Just wondering--has anyone tried this raw land thing and failed?

hi,my name is dave atchison,i moved to phoenix az from fargo north dakota,when i was 19 years old. that was december of 1979,i have seen the town go from 1 to 4 million in those 36 years. i am soon to be 56 years old,married 35 years,2 grown daughters who are nurses,maybe be a grandpa some day.i got into real estate investing kind of by accident. i was 20 when i bought my first home,as the apartment i was living in had bugs, and i could not get them to leave,so i left. i bought my first house in 1980,i had to sell my paid off car to get the 3k down payment,then i paid cash for a $500 rambler car..lol bugs and a rambler..2 years later the home was worth 40k more than i paid for it,my payment was same as my old rent. i got married and my wifes job was on the other side of town,i felt so much pride of ownership for the home,i kept it and rented it out in 1985,and we bought a nicer home more centrally located. now i have 8  paid off single family homes,and 2 paid off condos. the condos are 150k  range,the homes 225-275k. phoenix is a boom or bust town,so when we moved to our next house,had kids and out grew it, we were in a recession,so i would have lost the 30k we saved to put down and remodel it,so came  the second rental. i have been lucky we have been able to live off one income  in our marriage, and invest the second income in real estate and mutual funds. and i always worked a job and a half to earn more. i would flip homes,condos,raw commercial land years 1995-2005 also,and invest those in more rental homes. the crash of 2008 saw us buy more rental properties at 50 cents on the dollar. i think residential  real estate is  just 1 safe place to put your money,mutual funds,and your own business being other good places. i have 30 years landlord experience,and 25 years commercial building  experience. it would be nice to develop ,and build and run, a 30-40 unit a rated apartment complex. i have the experience now,and i have never had a problem in 35 years leasing out any of my places. in the recessions of 1990 and 2008, i did have to lower rents $100 per place, for 2 years,and take tenants with lower credit scores. i have only had 1 eviction in 35 years of being a landlord. i got in to real estate by accident,but stayed in as it became a passion,the properties almost take on a life of thier own ,and speak to me,to tell me to take care of them cause thier worth it,if they are in a nice area,i never invest in an area i would not live myself. i am big on real estate being free and clear,as my places have been for 5 years now. even being free and clear and managing them myself, i only average about 11-12% returns,i dont count appreciation,only cash flow.. i tried to post a pic 3 x but it wont work?

Then you can make informed decisions about HELOCs and raw acreage and whether or not you really want to be a landlord managing the number of rental properties you'll need to reach your number.There's no shortage of ways to make money in real estate, but make sure your tactics support your lifestyle, rather than the reverse!

This credit has been adjusted annually in step with water/sewer rates.DPW is also proposing that wholesale water charges to Howard and Anne Arundel Counties be increased, as well as raw water charges to Carroll County.

I've been following Seth Williams blog and am working on getting into buying and selling raw land using what I'm learning, but I was wondering if there are any other timber land investors on this forum, or if that's not really one of the Niches that's covered here?  

By renovating properties that have been neglected, we're taking a raw diamond and cutting it into something that sparkles and people desire.

The panels on the left are covering raw dirt from where the basement used to be a crawl space.

Compare the cost of an acre of raw, unimproved land in LA or NYC or DC to any where in the Midwest.

We did a 48 lot residential subdivision with another 20 lot multi family subdivision, that was raw land, and we had to put in all the infrastructure.

That looks like undeveloped, raw land.