I've been looking online, (A LOT), at rural property scattered all over Texas. Some in the far Northeast corner near Arkansas, some in central Texas, some a little further West, and some way down South.
I've noticed a number of tracts, (we're looking at 15-40 acres), will have water and electricity "at the road" which of course is city/county/co-op utilities.
I've also noticed some will have electric across the property but no water available, (unless a well is dug).

I know that ideally having both on the property would be great but if you had to choose between electric or water which would you choose?

I would think having land in the rocky central, West, or Southern part of the state it would be better to have water available already since the ground is so hard.

Electric, I think, would be better further up in the Northeast since the land isn't as hard and a well would be easier to drill.

See how deep the water table is where your looking and judge the price. I'd rather have the utilities so I could manage my own water system. Water is a must to survive electricity is not.

Bought and improved 10 acres in Central Texas in last year.  Water is most important

Water

There are numerous ways to bring in electricity or to produce it your self. I've lived with a photovoltaic/wind generation system before so it's nothing new to me.

If you have a PVA/Wind system, get a largish portable generator so you can pump well water.

Boil it down - can you live longer without water or electricity?

Texas?  WATER.

Here in the mid Atlantic you can dig a hole just about anywhere and find water.  Not so in more arid climes.

Electric. I can put a well damn near anywhere around here and get good water.

Here's a lesson about wells: My brother bought a property in central New Mexico. It was part of a subdivision featuring mobile homes. He shares a well with 5 other houses. This was ~ 10 years ago.

Since then, about eight new homes have been built in his immediate area.  The newcomers have drilled deeper and are depleting the water levels. Brother's well is now sucking sand.

Just something to think about, OP.

ALSO: Before you put in a wind generator, CAREFULLY study the issue. It may seem that you have lots of wind, but the actual output of your generator won't make it worthwhile.

Here in NM we regularly get 40-50 mph winds. YMMV.
ETA

Also, make very sure that you have WATER RIGHTS on your property!

Electric at the road.

In Michigan water is available if you want it.  Drive a couple miles and lake or river water can be had most anywhere.  Both homes I have owned you can dig a hole a couple feet deep and have a foot of water in it pretty much any time of year.  Cost for water ranges from dig a hole (free), install a rain barrel, drive a sandpoint or jet a shallow well (both of which might be illegal) and add a hand pump or shallow well jet pump ($500-2000 depending on complexity) and normal residential drilled well, $50-100/foot, 30-300 feet deep.





We have spent many weekends in a family cabin built 50 years ago that was wired for electricity, but did not have a well.  It was great to have a small fridge to put a box of ice cream in the freezer, or a gallon of milk, lunchmeat, etc in the fridge without having to buy ice for the cooler every other day.  Great to have an electric stove and oven to cook pancakes, spaghetti and pies on/in.  A wonderful convenience to have electric lights and a radio and a fan in the cabin at night.


Drinking water was cheap to purchase in gallon jugs or easy to pack along from home for free.  Wash water could be had from the rain barrel right outside the back door, or the lake a couple miles down the road.


In Texas?  Probably water.

Water with decent pressure.



On demand water heater that ignites from water movement, so turn on hot water and little flywheel moves and ignites burner and gets your on demand water heater going.



This is a whole lot simpler than hauling in water or dealing with trying to have a cistern in a dry area and what not.



Electric is generally used for charging stuff, light, sometimes cooking, and other stuff I am sure.



Light can be oil lamps or battery powered led and get some solar panels for the battery charging you need.



Cooking can be propane and yeah propane can also do light but I don't want propane lights inside the house.  



A generator can be used when you are going to do a lot of electrical stuff like running washer and dryer and need to top off the batteries and what not.  Basically one day a week a generator could be used to play catch up if needed.



Electric is nice, but with so much stuff to do the same job it is easy to do without electric but usually it does cost more than grid power.



Water is impossible to replace, I like decent water pressure because it makes doing stuff like hosing down the siding possible, and hot water is well worth the cost as well.

Good answers guys and I appreciate them all. I'm now looking closely at the various ads to see where the water, (if any), is and what type, city/well, it is.
There are lots of nice places available its just a matter of time and money at this point.

Knew one fella who bought some land next to a river.  It was in flood plane and would flood each year or three.



Water is important for cleanup from that sort of thing.



He dragged a junky camper out, it could be dragged on and off the property but was not good enough to roll down the road.



Basically would come camp during the good months and then drag things to high ground, a nice neighbor worked with him on a deal of sorts I guess.



But I remember some of that cleanup was dirty and nasty and it was mostly just mud and deadfall.

well with a solar panel to run the pump...what about a gas line? around here they are cheaper to run to a house than a electric pole

I am in east tn and lots of properties have natural gas wells on them.  Depending on how the owner dealt with the company some people have a tap and all the natural gas they can use.



This natural gas tends to not be "dry" since it is straight out of the well and has not been dealt with as far as adding the smell to it and whatever else they would do to process the natural gas.  



Anyway, heard about one fella bought a heck of a natural gas powered generator and he powers his house, mom's house, and a big detached garage/barn with natural gas running that generator.



To me it depends on cost and if the flow might get stopped.



It is not that common for natural gas lines to get dug up accidently, but it happens.  It is not that common for pumping stations to have issues, but it happens.



I consider water a heck of an important item and I doubt I would ever live someplace dry because I know there are times when I might want to use a lot of water to wash something or whatever.  Then again, I don't do a lot of boating so I guess I have limits.



Anyway, if the well can run off solar and the well has a heck of a pump on it then I would do some thinking on how I want to run things.



I like propane for cooking and heating.  If I had something like a natural gas well on the property I would probably mess with natural gas for drying clothes in the clothes dryer, natural gas lamps for light in the house, and on and on and on.  Might not use em all the time but I could see it being well worth it.



Now if I have to pay for the fuel I use, suddenly I get a lot more realistic on stuff.

There is far more ways to obtain electricity than water. You can live without electricity, you cannot live without water

I grew up in a semi arid area, much like west TX. Water, Water, Water.
You can generate electricity (we had a diesel generator back then).
You can truck in propane for heat.
You can use cellphones in most places.
You can get satellite interwebs and TV (if you are desperate).
Trucking in water is really expensive and a massive chore. We had to truck water - ONCE. It sucked!

You can't haul electricity in a poly tank................