I've got 40k and a desire...

[futurerancher]

So I have been a long time reader of this board but am posting for the first time. I am 32, my wife is 30 and we have 3 kids. To make a long story short, we have saved up some chicken scratch for a downpayment on some land. We are willing to move just about anywhere in the US to accomplish our dream of owning a ranch. My wife is a rancher's daughter and I grew up around beef on my grandparents place and worked on a ranch through college so we are not complete newbs so to speak. However, there is a lot we don't know. In regards to my father in law and the opportunities there, well there are none and its not even a discussion. He rans about 400 head in North Dakota for what its worth. My wife is getting ready to finish her dental hygiene degree and plans to be employed in that field. So assuming that my wife has a job that will cover insurance, col etc, is $40,000 dollars enough start up money to buy a place and make a go of things? This would not be a hobby farm but an actual business venture that we plan to live off of. My current profession is a teacher and it is something I have grown to hate. (Another long story). So for you old salts, if you were starting today, where would you head to? I am sure that this question gets asked all the time on here, and I apologize if it ruffles feathers but I thought I would ask.

I have played with all of the numbers when trying to determine herd size to acreage but am curious what others have found?

 

[futurerancher]

after reading my post I think some of my questions are ambigious. If a land purchase requires 20% down that doesn't leave me with a lot of room for start up cost. Really, I am just hoping to hear some success stories from other like minded folks.

 

[3waycross]

Well you gotta start someplace, that is as good as any. If you are talking a place with a house You better look at the midwest and plan on starting small, That kind of seed money will get you nowhere and nothing, west of the Kansas border.

I wish you luck you're young and have a lot of time. The only thing you could do that is just plain wrong is to do nothing at all.

 

[kenny thomas]

Good luck with your dream. Hope it works out. Here good farmland is $4,000 per acre and grazing land is about $2,000. Much of this is people from the cities buying weekend getaways. I can rent much easier than I can buy.

 

[upfrombottom]

If you have verifiable experience on a ranch, FHA is a good place to start. Most finance companies will loan 80% of appraised value, with the economy so bad it is not hard in my area to find property selling well below appraised value, meaning you could buy a good piece of property with little down payment.

This I know for a fact: The only regrets that you will ever have in life, are the chances that you didn't take.

Good Luck.

 

[1982vett]

In regards to my father in law and the opportunities there, well there are none and its not even a discussion. ?

Better do some soul searching and see if you can change that answer.

 

[ArmyDoc]

Around Augusta Georgia, you can find forrested land for 1500 to 2000/acre. Pasture starts at 3-4000 and goes up. Mostly it depends on how far from town you want to go and how much land you buy. It's sort of a catch 22. If you buy a little land, they charge you a bunch for each acre. If you buy 100 acres or more, they don't charge you nearly as much per acre, but because there are so many acres you are still looking at a pretty hefty price.

The other problem is most of the financing for acreage requires a down payment of 20-25%. The GA farmburea offers a part time farm loan that can be had at 10% down, if your credits good, but that's the best I've found. So, figure 30,000 down (you'll need the rest for closing costs etc), and your looking at a max loan of $150,000 at 20% down, or if your credit is good enough, $300,000. Most places with a small house on them will not come with much acreage - Probably would find it hard to find a place with more than 20 acres. It's a start, but you aren't going to make much off your land.

If you had a bit more to work with, it gets easier. With twice as much, you could easily have the down for a place in the 450-550,000 range. There are a couple of small ranches with a house and 65 to 120 acres or so. The question is, can you afford the payments on a $400,000 loan, even at todays rates of 5.5%? It'd be aroud 3000 a month once you add in taxes and insurance.

You've done well to save the $40k, but if I were you, I'd look for an area where your wife can find a job, but that you can get to land you can afford in 30-40 minutes. Then rent a small place, live off your wife's salary and save yours, or vice versa. If you did that for 2-3 years, you'd be in a much better position to buy a place large enough to make a go of it.

 

[LimiMan]

Search Oklahoma real hard, you can find decent to good pasture ready to go anywhere from $900-1400 acre

 

[tncattle]

check your PM box

 

[Howdyjabo]

Rent with an option to buy

 

[bird dog]

Think of the land you buy as your investment. Buy a place that you can fix up and sell to a city slicker looking for a weekend ranch. Try to find a cruddy looking place on a paved road that doesn't have trailer houses around it. Improve the road front with a nice fence, dig a nice pond, build some catch pens, improve the grasses, put a few cows on it and put out a for sale sign. Roll this money into a larger place and repeat the process. I started with $75000 a small tractor and five cows about a 10 years ago. I am working on my fourth place now and running about 40 cows. Still have the small tractor. I do mine in central Texas but the suggestion of Oklahoma is best.

 

[Hoppy72450]

Around here Pasture land good land goes for 2,000 an acre.. And alright goes for 1,500... You can get wooded Land here for about 1,000 an acre and its really small tree's like maybe 2 inchs round or smaller. So if you wanted to clear the land you can do good with that amout and buying wooded.. Thats how my parents done there's this land was all wooded and they had it bulldozed and planted so to speak.. And 10 yrs later the place is one of the best Pastures around here... So yeah 40,000 goes far in Arkansas. But be ready to live in the poorest state in the U.S.... But some great country views

 

[Hoppy72450]

This place I have seen. It doesnt do it justice there is quit a bit of pasture land to it also.. I would say about 50 acres is Pasture maybe more.. And they want 84,000 for almost 76 acres !
Its cloe to a well populated city for this area with need for Dental Employee's are short around here.

http://www.jeffcarterrealestate.com/Gre ... 20504.html

 

[jkwilson]

Not trying to sound like a total downer here, but here are my thoughts:

If your $40K is your downpayment, I don't think you are going to make enough to stop teaching. At 20% downpayment, $40K will let you buy a place that is worth $200,000. You aren't going to want to live in a dump, so say $90,000 for the house and $110,000 for the land. No matter where you go, it's probably going to take at least $2000 worth of land per cow per year. That gives you enough land for 53 cows and 2 bulls. And you are going to have to come up with at least $50 or $60,000 to buy the cattle, $15 or $20,000 for a tractor, and at least several thousand more for general equipment (chute, hay feeders, vet equipment) on top of the land and home.

If you are an outstanding cowman and find a place that is fully fenced and ready to operate, you might make $15 or $16,000 a year off of that herd. I cleared a little over $50 per cow last year :dunce: , mostly from cutting expenses to the bone and selling a couple of show steers for $1100 and $1300 at 7 months of age. That probably works out to way less than minimum wage for the hours I put in.

So say $16,000 profit per year. Except you have to pay the mortgage. That's going to run you around $1000 a month. That leaves you $4,000 a year.

Even if you take the entire $200,000 and buy land, you still are only going to be able to run say 97 cows and 3 bulls. That's an income at the very extreme best of $29,100, but more likely in the $5,000 to $10,000 range in good years. And you have to come up with nearly $100,000 for the cattle. And have some reserve for the bad years.

I don't claim those numbers are dead on, but you need to do your own calculations to figure out where you will be. My best advice is to find you a place where you can enjoy (or at least tolerate) teaching, buy you a place with some land, and run some cattle to keep you out of trouble after school.

 

[Douglas]

Now maybe a good time to buy land but a bad time to be in the cattle business. I would try buying land but continuing to teach. This will make it easier to get financing and you will have evenings and weekends to start your farming. If there was ever a time in the last 30 years to say "keep you day job" it would be right now. Consider Chatham County North Carolina. Very good pasture land around, school system will finance your tuition for your masters degree, reasonable cost of living.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Search Oklahoma real hard, you can find decent to good pasture ready to go anywhere from $900-1400 acre

I'll second that one. We jumped in a few months back with a good deal.

 

[uscangus]

save your money and add more. king is cash. the more cash you have-the more you have to leverage to a seller. there are lot of seller who is sitting on land that lost equities in the market and the value of the land. you are still too young. i purchased my farm early 40's and have owned for 5 years. i waited for several years to find a great place that i wanted to have a second career in the future where the development will occur in the next 5-10 years.

in regard to your wife, as a dental hygiene, congratulations. I am dentist for 20 years. i would recommend to wait until your wife find a great location for her career. albeit, this economy have affected everyone. so beware and be careful. if this country has to borrow money from china and they are still thinking about another or second stimulus, watch out. bets are off. congratulations anyway. happy holidays from state of washington

 

[Silver]

If you have the dream and are willing to relocate, why limit yourself to the US? There are other places your 40k will much further, and give you much more room for future expansion.

 

[DavisBeefmasters]

Here's a thought... use the 40k to buy a place with a little land -- say 5 to 10 acres... continue working - the wife will start working... raise your first steers (I recommend 2 -- 1 for you, 1 for somebody else) -- they always do better in pairs. Repeat the next year and year after...

Sit tight for a couple of years until the market rebounds and you'll be able to trade that place for one with more land if you want to and the kids are ok with the whole process of raising an animal for the freezer.

We started on 4 1/2 acres about 10 years ago with no fencing, 1st year was fencing and facilities, the 2nd year was a couple of steers --> we're now on 107 acres and raise our own cattle, pigs, chicken (egg laying and meat), turkeys, vegetables, etc.

Now if we can only figure out how to finance some solar panels and a generator we could go completely off grid.

Good luck to you and you'll find a way if it's what you want to do.

 

[dun]

Don;t quit your day job! The idea of investing in a small place and improving it and gradually replacing it with a little bigger place and improving it, etc. is a solid move. Buying a pice of land in another area and paying it off before moving also works well.
Check out the attached link to get a feel for what is available where
http://www.landsofamerica.com/america/
Before you firmly decide on an area, go and visit it and spend a few days minimum. While there, go into as many convenience stores as you can. 7-11, Kaseys, kum and go etc. The surest way to get a feel for the type of folks that inhabit the area are by talkigng to the clerks in those stores. They are a snapshot of the community.