Sell Your Recreational Land Note in Texas — A Practical Guide

Texas is a state defined by its vast open spaces, and for hundreds of thousands of Texans, owning a piece of recreational land is a cherished dream — a place to escape the city, enjoy the outdoors, and build memories with family and friends. If you hold a promissory note secured by recreational land in Texas, you own a financial asset backed by a type of property that appeals to a passionate and growing segment of the real estate market. The decision to sell your recreational land note in Texas can convert years of future payments into immediate cash, and understanding what note buyers look for in recreational land collateral will help you navigate the process and get the best possible price.

Recreational land in Texas encompasses a broad spectrum of property types — from weekend getaway parcels in the Hill Country to riverside retreats in the piney woods, from off-grid camping tracts in West Texas to family compound properties near lakes and rivers throughout the state. What unites all of these properties is their primary purpose: they are bought and held for enjoyment, relaxation, and outdoor recreation rather than for commercial production or residential development. This recreational purpose shapes how the properties are valued, how buyers evaluate the notes secured by them, and what factors influence the discount when you sell.

Whether your note is backed by a Hill Country weekend property, an East Texas camping tract, a lakeside parcel, or a rural retreat anywhere in the Lone Star State, this guide covers everything you need to know about selling your recreational land note in Texas — from understanding what makes recreational land unique as collateral to navigating the sale process and maximizing your return.

What Makes Recreational Land Different as Note Collateral

Recreational land occupies a unique niche in the Texas real estate market, and the factors that drive its value differ from those that drive residential, commercial, or agricultural land. Note buyers evaluating recreational land collateral approach the assessment with a specific set of considerations that reflect the property's intended use and the motivations of the people who buy it.

Lifestyle Value vs. Economic Productivity

The fundamental distinction between recreational land and most other property types is that recreational land is valued primarily for the lifestyle it offers rather than the income it generates. A suburban residential lot derives its value from housing demand and proximity to employment. A commercial parcel is valued based on the income it can produce from business operations. Agricultural land is priced on its productive capacity. Recreational land, by contrast, is priced on the experience it provides — the scenic beauty, the outdoor activities it supports, the sense of escape and privacy it offers, and the emotional connection that owners feel to their land. This lifestyle-driven valuation creates a market that is less tied to economic fundamentals and more influenced by the desires and financial capacity of recreational buyers, which can be both a strength and a weakness from a note buyer's perspective.

Emotional Attachment and Borrower Motivation

One often-overlooked positive aspect of recreational land notes is the emotional attachment that borrowers frequently have to their properties. People who buy recreational land are often fulfilling a personal dream — owning a place in the country, having a family gathering spot, creating a retreat from the pressures of daily life. This emotional investment can make recreational land borrowers particularly motivated to keep their notes current, because losing the property would mean losing something that holds personal significance beyond its financial value. Note buyers who understand this dynamic recognize that the emotional attachment can function as an informal guarantee of payment reliability, supplementing the financial factors that are traditionally used to assess credit risk.

Diverse Property Types Under One Umbrella

The category of "recreational land" is remarkably broad, encompassing everything from small wooded lots suitable for weekend camping to large ranches used for hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and family gatherings. This diversity means that there is no single template for evaluating recreational land notes — each property must be assessed on its own merits based on its specific characteristics, location, and appeal. The terrain, water features, vegetation, road access, proximity to towns and services, climate, and recreational opportunities available on the property all factor into the valuation. This heterogeneity can make recreational land notes more challenging to evaluate than homogeneous suburban residential notes, but it also means that exceptional properties can command exceptional values that support very favorable note pricing.

How to Sell Your Recreational Land Note in Texas

Selling a recreational land note follows the same general process as selling any Texas land note, with additional emphasis on documenting the property's recreational attributes and working with a buyer who appreciates the lifestyle market.

Build a Comprehensive Document Package

Start with the standard documents: the original promissory note, the deed of trust, a detailed payment history, the title insurance policy, and any amendments. Then supplement these with materials that help the buyer understand the property's recreational value. Property maps showing terrain features, water resources, trails, and improvements are extremely helpful. Photos or aerial imagery that capture the property's scenic appeal can make a significant difference in the buyer's perception of the collateral. Documentation of any improvements — cabins, barns, fencing, ponds, wells, roads, or utility installations — adds to the picture of a well-maintained, actively used recreational property. If the property has an agricultural tax exemption for wildlife management, timber, or livestock, include that documentation as well, since it demonstrates reduced carrying costs. For the standard document checklist, refer to this resource on documents needed to sell a land note in Texas.

Choose a Buyer with Texas Land Experience

Recreational land notes require a buyer who understands the Texas land market at a level that goes beyond suburban lots and commercial properties. The nuances of recreational land valuation — including terrain assessment, water resource evaluation, wildlife habitat quality, and the regional variations in recreational land pricing across Texas's diverse geography — demand experience and familiarity that not every note buyer possesses. A buyer who is primarily experienced with residential mortgages or urban land notes may not know how to properly value a 50-acre recreational tract in the Hill Country or a 200-acre piney woods retreat in East Texas. Longhorn Note Buyers has been purchasing land notes of all types across Texas since 2007, including recreational land notes in every region of the state, and we bring the breadth of experience needed to evaluate your note accurately.

Due Diligence for Recreational Land

The due diligence process for recreational land notes includes the standard title search and payment verification, along with a property valuation that accounts for the land's recreational attributes. The buyer will use comparable sales of similar recreational properties in the same region, which can sometimes be more difficult to obtain than comparables for suburban lots because recreational land transactions are less frequent and the properties are more varied. The buyer may also consider the property's proximity to population centers (which affects the convenience of weekend visits), the availability of utilities and infrastructure, and the property's legal status including any deed restrictions, easements, or mineral rights reservations. Expect the due diligence phase to take one to three weeks, with the timeline depending on the availability of comparable sales data and the complexity of the property's characteristics.

Closing and Getting Paid

Once due diligence is complete, closing follows the standard path: assignment documents are prepared, signed, and recorded, and the buyer wires the purchase price to your account. The total timeline from initial contact to funding is typically two to five weeks for recreational land notes. Properties with clear titles, thorough documentation, and locations in well-established recreational land markets tend to close at the faster end of the range.

What Note Buyers Evaluate in Recreational Land Collateral

Note buyers assessing recreational land notes look at the standard note factors — interest rate, payment history, LTV ratio, remaining term — and then layer on an assessment of the property's recreational attributes and marketability.

Location and Regional Appeal

The region of Texas where your recreational property is located has a significant impact on its value and the buyer's assessment. The Hill Country is the most popular and highest-valued recreational land market in the state, with its combination of scenic beauty, proximity to Austin and San Antonio, and diverse recreational opportunities commanding premium prices. East Texas offers a different recreational experience — piney woods, creeks, and a lush green landscape that is quite different from the drier western regions. South Texas brush country appeals to hunting enthusiasts, while West Texas and the Trans-Pecos region attract those who love wide-open spaces and dramatic desert landscapes. The Gulf Coast and lake regions offer water-based recreation that adds a different dimension. Each region has its own pricing norms, demand dynamics, and buyer expectations, and the note buyer will evaluate your property within the context of its specific regional market.

Water Features and Natural Amenities

Water is one of the most valuable amenities a recreational property can offer. Creek frontage, river access, springs, ponds, and lake proximity all enhance a property's appeal and value. In the Hill Country, a property with Guadalupe River or Pedernales River frontage commands a dramatic premium over a comparable dry property. In East Texas, creek frontage through piney woods creates a natural recreation corridor for fishing, swimming, and wildlife viewing. Note buyers recognize that water features are among the most powerful value drivers for recreational land, and properties with quality water access will be valued more favorably than those without. If your property has significant water features, documenting them thoroughly — including their reliability, accessibility, and recreational potential — is one of the most impactful things you can do to support a strong note valuation.

Access and Infrastructure

Recreational land that is easy to reach and comfortable to use is worth more than remote, unimproved tracts. Paved road access or well-maintained county road frontage is a significant positive, as is proximity to a town where supplies, fuel, and services are available. On the property itself, improvements like interior roads, a cabin or living structure, a well or water system, electrical hookups, septic systems, and cleared areas for camping or parking all add to the value by making the property more usable and enjoyable. Note buyers assess these improvements as part of the collateral valuation because they enhance both the property's appeal to current users and its marketability to future buyers. A recreational property that is "move-in ready" for weekend use is far more valuable than a raw tract that requires significant investment before it can be enjoyed.

Acreage and Privacy

For many recreational land buyers, privacy is a primary motivation for the purchase. Larger acreages provide more buffer from neighbors, more space for recreational activities, and a greater sense of ownership and connection to the land. In the Texas recreational land market, there are typical acreage tiers that correspond to different price points and buyer demographics — small tracts of 5 to 20 acres appeal to weekend campers and first-time buyers, mid-size properties of 20 to 100 acres attract more serious recreational users, and larger tracts of 100+ acres appeal to hunting enthusiasts, family compound creators, and investors. The acreage of your property, combined with its shape, topography, and relationship to neighboring properties, affects the note buyer's assessment of how marketable the property would be in a foreclosure scenario and what price it could reasonably be expected to bring.

Recreational Land Note Discounts — Setting Realistic Expectations

Recreational land notes typically carry somewhat larger discounts than suburban residential notes, reflecting the more specialized nature of the collateral and the unique dynamics of the recreational land market.

Why Recreational Land Discounts Tend to Be Larger

Several factors contribute to wider discounts on recreational land notes. First, the buyer pool for recreational land is more specialized than for residential lots — not everyone is in the market for a weekend getaway property, which means that selling the property in a foreclosure scenario could take longer and may yield a lower price than a comparable-value residential lot. Second, recreational land valuations are more subjective than residential valuations because the "lifestyle" component of value is harder to quantify than location, lot size, and comparable sales. Third, recreational land may be in remote areas where comparable sales data is sparse, making accurate valuation more challenging. And fourth, recreational land may lack the utilities and infrastructure that residential buyers expect, which can limit the potential buyer pool further.

Typical Discount Ranges

For performing recreational land notes in Texas, discounts typically range from 15% to 35% of the remaining balance. Notes backed by premium properties in high-demand regions — such as Hill Country parcels with river access or scenic views — with strong payment histories and favorable terms will receive offers at the lower end of that range. Notes backed by more remote, unimproved, or less distinctively appealing properties will face larger discounts. The specific characteristics of both the note and the property determine where within this range your particular note will fall.

Minimizing the Discount

The strategies for reducing the discount on a recreational land note are similar to those for any land note, with some additional considerations. Complete documentation is essential — the more information you can provide about the property's attributes, improvements, and recreational value, the more confident the buyer will be in their assessment, which typically leads to a better offer. A strong borrower payment history is the single most impactful factor you can present. Working with a direct buyer eliminates broker commissions that reduce your net proceeds. Providing comparable sales data from the property's specific region helps ensure that the valuation reflects the actual market rather than generic assumptions. And highlighting any income the property generates — from hunting leases, camping reservations, or agricultural activities — gives the buyer additional data points to support the collateral's value. For a comprehensive exploration of discount factors, read this article about discounts when selling a land note in Texas.

Regional Markets for Recreational Land Notes in Texas

Texas's vast geography creates multiple distinct recreational land markets, each with its own character, pricing norms, and buyer demographics. Understanding the regional dynamics that apply to your property will help you set appropriate expectations and present your note effectively.

The Hill Country — Texas's Premier Recreational Market

The Texas Hill Country, stretching from the Edwards Plateau through the Balcones Escarpment and including portions of dozens of counties from the San Antonio and Austin areas westward, is the state's most popular and highest-valued recreational land market. The combination of scenic limestone hills, spring-fed rivers and creeks, diverse wildlife, and proximity to the state's two largest metro areas creates a demand profile that supports premium pricing. Recreational properties in the Hill Country range from small weekend parcels to large family ranches, and they attract a broad spectrum of buyers from young families seeking a weekend escape to retirees looking for a permanent Hill Country lifestyle. Notes backed by Hill Country recreational land benefit from this deep and diverse demand, which supports favorable valuations and relatively modest discounts compared to recreational land in less accessible regions.

East Texas Piney Woods

East Texas offers a different recreational experience characterized by towering pine forests, hardwood creek bottoms, mild winters, and abundant wildlife. The region is popular for hunting, fishing, camping, and horseback riding, and its proximity to the Houston and Dallas metro areas makes it accessible for weekend use. Property values in East Texas are generally lower per acre than in the Hill Country, which means that recreational notes in this region tend to have smaller balances. The timber value that many East Texas recreational properties carry adds an economic dimension that can enhance the collateral's total worth. Notes backed by East Texas recreational land are sellable at moderate discounts, with the specific pricing depending on the property's location, timber value, water features, and overall appeal.

South Texas and the Coastal Bend

South Texas recreational land is primarily valued for hunting — the region is famous for producing trophy white-tailed deer, and properties managed for deer hunting can command impressive per-acre values. The Coastal Bend area adds a fishing and water recreation component. Recreational properties in South Texas tend to be larger and more remote than those in the Hill Country, and the buyer pool is more specialized, focusing on hunters and outdoorsmen rather than the broader lifestyle market. Notes backed by South Texas recreational land can receive competitive offers from buyers who understand the hunting land premium, but the specialized nature of the market may result in larger discounts for properties that lack the distinctive hunting qualities that drive the highest values.

West Texas and the Trans-Pecos

West Texas and the Trans-Pecos region offer vast, dramatic landscapes that appeal to a specific type of recreational land buyer — those who value solitude, wide-open spaces, and the rugged beauty of the Chihuahuan Desert and Davis Mountains. Per-acre prices in this region are among the lowest in the state, reflecting the arid climate, sparse vegetation, and remote locations. However, the large acreages typical of West Texas recreational properties can result in significant total values. Notes backed by West Texas recreational land face the largest discounts due to the limited buyer pool and the challenges of marketing remote, arid properties, but for the right buyer — one who understands the appeal and the market — these notes can still be sold at reasonable prices.

Common Reasons to Sell a Recreational Land Note

Recreational land note holders sell for many of the same reasons as other note holders, but a few motivations are particularly common in this market.

Changing Recreational Priorities

The person who created the note by selling recreational land may have done so because their own recreational priorities shifted — perhaps they moved to a different part of the state, took up different hobbies, or simply decided that the monthly payments from the note were less valuable than the lump sum they could receive by selling it. Life changes, and financial needs evolve with them. Selling the note allows the holder to adapt to their current priorities rather than remaining tied to a transaction that may no longer align with their goals.

Converting an Illiquid Asset to Cash

Recreational land notes are among the most illiquid types of financial assets — the monthly payments arrive slowly, the collateral is specialized, and the market for selling the note is smaller than for conventional residential notes. For note holders who need or want access to their capital, selling the note to a direct buyer is the most efficient way to convert this illiquid asset into cash that can be used immediately. Whether the cash is needed for an investment, a purchase, debt repayment, or simply the peace of mind that comes with having liquid reserves, selling eliminates the illiquidity and puts you in control of your capital.

Reducing Risk Exposure

Holding a recreational land note carries several risks — the borrower might default, the property might be damaged by fire or flooding, the recreational land market might soften, or enforcement of the note through foreclosure might be costly and time-consuming given the specialized nature of the collateral. Selling the note transfers all of these risks to the buyer, giving you the certainty of cash in exchange for the uncertainty of ongoing exposure. This risk transfer is particularly appealing for note holders who are not in the business of managing real estate credit risk and who prefer the simplicity of a completed transaction. For a broader look at common pitfalls in note selling, see this article on mistakes to avoid when selling a land note in Texas.

Ready to Sell Your Note?

If you're ready to sell your recreational land note in Texas, Longhorn Note Buyers has the experience, the capital, and the statewide market knowledge to provide you with a fair, competitive, no-obligation cash offer. We've purchased more than $46 million in Texas land notes since 2007, including recreational land notes across every major region of the state, and our 100% close rate means that when we make an offer, we follow through to closing. Our founder, Nick McFadin, has been buying Texas notes since 1983, and our deep familiarity with the recreational land market allows us to evaluate your note with the expertise and accuracy it deserves.

We are a direct buyer — no brokers, no middlemen, no hidden fees, and no deals that fall apart. Whether your note is secured by a Hill Country weekend retreat, an East Texas piney woods tract, a South Texas hunting property, or any other type of recreational land in Texas, we can evaluate it quickly and provide a cash offer within 24 hours.

Call us today at (210) 828-3573 or visit longhornnotebuyers.com to request your free quote. Selling your recreational land note in Texas puts immediate cash in your hands and frees you from the ongoing management and risk of holding a specialized asset, and Longhorn Note Buyers is here to make it happen.

Frequently Asked Questions About Selling a Recreational Land Note in Texas

How is recreational land valued differently from residential land?

Recreational land is valued primarily on the lifestyle experience it offers — the scenic beauty, outdoor activities, water features, wildlife, and sense of privacy and escape — rather than on the factors that drive residential land values like proximity to employment, schools, and shopping. The comparable sales used to value recreational land are drawn from other recreational property transactions in the same region, which may be less frequent and more variable than residential transactions. This difference in valuation approach means that note buyers assessing recreational land need specialized knowledge of the recreational market to arrive at accurate, fair assessments. Working with a buyer who has this expertise ensures that your collateral is valued appropriately.

Does having a cabin or improvements help my note's value?

Yes, improvements on recreational land generally enhance the collateral's value and can support a better note offer. A well-built cabin, a functional well and septic system, electrical hookups, maintained roads, cleared campsites, and other improvements make the property more usable and more marketable. They demonstrate that the property has been actively enjoyed and maintained, which gives the buyer confidence that it could be sold to another recreational user in a foreclosure scenario. However, the condition and quality of improvements matter — a well-maintained cabin adds significant value, while a deteriorating structure might actually detract from the property's appeal. Providing photos and descriptions of improvements helps the buyer assess their contribution to the overall collateral value.

What if my recreational property has no utilities?

Many recreational properties in Texas operate entirely off-grid, without connections to municipal water, sewer, or electrical systems. While the lack of utilities is a consideration in the valuation, it is not a disqualifying factor — many recreational land buyers specifically seek off-grid properties as part of the outdoor experience they are looking for. The buyer will assess the property based on its overall appeal and marketability within the off-grid recreational land market, which is a distinct and active segment. Properties that have alternative infrastructure — such as a well for water, a septic system, solar panels for electricity, or propane for heating and cooking — are valued more favorably than those without any infrastructure at all, but even completely raw tracts can serve as collateral for sellable notes if the location and natural features are appealing.

Can I sell a note on a small recreational tract of just 5 or 10 acres?

Yes, notes backed by small recreational tracts can be sold. In the Texas recreational land market, small tracts of 5 to 20 acres are actually quite common and appeal to a broad segment of buyers — weekend campers, families seeking a country getaway, and first-time recreational land buyers who are entering the market at a relatively affordable price point. The note balance on a small tract will be correspondingly small, which means the absolute dollar amount of the transaction may be modest. However, note buyers evaluate each deal based on its own merits, and a small tract with strong note terms, a reliable borrower, and a good location can still yield a competitive offer. The key factors — interest rate, payment history, and LTV ratio — apply equally to small tracts as to larger properties.

How fast can I sell my recreational land note?

The typical timeline for selling a recreational land note is two to five weeks from initial contact to funding. The preliminary offer is provided within 24 hours. Due diligence takes one to three weeks, with the timeline depending on the availability of comparable sales data and the complexity of the property's characteristics. Properties in well-established recreational markets with abundant transaction data tend to move through due diligence faster, while remote or unique properties may require additional time for valuation. Closing is typically completed within a few business days after due diligence is done.