How did you end up with your farm?

Keep in mind, the 2,000 an acre stuff is just an empty wheat field, flat, no trees, no hills, no character, no improvements or ponds. It goes up from there. I don't need 80 but that is where the cheaperr stuff starts. The average for under 20 is about 5,000 acre and 10 acres andunder is more like 10k per acre.

We are first generation farmers/homesteaders - and so we took out a mortgage to buy our place. I think our goal is a long one - to start to build an arm of the family that loves and lives in the country after years of city dwelling ancestors.

We may never achieve the goal of being completely self sufficiency etc as we have that mortgage to pay, but hope our children and grandchildren will appreciate the land legacy we will leave them behind.

We bought 12 acres in rural Maine - a run down house, a small barn, a garage and workshop. 10 acres of grazing land, 2 of forest - total package $150K

id suggest looking for a movitated seller. stay away from real estate agent at first. word of mouth. most of the real estate listing are directed toward people from the cities moving to the country. sometimes you can get deals when city folks move to rural then cant stand it. save and get preapproved if possible be ready to pull the trigger.

From my experience, the key is to be further away from important cities. Here on the central plains, the most affordable land tends to be undeveloped range, well away from a city.
And then you run into It's certainly no "farm," but we got our 40 acres of pasture for $16K, put a $500 trailer house on it, and are building with cash.

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~*~Erin~*~
SAHM, ranch wife, sub and quilt shop proprietress
the Back Gate Country Quilt Shop

Ours is not quite a farm, but we were in the same situation. Land, or land with an old trailer, is easily 2,000+ an acre. The further we moved out from the city (small city, 75,000) the cheaper it got. We are as far out as you can go before hitting National Forest for a long, long ways. We ended up going for 7 acres with a solid house, if we bought a larger piece of land we'd have no money for a house! And it was a foreclosure, today we couldn't nearly as good a deal.

Our area is pricey as wealthy out of staters buying ranch land and putting million dollar homes up and much of the land is NF or BLM. Just over the border in California land is a fraction of the cost. But my work is here.

Wish we had known about farm loans, might have made a big difference, but we're happy out here!

I agree with looking further out from a big city like OKC.

This is all good information. We have 2 kids in state college right now, so we decided to stay put for at least 4 more years.

In the meantime, we have started our first garden, put up a clothesline, started leaarning to can, acquired some ducks and have been reading a lot, building a library of homesteading info. We figure, what's the worst that can happen? Learn to live cheaper?

BTW, we only owe 12 more years on our present house.

I always find it fascinating how people get their places (and why). We decided about 10 years before we bought our farm that we wanted to retire early from the rat race and at first we envisioned a small homestead in a remote part of Alaska (we lived there at the time) and started saving and paying things off. We are both back to the land types who grew up with MEN and we soon realized what we really wanted a small old fashioned farm so we started looking from Minnesota to Louisiana in the central US and we also looked at Oregon and Western Washington, Montana, Wyoming, upstate NY, Michigan, Ohio, WV, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Mississippi. During one of our many trips to look at places we found our farm in the Ozarks of Missouri and its like we were meant to be here.

We used Unitedcountry.com a lot to find places meeting our requirements (very enjoyable to look and dream) and we bought during the height of the housing market crash so we couldnt get financing and paid cash for the farm and then took out a small note on just the land.

Just like YH and others have said, we paid about as much for our farm as it would cost to buy a new pickup and after a lifetime of living for short periods of time all over the world (including as a kid) and feeling like a nomad I feel like I have found sanctuary and security. We have 13 acres and lease another 9 for the price of just maintaining the pasture and of course we are always looking for more but land is rising in price around here and there are a lot of out of the area buyers snapping up the larger tracts that come up for sale.

Our place is old and was almost uninhabitable when we bought it, it had virtually no fencing and needed a ton of work but if you have a vision and a little skill you can still find some decent land at a good price.

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www.salmonslayer-simplelife.blogspot.com

VERY true. when we bought our little place, with its cruddy old tumble down houses (2), some said oh, you guys paid too much or you shoulda held out for a full 40 acres (tax break). well, our place did cost pretty pennies on first look but you add in all the utilites were run to it, a good lane was there, and they owner financed, paid for all closing etc., I think we done good!! we only bought 16 acres b/c that's all we could afford. and it wasn't a few years later we started getting several calls per year, hey, wanna sell?....nope!

We stepped "up" into ours. We of course owe on it and have to work regular jobs to keep it but it will be worth it.

When my wife and I first got together we rented a small house in town. Neither of us were happy about it, but it allowed us to get other financial issues straightened out. (some CC debit, student loans etc). We then started looking for a smallish starter home, of course at the time we thought we were looking for our dream home. With a little help from my parents we bought a small place and spent the next three years "learning" that it was too small but thankfully we got it cheap and the value continued to rise the more work we put into it. Then about a year ago DW and I started talking about what it would take to get a bigger place. One thing led to another and the next thing we knew we were putting an offer in on an older ranch in an area I have wanted to be for as long as I've known about it. We had to carry two mortgages for awhile but because we had virtually no debit other than the houses we were able to swing it. We recently sold our first home, were able to pay my parents back, plus some interest and are in the process of refinancing our current place, and investing in it. The plan is to have it paid for and "fixed" up to a point of being mostly self supporting in 12 years. I would have loved to pay cash for it, but sometimes you have to make a leap to follow a dream.

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Chad

Owner / Indentured Servant
Red Tractor Ranch

Follow us as we slowly try to bring a little old California Homestead back to life

http://redtractorranch.wordpress.com/

Last year we decided we were going to sell our 10 acre property here and move north as our property had been surrounded by suburban development and there was no privacy left. Well it turned out we were able to buy 200 acres about 220 miles north of here and still have plenty of cash left over from the sell as land was much much cheaper up north. Now we just have to wait a few more months untill we can move there permanently.

We both work at the airport and we have about 14 years til we can retire, so we have time to plan.

I was in my late 50's when Mother called letting me know she had a terminal illness and asking me if I would take care of her and keep her out of a nursing home. I love my Mother; so was determined to do so! (I had just lost my job due to a "size-down" where those of us who had been there the longest and were making the most money were expected to leave..one way or another.) I decided this was the time to relocate to where I'ld always wanted to live, i.e. the east coast; so I picked mother up and made the move. (We had a very difficult time for a couple of years.)

One day while I was in the waiting room and mother was in with her neurologist, I saw an ad for "one" tract of land (a little over 6 acres) "...with old house on it...." laying on the table just staring at me. My heart leaped and I instinctively knew I needed to check this out; so, as soon as Mother was able, I took her to see it. The seller did not want to show it to us and tried to discourage us from buying it, saying there was no water on it. However, it was the first place we had seen during our last year's land search that was flat enough for Mother to walk over. We made the offer and it was accepted. About a week later when I was trying to get a history of the place (and couldn't), I discovered the seller had not owned all he had sold us. About a month later, at my persistance (and surprise), I received a letter from them with a copy of "another" deed. (I later discovered the real owner of part of the property we had purchased caused a stink, got it legalized where we did not need to pay anything extra and made sure we got the deed. WOW!) The tract was full of trees and the old house was not deemed livable by that county's building inspection department. I felt real stuck!

About a week later I was offered a job in the same county as that acreage. I grabbed it and moved my sick mother and I into an empty convalescent home that had no heat and no kitchen, as it was all I could afford. David came to help and contributed to our little income. This gave us what we needed to get a part of the land cleared for a house and the trenches for a disposal system dug and a well dug. (The man doing all this excavating did all this without a contract trusting me to pay for his work as I could. This man was a stranger!) So David and I (with the help of the county's health dept inspector) completed the disposal system, during which time a bad storm caused us to wreck the pickup and my back was broken.

While in bed recuperating, another stranger showed up telling Mother to tell me to come see him when I was able because he had a 3-bedroom, 1-1/2 bath trailer I "could have with nothing down and pay out as I could". This got us on the property!

I can only add that my determination to keep my promise to mother, i.e. to keep her out of a nursing home even when her debilitating illness (parkinsons) required me to be with her 24/7, kept me going; and my Heavenly Father stepped in each and every time I needed help. That is how I ended up with this "homestead".

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I am what I am! Acknowledging this is the beginning; and my growth is yet to end. http://motdaugrnds.com/farmsales ~~~~~ http://motdaugrnds.com

Not a farm but a homestead. I had a small apartment building in the Cities. My uncle bought the 5 acres I am living on about 37 years ago as a hunting cabin and country retreat. It has an old mobile hime and a garage on it. After my aunt and uncle passed, my cousins wanted to sell so I took the money I had save to fix the garage at my place in the Cities and bought the 5 acres instead. I have owned it for about 12 years now.

When I had a medical issue 6 years ago, I had to quit work. It took a couple of years to get close to where I was originly, health wise, and another couple of years to sell my apartment building. I moved up here 2 years ago.

Last spring RDO potato growers bought and cleared 160 acres a quarter mile from me. I expect it will take a few years before the fertilizer, pesticides, and herbacides they use will pollute the water table and screw up my sandpoint wells.

I bought 34 acres of raw land over in lake country last July for cash. The plan is to develope it into a homestead. It is way better than my current 5 acres and there are lots of lakes to fish.

I have had no income for 6 years but no debt either. SS kicks in in July so I should be OK and can start developing the new property.

My wife works the the Health Dept and goes out sampling wells and laying out septic systems.

We both worked in opposite directions and were looking for a place about halfway. We were renting a house on a big peice of land about halfway at the time.

She happened to go out this road and found this house. It was 85 acres about 5 acres woods. Free gas. Big barn. Old house. They wanted too much $68,000. We both probably made slightly less than 30,000 together at that time.

We talked them down to 52 and bought it. Financed 15 years and paid off by the time we got to 40 such as it is.

Nowdays it would be harder. Property is way higher. Salaries for the same jobs have not kept with inflation. If we were kids with our same jobs now just starting out there would have been no way we could buy it now.

We probably would have had to move to the city, worked there for more money, bought a house there sold it and come back here and got something.

Still a few deals available but access is tough and so far away from any employment you'd have to buy outright and then retire there or somethign.

We bought our land during one of the previous real estate crashes. These things are cyclical. We did a mortgage with the seller (owner financing) with a down of about 30%. He liked it because he got his money gradually so that meant he wasn't paying as much taxes. We liked not spending huge fees at the bank. We had a lawyer draw up the mortgage.

The down money came from other land I sold which I had bought during the previous down cycle and then sold in the up portion when I realized I really didn't like those neighbors, which is why we ended up where we are instead.

The mortgage payments and annual real taxes come from our farming and logging. The land pays for itself. Our family farms full time.

Our land was relatively remote yet centered between the markets I wanted to serve. Our land is also mountainous. These things, combined with the down market, made the price affordable back about 25 years ago.

To decide where to look for land I drew circles on the maps and explored at the intersecting areas. I check with town offices to make sure zoning, permitting and other regulations would not be a problem for the things I wanted to do. I also looked for good timer, water, etc. The house was not a concern and was also not in good condition. It did give us a place to live while we built. Our farm had been abandoned decades ago so we had to setup all the infrastructure, re-clear fields, etc. A lot more work but cheaper land - trade-offs.

Some people are frightened of mortgages and debt but they should not be. Those are financial tools for purchasing tools of production. Manage your debt and use it to buy the tools you need to produce and pay for the debt as well as your living. That is better than money in the bank. A mortgage is far better than renting and leasing which leaves you with no equity or putting off doing, which leaves you with nothing.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

$2000 an acre is very cheap where I live!

Seriously, while we now own 5 acres outside of town, my health tanked the week that we signed the papers and so I have not done much with it. I have naturalized some asparagus and plum trees and such, but I honestly do not have the energy I need to use it properly.

I *HAVE* worked in my 1 acre back yard, with a home made greenhouse and fruit trees and a garden and a half dozen chickens! the real down side is that I cannot have 4 legged farm animals, so a tiny flock of layers is what I have.

The down payment money came from our pickup lasting longer than we thought it would. For 2 years I put the equivalent of a car payment in the bank, and then this 5 acre parcel came up, and we had more than enough for the down payment. The monthly payments were about $150 a month, but because I pay extra every month they are now asking for $110 a month. I am still paying extra, though.

And I also put aside money every month towards another vehicle. The Silverado died 6 months later but by then I had enough for a down payment for that, too.

Have you seen this parcel? http://www.chandler-ok-realestate.com/land.htm

It brought up multiples. Which one was it? I probably have seen it. we looked in that area for a while. I have a guy I work with that lives out there. Carpooling may be an option. It's roughly an hour or a little further out depending on the exact location.

Like some others, we were lucky here as well. My wife's folks gave us our home and 10 1/2 acres as an early inheritance. We moved up here about a year and half ago. We sold our house in Ohio, packed up and moved to northern Michigan.

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Dave

Our Homepage
Shangri La-Restoring Paradise

My son will be looking for land in NW Georgia in the next couple years. I hope we can find something good for him.