Topic: Farm
Someone asked a question on Farmer Buie's blog to which I answered the following regarding purchsing a farm. I hope these thoughts and experiences are helpful.
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We found our farm, which had an abandoned farm house on it and old buildings. The ground is not “prime” farm land for Iowa. The original piece was 52 acres. Only 6-12 are considered tillable. We bought another 14 the next year that we planted to alfalfa for a cash hay crop. All told, we paid $80,000 for the 52 acres with the house, two barns, a machine shed, granary and garage. We paid an additional $2,000 an acre for the 14 acres of tillable land.
The house was not livable when we bought it. We gutted it, put on a new roof, put in new windows, insulation, wiring, plumbing, added a second story to the one-story addition, and have continued to finish it as we have lived here. We put in a wood-burning stove as our only heat source, because we have a lot of timber.
The appraiser took 14 acres with the house and told us it was now worth $135,000. That does not include the rest of the land that is worth around $75,000. We spent about $20,000 on the materials for the house by buying from auctions and other special sales. We did all of the work except trenching the electric service and putting on the soffit and fascia.
Our payment for this is $665/mo. Much less than we were paying for our previous 1 acre house worth $135,000!
All the old-timers marvel at our determination to reclaim this once-productive farm. Most of our 30 something acquaintances don’t have the work-ethic to do something like this.
We have not used 21 of our acres at all for three years. We will someday, but for now, we just don’t need it, and the fencing cost is too much to bear for now.
I work full time in the telecommunications industry, which I have done for the last 10 years. I hope to wean myself off of this work by making the farm successful. It also has meant continuing to pare down our expenses, and quit buying in the consumer mentality of the world.