Everyone thinks of Texas real estate as being dominated by wide open spaces and a lot of hot sand. Relatively few think of the tall towers in Austin and the city's bustling downtown cosmopolitan canyons.

Such stereotypes are understandable, as it's only fairly recently that longer lifespans have created an increasing population of people retiring to the good life in rather rural locales. Thus these long-time city-dwellers can make their retirement dollars stretch even further, given the fairly cheap living to be had in such parts. For instance, many of the houses to be found are much bigger than what could be had for the same price in an urban environment - sometimes even when built from scratch to specification!

But before you jump on this Texas bandwagon, remember that big rewards come from big risks - and big risks mean a high likelihood of falling flat on your face and losing your shirt. Getting hosed financially is never fun, but losing funds you have is better than losing that which puts you into (further?) debt. So take care to make sure that you could afford, literally, a worst-case scenario before betting with your money!

For example, rural areas just don't have many of the simple everyday amenities most folks want and nowadays expect. The store is often several miles away and no longer just a simple five-minute drive. This is one reason why rural homes are typically so much harder to sell than an urban one. Which in turn is why you're going to be spending some money on advertising to sell your property, just because that much less people will be driving by to see your for-sale sign. And by the same unkind circumstances, it will be more difficult to find good investment opportunities, though to be sure they aren't necessarily rare, either, in the suburbs or countryside.

What's really interesting is the fact that because country homes tend to be much larger and are often built along unique designs, they are more difficult to appraise. Typical rural properties such as farms, ranches, mountain homes, lake homes, and the like are usually very different from each another when compared against any number of features and characteristics. Qualified and reliable contractors and laborers will also be much harder to procure in such sparse areas, and will only be found for a much higher price just because there are less people to begin with!

Texas property long-term should be a golden investment opportunity as the United States' long border with Mexico sees more and more south-to-north migration, which over time should be evermore upscale. Today's migrants should in time be followed by tomorrow's professionals, creating booming business in Texas border towns now serving only the role of transit stations and waypoints to destinations elsewhere. The addiction to oil, with the resultant wells along the Texas coast, should also sustain and even increase property values for the foreseeable future.