For unawares: In the southwest water is a serious commodity. Water rights is a weird real estate niche that can get quite valuable. You might buy some raw land with plans to develop it, but you will also need to buy water rights to supply the land. I don't know a lot about water rights, but there are traditional real property water rights, and then there are water companies where you can buy "stock" that entitles you to a portion of the water held by that water company in a year, and that has conversion rights into actual water rights.

My understanding is that these are pure speculative investments - similar to buying raw land in the hopes that someone will want to develop it in the future.

Curious if anyone has tried there hand with water rights.

As a person iiving in the Great Lakes region, I look forward to someday fleecing the Sunbelt cucks by charging them 20x for water.

I know even less about water rights in states where water is no issue - is it a thing? Can you buy water rights in MN? I assume they are dirt cheap?

Eastern and western US water rights are very different. I've only worked with western rights. A lot of the time out here the water rights are worth more than the land they are connected to. No doubt you could make money in them, but you would really need to become an expert and understand water right law.

I've had two more thoughts, that may be helpful. My dad was the president of an irrigation district for 6 or 8 years. The district was a political subdivision of the state so it was a public office. He told me the district made far more money leasing water that they weren't going to use to other entities versus the money they took in from annual assessments from patrons who owned land within the district. I think the cleanest way to profit off rights where you would be somewhat insulated from random division of water right adjudications would be to operate in the role of a broker - connecting people who want to sell, with people who want to buy.

Reminds me of the film Chinatown.

Interesting.

I've also heard that, unless you plan on actively using the water, the only way to cash flow water rights or water stock is to lease it out to others - but thats not a sure thing. Otherwise, you are just holding it hoping to get lucky in the future.

You know how I know there's no water problem in cali?

when it rains, the LA river turns into a raging rapid, and they collect almost none of it for public use.... It just flows into the pacific lmao

Yes, additionally, holding a right and not using it can lead to it being disallowed under adjudication. Basically, the laws are set up to require beneficial use. If you don't use it, the state may take it away.