Is Owning Farmland Right for You?

Deciding if owning a farm is right for you is one of the most impactful decisions you’re likely to ever make. Agricultural land has the potential of being a long-term investment, a tax haven, a family retreat, a second home, or an additional income. Or it can be a marriage-breaking, feud-starting, bankruptcy-inducing, attorney-enriching screw-up with multi-generational consequences.

If you’re looking for instructions on how to farm, this isn’t quite the right place. This is more like a guide book to rural living.

This is a place for those who are new to a rural living, or are considering rural living. It’s a place for those who marry into farms, or maybe inherit one. It’s for people who may want to farm in the future, but are most likely raising kids and developing careers right now. It’s for those who are looking out twenty years ahead, seeing where they are, where they want to be, and where they want their families to be.

Though many things here apply to vacation homes and hunting properties, this is more focused on agricultural properties.

Because it breaks down into three really, really, really big pieces.

Financial and Legal

First, there are the financial, business and legal aspects of owning farmland. Is it something to even consider? Taxes, easements, insurance, financing, passive income, leasing arrangements.

Technical and Practical

Infrastructure, fencing, cropping systems, home construction.

Cultural

Just why in the heck are country people like that? Why are their cows so loud? Why are they always moving those tractors up and down the road? Why won’t they hurry up? And why won’t they plow my driveway?

If you read this blog, and use some of the information you gain here and decide that you’re really, truly ready to own farmland, then I’ve done my job. And if you read this blog and decide that a lake house is really a better option for your family, I’ve done my job as well.

Because nobody wants their farmland dream, to become a farmland nightmare.