[Skidway1944]

I have been told that land is worth what someone is willing to pay for it...but I will ask the question anyway... Is $3100 per acre too much for 110 acres with old house and old barns in northern Vt, given the borrowing situation today?

Skidway 1944

[pipkinra]

Skidway, sounds very cheap. You must be looking in Pony Express area. Where I just bought a house in the Newport/Derby area they're asking anywhere upwards from 38,000 for 2 acres with no house. Of course as I indicated the further you are away from civilization the cheaper things seem to get.

[harry chickpea]

Depends on the condition of the land and any restrictions it might have. If it is wetlands or swamp, I would run, not walk, away. Something as minor as a beaver dam can change classification. Too many busybodies. If the land is forested, has there been any harvesting? Timber can be worth money and used to offset costs. If the land is fields and pasture, what is the general condition? Even hay commands a respectable price. What about water? Is there a stream, or ponds? Is the well good? What about access?

$3K an acre is a little lower than then going price for farmland in the Tennessee Valley of Alabama, but there is a better chance of a decent harvest than land in northern Vermont. It would be a few decades before land in the remote areas could be sold for housing, and taxes are ongoing.

The short answer is that you have to do your homework. There are plenty of books and articles on buying country property that could be helpful.

[Skidway1944]

Thanks, harry, the particular property has water, flat fields, woods that have been harvested, some maple trees, barn, old house electricty in barn and house. skidway

[harry chickpea]

Sounds decent, especially if you have the will and knowledge to utilize the land properly. I wouldn't buy it with just the intention of sitting on it. Scrub can take over pretty fast.

[Skidway1944]

Harry, I have worked land all my life. This would be simply a return to HOME!
You are absolutely right, the brush begins the next season! I cut hay for my two draft horses. Thanks for chat.
Pete

[chaz longue]

How do the comparable sales look?

[seanpecor]

I think $3,100 sounds about right. I think it's often overlooked that the fastest growing counties in Vermont are the northern counties. But if the property has been on the market for more than 12 months, I'd offer $2,500 just to see if you can move them a little. Just don't play it like that's all you can afford; play it like you need the extra savings to invest into the house.

You can't compare 2 acre lots to 100 acre lots because the market is quite different between both "products". Down here in Boones Mill, VA, 100 acres of farmland goes for $700,000, at a minimum. But a 1 acre lot in my area with public road frontage is $40,000. Hay production in the northern counties on +/- 100 acres would be quite good and the way the hay market is going, you could have a tidy business selling quality small bales to the horse folks. Market prices for quality small bales are $5.50 a bale right now in Virginia, and that's cheap compared to points south where drought is ruining people.

We've got a large supplier driving north into New York from Virginia to pick up 1,000 pound bales to re-bale into small bales for sale locally. So I'm sure the hay prices in Vermont, where there has been plenty of rain this year, will be going up as well.

Sean

[Skidway1944]

Thanks Sean, very good advice on buying farmland. There is a market for good quality horse hay, although the last couple of years one must be sharp to skip the wet spells and yet get fairly young hay into the barn.
Lmd is quite expensive where you are!
Thanks, Peter

[seanpecor]

Yes, in Franklin County VA, there aren't many new farms growing. Mostly houses But down here there is still conservation and the growth isn't too high; it's about in line with the national average. Vermont by contrast is barely growing at all, which keeps land values lower.

Here in my Virginia county the top ag product is beef cattle. There is alot of dairy, but nothing quite like the 700+ head large dairies of Vermont. The neatest dairy down here is Homestead Farms, a partnership of two farmers each with about 100 head of dairy cows. They have a small creamery and produce their own product. They sell them to the upscale market through the regional groceries in an old timey glass milk bottle that gets a $1 returnable fee. This year they started delivering milk to homes with this neat old timey milk truck. I think that's a model that could be mirrored in Vermont.

Sean