Inherited flood‑prone swamp land at 25—should I keep it or gift it?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

I've inherited an acre of swamp land from my paternal grandmother, but I don't even want the land because it's in a major flood zone, due to being fixed between two rivers which flood relatively often. I plan on donating it to my 16 years old nephew, so he'll have a place to go mud riding someday.

I don't even know what the land is worth, probably close to zero, but anyway.

What do you guys think of this or what would you do? That land is too flood prone to risk building a house or a house trailer there in my opinion.

[indissoluble]

You can build in flood planes, you just have to put a housing pad (mound of fill) that raises the foundation above the high water line. It adds cost to the construction, but it's not unbuildable. So long as it is not seasonally flooded or designated wetlands that need remediation (Army Corps of Engineers approval) and it has access roads, it's not a big deal if the area floods occasionally. In flood plains, bamboo is your friend. During floods bamboo collects land for you. Your neighbors will constantly get eroded land on one side of the bank, and your bamboo will collect all their sharp sand and debris washed down stream on the other bank and increase the land on your side.

[msc545]

You should probably find out if it's worth anything before you give it to your nephew. You should also find out what the tax burden is on it because you may not want to give it to him if the tax bill or potential tax bill is too ugly.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

He's smart as they come and his mother, my sister, and his father are both filthy rich, so they can pay the taxes. My sister has 4 nursing degrees, with the highest being Nurse Paralegal. Her husband used to make over 115k per year on top of that, but he quit his job to get a lower paying job closer to home. He's really worth about 200k per year too if he wanted to be. They have several million dollars in savings already and they are only 41 years old each. I think they can pay the taxes until my nephew gets old enough to do it himself.

[msc545]

So with all that money floating around why would you give him that land?

[molonski2]

It has VALUE , don't give it away , get a sworn valuation and sell it.
. don't be stupid..

[SeekerOfTruth007]

It's more complicated than that. Because I'm on disability, I'm not allowed to have more than 2K to y name, else they cancel my medical insurance. The only way I can keep the land in the family is to give it to a family member. If I sell it, I'll losemy medical insurance, which is definitely worth more than the land. It's worth $25k per day for hospitalizations and operations, so it wouldn't be worth selling the land.

If I do anything profitable I lose my medical insurance, which is dumb I know, but that's the way the State law works with Medicaid and insurances that piggy-back off medicaid.

[molonski2]

Yeah , what a ludicrous system, talk about encouragement to do nothing.. crazy.

[strateguy632]

and need to pay property tax unless florida does not have that.

[413kim]

try to sell it