There are several methods for finding a parcel of land.

Obviously you can contact a real estate agent.

The agent will have MLS tools to find the land you’re looking for.  They also may know about special deals, short sales, owner carries and the like.

There’s a downside as well.  The agent needs to be paid for their work somehow.  They’re not going to be motivated to find low down payment, owner-financed deals.

Hit real estate sites that have MLS searches.

You can do all the leg work yourself.  Poke around local real estate sites and find the ones that offer searches.  You should be able to put the number of acres you want, price and other features.

The bad news?  The cheap parcels often carry out of date information and you can waste a lot of time chasing a parcel that is no longer for sale.  Contact a real estate agent once you find properties that interest you.

There are also sites like http://www.landandfarm.com/ that will let you do searches all over the U.S.

My favorite place to look is craigslist.org.

The nature of Craigslist gives buyers an advantage.  The seller has to work to keep their ad on the first few pages.  This means that a seller on craigslist is often more motivated than someone who listed with a real estate agent six months ago.

Craigslist is the place to find owner carried properties.  Owner carried notes are great because they can happen quickly, can often overcome credit issues and are very flexible.  More about this later.