<prompt> Human: Hey Folks!So, I have a question for the PF minded among us as to if this is a good idea or not. I live in a neighborhood that was a development about half an hour outside a major metropolitan area where the houses were all built in the early 2000s 2004-2006 right before things went sideways. About 34 of the lots in the area had houses on them when the market tanked, and the remaining 14 have slowly been building up as time goes on. To put it into perspective, this is all SFHs on 14-13 an acre, usually a split or modified split with a 3 car garage and 3-5 bedrooms, 2500 square feet. Average home price is currently about 210k, and the market is pretty decent right now.Anyway, the last few lots in my neighborhood have now all been built on except for one more which is situated directly across the street from me. I have a 7 year old son and within a block of me we have about 10 more kids 6-9 who all are friends and play in the area at someones house or in the yards or whatever... its very much that 60s style Go play Ill call you in for dinner sort of thing. Id like the lot across the street to stay empty, as its fairly centrally located and they kids run through there all the time, and play kickball and things there all the time now. Is an empty lot at all a decent idea to purchase? I dont intend on doing anything with it other than keeping it mowed, and maybe get a bigger play system think rainbow play system or something for all the kids to play on.Its not really a question of whether I can afford it, but Ill give you the rundown on numbers anyway:Only debt is my house, I owe 230k at 4.25, house is worth 260 conservatively. Income is 120k salary a year, 30k stock at current market value per year. I currently max a 401k, Roth IRA backdoor, max an HSA, and have a relatively decent amount going to a 529 until its funded to my satisfaction. I have 4 months emergency fund in liquid assets, and about 40k in brokerage. Lot would be a 25k or so purchase.AND SO THE QUESTIONS:Is this a stupid idea?Can you take out a mortgage for a property you have no intention of homesteading?Would it make sense to pull money out of the market and drop into the property? I dont have much portfolio exposure to real estate... that could help that?Thanks for lookingany answers I can get.EDIT: Thanks for all the awesome replies folks! Im going to be going through and replying to a lot of folks one-off, but wanted to put this up here as well.The lot is not currently for sale. It is held by a private owner who bought the lot from the original developer with the intention of building a house, then when the market shit itself he never ended up building. I havent spoken with him yet, but I intend to approach him after I get all my ducks in a row.There is no HOA or restrictions on the property from what Ive been able to gather. The neighborhood originally had several covenants when they initially purchased the lots from the city, but the original developer went bankrupt, and the city re-zoned a lot of things and as of now, from the Citys perspective, leaving it empty would be just fine. RE: Insurance. I called my agent this morning and inquired as to this, and they recommended an umbrella policy similar to what many below have suggested. Given my gradually growing assets and things, I went ahead and took out a policy for 1mm in coverage, which can be extended to include the lot across the street. Its only like 50 a year over my current insurance bill, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Thanks everyone for the awesome responses, its been awesome to get some perspective :Assistant: Check into local laws regarding landowner liability. If you buy the property and someone breaks their ankle tripping on a divet in the turf, you may be legally liable, and if you are intended to leave it unused for the local kids, you will want to know the extent of your potential liability and buy insurance to cover it.Human: Definitely something I need to consider - I know theres liability in my town as there was a big hubbub recently about someone who had a kid come on their property and jump on a trampoline and broke his neck, and they ended up being liable. Calling insurance agent tomorrow. Thanks for the response!  <response>: keep us updated, please?what you want to do is so awesome and got me really curious if this may happen or not 