Building a Farm

[westonwhitetail]

Bill WInke has a blog series where he talks about how he put together his 1,000 acre farm in Iowa. He started with very little money but was able to go from hunting in a co-op to owning 1,000 acres in just 6-8 years. To make it happen he did a lot of things but mostly he worked his tail off, went all in with his investments on land, had some good relationships/partners along the way, and got lucky. Logging and selling off farmable land were a couple of the main ways he helped finance his next land purchases. He also bought other parcels away from his home farm that he thought had value to log, improve for hunting, and sell for a profit. Those land "flips" helped fund purchases next to his home farm when that land became available.

A link is below to the first blog of a 7 part series if your interested.

Bill Winke Blog - Dream Farm Part 1

It got me thinking that many of you may have similar stories. If anyone wants to share highlights of how you started and how you added land or traded up to get to where you are today, I think many people would be interested to hear and learn from it. I'm personally interested in how people improve land for resale and how people have generated income from their existing land to help fund additional purchases.

 

[Bassattackr]

Winke is a great guy. He's answered a question or two from me over the years. Hell of a hunter too.

 

[Mortenson]

Did Winke ever close on the new farm in NE Iowa?

As far as progressing, I'll just agree with the notion of not being too stubborn to sell or trade. Older generations in my family said you marry your wife, not a farm. I guess it has stuck so far. They were referring to livelihoods and business, but I think it qualifies also for recreation.

 

[PatinPA]

I would love to buy a bigger chunk. I'm pretty positive I could get close to double what I paid for my land but land is just not for sale around me at all right now. I'd be scared to sell it and risk not having anything to buy. Oof I just checked Zillow too, to see what is out there. The largest parcel for sale was about 45 acres for $ 2 mil but it was right along the highway. Might be zoned commercial. The most reasonable was 20 acres for $175,000. Most parcels in the 10-20 range were $15-20K an acre for already timbered woodland.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Land prices, and everything else is just stupid right now. I am glad I am not in the market to buy land right now.

 

[SwampCat]

Land right now is a sellers market and a buyers nightmare. Fortunately, the thought of selling my farm has never crossed my mind. I am too old to start over.

 

[bwoods11]

Weston--I can throw in my scenario. Since Winke is from Iowa, I will use my property in Iowa as an example. I would be guessing on some of the years. I purchased a 155 acre farm in 2001 or 02 in Lucas County, Iowa for $1100/acre. It had good cash rent, not much hunting. I just knew it was a good purchase. Sold it 3 or 4 years later for $1700 acre (?) and did a 1031 into a farm in Warren County, Iowa. I think I put 20% down on the original purchase but used the spring cash rent of $16,000 as part of that down stroke...., I was still young, but the wife gave me the ok....this started a run of farms that has turned out to be a fairly wise move on our part.

The proceeds went into the the Warren County IA farm--which was 117 acres and I was able to buy it at a good price. I then sell off an older home, and pole shed (6 acres) for a surprisingly high amount. Due to it's proximity to Des Moines. I sold the other 110 acres to a guy that wanted to build on it and hunt. It had more than doubled it value. This was probably my best buy ever in real estate. I call it a home run, some are triples, doubles, etc...this was a round tripper.

Farm #3 was a 240 ac. parcel in Union County Iowa that was 116 crop, 14 CRP and the rest wooded. It was a really nice farm. I owned that for awhile, and prices were going up, so I sold that after some pretty good appreciation. I loved this farm, but it was in a zone that is very tough to draw a tag. Ironically this Union County farm was owned by Ower Reigler who was on Midwest Whitetail for a few years. The number of deer in this area, was incredible!

I looked west to another zone (Missouri River/Loess Hills area) and a bit closer (5 hour drive). The negotiations almost fell through on this one, but in 2018 I was able to buy 270 acres in Monona County, Iowa.

The final piece of the puzzle was this combo farm in Monona County, IA. This should be my last farm, it is everything I need, half crop and half timber. Big bucks, plenty of deer and turkey. The cropland is good quality with good cash rent.... and it fits my goal of buying hunting land for rec use, but also for income/retirement.

I think this will be a farm I will keep forever, and now I added 40 acres next to it, with my buddy buying another 40 as well. We make several trips to this farm each year, hunting, shed hunting, habitat work, food plots. I logged some walnut off the farm a few years ago. The small towns in this area are fun, good little bars for food and drinks. My neighbors are great...Brad (Hillrunner)is my neighbor to the north, you can't beat him as a neighbor!

I have also owned 2 other farms in Iowa, that I bought the sold later for a nice profit. It is fun, I love it, and since I am in real estate (in MN) I understand it and can do much of the paperwork for each purchase.

So that is my Iowa Building a Farm story .........

 

[PatinPA]

Land right now is a sellers market and a buyers nightmare. Fortunately, the thought of selling my farm has never crossed my mind. I am too old to start over.

I only have 12 acres but it's a really good 12 acres. I'm not selling it to take the chance on 20 somewhere else. It would have to be a substantial increase in size for me to even consider it.

 

[Tree Spud]

No expert but I'll summarize 25 years and having bought & sold 13 properties ... pay off the mortgage on your 1st property as fast as you can, less than 10 years is best. Once you are debt free, you can use the existing property value as your down payment.

Make sure you can cash flow the new properties difference between purchase price & down payment without extending yourself too far financially. Then repeat process above.

If you do it right, at some point you may not need bank financing to purchase the next property. We have not taken out financing for the last 4 properties we have purchased.

 

[westonwhitetail]

Did Winke ever close on the new farm in NE Iowa?

As far as progressing, I'll just agree with the notion of not being too stubborn to sell or trade. Older generations in my family said you marry your wife, not a farm. I guess it has stuck so far. They were referring to livelihoods and business, but I think it qualifies also for recreation.

I thought on a podcast I heard him say a couple deals didn’t work out but he had a promising one he was working on?

I won’t be stubborn to sell if the right opertunity presents itself to trade up. But there’s a lot to be done to get a piece sold in time to buy the other that might get tricky. I also want a nice orchard that I’m working on now and it’d be hard to give that up!

 

[SwampCat]

I have bought land six times. Five of those purchases were adjacent land. The other was five miles away that had very high wildlife value. I am one of those who will overpay to get what I want. Only one of the six purchases was the land for sale at the time I bought it. The other five were land purchases where I almost begged the land owner to sell.

 

[Buckly]

I spent untold hours planting apples, oaks a spruce. Bulldozer work and deer scaping over a 10 year period. i got to hunt there the whole time anyways but didn’t hesitate to unload it at the right price. Everybody says you should have just laid back and enjoyed it but, I know the next place will be better. So, no looking back.

 

[westonwhitetail]

Weston--I can throw in my scenario. Since Winke is from Iowa, I will use my property in Iowa as an example. I would be guessing on some of the years. I purchased a 155 acre farm in 2001 or 02 in Lucas County, Iowa for $1100/acre. It had good cash rent, not much hunting. I just knew it was a good purchase. Sold it 3 or 4 years later for $1700 acre (?) and did a 1031 into a farm in Warren County, Iowa. I think I put 20% down on the original purchase but used the spring cash rent of $16,000 as part of that down stroke...., I was still young, but the wife gave me the ok....this started a run of farms that has turned out to be a fairly wise move on our part.

The proceeds went into the the Warren County IA farm--which was 117 acres and I was able to buy it at a good price. I then sell off an older home, and pole shed (6 acres) for a surprisingly high amount. Due to it's proximity to Des Moines. I sold the other 110 acres to a guy that wanted to build on it and hunt. It had more than doubled it value. This was probably my best buy ever in real estate. I call it a home run, some are triples, doubles, etc...this was a round tripper.

Farm #3 was a 240 ac. parcel in Union County Iowa that was 116 crop, 14 CRP and the rest wooded. It was a really nice farm. I owned that for awhile, and prices were going up, so I sold that after some pretty good appreciation. I loved this farm, but it was in a zone that is very tough to draw a tag. Ironically this Union County farm was owned by Ower Reigler who was on Midwest Whitetail for a few years. The number of deer in this area, was incredible!

I looked west to another zone (Missouri River/Loess Hills area) and a bit closer (5 hour drive). The negotiations almost fell through on this one, but in 2018 I was able to buy 270 acres in Monona County, Iowa.

The final piece of the puzzle was this combo farm in Monona County, IA. This should be my last farm, it is everything I need, half crop and half timber. Big bucks, plenty of deer and turkey. The cropland is good quality with good cash rent.... and it fits my goal of buying hunting land for rec use, but also for income/retirement.

I think this will be a farm I will keep forever, and now I added 40 acres next to it, with my buddy buying another 40 as well. We make several trips to this farm each year, hunting, shed hunting, habitat work, food plots. I logged some walnut off the farm a few years ago. The small towns in this area are fun, good little bars for food and drinks. My neighbors are great...Brad (Hillrunner)is my neighbor to the north, you can't beat him as a neighbor!

I have also owned 2 other farms in Iowa, that I bought the sold later for a nice profit. It is fun, I love it, and since I am in real estate (in MN) I understand it and can do much of the paperwork for each purchase.

So that is my Iowa Building a Farm story .........View attachment 41073

Good stuff bwoods! Thanks for taking the time to share. It seems like buying and selling things in pieces if you are able can help increase profit on the investment, like you did with your first place. I imagine being a realitor really helps this process. Knowing land values and doing the paperwork yourself has to be a huge advantage. Part of it is also having the balls to make some moves and take risks so being in the field probably helps there

 

[Hoytvectrix]

I think it was Mark Drury that was on Wired to Hunt Podcast. He essentially said all of the above in explaining how they have amassed their land.

Something that I took from that podcast was the following advice:
Don't get too attached to a given piece of land. More than likely something else will be underappreciated and better than what you have.

 

[bwoods11]

Good stuff bwoods! Thanks for taking the time to share. It seems like buying and selling things in pieces if you are able can help increase profit on the investment, like you did with your first place. I imagine being a realitor really helps this process. Knowing land values and doing the paperwork yourself has to be a huge advantage. Part of it is also having the balls to make some moves and take risks so being in the field probably helps there

Thank you ! You are right … the biggest thing is pulling the trigger.

 

[PatinPA]

I thought on a podcast I heard him say a couple deals didn’t work out but he had a promising one he was working on?

I won’t be stubborn to sell if the right opertunity presents itself to trade up. But there’s a lot to be done to get a piece sold in time to buy the other that might get tricky. I also want a nice orchard that I’m working on now and it’d be hard to give that up!

I thought he bought a farm closer to his wife's family. Kentucky or Missouri. Is that what he's talking about falling through?

 

[SwampCat]

I can not imagine buying a farm over an hour away. I have lived on my farm for the last ten years - and retired the whole time I have been here. Never, ever, have I once thought - “Everything is done, there is nothing else to do.” I have owned this property for 18 years. I would buy less land, or higher priced land, closer to home. I am out on my farm every day and see something new and different.

 

[PatinPA]

I can not imagine buying a farm over an hour away. I have lived on my farm for the last ten years - and retired the whole time I have been here. Never, ever, have I once thought - “Everything is done, there is nothing else to do.” I have owned this property for 18 years. I would buy less land, or higher priced land, closer to home. I am out on my farm every day and see something new and different.

I'm with you. I don't know how some you all do it being so far away. I have a family camp about 2.5 hours away and it's hard to find time to make it up there even just to hunt, let alone do work.

 

[bwoods11]

It is nice to be within a short drive of your land. However, with cell cams, the activity can be monitored (deer, turkey, crop progress/harvest, trespassers) …

The biggest positive is you are not on the farm every day bumping deer to the neighbors. It’s like a sanctuary for 11.5 months a year.

The two biggest bucks I’ve shot were on the very first hunt of the year. Those bucks were not disturbed at all and came out an hour before dark in tough to access areas.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Intriguing thread. Being a realtor has to help a lot with the fees that come with buying/selling.

Bought my house on heavily wooded 6 acres july 2020 so I could shoot my bow and do a little bow hunting in the backyard. Bought a 40 an hour away last August. Now all of the 2 hour round trips are taking their toll and I've got a running search on land with houses nearby in case the perfect property comes up so we could live on more land and skip the travel. Unfortunately, none of this is based on a financial strategy but with timing the past two years i sure wouldn't lose if I sold. Need to research what is required for a 1031 in case the perfect place pops up!