As a Land Broker, being in the woods and walking property is a daily occurrence. On these walks, it is easy to stop thinking about work (which is ironic because that is exactly what I’m doing) and start thinking about life. Albert Einstein once said, “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” I couldn’t agree more.

Prior to helping clients in Real Estate, I was in the Navy and was fortunate enough to have traveled the world. Recently while walking a larger tract, I thought about all the places around the globe I have been fortunate enough to have visited. From the Middle Eastern deserts, Central American jungles, United Kingdom’s rolling hills, to the wave crashing cliffs of the Greek Islands- each place holds its own special gift to the world. As I walked, my mind kept running back to how each of these places is special and unique from other countries. Considering the natural world, it dawned on me how unique and special America really is.

Being born and raised in the United States has obviously made me slightly biased, but after traveling to all of these foreign countries and seeing the vast amount of countryside each country holds, it was quickly apparent that the United States truly is unique. All of these places seemed to have one “theme” of outdoors; one landscape. As Americans, we should really take the time to think about what our country has to offer.

In the Midwest, we have the open prairies and deserts like the middle east. We have the Florida Everglades filled with prehistoric alligators and ancient Cypress trees. We have the rolling hills of the Appalachian mountains and the wave crashing cliffs of the Pacific Coast. All this may sound ethnocentric but from a geographic and natural world perspective- we really are a country unlike any other.

Owning land has many advantages from being a safe investment for money and tax benefits to raising a family and building a life. The opportunities and freedom that owning land offers is unparalleled to any other tangible thing. Owning land is something humans have done since the beginning of time and is one of the very few things that can be passed from generation to generation. If you yearn to own your life then owning land is a great way to start.

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” – Henry David Thoreau