Farm for sale,
but is it the
right one for you?

This can help you find the ideal farm for sale out of all of those agents' descriptions. Many of them sound so good, yet when you look at them, some can be almost depressing.

Obviously not every farm for sale is suitable, so it is important to know what you want and what you want to do with it. Many people are looking for

  • a farm lifestyle,
  • somewhere safe to raise the kids
  • a profitable business and or
  • a way of living that is more in tune with human nature than sitting at a computer in a city office block or working in a noisy factory.

You may have other reasons and if so you may need to add some points to this checklist.

There are many ways to go about buying a farm, this is just one way. If it doesn't work for you, take what you can from it and from elsewhere and develop your own way. That will give you the best possible result, because it will be tailored to you.

Decide your main purpose

Why do you want to buy a farm?
  • Are you seeking a farming lifestyle?
  • Is profit the most important factor?
  • Do you have a special interest in:
    • one particular area,
    • one enterprise,
    • one type of surroundings,
    • a degree of separation from neighbors or
    • just getting away from "the big smoke"?
  • Is your main aim to become more self-sufficient
  • do you want to become more connected with the earth?

Your answers to those questions will determine which of the following questions to answer and how.

Assuming that you know your main purpose in buying a farm, you can go through the steps below in whatever order works best for you. And it should save your from having to look at every farm for sale to find the ideal farm to buy.

Decide what features and facilities you need

  • Do you want a large area so that you can be more productive or isolated?
  • Is a small area that is easy to manage more appropriate?
  • Do you need good soils, good drainage, a particular temperature range or any other climatic aspect?
  • Do you need a large shed or barn?
  • Do you want the property
    • fenced into small fields,
    • minimal fencing or
    • somewhere in between?

Decide how much development you are prepared to do

  • Are you seeking a walk in, walk out (WIWO) transfer where you just take over the existing situation?
  • Would you prefer to develop the property almost from virgin ground?
  • Do you want an existing house and if so does it need to be suitable for your family immediately? Would you rather build your own dwelling?

Decide how much time you are prepared to spend running the farm

  • Are you wanting to work full-time on the property?
  • Would you rather just work at weekends?
  • How many family members will be available at peak periods?
  • are you willing to hire labor and possibly management?

Decide how much time you are prepared to spend running the farm

Are you wanting to work full-time on the property? Would you rather just work at weekends? Perhaps it is just to visit and relax, more a piece of paradise than a working farm? How many family members will be available at peak periods?

Decide your enterprises

  • Do you have a particular main enterprise in mind?
  • Are you willing to choose your enterprises on the basis of what would work once you have essentially decided which property to buy?

Value adding is an effective way to turn a more enjoyable but less profitable enterprise into a successful business. If you find a farm for sale with a value adding enterprise built in, you can potentially make a better living from less work and have more time to enjoy the farm and your family. So you might like to look at Cheese farm for sale for some ideas on how to view such a farm and business.

Decide your location

You may already know that you want to live in a specific area. If so, the location comes down to
  • a more specific area,
  • orientation (such as facing east or on a southerly slope) and perhaps
  • a distance from town or from friends and relatives.

If you have not decided on a specific area, you may have a broader area to consider, perhaps covering thousands of square kilometers or square miles. The main factor in deciding the exact location may be set by your choice of enterprises and your budget.

Decide your budget

This involves how much you will have available with
  • your present money,
  • any borrowed money and
  • any money you will earn from the property.

You may need to allow for running costs for quite some time before the property begins to pay its way, assuming it ever does. Most people find that establishing a property takes a surprising amount of capital, labor and learning.

Do not underestimate what is involved. If you need assistance, seek it, take the advice and then make a sensible decision based on sound principles.

It is a good idea to develop a checklist that you can use to assess any property that you see listed in the "Farm for sale" category of your favorite advertising medium. This helps take some of the emotion out of it and allow you to compare farms for sale on a more even basis.

This will help you get the ideal property and make it a farm that you buy consciously. This is different from what happens to many people, they end up with the only farm for sale that seemed to be OK or that was the best of a bad bunch.

If you follow all these principles you should be ready to find the right farm for sale and make the right purchase decision and turn it into your ideal farm.