Buying a larger farm

14 years ago

Hi everyone,

I am looking for ideas/ advice regarding the purchase of a larger farm. I'm a 53 year old male married with 2 kids 17 and 12. I was able to retire early last year. We are currently living on a small mini farm of 3 acres. We grow certified organic vegetables that we sell at farmers markets and through an online marketing service. This is are first year I estimate we will gross close to 10k in sales. We have always lived within our means and managed to save a substantial nest egg that we have invested in traditional investments ( stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) I am concerned that the current situation in the financial markets could lead to all those investments losing a substantial amount of their value.(how long can the goverment just keep on printing more money?)

My thought is that if things get really bad that land, especially farm land will always have real value.

We are in a position right now where we could afford to cash out some of those traditional investments and purchase a larger farm. This is the first time in my life that the purchase of a larger farm is within our reach.

Property values in this area are down and intrest rates are really low. I know that having a larger farm will be a lot of work and I am not getting any younger. The hardest part for me is the thought of starting all over again. We have built a barn, fenced all the growing areas invested tons material in the soil, have bluberry's, rasberry's,a small orchard, etc., etc. I know it won't be easy but the ones who stand to gain the most from this would be our kids somewhere in the future.

I am interested to hear what people on this forum think.

Thanks for reading this long rambling post.

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Comments (5)

rockguy
14 years ago
Not getting any younger. If you have the money to pay cash and not borrow, I'd say go for it. I wouldn't go into debt for it. You might be ill or injured etc and could lose it all.
camatchou
13 years ago
iam interesting to see this farm .

god bless you
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heavenlyfarm
12 years ago
Just wondering what became of it, if you got a larger farm or not :)
~michael

P.S. I hope to one day to at least purchase a small farm 3-10 acres....hopefully in 4-5 years or so
rims421
Original Author
12 years ago
We are in the process of buying the larger farm.
It is close to 80 acres with an old colonial home, a barn, and about half of it is pasture the rest wooded. It is a beautiful property with tons of potential. We plan to continue to raise vegetables, but would like to expand our growing area. Also looking to raise some pastured broilers, heritage breed hogs, grass fed beef. The next few years are going to be really busy and the thought of what the future holds is sometimes really scary. But I know deep down in my heart that if I didn't at least give this a try it would haunt me for the rest of my life. My whole life I have heard the stories of people that had the opportunity to buy a property but were afraid to "stick their neck out " to buy it. Years later they all say it was one of the biggest mistakes of their lives. We are going to have quite a large mortgage for the first time in several years. But the way I look at it we are just moving some of the money we have saved for our retirement out of the stock market and into this farm. Its not like we are going out buying expensive cars or luxury cruises. I would hope that at some point we could earn enough to pay our mortgage and tax's. We are not into this because we want to get rich. It is more of a lifestyle choice.
I do hope that if we are able to hold onto this property that it will also prove to be a good investment. But as I said in my original post it is our kids that hopefully will benefit the most from this. I would love to hear what everyone here thinks about our plan.
heavenlyfarm
12 years ago
I'm not a financial wizard but I agree with you so much!! It's about the lifestyle you want and even tho it's really scary, I think it is truly worth it. I hope to get enough money over the next 4 years together to be able to look for a small farm (3-10 acres). I have always loved it and got into gardening and animals and we use to have a farm but it was sold the week after I was born I think. My grandmother does regret not keeping it in the family by buying it. She said she never thought I would wanna follow in my great grandmothers/grandfathers steps.
Anyways, I believe for the life you want and the lifestyle, is worth it enough to get it! I wish you the best and I say give it your all!!
~Michael