Thinking of buying

[funkychicken]

I'm thinking of buying 110 acres in Pilton (South of Toowoomba) for a blimmin decent price. It's 38 acres of black soil cultivation, then a grassed slope and a timbered ridge.

I'd like to put the land to work, so some kind of crops or animals would be good.

Questions:
What could I grow?
Would I realistically be able to manage a small farm and have time to run a toolmaking business? (Toolmaking would take priority)
Am I dreaming?

[Harry72]

I thinks your main problem would be getting finances arranged being 17?

[wheelinround]

FC a great investment in life, allows for a rudy big shed, as Harry said though its a stumberling block but blocks can be broken down, kicked out of the way, and jumped over.

Hope it isn't taking on to much a you'll still need an income.

[tea lady]

Jeeeeez! You can't do that! You can't get all organized till you are over thirty. :((

Seriously, though, that much land would be a lot of work, but I guess if it is at right price? :shrug: Maybe you could lease it to someone. :think: You prolly should do some sort of Ag. Degree so you can make a proper business of it. I think it takes more than just land and seeds. :hmm:

But heh! Ya gotta dream. that's how you know what you wanna do! Maybe not buy the land right now, but work towards getting the knowledge to make a go of something later. :shrug: :)

[NCArcher]

It's never too early to invest in property. Wish i had of started much earlier than i did.
If you can come up with a way for the property to pay for itself you will have no problem getting finance. As TL mentioned, lease it to someone else and have them pay your mortgage while you build tools in your 1 acre allotment with the tax deductable new shed on it. The cost of the shed and services have been included in the innitial finance so in reality your tennant is paying for that too.

[Ozkaban]

Sounds very interesting Funky. Never too early to invest in property.

Beware a 110 acre block will be an awful lot of work. Leasing it out to a tenant while you work full time elsewhere would probably be the most profitable route, unless you really want to get your hands dirty, and keep 'em that way.

Cheers,
Dave

[derekh]

Private Forestry may not seem an obvious choice but it is a long term investment, government grants available, tax benefits, low maintenance, environmentally sustainable, personal satisfaction, don't jump fences, don't need lick blocks, etc .....

Private Forestry Southern Queensland (http://www.privateforestrysthnqld.com.au/) - Sean Ryan
SEQ Catchments (http://www.seqcatchments.com.au/) - Paul Daley
AgForce Queensland - Advancing Rural Queensland - Welcome (http://www.agforceqld.org.au/) - Sam Ellis
Permaculture Design Institute (http://www.janahn.com.au/) - Leo Mahon
Australian New Crops Web Site Supported by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (http://www.newcrops.uq.edu.au/)

I have done courses with all of them and they are all good people to talk to.

Good luck
Derek

[corbs]

My biggest regret in life is that I didn't purchase into the real estate market earlier. If you can get it at a good price and you have the finances behind you to do it... don't think twice, buy it.

If you're thinking of working the land, find yourself a mentor in the area that will be able to assist you with idea's on how to go about it. As already said, look into Ag degrees and courses. Land always needs wind breaks and some of our Aussie woods lend themselves nicely to this and can become another long term aspect of your investment.

Best of luck with it all and keep us posted if you go ahead with it:2tsup::2tsup:

[chambezio]

If at all possible I would go for it!!!!!
You have to start some where.
BUT.....100 acres realistically is not enough country to live off unless you are growing a cash crop of jubious legality.
If I were you, my plan would be to get the block, build your shed and consentrate on your tool making business. At least that will give you an income to live off and hopefully pay off the block. I wouldn't be in too big a hurry to develope the "farm side" of things as you will have only enough time to devote to the tool making, marketing, selling, developing etc, etc.
Probably if you could get some animals to mow the grass (be they yours or some on agistment).Have you got good water?? How about electricity? Is it close? Or is it thousands of $ away
Take your time and don't let it become a weight around your neck. Think about your decisions and try to look long term, (you have youth on your side) Another thing to think about is...don't forget to live a little, along the way
Good luck to you :U

[weisyboy]

only way of making anything from a small block like that is to run a stud.

be it cattle of horses. either way there is huge amounts of money involved to setup. you also have to know what you are doing.

you would be able to make a living growing small crops if you got in with some fruit shops. but there is a lot of work involved and some verry long hours. farming of any kind is not a part time job.

if u are going to buy a block of ground. i would buy a heavily timbered block, (cheeper cos its not improved farmland) cut the logs off it mill them sell the timber and build fences and sheds. and when you are done sell the block. buy another and off u go again.:2tsup:

[jasons673]

Hi FC, we have just started the process to get on to our 100 acres, do you have power? dose it have a house on it? if you are planning to have just a shed, our council would not grant temporary occupancy for the shed, unless we had a da lodged for a house. you would have 5 years to build that house before the da expires. then apply for the da application again. check your 147 certificate on the contract for sale if a dwelling is allowed. for our da to council we had to choose a house, pay a deposit of $ 3000, to the project home builder, which ment signing the contract for the full amount. we had to do the bush fire assessment. the fee to lodge this da was about $ 4000 alone. just the shed application was $ 1000. check with council before you lay your money down, if you go ahead with the purchase the rewards will be great. they say weight slows trains, don't over load your self to much. make sure you can keep your wheels rolling.

[funkychicken]

There's no house. The property has power going past, I might have to get a transformer put in so I don't know how much I'll have to fork out and how much Ergon will help.
There's no bore and no dam, I can dig a dam quite easily (provided the bobcat doesn't get stuck at the bottom)

I talked to a bank and they said they can't lend any money so I talked to a loan man and he said it's possible. A trust would have to be set up but it's doable

Most of the land is bush; it's probably 60 acres bush, 38 acres cultivation and the rest grassland. I could clear some land (and make good use of the logs:wink:) then plant Spotted Gum and Ironbark, maybe some fast growing firewood (mallee?) Maybe Macadamias, Olives, Canna... Never mind:p

Could I run someone else animals on the land? I'm sure there's a proper name for that but I don't know it.

The loan repayments would be (approximately) $300 a week for 30 years, which works out to be more than double the value of the land so I think something's up there. If I could get something happening with the land whilst I built the house and shed then theoretically the land would pay for itself whilst I could still earn a living in my current job.

[masoth]

"Could I run someone else animals on the land? I'm sure there's a proper name for that but I don't know it." agistment is the word you're after.

Provided the land has good fodder and water, and that someone is after a smallish area for agistment purposes, it can be a good money earner - a local paper would be a good start to find interest.

Will you be requuired to "improve" the land within any short time, or can is remain as it is? Constructing a house and sheds can be a difficulty in the short term, particularly if you have to find additional finance.

This looks to be an excellent investment opportunity for you, but I'd move slowly and consiider ALL advice you might have offered. Good luck.

soth

[chambezio]

Maaaaate
$300 a week repayments is a bitsteep! It won't allow you any moving space to do stuff. You need money to live and do things (you already know that) I am a bit concerned that you could "paint yourself into a corner" especially if you're injure yourself and can't earn an income
As I said in an earlier post, you only need water and good perimeter fencing to start agisting stock.Internal fences could be electric just to manage the lawn mowers You won't make a fortune only "drinking silver".
As far as having to pay back double the block price over 30 years, thats normal for "borrowed" money any where. (Look at car repayments for example)
I don't want to discourage you, I am just wanting you do some thinking

[Ozkaban]

The loan repayments would be (approximately) $300 a week for 30 years, which works out to be more than double the value of the land so I think something's up there.

Welcome to the world of compound interest :rolleyes:

Oh, and please don't forget that interest rates are heading in exactly one direction at the moment. Allow yourself a margin of at least 2-3% over current rates when working out what you can afford. A fire sale at peak interest rates wont do you any favours.

Cheers,
Dave

[jasons673]

Hi FC, your bank was just as sceptical as ours when you start talking a 40ha or more. They were very conservative with their valuation of the block. Even though we had quite a bit of equity on the house we were living in at the time. Don’t feel bad the bank knocked you back. On the power side of things, energy Aust, were very helpful in helping to spend our money!:doh: We also had power run past the gate, we went to a power designer, who worked out how big a transformer we'd need given the voltage drop over 280mtrs to the house site, they worked in conjunction with EA and their requirements. This cost $ 4000 thousand. Then we could take these plans to the power people. We had wild quote's up to about $90 thousand:o, but they were on average around $60 thousand. Then in six months we have to hand over the asset to EA! We did all the work inside the fence and saved quite a bit of money. Then just employed the level one leco's to install the transformer ( about $ 30 thousand ) , who'll connect to the internal pole inside the property line. Factor the in the above when doing your budget.

[funkychicken]

Will you be requuired to "improve" the land within any short time, or can is remain as it is? Constructing a house and sheds can be a difficulty in the short term, particularly if you have to find additional finance.


Improve as in build? Nope

This agistment business sounds worthwhile, I'll have a talk to some farmer friends of mine about it.

[wheelinround]

FC recalling your hssles with building your shed (did that ever happen??)
I'd be checking to see if you can build for sure and whats the chance of similar foundation hassles.

[funkychicken]

Or there's 10 acres within spittin distance of Goombungee (about 20km north of Meringandan) for $160000. There's town water and power but it's a tenth of the size and I'd have to worry about neighbours and council.

[funkychicken]

I had a look at the land at Pilton, I don't think I'll go after it. The 10 acres in Gooooooooombungee is looking better by the minute :think:

[artme]

Lots of good advice above Feathered One. One Problem I didn't see mentioned was fencing. Better to look after the fences on a smaller block.

If you can manage the investment it would be worthwhile on the 10acres.

Neighbours and council will always be a consideration, no matter how big or where the block is.

[itsposs]

Yeah at about $6.50 - $10 a meter fencing is some thing to take into consideration no some councils have requirement for rural fences especially boundry fences and if you back onto a National park or state forest you ll need above average fences as well. But you do get an A for effort some thing to rember everybody is land prices on average peak or multi value on a 7 year cycle and thats from a well respected Realestate consultant.