$2,900 of dump runs and one mowed path moved a 22 acre parcel

Bought 22 acres from an absentee owner in a rolling farm county, $31,000, seller had inherited it from an uncle and the last person to set foot on it was apparently a guy with a truck full of tires.

What was on it: about 140 car tires, a collapsed pole shed, three appliances and a boat hull with no engine. The listing photos the seller sent me showed none of that because he took them from the road.

Cleanup came to $2,900. Two roll off dumpsters at $550, day labor two guys for two days at $22 an hour, brush mower four hours at $110, and a $400 tube gate with a lock. The tires are what got me. The transfer station charged $3.50 each for passenger tires and would not take them mixed in the dumpster, so that line alone was $490 and half a day of loading. The shed siding looked like the cementboard stuff so I paid $340 to have it sampled before anybody touched it. Came back clean, but I would pay that again.

Then I mowed one path, about 900 feet, from the gate to a high spot where you can see three ridges, and put a cheap bench there. Every single showing ended standing on that spot.

Listed cash at $52,000, took $48,500 in 71 days from a buyer who wanted a camper pad. Net after the $2,900 and about $1,300 of closing and commission was a little over $13,000 on roughly $35,000 out for five months.

What I keep: the sample test, the gate, and mowing exactly one path instead of trying to clear the whole thing. I have watched people spend $8,000 clearing brush on a recreational parcel that buyers wanted brushy.