Lee's Summit Land Seminar

After two successful and well attended events in Leawood last night our first seminar was held in Lee's Summit. Like the first two sessions this one was very well attended and we had to bring in extra chairs to hold the over capacity crowd. At first we thought we were going to have a sound problem as a local band was setting up to practice in the space next to the Realty Executives Office. But they were very cordial when we asked them to delay their practice and so the meeting went off without a hitch.

As usual the best parts of the meeting often come during the question and answer session and in the informal meetings afterward. At both this and the second Leawood meeting we had potential tenant farmers in attendance. This gave investors thinking about purchasing land the opportunity to ask the farmers directly about issues relating to taking care of the land, how leases could be set up and other pertinent questions.

There are some questions that are repeatedly asked at each meeting and we are going to address some of them in subsequent posts since it seems they are on most investors minds. The first is what is to keep the farmer from overusing or abusing the ground that is rented to them. There are a couple of reasons why this reasonable concern can be avoided.

1) The reputation of the farmer. Farming is a very local business. Most farmers have grown up in the same area their entire lives. Any farmer abusing land will soon find it difficult to get anymore land to rent. Like in any other form of human endeavor farmers are competitive, and no one wants to be known as a poor farmer. For pretty soon that farmer would be unable to find any land to rent.

2) If a farmer would abuse the ground by over fertilizing it, for example it would be of less use to him in subsequent years. The farmer with a long term lease will want to improve, not abuse, the land. In the vast majority of cases where a farmer is given a long term lease the ground will wind up being better than it was when the farmer first started the lease. What a great difference between the experience most landlords have and what most landowners have when renting farm ground.

3) Avoid short term leases. A farmer who is only given a one year lease has no incentive to improve the ground. He will avoid certain farming practices that cost money but only pay off in the long run. Instead he will concentrate on doing what he can to boost the current years crop without caring about the long term affect on the ground. By comparison if he know he is going to be farming the ground for several years he will gladly make the investments of both time and material to improve the ground so as to get bigger yields in the future.

In summary the best way to avoid having a farmer abuse the land is to make sure you are renting to an experienced farmer and giving him a long term lease. That way both he and you have the same goal in mind which is to improve the ground for it's long term best use.