About
Texas Rural Land Intelligence · Builders of Back Forty
What we do
Texas Rural Land Intelligence is a Texas-based company building software for rural land buyers, builders, and investors. Our flagship product, Back Forty, brings together five million data points from public water wells, soil surveys, aquifer maps, wildlife data, and live for-sale listings — and presents them in a tool any buyer can use in 30 seconds.
Every Back Forty report combines model predictions with the closest real water well data nearby, so users see both what’s likely under a property and the supporting evidence — not just a number to trust on faith.
Why this exists
The information needed to evaluate Texas rural land — water depth, soil quality, septic feasibility, wildlife potential — is all publicly available. It sits in databases at the Texas Water Development Board, USDA NRCS, Texas Parks & Wildlife, and other state and federal agencies.
But it’s scattered across a dozen websites, formatted for engineers and scientists, and effectively useless to a normal buyer trying to make a decision. Pulling enough together to understand a single property the manual way takes hours.
Back Forty exists because that information shouldn’t take an afternoon to assemble. It should take 10 seconds.
How Back Forty works
Back Forty draws on public records from the Texas Water Development Board (over 700,000 wells with more than 5 million depth intervals), USDA NRCS soil surveys via Soil Data Access, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department wildlife data, US Fish & Wildlife Service waterfowl flyway data, USDA APHIS feral hog distribution, and Realtor.com for-sale listings.
Our prediction models are built on those records and tested using county-level spatial cross-validation — the honest way to measure how a prediction model will perform on land it hasn’t seen before.
We publish our accuracy numbers openly. Currently, lithology predictions are 50–60% accurate under spatial cross-validation. Most tools in this space don’t publish numbers measured this way. We think honest disclosure is the only foundation for a tool people are using to make real money decisions about real land.
Our approach
- Texas first. Doing one state really well beats doing fifty states poorly. Texas has the most public well records, the most diverse geology, and the most engaged rural land market in the country. It’s where Back Forty starts.
- Honest accuracy. Every prediction is paired with the nearest real reference well, so users see the evidence behind the number — not just the number.
- Research tool, not advice. Back Forty is for discovery and education. Real decisions about water, septic, building, or closing involve licensed professionals who can evaluate specific sites.
- Public data, fairly used. All upstream sources are public record. We don’t claim to own data we didn’t create; we make it usable.
What’s next
Back Forty is in active development. We’re expanding data sources (including Texas Railroad Commission oil & gas well logs), refining accuracy, and exploring new types of land intelligence. Other states will be evaluated based on user demand, but the priority is making Back Forty the most accurate possible Texas land tool.
Get in touch
Questions, ideas, partnership inquiries, or just want to talk about Texas land? Reach out →