Family Farm - A Question

[TomSeller]

Its my experience that jobs are 5-7 year ventures these days. Just enough time to prepare to move to the new property.
.

probably the lone benefit to how companies work these days. No more 40 year employees rooted so deep they will never move. Given the choice, people should be able to work longer in one location if they should so choose and the co is making money.

 

[OldMcDonald]

jlgurr, As you said there is no right or wrong answer and you have asked for opinions. The property I owned immediately prior to this was in northern Scotland the land of my ancestors (I had previously farmed in Australia and England). I am, possibly because of my name, keen on genealogy, and my son has done a great deal of research. Additionally my last farm was called Hazza Farm - seriously. We could not keep up the 100 hours a week (again seriously) that my wife and I needed to work to maintain our business on this land so we sold. Can you imagine that Old McDonald decided to part with Hazza Farm? It was an extremely difficult decision to make, but the sensible one.

I have read all the posts and agree with everything that Dave1949 has posted so I will not repeat it. What I will say is that I have always lived on my farms - except that for education of our son we moved off the farm in Australia for a couple of years before we sold and being an absentee landowner is something I would never ever repeat. I moved on contracts and was less than 100miles away to begin with. That was too far.

You do not give your age, but I suspect you are a long way from retirement. How are you going to survive without a job? My wife and I have had many years of experience of living on low or nil income, but I had the experience of growing and producing a lot of food before we married, she has made almost all her own clothes and trained as a domestic science teacher so we have advantages you might not.

 

[square1]

Land.... they arn't makeing more of it!

Keep it. Its a good investment if nothing else

+1
Take the sentiment out of it, is it a good investment? If the price is right (and being even a partial inheritance it probably is), you can't go wrong. Hint: Farmland is the only type that did not take a huge hit when the real bubble burst a couple years ago.
You can always sell later if it's care becomes problematic.

 

[jlgurr]

WOW! You all sure didn't let me down. Thank you for all the responses and giving me so different things to consider. Trust me, I didn't think of all that before posting. Not sure yet how to respond (summary or individually) but I am reading all the posts and mulling it over in my head before the response. Thank you again!

 

[OldMcDonald]

jlgurr, I am sure none of us expect individual responses from you. From past experiences of several forums, it is uncommon for the OP to even acknowledge all the responses. It would be nice if you eventually let us know what you decide.

 

[jlgurr]

jlgurr, I am sure none of us expect individual responses from you. From past experiences of several forums, it is uncommon for the OP to even acknowledge all the responses. It would be nice if you eventually let us know what you decide.

Oh, I understand what you are saying. Didn't mean that I would write you each an individual message just wondered if I needed to quote the questions or summarize in one new post. It would be most effficient to post in one because there are a few common themes and questions.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

Ohhhhh man .... Haven't you been keeping up with the forums? PMs are critical! Just take a look at this thread to see how important!!

"When a long tem member doesn't reply to your PM..... "

 

[Piston]

What the **** is wrong with you? Seriously?

This thread is about someone trying to weigh the value of maintaining a family land heritage in the face of impracticality and likely extra expenses. Offering up some other perspectives around that is not off topic. In particular, examining the idea that people are in some way tied to a given piece of dirt just might be helpful. It's a question with no single correct answer for everyone.

You have an opportunity to expand on your land heritage convictions. I suggest you use it and stop telling me what I should be, think or say.

:banghead: D'oh!

Dave, that was some pretty poor delivery on my part. I didn't mean it to come across as offensive but reading back what I wrote it does seem like I was attacking you personally. I can see why you took it the way you did and and I'll be more careful about that in the future. :thumbsup:

I was under the impression that the OP was looking for opinions on what to do in his situation, with the main focus of the 'situation' was that it was a hard decision based on the fact that he really cares about the land staying in the family, and cares about heritage of it as being part of his family for generations. If that wasn't important to him then it would be an easy decision.

I might be a little "too" opinionated regarding accepting the land, because land itself, and especially family history of the land, is very important to me. I will stand by my opinion that if at all possible, to accept the land from his uncle even if that means having to "let it go" for a while. It's very possible that one of Jeff's grand children will want to live on that land one day, and it's very possible that one of the things Jeff would enjoy most as a grandfather, is seeing his grand children fixing up that old "family farm" that he has such fond memories of as well. It's hard to tell what the future will bring, but one thins is for sure, once that land is out of the family, it will very likely never be back in.... :confused3:

My grandfather (on my father's side) bought some property in 1964 in NH. My father and his brothers remember playing in the woods as teenagers and taking care of the blueberry fields. They have tons of stories about that land and the home that is on it. My whole childhood life, I would go visit my grandfather for a few weeks in the summers, and visit on weekends with my uncle during the school year. I have tons of memories growing up on that land as well. I learned a lot of my backwoods skills on that family land.
None of my grandfather's children have any interest in the land. Like you, they could care less who owned it before them (that's not a bad thing, just different than the way I look at it). My grandfather knew that none of them wanted it. When I was young(er) my grandfather asked me to promise him something, he wanted me to promise that I would try my hardest to keep the land in the family when he was gone. I gave him my word. I'm now the only person who cares about that land, who goes up there to maintain and manage it. Sometimes I can't get up there for many months at a time, maybe close to a year now that I have children of my own.

I envision giving the land to my kids someday (and yes, maybe they'll sell it to a developer and make money on it, who knows) and I hope that my grand kids and great grand kids will play on that land. It may be more important to me than others but that is just my experience. I think I put myself in Jeff's "grandchildren's shoes" sortspeak. I picture one of his grand kids someday saying "thank god grandpa saved our family farm from being lost 40 years ago".

I have even more ties to my grandparents land on my mother's side, but I won't bore you guys with the history of that as well, as it would take many pages. In short though, I'm now living in a house that was once part of our family's 200 acre farm, that goes back to 1796, and for some people "who cares?" is the first thing they say, but for me, that's important.

I guess I'm taking this situation too personally, and should be more open minded from other's opinions where land passed down for generations means nothing to them. It appears important to the OP however, and it's always good to see the "other side" and get opinions both ways.

Again, I didn't mean disrespect or personal attack

Regardless, you did make some very good points from a different point of view, and I should have respected that. :drink:

 

[OldMcDonald]

I cannot read everything, so I pick and choose. I spend too much time on this site as it is, but I looked it up and found it amusing. I have missed PMs for months before - never think that anybody would want to write specifically to me.

 

[jlgurr]

First, as I said, thank you all. The diversity of responses is exactly what we needed to help us over the next bit of time before we respond to my uncle.

As for my demographics: Have lived in North Carolina for a bit more than 16 years. By SSA guidelines my retirement date is about 21 or 22 years from now. Been with the same employer (three different locations) ever since graduating college with an Engineering degree. Yes, I suppose I'm bucking the trend of job hoppers these days but my preference is stability rather than looking for the bigger paycheck or more impressive title. Enjoy my job and don't intend to resign any time soon, hopefully not until retirement but as dave1959 said, not too many people retire in a northerly direction. Making a living is a good thing but prefer being home with wife and kids, especially when it involves anything outside. There are five children ranging from 23 to 2 1/2. After their mother left us I raised the two oldest until they were married and on their own. They visit occasionally with their one child each; yes my grandkids. The two youngest children are twins, yep, my wife of 10 years and I were doubly blessed again just a little later in life than expected.

The property in question is in a slightly rural area of Michigan not too far from Torch Lake. My father has also inherited some land near Lake Michigan at roughly the same latitude. We used to visit that while I lived at home too, just not as frequently as the larger property.

Good points taken on the possibility of ordinances and such, would be advisable now that you mention it to check on zoning issues if any. The "farm" is not a producing farm, actually only received that moniker because the first two generations of owners were farmers. First generation grew cranberries (in-laws from Wisconsin) and second generation just general farming-for-your-own-family type farm. Third generation, my grandfather, was a machinist which is one of several reasons he relocated to southern Michigan. The original farm house burned down when grandpa was about 12 years old and my great grandfather passed in the 60's. The land sat idle for many years but my uncle moved there in the early 80's to "re-settle" the land. The current home is a modular if I recall correctly but I'd suppose the old granary that we "camped" in during the 70's is now long gone. Although he had, and has since retired from, a public sector career he did some tinkering with the land so to speak.

Referring to JakeBrake's comments: I have a copy of the original land patent issued to my g-g-grandfather as copied from the BLM website mentioned. As far as what deed work has been done since then I do not have a clue. The land is square and one full side is main road frontage. The other three sides are joined by similar property, primarily residential and wooded land. At one time there was an orchard on the property on the other side of the road.

There were several comments about taking out the sentimental value and deciding from the left over "does it make sense" criteria. That's precisely what I've not been able to do. and why I am here with you now. Sure, all that is there now is the land and probably nothing unique about it as dave1949 asked. The original buildings are gone, probably also the trees we climbed in or even maybe the fences we had to avoid while snowmobiling. So to anyone else it might just look like 40 acres, but.... If Dad and Uncle had never brought it up I would probably have never thought of it. But since they did now I can't stop thinking about it. LOL! On a more serious note, they are about the only remaining ties I have to Michigan. As

As far as renting to someone, maybe my uncle if he wants to divest early but otherwise I wouldn't have a rental property in my own county let alone four states away. Dad is getting too busy since he retired so I won't want to place the land maintenance burden on him either. His land in the north country is very low maintenance.

For the comments about the family, my wife, etc. Yes, it would definitely need to be a mutual decision. And as for next steps, just like JSTPSSNG said, talk to family and uncle, find out what they would like. Dad's opinion as stated to uncle and me was that it would be like a "millstone around the neck" to keep up from a distance not to mention taxes, etc.