Alaska

[Engel]

Recently I have had a huge interest in buying some property in Alaska.  My wife thinks I am crazy.  I found some real cheap creekfront property up there, 12 g's for 12.5 acres, that I could have paid off in 2-3 years, sooner if I really wanted to.  The catch is that there are no roads leading to the property, only snowmobile/atv trails and it's about 3.5 miles from the road.  The only pictures I have of the property are from google maps.  It would be pretty expensive to even do anything with the property but I think it would be a good investment.  There is no way I could afford to buy it and then start doing something with it but it would be something I could go  play with as I got older and made more money.  I want going to go on vacation up there sometime within the next couple of years to check out some property.  The vacation alone is going to be a good chunk of change.  I think it would be a good investment.  It's still up in the air but building a cabin is something I have always wanted to do.

[nicklz]

I think you'd be smart to investigate the area in person first. IT'S COLD THERE!!! lol You have to remember that you'd need to insure it, too, so if you have a trespasser on it for whatever reason you're covered. The likelihood is remote, but you could be in deep crap if it should come to that. Find out why it's up for sale in the first place. Is there anything there at all? Logging, ice roads, industry near by that might buy it in the future? Any waterfronts nearby? Don't get stuck with a white elephant you can't do anything with, but pay taxes on.
On the other hand, my brother in law bought a piece of property from his friend's mom about 30 years ago and in the past 10 years or so he moved there and built a house. So now he has 35 acres, a nice house with attached garage, seperate garage for his classic car building, a pond, and lots of land to hunt on. The property was cheap back then and it's been a great investment.

[Engel]

The land I was looking at is pretty remote.  It would be about a 5 mile atv ride.  I'm looking at all other options though.  I think it would be easier for me to buy property stateside, or at least something that I could drive to on the weekends.  Alaska is just too far away.  I still don't know what is going to happen with us in the next year or two.  95% sure that we will be getting orders out of this base, just don't know where to yet. 

[nicklz]

That's one of the nice things about the military. You can move around the country and they pay for moving you and you don't get stuck staying there forever. Are there any bases in Alaska you could transfer, too? I know when we requested Adak where the Navy is they said that if you went for 2 years it counted as 3 or something similar due to the remoteness, but that's because it's an island. They sent us to San Diego instead. lol I think there was extra pay involved being on the island, too. Lots of people extended another year because they liked it so much there.

[Engel]

there are bases up there but not the job I am looking for.