanted to do a tax lien auction, but I'm not opposed to buying the land on contract/payments if the price isn't too high.  I believe this was around 50 acres.  

If you can't tell, I'm itching to get out from under large corporations and the chains attached to working for them. It's just time to amp this up and see what can be done now, versus 3 or 4 years from now, having to save up so much money to afford this project.  I never thought this would be easy, just click a few buttons and walaah, I've got my new business.  But it's been a far more daunting and elusive goal than I ever thought it would be.  Land is the biggest obstacle at the moment, if'when I get land, there will be other obstacles, but one step at a time.  

Okay, I received a return email from the realtor of that property. It's outside of the city - I had to ascertain that before anything else, I don't want to deal with city codes, regulations, ordinances and stipulations, that just ends up costing a lot more money, a lot more legal help, not worth it.  Now I've asked him about the grey pad.  But I found some pics, definitely appears to have been a gas well operation, this area has thousands of them around.  But the equipment has been cleared off the land, it would make a perfect lot for an RV park.  The surrounding land is full of trees and there is a running stream going through the property.  Access is right off a highway that takes you from my town to the bigger town 2 towns over.  It's 40 acres, not 50 but the price is really reasonable.  

So now, my question was about that pad.  Are there any lingering EPA issues or government issues that need to be addressed? 

And just like that, hopes dashed.  There is an active well on the next property over, but the pad on the property in question  is still being used by the gas company, apparently, and they have that as an easement.  That property might be worth half as much as they are asking with an easement that large on it.  I could still do an RV park with that property, but not at that price.  There is plenty of land around the pad, but the pad is huge.  You've got all of that land that you can't do anything with.  

I'll keep looking.  Still waiting on them to put out an end of year post for tax lien sale.  Looking daily on the county tax assessor's site for that.  They don't apparently, normally, give you much time to do any research on the properties they are trying to get sold.  

Hmm, well I'm going to go take a look at that land anyway, since I was given permission and it's not too far away.  I was not given the run for today as I was promised so I have free time to spare, tho I need to continue hauling dirt off the side of the house. Maybe do 7 loads of that today and get that pile reduced a bit.  The land, however, I would maybe offer less than 2 grand an acre versus the over 2-1/2 grand an acre they are asking.  There's just too much easement in it.  

Anyways, offa here.