As it turns out, not everyone.
I never got into gaming.
But it felt like everybody else had a console, a headset, and a whole second life happening on a screen I wasn’t looking at. My kids, their friends, plenty of adults…even some older than me. So I made an assumption and never questioned it.
If everybody’s playing, somebody must be making a fortune.
Then I read something about Microsoft and the Xbox recently.
They have spent billions building games, buying studios, and chasing market share, only to discover that popularity and profitability aren’t the same thing. From the outside it looked like an easy business. From the inside it was far more complicated.
It’s a good reminder that what “everybody knows” is often just the part everyone can see.
Land works the same way.
If you own property anywhere near the DFW growth path, you’ve probably heard the stories.
A neighbor sold for three times what he paid. Somebody got bought out for a data center. A family down the road suddenly became millionaires.
Those stories spread fast. Before long, they become what “everyone knows.”
Sometimes they’re even true.
The problem is that they usually don’t tell you much about your property.
Land values can change from one road to the next. Sometimes from one side of the fence to the other. Access, utilities, topography, floodplain, buyer demand, surrounding uses, and dozens of other factors can push one tract well above or well below the one everyone keeps talking about.
That’s why I think there’s a difference between hearing what land is worth and knowing what your land is worth.
Most people don’t need that answer today. You’re probably not considering selling. You may even plan to never sell.
But when life changes, a health issue, an estate, a buyer calling unexpectedly, or a family decision, that’s a terrible time to discover you’ve been relying on local folklore instead of current market information.
P.S.– Most landowners who request an MBR Land Reality Check aren’t planning to sell.
They simply want to know where they stand before they ever need the answer.
The report includes recent comparable sales, current market activity, and my opinion of what a reasonable buyer might pay today, without any obligation to sell.
Is it a bad idea to know?
P.P.S.– If you’re not interested in a Land Reality Check but enjoy reading about land, markets, and North Texas growth, you can subscribe to my occasional emails below.
