Buying Land In Minnesota

Utilizing Your Local Land Department

Each county has a land department that is responsible for handling many acres of tax-forfeited land within a particular location. This land must be appraised before being sold. The accepted price cannot be less than that of the appraisal. There are many ways to develop land, and the Land department oversees many activities.

Activities Of The Department

These activities include: wildlife management, sale of timber, reforestation, forest inventory, agriculture, and gravel leases and easements pursuant to a comprehensive forest management plan. The land department also oversees all county tax-forfeit land sales and their exchanges.

Reasons To Develop Land

There are many reasons to develop land, ranging from residential high rise buildings to rural communities. Each type of development requires significant planning and development, and is usually thought out well before any land purchase is made. This means that by the time developers get around to looking for the land to fit their projects, they will likely know just what they are looking for, and what will and won't be suitable. This could, of course, mean months of looking, and in some cases, changing the preliminary plans a bit to fit land parcels that may work. One important factor in choosing land is finding out how much of it must be changed in order to achieve the final goal of the project. If significant changes are required, it may be advisable to look elsewhere for land that is, for the most part, ready to go.

Buying Your Land

Once you have contacted the land department, and have an idea of what you are looking for, it's time to think about making the purchase. Often times, these lands are placed up for bid. Here, you must either attend the auction and place and oral bid, or mail in you bid, which will then be read prior to the oral bidding. If your bid is the highest, you may then begin developing your new land.