Welcome to OzarkLand.com where, since 1982, we have dedicated ourselves to making Ozark Mountain land available to anyone who sincerely wants to own it, on a first-come, first-served basis. You don’t need to make a sizeable down payment, or any down payment at all—just start making the monthly payments.
All of the properties we sell are owned by us, free and clear. That means that when we pass title to you, you don't need to worry that some disinterested third party—such as a bank—may own an interest in the property. This is frequently not the case in the real estate world at large.
We give you a Warranty Deed guaranteeing the title—no lease-options, no long-term land contracts, but fee-simple title to the property after only six months' timely payments.
All of the properties featured in our inventory are available to you via our very liberal financing plan. In fact, we’ll finance your whole land purchase with less paperwork and frustration than you'd experience buying a used car, and with no hidden expenses and one low-interest rate that’s remained unchanged since 1982.
We'll set up a contract with you in return for one monthly payment. After six monthly payments, we give you a Warranty Deed to the property, and we hold a Deed of Trust and Quit-Claim Deed as security. We record the deeds at the county courthouse at our expense, and we pay all closing costs.
There are no penalties for pre-payment.
Terms are 9% simple interest for 15 years.
You may consider moving to the property after you have paid a $1,000.00 deposit. You must receive approval from us before taking up residence.
Requirements expected to be completed prior to moving, include:
1. Sign up with a local trash collector. Proof of paid invoice will be required.
2. Provide a septic tank and leach field approved by the County Health Department OR a commercially manufactured composting or incinerating toilet. Proof of paid invoice will be required.
3. Payments on all accounts with us must be current.
4. If placing a portable building on the property, provide us with the name and address of the vendor.
Once you've decided on the right piece of land for you, all you need to do is go to that parcel's web page and choose the "Click Here to Buy This Parcel" link. Fill out the form provided to initiate your land purchase via credit or debit card.
Although we update our website frequently, it would be a good idea to call or email us to make certain that the property you want hasn't already been sold.
From the moment you make this first payment, we consider this to be YOUR land. You may build, camp, hunt, garden, or whatever you please as long as you don't cut the timber, litter, or otherwise violate our minimalistic, common-sense deed restrictions.
We try to keep the website up-to-date, but since we always have projects underway, email us at Info@OzarkLand.com and we may have the right parcel for you waiting to hit the market.
We like it when folks ask questions, but we find ourselves repeating a few particular answers quite a lot, so before you ask, here are a few of the answers:
Here's a sample of one of our contract packages in PDF format. When you make an order, we'll produce one of these packages tailored to your purchase and email it to you.
You’ll then have 20 days read it carefully before signing it in front of a Notary Public and mailing the original, signed documents back to us. We cannot accept emailed copies.
When you see a set of restrictions on one of our properties, don't assume that the restrictions are the same for all locations. Actually, some of them differ quite a lot, so make sure you base your decisions to buy on the right set of restrictions. You’ll find the appropriate restrictions for each property under the “Details” tab on that property’s web page.
We try to keep our restrictions to the minimum, but there are certain things the vast majority of our clients would not want to live next to— feedlots, hog houses, trash dumps, et cetera—and we’re not keen on doing business with those who would. Frankly, we’re not interested in policing people, but we can’t let these properties become environmental hazards either.
When you visit your property—especially for the first time—we recommend contacting us so we can make sure the parcel is as easy to find as possible by making sure the boundaries are marked and that you have all the information (like maps) that you need to be successful.
DO enjoy yourself, but don't try to accomplish very much all in your first trip. Treat it like a vacation. Just getting a feeling for the place and learning your way around is best, for now, then you can make more concrete plans at home.
We hope you'll visit your property often and enjoy yourself to the fullest extent when you do. Toward that end, we have compiled a list of things that we've seen other people do that you really want to avoid.
Do NOT expect to fly into Springfield or St. Louis and be able to take a car service to your parcel. First of all, it would cost you a small fortune. Besides, these are rural properties and are often located on gravel county roads that most car services would not travel. DO bring a paper map and printed driving directions, both of which can be found on each property listing. A cell phone is a great idea, but it’s an even better idea to print the maps on paper. Cell service is not reliable.
Do NOT start a campfire. We have seen "dead" campfires come back to life after as long as 36 hours of being unattended, just because a small breeze came up. The forest floor of your wooded property is covered with dead leaves, brush, mosses, and twigs, and is VERY combustible.
Do NOT cut trees on your property without permission from OzarkLand.com*. This may be a violation of your contract, and besides, it takes a hundred years or so to produce a mature oak. Don't be so hasty to get rid of it, your grandchildren may not live to see it replaced. *Permission will be granted to any reasonable request for clearing for home construction.
Do NOT leave trash when you leave. Bring garbage bags with you, use them, and take them with you when you go home. Littering is prohibited by law and will be dealt with accordingly. If you leave trash behind, we will be forced to report you to local law enforcement, and you will render yourself ineligible to purchase property from OzarkLand.com. So, don’t do that.
Do NOT expect to drive your car, trailer, or motorhome onto your parcel. This is not the desert southwest. Not only is your property likely to be covered with timber, but there will most likely be a ditch alongside the access road to handle rainwater runoff. If there isn’t a driveway into the parcel, you may need to park your trailer or motorhome at a commercial campground.
Do NOT expect the weather here to be the same as where you come from. Watch the weather local to your property for a few days before you arrive.
Do NOT build, drill a well, or make any permanent changes to your parcel unless and until you are familiar with your boundaries. Not only do you risk losing your money and effort, but you may be liable to your neighbor for what you do on their parcel.
You may consider moving to the property after you have paid a $1,000.00 deposit. You must receive approval from us before taking up residence.
Requirements expected to be completed prior to moving, include:
1. Sign up with a local trash collector. Proof of paid invoice will be required.
2. Provide a septic tank and leach field approved by the County Health Department OR a commercially
manufactured composting or incinerating toilet. Proof of paid invoice will be required.
3. Payments on all accounts with us must be current.
4. If placing a portable building on the property, provide us with the name and address of the vendor.
TRASH COLLECTION
Our contract requires residents to maintain a subscription for weekly trash pickup. Trash must not be allowed to collect on the property either above ground or buried, and burn barrels are forbidden.
SEPTIC
(A) a septic tank and leach field, approved by the County Health Department
(B) a commercially manufactured composting toilet system
(C) a commercially manufactured incinerating toilet system
Chemical toilets and solutions involving plastic bags or buckets are specifically forbidden and a breach of our contract.
After we pass title to you, the County Collector's Office will send you an annual tax bill, near the end of the calendar year.
We think you'll agree that local real estate taxes are about as low as you can hope to find anywhere in America, (but don't expect them to always make sense). While we can't give you specifics for each parcel here are the 2018 taxes on some typical properties:
2.6 acres at Clearwater Mountain $59.30
4.3 acres at Whitetail Draw $7.45
3.32 acres at Jones Point Estates $136.20
3.3 acres at Lorelei Trails $30.15
5.01 acres at Zach's Mountain $125.08
Beneath the whole Ozarks region lay massive deposits of limestone hearkening back to the time in prehistory when this area was covered by ocean. While having the area submerged for several eons wreaked havoc with the local tourist industry of the time, it left us with one of the largest and best aquifers imaginable.
In our decades of experience, we've come across some areas near major rivers where the water table can be very deep, but for the most part, you'll find clean, clear water at a reasonable depth wherever you choose to drill.
Most of the modern wells being drilled on our properties seem to run from $5,000 - $8,000 total cost. If you've picked a general vicinity where you want to buy land, most local well drillers will give you a more accurate estimation over the phone.
Twenty years ago, it was not difficult to get the local rural electric co-ops to run a new line to your property at little or no expense to the landowner.
Alas, those days are gone. For example, we were recently quoted $8 per foot to extend service on 40-foot rights-of-way that the client has to clear himself.
Luckily, this comes at a time when solar and wind electric generation is less expensive than ever. If you purchase an off-grid property, in all likelihood it will be cheaper, in both the long and short run, to install your own clean electric generation.
TELEPHONE & INTERNET
Telephone and internet service are available at most of our locations via landline, cellular, and/or satellite. Look online for local providers.
MAIL DELIVERY
Unless someone has occupied your property before you, you will need to be assigned a rural mailing address (box number). To get this, talk to the Postmaster at the U.S. Post Office serving your property.
GAS
Propane Gas is available to all parts of this area and the gas companies will be more than happy to lease you a tank and sell you all you'll ever want. Look online for local providers.
SEPTIC
You may not take up occupancy until you provide sewage disposal for your property in the form of either:
(A.) a septic tank and leach field, or
(B.) a commercially manufactured composting toilet system.
The State of Missouri says that any septic tank and leach field on less than three acres must be installed to Missouri Department of Natural Resources specifications. You can get information on these by speaking to the Health Department in your respective County Seat.
Since they do not endanger the ground-water, properly operated and maintained composting toilets are not restricted, and thus are permitted at all locations.
Most of our properties have been surveyed by professional land surveyors, but not all of them. Therefore, you should make certain you know where all your property corners and boundaries are located before building or drilling a well.
Like anywhere else you go, some members of our population are just exceedingly dense, while others are quite astute. In either case, however, you'll find that very few of them live very close together. The Ozarks is largely composed of towns, not greatly dissimilar from one another, which have a population of one to three thousand people on the average, one usually not being more than ten to fifteen miles from another.
These are your prototypic Midwestern villages of song and lore, and in between them, you'll find a very evenly distributed rural population. In these wooded hills, one does not require a great deal of land to attain privacy, only the determination that one would, or would not, like to be near a river, lake, or adjoining some of the hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest or National Park Lands.
Terrain
The Ozark Hills began about a bazillion years ago as a high plateau. Over the eons, the hundreds of springs, streams, and rivers of this area eroded down through the layers of soil and sedimentary rock (limestone) to form what many people today (mostly real estate agents and others prone to chronic exaggeration) call mountains. In actuality, these are more similar to the foothills of the Rockies or the Appalachians than to those mountains themselves, and are occasionally broken by stretches where the plateau remains essentially intact. Elevations ranges seldom exceed two or three hundred feet from valley to hilltop.
It should be apparent then, to those familiar with the forces of gravity, that the soils in the valleys and on the un-eroded plateau regions will tend to be richer and deeper than on ridge-tops and hillsides, which will be thinner and rockier. This is not to suggest that hill lands are not workable. If all you need is space for a garden, then consider that you'll be getting lots of native building materials in the deal, and probably paying somewhat less per acre for hillier land. If, on the other hand, you want to start a truck farm or raise something larger than a half-acre garden, we'd suggest you email us to discuss an ideal location for your situation.
Vegetation
These hills are covered with various kinds of hardwoods including nineteen species of oak (not to mention several shocking cross-breeds) hickory, maple, willow, poplar, basswood, black cherry, et cetera, a few softwoods like pine and red cedar, and untold wildflowers, vines, shrubs, and weeds. In fact, more different species of plants coexist here than in any other part of the world due to a situation that developed during the most recent Ice Age. There are over thirty-five hundred different species tussling for dominance over one another out there. You may find ferns and cacti growing on the same five-acre parcel when conditions are right, and you'll find that most any garden plant which gets its job done in a six-month growing season will prosper here.
All sales and payments are final we do not offer refunds.
Exchange Policy
Frankly, the best way to buy land is to come to the Ozarks and pick the property you like the best. However, for whatever reasons, many of our clients purchase their land months, or even years, before ever coming to the Ozarks to see it. Since our business with you will go on for years rather than end on the day you buy your property, it is of the utmost concern to us that you are happy and your needs are very well satisfied.
Toward this end, we make a guarantee that we pioneered: if for any reason you are unsatisfied with your property, you can trade it for another. If you come across a property listed on our website that will better suit your needs, we’ll trade the equity in your current property for any parcel we have on the market at that time (provided you meet the minimal qualifications below).
You may trade your equity in one parcel for an equal dollar amount in two parcels, but you may not trade equity in two parcels for equity in one. Also, if you have two contracts with us, you may not transfer the equity in one to the other.
Having said that, we would like to emphasize that this policy was initiated to ensure that you wind up with the piece of property that best meets your needs and desires, and not as a vehicle to satisfy whimsy. While we have allowed clients to trade multiple times, we only guarantee to make this arrangement with you once during the life of your purchase.
Qualifications for The No-Fault Exchange
1. You must be current on all payments, fees, and taxes.
2. The new parcel must have been on the market (on our website) for at least one week.
3. The parcel you’re trading away must be clean and in essentially the same condition as when you purchased it.
We reserve the right to refuse to do business with anyone.
If you decide to sell your parcel before your debt to us is fully paid, please do so with our blessings, so long as the payments on the note are up to date. You may sell for whatever price you can get as long as the note to us is paid in full when the sale is completed (we have no pre-payment penalties). Ozark Land Company might agree to make a new contract for the remaining balance with your buyer.
Ozark Land Company does not broker properties for our clients. We are not real estate brokers.