Small Farm Land

Can You Afford It

One of the questions you may ask as you look for your land is, how much can you afford. Most land is purchased in full and most lenders don’t lend money for undeveloped land. But times are changing and finding lenders or sellers that will hold a note are becoming easier to find. Most have simple interest terms and require a down payment of 10% – 20%. Length of the loan can vary from a few months to 30 years with interest rates under 10%.

Go See It

I wouldn’t even think about buying a piece of property without physically seeing it. Pictures and satellite views on the internet only tell part of the story. Plan to take several days so you can check out the surrounding area and get a feel for what it’s like. There is good and bad to everyplace, the idea is to find out as much as you can.

Understand What You Are Getting

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “due diligence”. What this really means is take the time to check out your land BEFORE you purchase. Follow the link below for a great reference and excellent checklist (end of the document) of due diligence issues that apply to land purchases. If you are buying property with existing buildings then additional concerns will require consideration.

State Trust Lands Asset Management Plan

People To Talk To

The first person you will likely come into contact with is the seller or sellers agent (real estate agent). These people want to sell their property and are normally from the area so they can be a wealth of information. Don’t be afraid to ask ANY questions you may have about the property and surrounding area. Usually if these people don’t have the answer, they will know someone who will. Just because you are looking at property from one agent or seller does not mean you should not check out other sellers or agents in that area. Use your time wisely, and it will pay off in the end. The county courthouse is also a great place to research a property you are interested in. All the clerks I have dealt with have been very friendly and helpful.

Enjoy It

You have finally purchased your property! It will likely not be perfect, although in your eyes it may very well be, but it is yours!

Many of the listings will include a plat or some pictures of the property. These are really great and give you a rough idea of what the land looks like. Many times you can use the bits of information such as city, township or actual coordinates to locate the property and view it via satellite using one of the mapping tools online. Some of my favorites are…

Live Search Maps

Google Maps

TerraServer – The Leader In Online Imagery – Aerial Photos & Satellite Images

Google Earth

Even though some of the images may be a bit dated, most are only a couple of years old and are a great way to get an idea of what the whole area looks like. Tools like Google Earth can be very powerful. With a little work you can do things like overlay a plat or contour lines, or actually get a 3D view of the land. Even more powerful are tools like Google SketchUp. This tool allows you to take the map you have set up in Google Earth, import it and add things like buildings, landscapes, whatever… all in 3D! You can actually layout your entire farm using this tool. Get it here…

Google SketchUp

When trying to determine what types of crops might be suitable for your land a soil survey is indispensable. It can also be handy in determining an area suitable for a septic system!

Web Soil Survey

Ok. so you have an idea of where you want to go. Or maybe you don’t… That’s OK, here are the tools that I used when I got started looking for my small farm land. All of these tools are FREE and can be used with your PC running Windows… or in my case, one of those new Apple Mac’s running OS X.

First use the Google or Yahoo search engines to search for “land for sale” or “farm land for sale”. Here is just a small list of the places I found.

Land Auction – Land For Sale From Land Auctions in America

Land.Net® РLand, Commercial Real Estate For Sale, For Lease

Land for sale, acreages for sale, lots for sale at Landwatch.com

Land For Sale, Real Estate, Land – For Sale By Owners

LandsofAmerica.com – Land for Sale, Farms for Sale, Ranches for Sale

LandAndFarm.com – Land for sale, Farms for sale, Rural Property for sale

Land Showroom

US Land Services – www.uslandservices.com

U.S. Lots – America’s Land for Sale Web Site

Land Buy Owners

Farms for Sale | FarmSeller

Country Homes, Ranches & Farm Land for Sale – United Country Rural Real Estate

Farm For Sale & Farmland Available

HorseClicks

Farms.com Real Estate

Land for Sale, Farms for Sale, Rural Land for Sale at LANDFLIP.com

All of these sources were used to help me narrow down the area that I wanted to look at. They generally give you an idea of what areas are more expensive than others too. Many of the listing sites allow you to filter your search results by a number of different of factors including access to electricity and water, main roads, towns, views, and terrain such as lake, mountain, forest etc.

The next tools that I used helped me get an idea of the demographics of the area including, crime rate, median income, climate, schools etc. This is a very important step and should not be overlooked. The following are a couple of tools to use…

Citi-Data

City Compare

GreatSchools.net

Once you have narrowed down your search to a particular area you can use tools like Craigslist, Yahoo, or Google to find real estate companies in the area you are looking. Many of the sites previously mentioned will also include the real estate agency listing the property. This is actually how I located my land. I narrowed down an area using the website “Lands of America” then looked at all the properties a particular agency had listed.

Perhaps you’ve been thinking about buying some country property. You know… your own piece of land… a place you can go to relax… or retire to. Maybe a small farm with horses, or chickens… maybe a goat… a nice garden. Or maybe you just want a little get away where you can relax and take in the view.

The Great Land Rush

Don’t PANIC! The great land rush hasn’t started yet. But stand by… because things are starting to heat up. While suburban and city property values are declining, you will find rural property staying quite stable or actually going up in value. As the saying goes “Once its gone its gone!” This is probably one of the last opportunities that we will have to own a decent size piece of land. Investors, companies and individuals are quietly buying up land as a hedge against our current recession.

Why Small Farm Land

Small partials of land make perfect sense for individuals looking for a place to raise a few animals, grow crops, or just have some space to relax. In fact most of the small farms in this country are only about 5 – 20 acres. This is a good size for an individual to manage on their own and still produce enough food to be totally self sufficient. It wasn’t that long ago that the country was made up of mostly small farms. Believe it or not there are still a lot of these small pieces of land left if you know where to look.

Searching For Your Property Online

Just about anything you can imagine can be found and purchased online. That goes for land too! The great thing about the internet is that you can actually get an idea of what your land looks like without ever leaving your chair. You can save a HUGE amount of time and money by first looking online. When I first started searching I could not believe the number of places there were to find land. In these next few sections

With all the places to look online the first step is to try to get an idea of what you want to do with your land and where you might want to live. This can be difficult because there may be a number of places that you might like to settle. Many times you will find places you never even considered looking at. I started my search by looking all over the United States to get an idea of what was out there.

The Basics

Don’t overlook some of the basics… is there water available? is there electricity nearby? Some people may want to have an isolated retreat, but know what you are getting into before that leap! When my wife and I started looking for our land we decided that we wanted to raise some animals and grow our own food. That meant we would need a reliable source of water. There are many places out west that are becoming quite dry and have to rely on community wells or municipal water supplies. In Colorado for example you require 35 acres or more to even drill a well. And you may have to drill down 400, 500, or even 700 feet to get a reliable source of water. Some people actually have to truck in water!!

Electricity should also be close by. If the nearest pole is a mile or two away it can be quite expensive to get a line to the house. Most people like the creature comforts that electricity provides and a connection with the rest of the world can be just as important. Be sure to check out the availability of phone, cable, cell phone signal, and clear shots to satellites, if you want to stay connected. Of course electricity and a connection to the outside world isn’t really a necessity… look at the Amish… they’ve been doing just fine without it!

Do you like hot humid summers… long cold winters… or mild year round temperatures? The weather has changed quite a bit over these last few years, with warmer temperatures and some pretty severe storms. I can remember as a child growing up in Seattle where the high would never get into the 80’s. No one had air conditioners in their homes or cars. Not any more! I went out there for vacation this last summer and the temperature was up in the high 80’s and 90’s!! And no air conditioning in the condo we were in. So plan for the future.