Posted on 01/28/2024 2:42:15 AM PST by SteveH
how best to proceed to buy a small farm or farm land?
i am looking in south central tennessee.
i would prefer a south slope, with 4 season stream.
no agent if i can help it (what are the dangers?)
this would be a lazy farm, maybe a few chickens, ducks, hay, a dog or three.
maybe i could park a trailer on the property until i could build a home.
I started on this journey myself over 20 years ago, finally buying an 87 acre place, 55 acres undeveloped hardwoods plus pasture 8 years ago.
Around 2012 I was talking with a realtor who said I wouldn’t be able to find anything under $2,000 an acre in the area I was looking. 3 years later we got in at exactly that, then bought the 17 acres next door for an average of $3,000 an acre.
A 35 acre property a mile away just a year ago sold for $6,000 an acre; a 10 acre plot nearby is being sold NOW at $20,000 an acre.
Due to our location close to the Natchez Trace and about 45 minutes to an hour off I-65, land speculators have moved in as have all the new industry workers from Spring Hill, Columbia and, yes, Nashville; traffic jams have followed. We have suburban Maryland-like McMansion farms going up not 2 miles away from us - you know, a 1 or 2 acre plot with a 5,000 SF crackerbox home on it but no one has “city” water or NG pipelines yet, it’s all wells and propane tanks (or electric heat - our 3,000 SF home is run on minisplit HVAC and our electric bill last month was $138 - get good insulation, we have 6” of foam and foam block/Foxblock basement walls).
Don’t mean to bust your bubble, but the time to buy was 20, 40 years ago.
How do you FIND properties? Drive around and look. Look into county tax office records for tax lien properties, get on Zillow or any of a half dozen sites that show listings in the area where you’re interested.
THe place WE bought had sold on eBay for $135k around 2005 to a couple in Florida who thought they’d build a retirement home there. Their kids urged them to sell. Listed at $169 we wound up buying it for $126k it was on the market for so many years. Timing. Prayer.
Don’t be surprised to find a property you’re interested in shows only the BEST photographic angles and images of trees, streams while the other 99% has been clear-cut for sale just before listing. I looked at several of those and, while 110 acres “partially wooded” might sound like the rest is pasture, fields of stumps aren’t plowable.
Good luck though.
When it comes to horses, two’s company, three’s a herd.
An old timer who was a professional appraiser taught me one of his tricks to find out about “unknown issues” with land parcels.
He would hang out at the nearest bar and start talking to other old time locals.
Old folks love to talk—and enjoy educating strangers on local lore.
Eventually he would steer the conversation to local land parcels and their history.
The stuff he would learn was amazing.
My daughter was working at the Virginia beach zoo a few years ago; when we went to visit, she took us in to see the Cassowary (Boris - behind STURDY chain-link fence with us on the OUTside) then the Emus up close and personal.
I actually got up close and was petting one when she said NOBODY does that. Not even the keepers. Meaning, they CAN’T, the birds don’t let anyone close to them. Anyone ELSE that is.
Good thing I didn’t know that BEFORE I got friendly with them.
But “dinosaurs,” had me laughing out loud. They’re big lovable fuzzballs.
I’ve got 1 acre with a really nice 4 bed 2 bath double wide, ready to move in, in northeast Mississippi, only 20 miles south of the Tennesse state line. I’d let you have it for $40k. Really nice rural neighborhood outside of city limits, but only a short drive to small town of about 8000 people.
There was a free range chicken farm near my house that had about 3000 birds.
They had guinea hens and three peacocks.
They kept away most of the predators.
They recently got out of the chicken business and are now just raising sheep.
A couple years ago they started making gelato from the sheep milk.
They also sell meat and sheep skin.
They will sell you a tanned hide for $300
The dangers are you'll limit yourself to a smaller selection to chose from and you'll probably pay too much.
Find an agent.
Not if you are a predator. Those coyotes really wanted to get into that chicken coop but not that badly.
A donkey is the best protection for livestock against coyotes. I drive past a small operation livestock farm every day. Faithful old donkey(s) out there grazing right along with the cattle.
The other thing to consider is that four to five acres of land is more than most people will ever need to have livestock, garden, barn , well, septic and a house. Unless you want to shoot and hunt on your own property.
I have 12 acres and only use about 3 of it.
The rest is woods. My closest neighbor is about 500 feet away. My neighbor on one side has 50 acres. The other has ten.
I do hunt and shoot on my own property BUT I also belong to a range in my town.
I pay $125 a year for a family membership.
I find this is better because there are other people there to offer advice on marksmanship.
Plus when you join a range you network with other like minded people.
This was great for the Mrs because she was intimidated about learning to shoot.
There are women members who have helped her out.
Another thing to consider is trying to find a piece of property adjacent to conservation land. My daughter has 4 acres but has hundreds of acres of conservation land on three sides of their property. The only drawback is that there is a walking trail that runs about 100 feet from one side.
The walkers don’t think about coming onto their property because she breeds DOBERMAN PINSCHERS. Those dogs hear the walkers long before they get close and sound very intimidating.
Good luck
Just look on realtor.com like the rest of us. I’ve spotted several really nice places in S Tennessee as at one point Mr. GG2 and I were thinking of moving there. Then I spotted a real gem on the GA MLS in N Georgia so we changed our mind.
I’m a former mortgage broker, mortgage loan underwriter and former realtor and I purchase through a realtor. They have va!unable information about properties and the surrounding area as well as expertise about title work etc in their particular area. Use one. The seller pays their commission.
My wife at 4 horses when we met. Then I bought her a farm. She stayed steady at 4 fir a couple of years. Then she bought a friesian stallion and 2 friesian mares. Then it was more mares. Custom bred our stud plus our own mares ...4,8,16,20,24,28...luckily I was able to get it stopped at 28!
Finally sold out and got down to 7, and now we’re back to 12 but we’re able to sell our fials more consistently.
Simple maintenance for 12 horses a day only takes about 2.5 hours a day. 28 takes about 7 hours, but your entire weekend is shot with the heavy maintenance.
I was going to say the same thing. A mule will kick the sheet out of any outsider that comes around. This was one reason early prospectors kept a stubborn mule around rather than a horse.
However, unless you know how to consummate a real estate transaction, not sure how you manage that part without someone doing that function who knows how to do it correctly & legally. Not really sure why you object to that part, because the seller usually pays the real estate broker.
This might help you with that aspect: Buying without a real estate professional
The problem buying land?
It is not the price of the Land, it is the decling value of the US Dollar.
We own farms, some have been here in the family for 137 years (since 1889, before that we were in Coryell Co.).
They don’t usually come in pairs-—but they ARE herd animals & like company.
I have gone from 6 down to one-—OLD AGE-—and the survivor would love company....But on limited income, I cannot get stupid.
NOT a cat-—a Great Pyraneese dog-—THEY are very protective.
We have a saying up here, which is 40 below keeps out rif raf. And this statement holds very true. In terms of illegals, we have occasional Mexicans up here, but they are the working variety with jobs and do not do criminal activity. I haven’t seen any of the illegal Chinese, South Americans or Africans.
Today’s prices are out of this world. People from other states have realized the privacy here and land is now going for much more. A secluded 40 acre wooded parcel no may go for a high as $300,000.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.