Owning land in St. John's Arizona, Good idea?

[Cara Quant]

Hello All, 

My name is Cara and I'm new to BiggerPockets. My family and I are paying to own 32 acres of land in the St. John's Arizona area over the last couple years. We have not done anything on the land yet because its very far from all our primary residences and does not have basic things like a well paved road and a water source. I've been listening to many BP real estate podcasts over the last few months and did some research on this area and it doesn't seem like the economy in the area is growing. We wanted to eventually use this land for short and long term rentals and it would take much money and time to make that happen. Does anyone have advice on what to do with this land if we still want to do real estate investing as a family?

[Aristotle Kumpis]

Hi Cara. Land investing is very tricky. Most people that I know just sit on it for decades, while paying property taxes. I would highly recommend you sell and do a 1031 exchange into something that will produce income, like a rental property. I have a client right now that is doing just that. His family has owned this land for many years, and now the family wants income. So they are selling and rolling that into several income producing properties. If you want to setup a time where we can talk, message me. I'm happy to consult and see if it makes sense.