Inexpensive farms in Michigan?
 

I've read here (I think it was here) and on another forum about farms going for really low prices in Michigan. We are in a position to buy a place with cash, and if I could get a place in Michigan that would compare to a place here in rural central New York for much lower, I would do it. After all, the climate is about the same, right?

Does anyone have any idea what areas some of these people are talking about? Michigan is a big place.

Just looking for some info to start some research.

Thanks.

Land around here is still above $1000 and acre.

I'm not sure what per acre prices are right now around us but I have seen quite a few signs around this side of the state that say Farm's for Sale. I know this side of the sate(North east side) the property taxes are alot less than most other parts of the state & land use to always go for less than that where Michiganfarmer lives. But like I said I haven't called on any of the places I've seen since we are not looking to buy anything right now.

What kind of acreage and set-up?? What rough price range?? I've been looking in the south-southwest area for the last few months and there seem to be some quite reasonably priced to me....... you may think they are high or low.

If I knew more what you were desiring I could send you any links I come across at the various sites.

The ground in Mich varies widely in value as farm ground. You can find rich farm ground and then get into some very sandy or swampy areas. Some places couldn't be bought for $5000 and others could be over priced at $1000 per acre. South west Mi has many vinyards and orchards with decent ground for the most part.

Don't look for anything inexpensive in the lower half of the lower peninsula. Actually, I am not sure about the east side of the state. Northern lower and the upper peninsula may be more affordable, but they're in a whole 'nother zone--no field corn or soybeans will yield well up north. Corn silage and hay are big crops, though, and it's beautiful country.

Agriculture is the only thing working in Michigan. Not likely to find many deals here.

Lots of farm land around here for sale. Lots. Former orchards and vineyards. That doesn't make it cheap. How much land do you want?

Up here in nw MI I see homes with acreage very cheap. Either foreclosures or short sales. I haven't seen anything advertised as a farm, but they usually have a large pole building. The acreage is usually 5 - 20 acres.
Diane

I grew up in Michigan and the only good farm land I ever saw was the lower half of the lower peninsula including the thumb area. Everywhere else was sand, okay for potatoes but that's about it. However some of the earlier open pollinated corn varieties might do okay for homesteading especially the flint corns. For corn in the Northern lower peninsula I would try Minnesota 13, Golden Glow, Northwest Dent or any northern flint corn. The Indians always grew corn up there even near Sault St. Marie and the Lake Superior shore. It was flint varieties they grew. For homesteading I'm sure a good flint corn could be found that would do fine. Up there you wouldn't be trying to compete with the farmers in the corn belt just growing the corn you would need for home use. However if you can afford land in the lower half of the lower peninsula it is the Northern corn belt and you can grow just about anything, even peanuts if you start them early indoors or in a cold frame and transplant them. Muskmelons do great but not watermelons. All types of beans and root crops, okra, eggplant, cabbage, broccoli, berries, 90-100 day corn, etc.... It's great farm land in the southern part of the state.

I'm looking for at least 20 acres, probably not more than 30. I would like 10 - 15 of that to be in decent shape for hay and pasture. I don't think I would want to be in the UP. I'm thinking more of moving more south as it is.

Thanks to everyone for the info.

Two years ago I bought a 1,500 sq ft foreclosed-on 3BR 1 BA 1870's Stone house on 5 acres with two sturdy outbuildings and a 50 x 70 bank barn with a Silo in Hillsdale County Michigan. The asking price was $89K and I lowballed the bank and ended up buying it for $45K. We moved in last year and are building a fiber farm there with Icelandic Sheep, Angora Goats among other basic livestock i.e. chickens, turkeys cats etc...

This spring I started snooping around for some wooded lots to provide heating fuel and I ran across a 7 acre farm with a smaller barn and two garages, complete with a 4 BR 2 BA brick house circa 1850. This place was about 2 miles from my house in Hillsdale and after haggling with the bank for a couple months I bought it for $20K.

I'm not bragging about these properties- Just assuring you that it is possible to find deals in Michigan. These places are the exception, not the rule, but they are certainly out there. I'd never offer a person less than half of what they were asking for their property but I'm much bolder when dealing with a bank on a foreclosed property- I'm not concerned with hurting BofA's feelings. Lol

I was retiring from the Coast Guard and living in California when I bought the first place and still had time to work with the realtor, make flight arrangements and visit the area and the property was still available. If you are persistent I think you can still do real well in this market in Michigan.

Good luck-

This is NOT an example of a great deal, it's just a place we've driven by a few times and really like (costs to much for us!).
http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...089_1114029772

$159,0000

I'm in the Thumb,there are alot of farms sitting empty. I'd talk to the Banks -forclosed homes.

There's always downtown Detroit. Buy a few blocks, scrape the carp off and sell veggies to the suburbs.
Seriously, the tax structure alone would put me in Michigan before I'd stay in New York. There's lots of open space there yet and the hay business seems pretty good these days. You don't need to grow corn. Just put it to pasture and raise sheep for the Arabs in Dearborn.

JWK,
What uncle Will in In. said is reallly true, and you should really consider that in your search unless you want to raise either frogs or Christmas trees. You really have to consider the water table on any piece of property. And if you don't have an independent source of income, 30 acres might not make a living for you by itself. (And it's doubtful you'll find a decent job here, right now.)
Looks like you might need a buyers agent to help you, but each realtor has a website once you reach that point in your search. Maybe you could make a trip out here this Spring and get a feel for it. The Holland Tulip Festival will be coming up on May 1st, preceded by the Blossom Time Festival in St. Joseph the week before. Mini-vacation? Combine business and pleasure. Bring a shovel....
geo

I can tell you in my area,we have Awesome soil. Close to my house, we have Alfalfa,Corn,beans,soybeans,sugar beets, potatoes,carrots and more as cash crops. This is my soil.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2397/...f780e4ab_b.jpg and my view.http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2257/...7887d773_b.jpg

Come on folks lets Hear NUMBERS!
For instance where Im at you can buy 100 bushel corn ground for 1500-2500. with good deer cover it brings more ,just north of me 250 bushel corn ground brings 4000 -8000

give us a description of the type of farm you are looking for..we are zone 5, farther north and in the valleys 4, do you want water, flat, hills, open, treed, buildings..what size home on the land, barns, outbuildings, hunting, fishing, cattle/horse, or small animals, and about what price range is your top range for what you would be looking for..of course we'll look for things that are cheaper too..but give us a max..i'll do a search for you later today if you can put some more info on here

yes we are almost exactly the same temperatures and snowfall amounts as the New york area, esp the western side of the state.

i will check out craigslist for northern Michigan for this week and see what they have..bre

ok I'm going to pop in a few links from craigslist..from today and this week.
http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1657090887.html

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1657082608.html this one looks a tad rough, and is smaller, but $39K

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1656977077.html

didn't see a price on this one, but it is in our area and it is a really nice area..just a few miles from us

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1656539968.html

this one is in a college and touristy area..

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1656498343.html
this is more a tourist, lakefront area..not really a farm area

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1656308542.html
this one is very similar to our property and about 20 or 30 miles north of us and would probably make a very nice building site for a farm

i'll post these and then check out some more
I was trying to keep the price down..if you want to look at things with higher price ranges let me know

more?

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1656306585.html
this is a nice area

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1656237808.html
smaller, more a lot than acerage

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1656235120.html
this is a home with 110 acres of land !!! but it is over 500K..just thought I'd throw it in as i'm still not sure what price range you are looking at.

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1656212156.html
smaller, not as nice but fishing

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1656206807.html
10 acres with a mobile on it you could remove if you wanted to build

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1655875273.html
throwing in this 40 acre hunting camp on lake Huron..a lot of possibilities for homesteading, even had generator etc..avail.

ugly little fixer upper for $8K...ok so i'm being funny here
http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1655771397.html

just under 70K home cabin pole barn, POND??? !!! I can't believe the price on this one..this might be a real nice place
http://nmi.craigslist.org/reb/1655771397.html

i'm going to stick these up cause there were a few decent ones on here

Flexible location
 

If you are flexible on location, I'd recommend N. Central Tn. Counties like Scott, Fentress (our county),and the surrounding counties.
I can recommend a good Realtor also- Green Acres. I know the owner and he knows all the hills and hollers of the area.
The area has 4 distinct yet mild seasons and there are oil/gas wells all over the place.
Good luck.
jim

more?

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1655653340.html has additional acerage avail.

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1654947147.html

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1654773617.html 40 acres land contract

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1654690905.html $225K for a larger farm with buildings and land..looks like a really nice one

always remember to figure you can make a lower offer on anything as the market is so depressed these people are all getting desperate.

trailer on a christmas tree farm, trees are in..good building site http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1654581008.html

vacant wooded land under $5,000 for 5 acres

remember these are NOT repos,these are listings on Craigslist..some with brokers and some not..you would find much better prices with repos..

i only skimmed through today's and yesterday's listings..here is the main real estate link for our area craigslist

http://nmi.craigslist.org/rea/
go ahead and skim through on your own..there are a LOT of touristy areas that have higher prices so you gotta look at a lot of listings to see what you might like
http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1654405977.html

http://nmi.craigslist.org/reo/1654690905.html
so far this looked like the best one if you want to walk right onto a farm and start up with your animals and crops..but you still didn't tell us a price range so i'm really lookinig blind.

I live in Berrien County about 6 mi from the lake, about 22 Miles from the Indiana/Michigan border. Like Callieslamb says there is a lot of land for sale but I'm not sure I'd call it inexpensive. Two places on my road been on the marked for a year. Both with 5 acres. One is asking 290K the other over 300K. We are surrounded by working vineyards and open land in a beans/corn/wheat rotation. Apple and peach orchards down the road.

My friend bought a house and Land( how much I forgot, but it's not the point.) for 150,000. He's a carpenter and did a huge amount of work to the barns etc. The bottom fell out of the building industry here, he had no work. Tryed to refinance the house ect, bank said no. They walked away and moved to Texas. The bank just sold the house for 35,000. The land prices and the type of land as well as the weather in this state varies quite abit.

Oh my....that looks great. I grew up spending half years at my grandfathers lake house in Battle Creek and the surrounding land looked like that.

real estate is pretty depressed most places, still doesnt keep folks from thinking that somethings worth more then it really is. you ca find a steal here and there but most places are mortgaged out for more then there worth. theres 10 acres and buildings for
149,000 wich they figure is under their idea of the value and more important under the money owed on it. I put a value of about 60-80 thousand tops in this market. currently that would be a fair figure in another economy maybe more or less.

lot of areas even the rural if a house sits empty its not long before its striped of anything of value. or just plain trashed by the local teens.

anyone who has the place bought outright most likely isnt going to be to apt to sell unless you bring the cheddar, other words it will have to be worth their while.
which equals not cheap. I can see some folks not able to keep up with taxes and income and you could maybe broker a good deal but you have to find those people and most wont talk about anything like that with too many people.

you have to be aware like many pointed out lots of different terrain here, not just the type of land but infrastucture in countys. you are also buying that when you purchase land, some countys are higher on taxes but you also have things like paved roads and police forces.

you have alot more to consider then just price alone, your best attempt would be to take a vacation here after you did a little research on some potential areas.

I will warn you all, many places are freindly even if it borders on tolerance of outsiders (really not my word) but other areas can be down right menacing. there are places here I would not mind living but the locals seem to give me a pause and consideration.
nice places for a visit but I wouldnt want to live there.

small towns can be a real bear to the new guy, more so in areas it is the original 6-10 familys, Im not far from such a area. belive me your life can become very complicated very quickly.both socialy and legaly.

Thank you,Alaska is looking pretty good to me these days.

Hoo boy, you got that right! I moved to northern Michigan when I was 20. I remember walking into a small-town restaurant to apply for a job. The manager looked at my ap and said, "We don't hire your kind here." I guess I gave her a puzzled look ("your kind" where I'm from would have meant someone with dark skin, LOL) because she explained: "City people."

Ironically, 15 years later, when that restaurant burned to the ground, I photographed the blaze for the local paper. I was the editor ... so I guess I did all right after all! ;)

unless its 30 acres of good maples. a person could make 700 gallons of maple syrup. and gross $30,000

Western UP is warmer than the east side. Lots of different soil types all over Michigan.
I have 200 acres, 2/3 is clay loam and the rest is so stoney that it can't be cleared.
Lots of remote farms in the western half of the UP, older farmers retireing and no one to take over the farm. Plan to compete with hunters. There are plenty of big city "hunters" that'll buy land to hunt on and willing to pay more than it is worth as farm land.

Get a plat book and travel some back roads, find owner's addresses through County treasurer, then make some calls.

I'm sure that there is MORE to this story than just a fire....
 

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like......I'm dying to know 'how' it started???:thumb: Any clues? Suspect(s)?




(Did you have an iron-clad alibi?) :hijacked:

I don't need to make a living off the farm. I'll be retiring early. I think with my modest monthly income and being as self sufficient as you can be on a small farm, I won't need a job. I don't plan on working for anyone no matter where I go. Unfortunately, I'm not retired yet and can't really get myself to Michigan this year for any significant amount of time.

30 acres of good maples would be really expensive in my neck of the woods. Not that I'd want a maple syrup business, anyway.

it is a good place to retire..send me some info on what you are looking for and i'll do a more serious search..did you look at the listings i posted..i like the last one a lot.