Last week I had a potential buyer call me and say, "I want to be in Juneau County and I want great elevation." Juneau County, in Central Wisconsin, is within the twelve county footprint where my business operates and we have many appealing property listings there. I could definitely help this caller.

How often have you been to Juneau County, I asked. "Not that often," he said.

I guessed as much: There's not any great elevation in Juneau County. It's relatively flat. There's a beautiful lake running alongside it, but it's flat.

I offer this story to bolster the most important piece of advice I give to every buyer I work with: Get your feet on the ground. Literally. Visit the area in which you're thinking of buying land and look around. If you've never been to Eau Claire or to Black River Falls and you're thinking of buying in one of those Wisconsin towns, you need to come.

Buyers need to do some work. They need to know themselves - what they really want in a piece of land. And they need to know something about the environment and conditions in the state of Wisconsin-or wherever they may be looking to buy.

Here are a few of the key questions I ask clients to help them get started in the buying process and to gain an understanding of how I can best serve them:

1. What are you going to do with the land? The majority of my clients plan to use the property in a variety of ways: hunting, hiking, cross-country skiing, ATVing, snow mobiling and more. Buying property for investment purposes involves a different set of considerations than buying land you're going to spend time on and hand down from generation to generation. Are you planning on owning the land for two years and then selling it for a profit? Well, if the tract you're looking at is in, for example, Clark County, WI, that's not a place where you're likely to see rapid appreciation in land values. But for the best ATV trails in the state of Wisconsin, Clark County is where you want to be.

2. What kind of topography appeals to you? This is about the lay of the land. Do you like flat? Do you like hills? Do you like really steep hills? I drill down even further: What kind of tree structure do you like? Do you like pine? Do you like oak? I want to match the type of recreation you like with land on which you can do those things. And then identify a corresponding piece of property that's currently in the marketplace.

3. What's most important to you about location? Make sure distance to transportation points will work for you. Older buyers often think about how far is it to a hospital. How far will you be to shopping? How far away are the neighbors? People frequently say, I don't want to be near anybody. But for many people, not having a neighbor somewhere down the road is really eerie. Think hard about this one. And if you're planning on building a home or other structure on the property, think about the kind of road and utilities structure you're going to want. Are they where you need them to be? Do you want water on the property? If so, what kind of water amenity do you want? Is it a creek? Is it a stream? Is it a river? Is it a lake?

Only after buyers have spent some time pondering these kinds of questions do we get to the issues of size and cost. How many acres would you like to own? Most people say as much land as I can get for the money that I have.

4. What's your size? Size is an important issue. People from the city often don't understand what a "forty" is. We see folks who have never hunted before and think they can hunt on five acres. Well, you can't.

Buying land in central Wisconsin is different than buying land in the Dakotas, where you're not a land owner unless you own ten sections - 6,000 acres. If you own a forty or an "eighty" in Wisconsin, that's a lot of land because of how real estate here is getting divided up more and more.

5. What's your price? You've decided you want this many acres and beautiful hills and valleys and a river and a lake. What will it cost? In the twelve counties where I do business, there's a wide divergence of prices. I can sell you property in northern Clark County for $1,300 an acre. Or I can sell you property in Crawford County at $5,000 an acre. Where would you like to be?
I've learned from helping people buy land that there's a real emotional aspect to the process. This is often among the largest and most important purchases you'll make in your life. All of a sudden you're on this 160 acre tract and you're driving around and you're looking at the trails and you're looking at the trees. You can develop an attachment very quickly.

That's the power of land. I believe in it. Land is one of the best investments on the planet. They're not making any more of it.

To ensure a positive experience, work with a broker who knows recreational property and can show you many different pieces of land. Be straightforward with them: tell them what you think-the good, the bad and the ugly. And if you see something you like, make an offer. If you like it, somebody else is liking it, too, for the very same reasons you do.

Don't wait. Ten years ago, you could buy land in Central Wisconsin for $500 an acre. Now in my area its $2,500 an acre. Make a careful, well-informed decision with the help of your broker. And when you find something wonderful, don't think it will be there forever.

LandWatch real estate professional Roy Burlingame is owner of Farm Urban Realty, the oldest and largest real estate company in Jackson and Clark counties in Central Wisconsin. Click here to see his current listings on LandWatch.com.

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