I am 18 and I found some land in the MN boonies...

[N/A N/A]

Hey guys,

I turned 18 quite a few months ago and recently I have tried deciding on what I should invest in. I thought of gold, stock market, mutual funds, savings bonds, savings account, and lastly real estate.

Guess what I picked? Yes, that's why I am on these real estate investing forums right now.

I found some parcels of land (most 1.5-2.5 acres) in Central Minnesota (where I live) it's in a little area of a nearby county. It's by where my grandparents live, where my folks plan on retiring, and it's only 25 miles away from the current town I live in (which is pretty big and has some nice stores like a Wal Mart supercenter.)

Anyway I went to the same area I have interest in buying land in. I found about 4 parcels of land in that area that were for sale.
[list]

Main lot I went to go look at was okay besides all of the junky old buildings on it. They want $15k and it's on 1.75 acres, they classify it as 'lakefront' property for some reason even though it's really on some little dried up pond (or so it really looked like) to me.

I got more info + pictures on this property at the bottom of the post.

One parcel was $20k and was 7 acres (it said most of it was wetland, not sure if I want to buy that.)

Another one was 2.5 acres on a 'small lake' (probably a swamp or marsh that has open water) the price was not given but I'm going to call them tomorrow and find out how much they want for it.

I also found some other lots on the same road as bullet #2, but they didn't list the price or how much acreage there was. I might call them depending on what happens with bullet #1 and #2.[/list:u]

I also found another piece of property (the only one I have pictures of), the one that I originally went to look at. The realtor's site said it was "lakefront" when I got there I found a dried up pond that was maybe 2 feet deep at the most in the very center. The whole thing was just about dried up and it wasn't nearly big enough to be classified as a lake. It also has some horrible structures on it (an old trailer, a shop (?), and an outhouse/fishhouse type thing.)
It sits on 1.75 acres of land, they want nearly $15k for it, it has nice trees, but these horrible structures and the fact that they classify it as lakefront (dried-up-pondfront would be more like it) are the two worst selling points about the property.

Here are some pictures of it:
Pic #1
Pic #2
Pic #3
Pic #4
Pic #5
Pic #6

Granted, the buildings are horrible (sorry for no pictures of the waterless pond they call a lake, it was so pathetic I didn't think it was picture-worthy.)

I'm just wondering if I should make an offer (maybe $11k at the MOST) on this lot of land? I'm sure I could let the local fire department come and use the buildings as practice-drills and they could just set them on fire. Believe me, the trailer and the shack are unrepairable they look much worse in person.

Is $11k okay or not? I know I won't be giving them the $15k they are asking for it, not with all the junk on the property. It's also right across the street from a 'mountain man' that has a ton of junk in his yard. This place is practically out in the boonies (still has electricity though.)

BTW, tomorrow I am calling about the other properties mentioned in my bulleted list. If they are for 'alright prices' ($20k or under) I'll go take a look at them again and maybe meet up with the owner/realtor and take some pictures of them.

Thank you,
Andrew[/url]