One of the most common laments we hear from farmers these days goes like this, “I0 years ago I had the chance to buy that property and thought it was too high, I wish had that to do over again”. Now we aren’t trying to say that no one has ever regretted buying farm land. I’m sure there were some who did so in the late 1970’s, but even then if they held on to it they would have come out way ahead. Given that farmland has only gone down in price three times in the last 100 years it’s been one of the best investments of all time.
But right now we are living in unprecedented times. The velocity with which cropland is selling now is staggering. It’s not unusual that cropland moves quickly this time of year because everyone wants to get set right before planting season which is just around the corner. But when you add in the high commodity prices it makes for a very volatile industry.
If you are considering buying cropland you should be prepared to move quickly. We will help you identify the land and come up with potential renters for you. If you need to finance part of the land you should be making arrangements for it now. There is little likelihood that you can leisurely view several properties, then mull it over and make an offer in a few weeks. The good properties will be gone and only the less desirable ones will be left.
We are particularly fortunate in this part of the country because when you compare the price per acre for land in this area versus other cropland say in Iowa, there is a large gap between the productive value of the land and the price.
For example prime Iowa land is now going for over $9,000 per acre and it will produce 275 bushels of corn. Land down here may not produce 275 bushel corn, but an acre of ground south of Kansas City may produce 185 bushels of corn. If land were based solely on productive ability that ground compared to Iowa ground should sell for $6,000 per acre. But there is still a lot of land in this area available for under $3,000 per acre. We believe there is still opportunity to take advantage of that gap and realize some excellent appreciation in the next few years.
We have been frustrated several times in the last few days by hearing about a good property, and then trying to get the word out to any potential buyers. Sending out a weekly newsletter is not a quick enough notification in this market. So we have opened up a twitter account and if you want to know about hot properties just follow us on twitter. We will not be putting every new property on there, but if we think it's a particularly good one we will send out a tweet so you can react and contact us if you are interested. If you are not currently receiving our newsletter, let us know and we'll add you to our list.
If we can help you identify and purchase cropland, negotiate with renters, or be of help in any other way let us know.
Email Info@RuralKC.com
Phone 913-837-4665
Web site http://www.ruralkc.com/
Blog http://www.ruralkc.com/template24/nextpage.asp?mnu=174730
If you want live updates when we come across a particularly hot property you can follow us on twitter. http://twitter.com/#search?q=ruralkc
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