Spock the Land Developer
Posted: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:35 pm
We close tomorrow on a 110 to 114 acre piece of ground that is about 40 miles from our home farm.
90-acres are tillable farm ground, albeit very sandy (a negative).
The other 20 acres are an attractive mix of open grassland and pine trees. I tried to figure out how to link to an air photo, but couldn't figure it out.
The property is located near Alexandria, MN which is a rapidly developing, high-amenity micropolitan area.
The subject property is located 1 mile north of one highly prized lake and one mile east of another. It is one mile west of a state highway with substantial commercial development as you get nearer the highway.
It has about 3/4 mile of frontage on a tar county road with the attractive pines/grassland constituting the bulk of this frontage.
The realtor said that he had many calls on the property that were interested in the pine area, but they were not interested in the cropland (which I am).
It has been for sale for over a year, but there were squabbles between siblings and some zoning issues with other property they own across the road which had to be settled first-so that scared some buyers away.
Our plan is to try and sell the 20-acre high amenity area at a high price as this will substantially lower the cost of the remaining farmland. We do not plan to give this high amenity parcel away as it will likely only increase in value.
If we can't get a high price for it-we will probably go through the platting process and subdivide it and sell 4-acre executive sized lots.
Long-term, like 10 to 20 years out (or less) the remaining farmland is square in the path of development so we will see what happens there.
In a way, this is Li'l Spock's project as he has been looking for property to buy for quite a while and this caught his eye last year and he will be a part owner and his name will be on the mortgage as well.
Frankly, I can't believe that we were able to buy this property right in the path of development for the price we did.
Worst case-we get the fun of farming it.
90-acres are tillable farm ground, albeit very sandy (a negative).
The other 20 acres are an attractive mix of open grassland and pine trees. I tried to figure out how to link to an air photo, but couldn't figure it out.
The property is located near Alexandria, MN which is a rapidly developing, high-amenity micropolitan area.
The subject property is located 1 mile north of one highly prized lake and one mile east of another. It is one mile west of a state highway with substantial commercial development as you get nearer the highway.
It has about 3/4 mile of frontage on a tar county road with the attractive pines/grassland constituting the bulk of this frontage.
The realtor said that he had many calls on the property that were interested in the pine area, but they were not interested in the cropland (which I am).
It has been for sale for over a year, but there were squabbles between siblings and some zoning issues with other property they own across the road which had to be settled first-so that scared some buyers away.
Our plan is to try and sell the 20-acre high amenity area at a high price as this will substantially lower the cost of the remaining farmland. We do not plan to give this high amenity parcel away as it will likely only increase in value.
If we can't get a high price for it-we will probably go through the platting process and subdivide it and sell 4-acre executive sized lots.
Long-term, like 10 to 20 years out (or less) the remaining farmland is square in the path of development so we will see what happens there.
In a way, this is Li'l Spock's project as he has been looking for property to buy for quite a while and this caught his eye last year and he will be a part owner and his name will be on the mortgage as well.
Frankly, I can't believe that we were able to buy this property right in the path of development for the price we did.
Worst case-we get the fun of farming it.