Property with acreage - good or bad investment?

[Elizabeth Thompson]

I've been thinking of investing in a rental property. Something I can cash out on when I need to pay for my kids to go off to college in 18 or so years. We were originally going to buy a condo to rent out but we really want some land. Can it be a good investment opportunity to purchase a house with large acreage. We want to rent the house out to cover the expenses then use the acreage as a family camping, hunting, hiking location until the kids are grown. Looking for tips and advice. Thanks.

[Thomas S.]

Rental property is a asset, land is a liability since it produces zero income. Tying the two together simply reduces the value of your asset since taxes etc. on the land will draw away from the asset.

Rural rental properties in general make for poor investments and much greater tenant management issues.