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Safe Investments versus Smart and Safe Investments
“You can store your money with no growth and it’s safe,” Kerry Johnson of Mossy Oak Properties BioVenture Investments in Jackson, Missouri, says. “Some people invest in land to have a safe place to stash capital. Other people will put money in land because they think it’s a safe investment that will grow. These are what I call smart and safe investors. I don’t see as many people buying rural property just for the safety aspect of storing cash in a hard asset. The investors I’m working with right now not only want to store assets in hard investments like land, but they want that land to increase in value and produce some type of crop like timber, wildlife or agriculture.”
Johnson represents both buyers and sellers. According to Johnson, “In our area, we seem to have an abundance of property available for sale. One of the biggest challenges I’m having is finding enough trained realtors who understand both real estate and recreational properties to be able to show the land that’s available for sale. Real estate, regardless of the type, is an investment property. If you’re simply buying a home, not only are you purchasing a place to live, but more than likely, you expect the value of that home to increase over time. Any real-estate investment is property that the buyer expects to increase in value over time. This is one reason we added Mossy Oak Properties and forest-recreation properties to the type of real estate my company sells. I like when I find an investor with an analytical background because he or she will be specific on what he wants to accomplish with the property in which he’s invested.
“The easiest customer for me to satisfy is the one who comes in and says, ‘I want to buy this amount of land with these types of features, I want it to be in this area, and these are the goals I hope to accomplish with that land.’ The most-difficult type of investor is the one who comes to me and says, ‘I have this amount of money, but I really don’t know what type of property I’d like. What kind of land do you think I should buy?’”
If you’re thinking about purchasing property, the more-specific guidelines you can give your realtor, the easier you make his job, the less time he’ll have to take to look for the land, and the quicker you can buy the property of your dreams. If you want to drive a shoe salesman crazy, walk into a shoe store and say, “I want to buy a pair of shoes.” The salesman will look at you and ask what kind of shoes you want to buy. If you ask the salesman what kind of shoes to buy, what kind of shoes he has for sale, what kind of shoes he thinks you should buy, or, worst of all, tell him, “I really don’t know what type of shoes I want, but when I see them, I’ll know it,” you’ll waste your time and the salesman’s time and drive him nuts in the process. If you go in the store and say, “I want a pair of brown lace-ups with a black sole in a size-10 wide,” the salesman knows exactly which shoes to show you. He can help narrow-down your choices to five- or 10-different pairs of shoes within 15 minutes. The same is true when purchasing a piece of property. The more specific you are about the land you want to invest in, the quicker and the easier the realtor can identify the exact piece of property you’re seeking.
To contact Kerry Johnson at Mossy Oak Properties BioVenture Investments, write 4012 E. Jackson Blvd., Jackson, MO 63755; call 573-388-2323; or email kjohnson@mossyoakproperties.com.
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