I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in. It was rural, filled with farm land and pastures. I loved it so much I bought a house a block away. The schools were great, things were local, but not congested.
In the past 15 years though, this has changed dramatically. Developments replaced nearly all the farms. Traffic has gotten so bad what used to take 5 minutes now takes 30. A 2 story single family home has gone from 120-200k to 500k+, and you get a quarter acre with that.
The schools are still good, among the best in the state, so I'm happy with that until my girls are off to college. Once that happens, though, I'm not sure I want to stay here. And I never thought I'd say that.
So that got me thinking of buying a plot an hour away, 10 acres for $35k, which I could sit on until retirement comes, then sell the house, and use the money to build something on that empty land. Being an hour away, I was thinking I could farm it to hopefully pay itself off over the next 5 years or so. The more I look into it, the less and less possible that sounds, being able to only go up on the weekends.
So that got me thinking, is it worth renting out to neighboring farmers? What sort of headaches might accompany that? The land is surrounded by farms, so I'd imagine it wouldn't be impossible to find a renter. What sort of rent would one charge for something like that?
I'm in eastern PA, if that helps at all. I appreciate the advice on this.
In the past 15 years though, this has changed dramatically. Developments replaced nearly all the farms. Traffic has gotten so bad what used to take 5 minutes now takes 30. A 2 story single family home has gone from 120-200k to 500k+, and you get a quarter acre with that.
The schools are still good, among the best in the state, so I'm happy with that until my girls are off to college. Once that happens, though, I'm not sure I want to stay here. And I never thought I'd say that.
So that got me thinking of buying a plot an hour away, 10 acres for $35k, which I could sit on until retirement comes, then sell the house, and use the money to build something on that empty land. Being an hour away, I was thinking I could farm it to hopefully pay itself off over the next 5 years or so. The more I look into it, the less and less possible that sounds, being able to only go up on the weekends.
So that got me thinking, is it worth renting out to neighboring farmers? What sort of headaches might accompany that? The land is surrounded by farms, so I'd imagine it wouldn't be impossible to find a renter. What sort of rent would one charge for something like that?
I'm in eastern PA, if that helps at all. I appreciate the advice on this.