The average cost of an acre in the US according to Google is 16k.
500 acres is 8 million dollars worth of land
The issue is you need a large amount of capital to develop land like that and setup income streams from it
And if it's 500 acres of undeveloped land it's in a rural area not a lot of people go
You'd need to create value in that space and give people incentive to go, creating multiple businesses
All of that takes time and effort
All of that adds to the risk profile, it could turn out better, it could turn out worse
40k/mo for life, no work required, that $ is coming to you. After 17 years or so, you're at the same $ value as the land, but with no work. Meanwhile 40k/Mo is going to be working for you very easily through index funds. It wouldn't take long with compound interest. You'd be set for life with basically 0 work and massive passive income
I'm taking that option rather than developing a shyt ton of land which requires massive time/effort/capital
It may be worth it to take the land, then immediately sell it, because if you net 7-8m up front, that interest you can live on for life. You're done working.