Fork in the road

One bad sign: you are doing something(buying a property) to get away from something you consider bad. Why aren't you going to something which you consider a positive opportunity? What is on your check off list? When you move to a farm/country situation, that list should consider the soil first of all, since it will be your bank account that you will constantly have to draw from, and replenish as you have animals, crops, vegetable stand, or anything else. Second would come the water. Water, to me, is becoming ever more important in a world of scarcity. Without it, your land could become worthless if it won't grow anything. Third, would be the condition of the buildings, of course. Most of the time it's something less than ideal, unless you buy bare land and build from scratch. Fourth might be the location, distance to town, school system, health care system, etc. Single now, but married and thinking about children, it will get important.

Okay, having pontificated on all that, I wouldn't get my hopes too high on an auction property. I think I would set my highest price, get my financing in order(you usually have to have it or prove it the day of the sale), and go from there. I'm surprised the place isn't going to be offered in parcel lots--that is, with house and buildings, without(just the tillable acres) and/or combined, whichever gets the highest price........ Most land auctions I have ever been interested in go way above the price I am willing to pay......and that could happen to you.

That would leave the other place. That means you would have to drastically shift your plans from farming to market gardening.........see what I mean by asking what's on your list? Are you moving from something or to something?

My opinion,

geo

Hey now, I'm in Ohio and I love it!

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See my post about making enough to hire a farm hand. 76ac is a LOT of farmland to take care of. It's all I can do to keep 28ac undercontrol and not covered in privet.

Door #3.

Neither 1 or 2 is the correct place.

What kind of price do you think you might have to pay for the 76 acres??? 55 acres of tillable row crop type land without any improvements would sell at auction here in northern Indiana for a minimum of $4000 an acre, but most likely more. The rest of the farm with the run down buildings would bring somewhere near $100,000.
$1100 wouldn't pay the interest of that.
The cash rent here is running from $150 to $225 per acre for average farm land. You will not make that much clear by farming it yourself.
I would buy the 10 acres or better yet keep looking.

i'm thinkin I would go with# 2..cause if you had to have more money you could always rent out a room or two in the larger house and having the road right there with traffic, the selling ..if you want to do that..is no problem.

just sayin

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Brenda Groth
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/

I would go with #1. You can always fix buildings. They aint growing anymore land.

Thanks for all the ideas and advice. I've been keeping an eye out for a while now, these are the only places that have really interested me. I'm not happy here, can't park my boat trailer in the grass. Can't dig up the grass and make my driveway wider to park my boat trailer on. Cops give me citations for not driving a car sitting in my driveway. Neighbor turned me into the health department for property maintenance that had been neglected for a decade before I bought the place. I became a criminal by buying a fixer-upper in this fine town. If I'm going to deal with bull crap, it should be real bull crap. It tastes better, always breath with your nose while running a manure spreader, lol.

I was basing my estimate on borrowing $200,000. Probably wishful thinking that it would go that low. I'm waiting on the bank to hear what I'm approved for. I'll check out both places and see how the auction goes.

As far as equipment, I can use dads 12' disk, 5 shank chisel plow, ih 400 air planter, new idea corn picker, john deere 55 combine. I'm sure dad would let me take the john deere 70. And if I need more power for tillage I could borrow the 3010 or 3020. Small equipment includes a john deere 420S, 3 pt plow, 3 pt disk, 246 planter, cultivators, 2 bush hogs,and a post hole digger. All of it's old, but it still works and it won't cost me anything.

Once again, thank you everybody.

Depends on what you can afford. But one consideration would be to go with number one, subdivide it and sell a couple of 2 to 5 acre parcels to pay it down to where it costs you the same as #2. With 75 acres, you could sell a lot of smaller lots and still end up with 55 acres of tillable land...

Hey Harry, what the heck is wrong with Ohio? I think it's a perty good place to live.

Dont have to worry about the fork now. I just ran over some stop sticks on the road. I have excellent credit and excellent debt to income ratio. But i have too much money tied up by my current place to afford the down payment they want for a farm. I'll finish fixing this place and try to get it sold. Things always seem to work out when i'm patient. I spent a year and a half looking for a truck, my friend thought i was crazy. But i found one like new condition for 7000 less than book price.