Bulletin Board
The following list
starts with my newest dated comments.
Older comments follow in reverse chronological order.
January
17, 2012:
FLOODED BOTTOMLAND AUCTION: LANDOWNERS REST EASIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There's been quite a bit of concern about the
current value of Missouri River Bottomland that has been flooded over the last
couple of years. TODAY, JANUARY 17,
2012, Barnes Realty held an auction that should go a long way towards laying
those fears to rest! We sold a 58 acre parcel of Missouri River bottomland
south of Nishnabotna in Atchison County, Missouri. Soil types were good, but the farm had sustained some damage in
the form of sand deposits. The parcel
sold for slightly over $6,400 per taxable acre (over $6,800 per tillable) It was a small crowd, but the bidding was
fast and spirited with three active bidders.
IF YOU'VE GOT A FARM ANYWHERE IN THE BOTTOM THAT
YOU WOULD LIKE TO SELL, GIVE US A CALL.
WE CAN GET YOU TOP DOLLAR!
The
land market is HOT, VERY HOT. Last week
we saw an average upland farm sell in Atchison County for $7,500 per acre and
that’s a first, I believe. We auctioned
a farm last spring in Fremont county Iowa for $8,000 per acre and auctioned
another one in Central Nebraska for $7,600 per acre a few months before
that. We’ve had some private treaty
sales in that range, too, so I don’t think these numbers are just a temporary
price spike. Current land values are
here to stay, or at least I hope they are.
We had good
commodity prices the last couple of years and good yields. As a result, farmers have more money on hand
than in recent memory and they are wanting to turn it into land along with the
many outside investors who have been looking for a place to invest some
money. Whatever the reason, the market
is HOT! Or did I say that already.
For
years I maintained that we could sell land privately better than at public
auction. I’m not so sure right
now. Good row crop farms are currently
in great demand. We have multiple
buyers and the auction method is proving to be a pretty effective way to sell
by giving everyone a fair chance to buy.
That way no one can complain if something sells nearby and he or she
doesn’t end up as the high bidder.
We’ve started recommending that new listings be offered publicly first,
with a reserve price, and then we’ll sell the listing privately if the minimum
isn’t met.
There
are two sides to every story, though, and we would all be advised to look at
both sides. Land is in great demand and
prices are strong, very strong. In
addition, capital gains taxes are low.
Maybe this would be a good time to sell some farmland and take a
profit. You never go broke taking a
profit, you know.
Missouri
River flood of 2011:
The
weather this fall and winter has been really good as far as getting levee
repairs made and flood damage cleaned up.
Hopefully we’ll get most of our bottomland flood protection fixed before
spring.
I
read an article in our local paper describing what the Corps of Engineers is
doing to make sure that we don’t get washed away again and I’ve got to tell you
I’m not happy. I can’t see that they
are doing much at all to prevent another flood like last year if we get another
unusual snow pack in the mountains. The
Corps acts like its doing so much, but most of their information sounds like
too little too late to me. Last year’s
flood was an historic event and I don’t ever want to see anything like it
again, especially if it could have been prevented. For starters, I’d like to get answers to the following questions.
I’ve lived in the Missouri River bottom for years and I have
endured several floods. In nearly every one of these floods, we end up
with a few of what they call "blew holes ". These holes
are caused when the river overtops a levee or a road and cuts a big hole on the
downstream side. I've seen dozens of these holes over the years and until
this year I didn't think much about them; the water was within a few feet of
the surface of the surrounding land, the total acreage wasn't too large: They
just seemed like little ponds out there in the bottom.
I changed my thinking about these holes about four days ago.
A Highway Patrol officer, Fred Guthrie, disappeared and is believed drowned in
a fairly large hole north of Big Lake. To date, his body has not been
found, and the patrol has continued its efforts to find a fellow
trooper. The last thing they've done to find him has been to pump
the water out of the hole.
It’s the first one of these "Blew Holes" that I've seen
pumped out and almost empty and it’s simply amazing! It is hard to
believe how big it really is. It’s 30-60 feet deep and covers maybe
six acres of area.
I
did a little simple math and assuming an average depth of 45 feet over the 6
acres, you end up with 435,600 cubic yards of dirt. That’s the equivalent
of 29,000 dump truck loads of soil that the river removed in just this one
hole during the flood. Assuming 3500 lb per cu yd, its one billion
five hundred twenty four million, six hundred thousand pounds of material, and
that's just one, not very remarkable hole. There are literally
hundreds of these holes scattered up and down the Missouri River bottom, all
cut simultaneously by the Missouri River; and many of them are lots bigger than
the one north of Big Lake. To me, it’s an exercise in
humility. Humans, with all their machinery and power are pretty darned
inconsequential when compared to even a small measure of God's power when he
wants to apply it. We all need to think if this once in a while,
especially when we get to feeling proud of our accomplishments.
Of
course it would be nice if we could get a little help from the Corps of
Engineers.
Rick
Land
values:
Prices
for good farmland are simply through the roof at this time. We’ve already seen numbers for good upland
in the $6,000+ range and that’s before the flooding this year. This flooding is going to put even more
pressure on good upland farms. If
you’ve got anything you’ve been thinking of selling, call us.
Cash
rents for 2012:
I
expect to see another strong upward move in cash rents again next year. We’re looking at the highest commodity
prices in history and at this moment in time, a farmer can lock in strong
prices for next year. Farming is very
profitable right now and the demand for land to rent is strong. It’s a little early to be setting numbers
yet, but I’ll be reporting more as time goes by.
The Corps is
slowly (VERY slowly) reducing the discharges out of Gavins Point dam. The water levels are dropping, maybe a half
inch per day, but vast areas of the bottom are still underwater because water
continues to flow from the river onto lower land through untold holes and
washouts in the levees.
I’ve
been through more floods than I’d care to remember, but this one is the
granddaddy of all. More and more areas
are becoming visible as the waters recede and lots of what I see from the
helicopter doesn’t look a bit good.
We’re seeing lots of new sand deposits, and lots of water trapped in low
spots in between. Center pivot
irrigation systems are tipped over, twisted and broken, or silted in past their
wheels with sand. Grain bins ruptured
and broken, and concrete and asphalt highways are literally destroyed.
The
corps of engineers has already stated that they are going to run the river just
the way that they did this year: It’s
in the Master Operations Manual, you know.
WELL THE MASTER MANUAL NEEDS TO BE CHANGED!!!!
FAST!!!!
Who wrote the damned manual anyhow if it wasn’t the Corps?
August 29, 2011
We have Buyers for
FLOODED farmland, and they are NOT the C.O.E.!
August 2, 2011
Here is a link to the latest news release from the corps: http://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/pa/news/shownews.asp?rn=NR072911-02
I read it and the way it looks, they are not going to change anything by way of total flood control storage for 2012, this news release says that they simply can't get enough water out of the system by spring due to the need to keep flows low during the winter "on account of ice jams during the winter"
NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Everyone to be in contact with their congress people to keep putting pressure
on them to get these reservoirs down and get quite a bit of added storage for
flood control.
Rick 660-572-0018
June
25, 2011
We boated in yesterday and I'm happy to report that the floodwater to date is the cleanest I've ever seen. Lets hope that we don't get the rains in Nebraska and Iowa that normally cause our floods. The silt that the floodwaters bring hurts the lake more than anything else.
June 24, 2011
The great flood
of 2011 keeps on coming.
And the score is Missouri
River 5, Burlington Northern 0.
I've been a first hand witness to all the recent floods, 1984, 1993, 2007 (fourteen years with no flood. Remember that if the water ever goes down), 2010, and now 2011. I've owned an aircraft all that time and I've flown each flood dozens of times, watching the way the water comes and goes. In each case, the railroad has labored mightily to protect its tracks, and each time they have failed. This year's effort was the biggest one yet; they had plenty of notice and spent what I'd estimate to be millions of dollars reinforcing and raising their tracks. They weren't even subtle about it this year, raising the tracks 2 feet by my guess and re-enforcing the already huge fill on each side of the tracks with thousands of tons of rip rap. The levees above the lake were breached (Thank you very much Corps of Engineers), the water came and promptly overtopped the tracks just like its done on each and every prior flood. Maybe this year someone at the railroad will figure out that their approach is not working and something else needs to be done. They've spent untold millions over the years, they're no better off than before, and all their efforts have done nothing but hurt the lake and its property owners. You'd think that they'd seek out the opinions of some of us "old timers" but that hasn't occurred to them yet. Maybe this year. We can only hope!.
June 7, 2011
No flooding in our area yet, but its coming according to the corps of
engineers. It sounds like they are
going to be right and that's amazing to me.
Apparently it’s the first time they've been right about anything on
their management of the Missouri River since it started snowing last fall. Now,
because of one big rain in Montana, and most parts of the upper drainage of the
Missouri river, all the reservoirs are completely full and the snow is just
beginning to melt. To top it off, it’s
the biggest snow pack we've seen in recent memory. Why weren't they lowering those reservoirs all winter as they set
there watching those massive mountain snows just keep piling up? I'm looking forward to hearing their
explanations. I'd almost be willing to
bet that before its all done they will be telling us that the flooding was
totally inevitable and that they saved us millions of dollars and untold lives
by providing us with timely notice of the impending disaster.
Now on to better news: We sold a nice top quality Missouri River bottom farm this
morning at public auction. It was just
north of Hamburg, Iowa, CSR 80.4. The
farm was rented for this season and it is to close on July 13, this year, so
the buyer would not be able to get any income off the farm till next fall. It brought $8000 per acre, or $100 per CSR
point. We've seen numbers like that
further north, in Montgomery and Pottawamie counties, but I think this is the
highest price per csr point I’ve seen in Fremont County.
Land values keep going up!
Do you have any good land you want to sell? Have we got a deal for you!!!!!!!! Just give us a call.
May 31, 2011
And another flood is about to hit big lake. Or is it?
We flew the levees in the helicopter today and
things look better than what you hear in the coffee shop. We have pretty good levees all around,
including a brand new one where it blew out last summer to start the whole
flood last year. In addition, there's a new levee up on the high bank where it
over-flowed last year and caused us all the trouble. Between the two levees we may have pretty good protection this
time around. Remember none of the
levees around the lake broke last year, and the river was at all time record high's.
Now, if it doesn't rain much below Gavins Point
dam this summer, and if none of the information put out by the Corps of
Engineers turns out to be true, we'll have a wonderful season at Big Lake!
It almost defies belief that the Corps, will all
its experience managing the river over all these years could be caught in a
situation like they seem to be; ALL THE UPSTREAM RESERVOIRS COMPLETELY FULL,
THE SPRING SNOW MELT JUST BEGINNING, AND A RECORD SNOW MELT AT THAT!
Sometimes I think that we've got too much
information any more; daily email checks on the river levels, news releases
from the Corps of Engineers, newspaper articles, and on and on. All this information worries everyone to
death: Is it gonna flood? Do we move
out? What if we move out and it doesn't flood?
What if we don't move out and it does flood? "Which way do we go, George, Which way do we go?" What
is the right course of action?
Here's my advice:
Get Ready!
Move up the stuff you don't want to lose (Its all just stuff, after all. We'll all live a long and happy life if we
lose it all) and start thinking of what you're going to do this summer if it
floods. Plan on going to the zoo, maybe Starlite Theater in Kansas city, or
maybe a trip to Colorado, or that long postponed trip up the west coast and
into Canada. There's always Table Rock,
Branson, and horror of all horrors, Lake of the Ozarks. Life will go on and do what you can to enjoy
the summer.
The point is just relax and enjoy the summer. None of us can do a thing about the river or the rain. Plan on doing something else this summer if it floods. It’s out of our hands. As the kids used to say, "Take a lude"
April 28, 2011
A lot of mail and commentary passed through my email each month, Here's some of what I've been getting. I'll show both sides of the issue: Land values still increasing into the future.
Are we in a "Land Bubble"?
Just in case you're curious, most of the commentary is in the bullish on land direction.
Farmland Fund Expects Prices To Keep Soaring
Cheap farmland is hard to find.
Values in Iowa and other key agricultural states
jumped 12% in 2010, the second-biggest increase in the past 30 years, according
to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Nationwide, prices have doubled during the past decade and climbed about 58% when adjusted for inflation, U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show.
Still, Greyson Colvin is hunting for deals as managing partner of two farmland funds for his agriculture-focused investment firm Colvin & Co., which aims to acquire undervalued properties.
"The farmland market is certainly
tighter than it's been over the last 12 months," Colvin acknowledged.
Colvin manages about 1,500 acres of farmland in
South Dakota and Wisconsin, worth $7 million, in the Sather Agriculture LP
fund, along with about 350 acres held in individual accounts. The fund, which
was launched in 2009, had a return of 29.6% in 2010, up from 7.8% in 2009,
according to the company, compared with 15.1% and 26.5%, respectively, for the
S&P 500.
There are signs investors will continue to reap gains from the sector, Colvin said. He touted farmland as "the one element that you can't replace across the agricultural equation" and said rising global demand for meat will keep pressure on growers to increase production of grain, which is used to feed livestock.
The company targets land that produces corn and soybeans, the dominant crops in the fertile Midwest. Colvin and his brother-in-law, an associate in the company, inspect properties personally before making purchases to check their quality.
He scoffed at observers who warn soaring land values may form a bubble. Agricultural fundamentals are the best in decades, he argued, saying rising farm income and cash rental rates justify the appreciation in farmland.
"We really believe that farmland is
actually underpricing commodities at this point in time," Colvin said.
Indeed, farmers have the potential to cash in
big on coming harvests, as corn, soybean and wheat futures recently surged
above 2 1/2-year highs on concerns about tight supplies. Domestic corn
inventories are expected to plunge to a 15-year low by the end of the crop's
marketing year on Aug. 31 due to strong demand and a disappointing harvest last
fall.
If cash prices for corn,
which is trading around $6.20 a bushel, remain above $5 at the end of the year,
Colvin said farmland values should be up an additional 10% to 15%. The outlook
for corn prices is uncertain because farmers are projected to harvest a record
crop this fall to replenish supplies.
IMF Staff: Higher Global Food Prices Here To Stay ( read the last
paragraph)
Higher food
prices are likely here to stay and the rising costs are likely to impact core
inflation for poorer nations, International Monetary Fund staff warned in a
report.
"The world may need to get used to higher food prices," research
department staff Thomas Helbling and Shaun Roache wrote in a new IMF article.
"Policymakers--particularly in emerging and developing economies--will
likely have to continue confronting the challenges posed by food prices that
are both higher and more volatile than the world has been used to," they
said.
Poor weather amid strong demand has been the primary driver of a spike in food
prices, with the IMF's Food Price Index approaching a historic peak seen in
2008. Given that food and energy prices are often volatile, they are generally
excluded from core inflation calculations and given less notice by monetary
policy-makers.
"Nevertheless, the main reasons for rising demand for food reflect
structural changes in the global economy that will not be reversed," the
two said.
Helbling and Roache say that since a much larger share of income in emerging
and developing nations is spent on feeding families, "food price spikes
are more likely to unhinge inflation expectations and trigger increases in wage
demands," even though international prices may stabilize.
That's why the IMF has traditionally advised countries to accommodate the
first-round direct effects of rising commodity prices on inflation, but to be
prepared to tighten monetary policy to avoid second-round impacts, the staff
said.
Over time, the IMF staff said the growth in supply can be expected to respond
to higher prices, easing pressures on food markets, "but this will take
time counted in years rather than months."
Production costs, including for energy, water and land, are likely to climb as
there's increasing scarcity, even though technology and higher-yield growth
could compensate for such limitations, Helbling and Roache said.
Also, the IMF staff said perhaps one of the most
important explanations for the trending increase in food prices is that
consumers in emerging and developing economies are becoming richer and changing
their diets as a result. "In particular, consumers in these economies are
eating more high-protein foods such as meat, dairy products, edible oils,
fruits and vegetables, and seafood," they said.
January 17,
2011
Something
interesting to read: Roger Aberle, my farm salesman from Kansas sent me
this link and I'm putting it up on our bulletin board. It’s interesting
reading if you want to take the time. Printable brochure of article
November 23, 2010
The farm selling season has begun. November 9 we held an auction in McCool Junction, NE (yes we sell land just about anywhere we can whenever we can). It was a really good farm, mostly class I soils and irrigated. There was a large crowd and we had several strong bidders. When all was said and done, the top bid was $7,000 per deeded acre. I didn't try to figure it on the tillable acres.
We had another sale a week later over in Maryville, MO. We attempted to sell 520 acres of lesser quality farmland and pasture by Sheridan, MO, not exactly the best area of the state. There were four tracts. All four needed quite a bit of work. We didn't get three of them sold at the auction because we didn't have any serious bidders at the sale that day. Nobody was willing to bid the minimum price that the sellers were willing to accept. That's where Barnes Realty has most of the pure auctioneers beat: When they get a no sale, they're just about done; they have a limited number of contacts and they're not in the business of selling privately. On the other hand, Barnes Realty's primary method of selling land is private treaty and we've been doing it for over 30 years. If a farm doesn't sell at auction, we get to work and do our thing, selling the property privately. When we sell land privately we only need one buyer and he doesn't have to be there on the day of the sale.
With us, you get the best of both methods: If it’s a good farm and there are several bidders, we make sure everyone gets a chance at the farm. If a bidder doesn't get the property bought, he's got no one to blame but himself; he had the same chance that everyone else had. If the farm isn't quite so good, or there aren't two buyers on the day and time of the sale, We sell it privately. Sometimes not long after the failed auction.
If you've got something to sell, give us a call. We'll give you an honest evaluation based on our years of experience in the business and we'll get it marketed.
October
12, 2010:
It
seems like I get asked this question at least twice a day so I thought I’d
publish this answer on our bulletin board:
Question: HOW DO YOU JUSTIFY THESE CURRENT HIGH LAND
PRICES?
Answer: We
haven’t seen anything yet. Land values are
at all time record highs and I think they are going to go higher, maybe MUCH
higher. Here are some of my reasons.
Comparable sales: Sale
prices to keep going up and up.
a. a Nemaha river bottom farm sold last year for $5600 and it was not
irrigated. It was in three irregular pieces on both sides of the Nemaha River.
Two of these pieces flooded this year when the Missouri River flooded.
b. An L shaped irrigated 120 acres in Iowa, just across the line brought $6895,
c. We've got a sale pending in our area right now for $7100 per acre (deeded,
not tillable). It’s a really good farm, but its not irrigated.
d. 80 acres that sold last year south of Fortescue for $8100 per acre, and it
was two irregular tracts, non-irrigated.
e. A couple of good, but not great upland farms west of Westboro sold at
auction a couple of weeks ago, one brought $4100 per deeded acre and the other
brought $4500 per deeded. The first one had a home and some outbuildings on it,
but the best bid on them was $30,000 that day so they ended up selling to the
buyer of the farm.
Rate of return: Cash
rents are strong and its nothing anymore for a farm to rent at a 5 per cent
rate of return, based on the sale price of the farm. If you use the first year’s cash rent as a part of the down-payment
and finance all the money that you can get borrowed at todays low interest
rates you can end up with real rates of return of 10 per cent or more on the
cash you put into the deal, before considering any appreciation or tax
advantages like depreciation on the improvements. I’m not talking about fly by night deals, but real, honest cash
rental rates. We do farm management and
we see these kinds of returns consistently.
If one farmer won’t pay it, there are several more out there who will.
Commodity prices:
Commodity prices are very high right now and they may go higher; Russia has
internal grain shortages and has stopped all grain exports; China is simply
awash with American dollars and needs to buy food to feed itself; India and
Pakistan need our food, too and are becoming better able to pay for it every
year.
Renewable fuels: You’ve all heard of the Ethanol mandate;
we’re supposed to be using ethanol for something like 10-20 per cent of our
total fuel consumption in the next few years (I can’t remember how long we’ve
got to get ramped up, but its not too long).
That is a HUGE demand for corn.
Low interest rates: you
can get long term money to buy farms for 4.5 per cent right now. That’s VERY
cheap when compared to historic rates.
Strong Demand: Lots of
people are out there looking for good farms. Nobody I know has much faith in
the stock market right now and bond and c.d. yields are essentially zero.
Farmers are doing well right now thanks to strong yields and high prices and
they are looking for more land. There is a lot of money setting on the
sidelines earning those horribly low rates that C.D’s and bonds are
paying. Not too many people have much
faith in the stock market right now and who can blame them. A lot of this money will go into the land
market as good farms come available.
Low Supply: If you own a good farm there’s not much incentive to sell it at this time; what are the seller’s going to do with the money? Pay capital gains tax and then invest the remainder into those zero rate CD’s and bonds. It seems that the only good farms we get anymore are to settle an estate or something like that. Therefore, the last several years have seen good land become more and more scarce every year. A good farm comes on the market and it sells, fast lots of the time.
Government policies and fear of inflation: For the last
few years our government has been pouring money into the system, and keeping
low interest rates to get our down economy going again. The fundamental economics we all took in high
school and college taught us well; the government can’t go on printing money
indefinitely. The value of these paper
dollars simply MUST go down as more and more are in circulation for the same or
fewer amounts of goods and service. If
you’re going to see inflation you want your money to be in hard assets,
something that will increase in value as the dollar decreases. I don’t know anything better than land; gold
and silver, is more liquid but you’ve got to store these and they don’t earn
you a cent until you sell them. Then they are gone forever. Land pays a return
each year and its something real that you can touch and feel.
It’s
like a "perfect storm" of events coming together to make this land
market so hot.
The only cloud I see on the horizon: At this time I don’t see anything out there that
makes me think that land is going to go anywhere but up and that worries me a
little; I remember the old contrarian rule:
“When everyone says buy, SELL, and when everyone says sell, BUY. But right now I don’t see anything on the
horizon that looks like that may come to pass.
(back in the early 80’s we routinely saw 14 to 18 per cent interest
rates and we should have known that wouldn’t work). The only thing that worries me is the possibility that the government
might step in and do something totally un-expected that would destroy our
markets and prosperity (does anyone remember the grain embargo). I don’t really believe that will happen
though. The country needs agricultural
exports desperately for our balance of payments and it needs those exports to
be worth a lot of money.
It looks like we're going to see land and cash rents
make another big jump.
September 2, 2010
Well forget all you've heard about the economy
being bad, at least for a little while and focus on the good things that are
going on:
I have several prospects who are looking to
move some money out of stocks, bonds, and CD's and into land. I have several farmers who
want to buy more land to expand their operations. Interest rates on loans are at all time lows. It seems that commodity prices are going
to stay at very profitable levels in the near future. Those who didn't flood this year will have a good year again,
unless something
unforeseen comes up. World food demand
is strong; our farm exports are at all time highs and there doesn't seem to be
an end in sight.
I expect demand for ethanol and the
disastrous Gulf oil spill to be good for corn prices. Almost nobody stays home
any more;
as a society we're always on the road it seems, burning gasoline. I expect cash rents will be steady to
stronger.
I have several prospects who are looking to
move some money out of stocks, bonds, and CD's and into land. I have several farmers
who want to buy more land to expand their operations.
OOPS! I MENTIONED THOSE LAST TWO EARLIER
DIDN'T I?
We need good land to sell. If you've got something and you're thinking
of selling, give me a call. Maybe we
can do some business.
August 25, 2010:
I see on the television; home sales continue to be down, foreclosures are up,
home prices are dropping, even though long term interest rates are at all time
lows. The American home owning public has lost TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS
in home equity since this crash started and there seems to be no end in sight;
we tried the first time home buyer approach and it helped a little, but not
much and sales dropped again as soon as the program was over. Now they're
talking of some sort of mortgage relief for those who need that kind of
assistance. All that will do is continue to prolong the problem.
What we've got to do is get a "floor" in home values!
That's the way farmland values were in 1985; Lots of foreclosed land, per acre
prices down over 50 per cent and no end in sight. Along came the CRP
program. Suddenly investors (no its not a cuss-word) appeared who were
willing to buy land once it came with a guaranteed rate of return. Sales
began immediately and we'd found a floor as all the good buys were snapped
up. Within a year or two, there were no foreclosed properties out there
and land values had begun a steady upward trend.
Next week could be the "floor" in housing values if the government
would do just one small thing; Allow a $5000 tax credit on every sale of
a foreclosed home. Limit the credit per investor to say, fifty homes per
year, not just a first time home buyer. This would encourage all those
dirty rotten INVESTORS who are out there struggling on the less than 1 per
cent interest rates jump in and buy a few houses. Here's what would happen:
1. The day before they announce the program will be the floor in home
values.
2. All the foreclosed homes out there that are un-occupied and rotting
down at this time will be sold within six months.
3. Those INVESTORS will be busy fixing up all the properties, getting
them ready to rent (jobs, jobs, jobs) or re-sale to anyone who’ll buy a
foreclosed home (not just limit it to new, first time home buyers.
4. People who can afford to pay but aren't paying just because of the
current crisis will start paying on their mortgages again because they will
know that there is a market for their home somewhere else.
Once we get past all these un-occupied homes the market can begin moving upward
again. Lets get after our congress persons to get something like this
passed.
March 17, 2010:
Our auction in Kansas yesterday went well.
We had a large crowd and bidding was active on a farm southwest of
Wathena Kansas with lots of timbered hunting ground. It brought slightly over $2500 per acre and that was a
respectable price. We've now sold two
hunting tracts in the last two or three weeks.
These types of properties have not been selling well for the last couple
of years so its nice to see improved activity and interest in this type of
property again.
March 3, 2010:
Finally, a new set of bulletin board comments. We’ve been so busy I haven’t taken time to do any writing.
First things first: We’ve got several very attractive investment grade farm properties right now for sale; one contains almost 3900 acres (just listed), one has 2300 acres, and one has 800 acres. All are good quality income producing properties; properties that will always be easy to rent and that will produce a good rate of return on investment. Give us a call or check on our farms for sale page for more information on them and several others that we have listed (we just listed the 3900 acre tract and don’t have anything up there yet, but we will, soon. In the meantime, give us a call and we’ll get you the information).
Now for some general comments:
We are approaching farming season again. Land sales have been strong, driven by good commodity prices, low interest rates, and strong cash rents. The devaluation of the American dollar hasn’t hurt a bit either. Land prices are at all time highs, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t go higher. Our government is on a spending spree the likes of which have never been seen before. The deficit is rising at an unprecedented rate and it’s got to be paid back some day. There are only a couple of ways to do it: Pay it back with interest in real dollars (very painful and not very likely to happen) or devalue the debt by allowing the value of the American dollar to decay. That’s the most likely scenario. If you reduce the value of the dollar by 50 per cent you have effectively cut our debt in half without paying a cent. That sounds good unless your net worth is mostly in the form of cash or cash equivalents. That same currency devaluation cuts your net worth by half- not a good deal.
Then, if you’ve got money what are you going to do with it? Keep it in the bank and watch it shrink; all the while, getting about a half per cent interest on the old fashioned savings account, maybe 2 per cent on a CD, Whoopee!!
You can buy stocks. That was a really good strategy over the last five years, wasn’t it?
You can always buy gold, silver, or platinum. Bury it in the back yard and wait for the price to go up before you sell it. Only trouble is, you don’t get any return on that unless it goes up in value and then you’ve got to sell it to realize that return,
Or, you can buy investment grade farmland: It’s a hard asset, it will appreciate if the value of the dollar goes down, and even if it doesn’t, as long as the world population keeps growing and new shopping centers and subdivisions keep taking farmland out of production, I know you’ve heard that before.. As a final plus, it pays you a good solid rate of return each year in the form of rental income. That’s where I want my money to be, and that’s why land is at all time highs right now, most likely moving on higher.
Give us a call. We can help you find a good solid investment and then we can help you manage it.
December
4, 2009
Farmers are getting done, finally, and they are having a good year, a REALLY
GOOD YEAR! That's translating into a lot of demand for more land.
Good row cropland, that is. Give us a call if you've got something you
might be thinking about selling. I've never seen the market hotter in my
30+ years in the business.
I expect to see stronger cash rents, too. I'll have more on that later in
the season.
November 20, 2009:
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: I was talking to a local banker yesterday
and he made a comment that's worth repeating here. He credited it to a local farmer (I won't mention his name here,
but he'll probably know who he is).
Here it is:
Farmland is the only thing anyone can own
that produces steady, renewable income. You can mine gold, coal, oil, etc and
make money but once the product is sold, it’s gone, forever. Not so with land. If you take care of it, it will take care of you (and your
descendants, too) for as long as the sun shines and the rains fall. Just think of that! What other investment is like that?
We still have a few farms left to sell. Give us a call.
November 17, 2009:
Here's where the land market is going:
I attended a land auction yesterday. Missouri River bottomland, three tracts, all
were good, productive farms. The first
tract was the best
soil-wise.
It brought $8,100.00 per acre (no, that's not a typo). The second tract was good, too, but it had
some sandy soil and some non-tillable land.
It brought $5,400.00 per acre.
The third tract wasn't as good as the other two, but it was pretty
good. It brought $5,100.00 per acre.
Non-contingent cash deals closing before the
end of the year.
I expect to see more of this as the harvest finishes up and the farmers get a little time to think about something besides running a combine and fall working land.
October 29 2009
I started out to talk about how to evaluate row crop farmland, wrote all that follows and realized when I got done that I didn’t talk about that at all. I’ll try to do that again on my next set of bulletin board comments. Just read this below and it will make you want to own some land!
Row crop farmland is probably the best, simplest investment in real estate that a non-farm, non-real estate specialist-type person can make. It generally appreciates in value, doesn’t require lots of “hands on” management (professional management is generally easily obtained) and it doesn’t require large amounts of cash to maintain, once the original purchase is made. For those of you with cash in the bank that’s earning less than nothing in real terms at this time[1] it’s a very good way to diversify your investment portfolio, and get a dependable rate of return on investment. In addition, it’s a real asset. You can kick it, drive on it, etc and its not controlled by some investment banker in Wall Street. Nobody can predict what is going to happen to the value of the dollar right now, but ownership of land will give you some protection against a rapid decrease in the value of the dollar. One of these days it may take $500 to buy a loaf of bread and if that happens, that farm will still be producing at least the same rate of return in real terms that its producing now, maybe even better as the population continues to grow and food becomes harder to come by, even here in the United States. Its there, its been there for a long time and it will be there when we’re all long gone and forgotten. As long as world population keeps growing and eating, it will become a more valuable asset as time goes buy.
[1]
Less than nothing is not an exaggeration.
In real terms, interest rates being paid are less than zero when you
consider the devaluation of the dollar as compared to other world
currencies. At the end of the year,
your dollar, plus all the interest it earned will buy fewer goods and services
than it did at the beginning of the year.
And that’s not counting the tax you pay on the interest you receive.
October 26, 2009
Cash rents, early results:
We’ve got a few early indications on cash rents for the next couple years: Steady to higher. I’ve seen nothing to make me think we’ll see any softness in the
market for next year. We’ve done a
couple of renewals now and the prices per acre have been up in both cases. One was up about 12% and the other was up
about 10%. In addition, we’ve got
several good farmers out there who are looking hard for more land and that
makes me think we’ll see higher prices too.
As a landlord, though, you’ve got to be careful; the highest cash rent per acre
is not necessarily the best deal that a landlord can make. Lots of factors make for a good cash rent
contract and price per acre is just one of them. That’s where we can be of service; we generally know the farmers
and know which ones to avoid. Even if
we don’t know the farmer when we start, we know how he needs to be doing his
job and it doesn’t take us long to week out those who are doing a poor job.
We also know how to set up a good contract that will take care of the land and
maximize the landlords income on the farm, long term. In the 25-30 years we’ve been renting land for other people (and
for myself, too) we’ve learned of a lot of pitfalls and things to avoid if at
all possible. Sometimes these lessons
have been costly, but they’ve been learned one way or the other and you’ll get
the benefit of that sometimes tough experience if you hire us to manage your
poperty.
October 26, 2009
First in the series of bulletin board comments:
Okay, you’ve ready my earlier comments and you’re interested in buying a farm,
only trouble is you don’t know what to buy or how to go about figuring out
which farm investment is the one you’d like to start with.
Well, I’m going to try to give you some information on what type of farm to
buy, see if I can help you with your decision.
It’s a fairly complicated decision to make and it will take me a while
to present some of the things I’ve learned over the years so I’ll just do a
little bit each time I update this bulleting board for the next few weeks. You
can read it in sequence or however you’d like and maybe you’ll bet some
insights into what and where to look.
Buying a farm? Where do you start?
The first thing you have to think of is what is your need.
A. Are you looking for a hands off investment
that you’ll never see or know much about or are you looking for something you
can get involved in, spend some time with, and use for personal recreation and
or enjoyment?
B. Do you like to hunt, boat on
the river, etc?
C. Do you need
income from the investment each month or year, or can you live on what you make
elsewhere or re-invest whatever income the farm will produce to pay down debt
or make improvements to the property?
D. Do you have surplus income from
what ever you’re doing for a living to invest on a recreational property, one
that won’t necessarily produce much income but will provide you and your family
with a lot of enjoyment?
E. Do you have the time and
interest to spend looking after a fixing up a run-down property or do you want
it to more or less take care of itself?
The answers to these questions will hopefully give you an idea of where to
start.
I’ll start my next bulletin board comments with some thoughts on the row crop farmland, then work on through the other options in later ones. Keep checking back.
October 23, 2009
Did you hear on the news today that the current administration tried to exclude
Fox news from some kind of news conference yesterday? What on earth is
that all about? Before long they'll be telling us what we can read.
This and a tax on flatulence of cows and hogs. What is next?
The older I get the less I know!
October 14, 2009
IF YOU'VE GOT MONEY IN CD'S OR STOCKS, AN INVESTMENT IN FARMLAND LOOKS LIKE A
NO-BRAINER TO ME!!
Consider the following things:
Interest rates are at all time lows. If you've got any money in the bank you're
getting next to nothing.
Barnes Realty has several farms for sale that
will pay 4-5 per cent returns RIGHT NOW!
Not only that, but the money is paid in the form of cash rent IN
ADVANCE, March 1st of the year. That
means you can invest your money and get a 4-5 per cent return on it in less
than two months, then earn that same
5 per cent each year thereafter (And that does not consider any potential
increase in land values due to appreciation and/or inflation).
It’s even okay if you don't know a thing
about farmland. Barnes Realty does farm
management, too, so we can look after it for you.
When you look at rising in government
spending and consider the resulting inflation that we'll undoubtedly see in the
years ahead, then consider all the stuff you've heard before about world
population growth and the shrinkage of the amount of tillable land every year,
(not even counting all the corn that is going into ethanol) It looks like land
is something you should consider. The
beauty of it is you can get in for not a huge amount of money and make land a
part of your investment portfolio. Give
us a call or send us an email.
Have we got a deal for you!
Rick Barnes
660-572-0018
September 17th, 2009.
I'm gonna start with an update on the real estate business, then I'll do some
venting down toward the bottom of today's comments.
We have several new listings right now:
1800 acres prime row crop farmland! Several tracts in three states.
Lots of good improvements and income potential.
240 acres prime pasture and hunting land in the Forbes, Missouri area. It
joins another 250 acres that we've already had for sale for a while, making
more than 500 acres of some of the best hunting land you'll find anywhere.
More new listings are coming in the next few weeks, too. So keep in touch.
We have several buyers who are looking for various types of land at this time,
too. If you've got something you are thinking of selling, give us a call.
Agricultural real estate sales have been only slightly impacted by the big
economic downturn of the last 16 months, commodity prices have remained high,
input costs have dropped and interest rates are reasonable. Good,
productive farmland has remained in great demand right through the whole thing
for several reasons:
Lots of people are afraid that we'll have runaway inflation once the economy
finally gets rolling again on account of the huge, unprecedented increase in
the money supply we've seen. Do you want your money in land or in the
stock market?
Between ethanol and world population growth demand for our products remains
high. Agricultural commodities are becoming this country's major sources
of money inflow from the remainder of the world. We don't seem to export
much of anything else anymore.
Interest rates are low, especially on certificates of deposit and passbook
savings accounts so no one is too anxious to convert good farmland into
cash. They're better off owning the land and earning the rental income
than having the money in the bank, especially if we do see inflation a couple
of years down the road.
In short, supply is down and demand is up. If you've got a farm that
you're thinking of selling, give us a call! We need the listings and we can
sell most types of land right now if it’s priced right. We're even seeing
an increase in demand for pasture and recreational land, which has been
terribly slow for the last year or so.
Now for my venting:
We're in a new world, a new one all right. Massive, unprecedented government
spending on all sorts of to me useless programs (I have yet to see one thin
dime of benefit for me and my family with all these programs, bailouts, cash
for clunkers programs, etc). Maybe I'd feel better about it if I was
getting some of the benefits, but you know how that goes. Actually, I
think I'm pretty happy just taking care of myself and my family, thank
you. It’s fun, it’s challenging, and it keeps me feeling young and in the
game, out of the beer joint.
I don't know what to think about the health care reform bill other than the
fact that I have a strong gut feeling that I don't like it. I'm in a high
risk group and I pay through the nose for my health insurance now, so a new
policy might save me some money, but I just look at every other program that
the government has dreamed up to help one or the other of us. Once they
get started they just grow and grow and get less and less efficient.
Before long everyone will be on the government's payroll and who's gonna earn
any money and pay taxes for producing anything then.
I heard Obama say on television in one of his speeches (it seems to me that he
is spending more time giving speeches than working. Has anyone else
noticed that besides me?) that he would never sign a health care bill that
increases the deficit even one dime. The office of management and budget
predicts that this bill will increase costs by some number like 2 trillion
(whatever amount that is) dollars, but the president says no increased deficit.
That means only one thing; more taxes and who's gonna pay more taxes, the
"very rich" that's who (I'm beginning to think of our president as
Robin Hood). Only trouble is that with inflation and both spouses working
just to get along, most of us are ending up in those higher tax brackets paying
more taxes than the rich used to. It will reach a point one of these days
when we'll all just give up trying to make any money and let the government
take care of us, too.
Somehow we've got to get over this idea that it’s the government's
responsibility to take care of every poor, disadvantaged person in the
country. That's not what the founding fathers had in mind when they
revolted from England and that's not the direction we should be going now.
And don't even get me started on carbon credits and windmills!
Rick Barnes
660-572-0018
July 3, 2009
The farmland selling business has been slow, like nearly every other form of economic endeavor, but we haven’t seen a crash like we saw in the stock market late last summer; as a matter of fact, I can’t say I’ve seen much of a drop in the value of good land at all. Good farmland is still in great demand, and there are plenty of buyers out there for a good row crop farm. We’ve had the opportunity to sell a number of the higher quality farms this year, and we had several “simultaneous offers” on some of these farms. That’s unusual; normally we’ll get one or maybe two such deals a year, but this year we had several. We also saw several auctions that brought simply stunning prices.
On the other side of the coin, we saw several “no sales” during the season, and very little pasture-hunting land has sold. We actually attempted to auction a conservation reserve program-hunting tract and only one person showed up for the sale. That’s right, only one person was there, except for a few bankers and some other realtors (Interestingly though, we ended up selling this particular farm a month or two after the sale and we had simultaneous offers on it when it sold). If you’re an owner of one of those farms and you want to sell, you need to be prepared to take less than you were thinking a year ago. Call me and we’ll discuss it.
The stock market is up from its low of a few months ago and hopefully it will continue to improve. The loss of all the value in the stock market is a catastrophe for those baby boomers from the city who were planning on retiring, living the good life on their 401K plans. Most of those folks are now deferring their retirement, deferring the purchase of a new car, and deferring repairs and maintenance on their homes. This is all bad and all those folks need to get a little of their savings back.
Things are looking up over last fall though and I hope they will continue to improve. Unemployment is above 10 per cent and that’s bad, but remember, 90 per cent of us are working and there are some real bargains out there in nearly everything we might like to buy if you’ve got any money to spend, and lots of Americans do have money, waiting to be invested in something.
I am currently looking for the following:
A good upland farm in the western side of Holt or southwest Atchison County, Missouri
I have several persons who are looking for Missouri River bottomland farms in Holt and Atchison County, Missouri.
I am working for a buyer from Colorado who is looking for a good row crop farm in Northwest Missouri, Southeast Iowa.
I have a couple of buyers who would like to find a good bottom farm in the Hamburg-Nebraska City area of the Missouri River bottom.
If you have anything like this that you would be interested
in selling, give me a call.
660-572-0018 is my cell phone.
A Couple of New Listings:
http://www.barnesrealty.com/brown_gordon/webpsheet_brown_gordon.htm
http://www.barnesrealty.com/Kurtz_Chris/webpsheet_kurtz.htm
02/19/09
We don’t normally promote other persons thoughts and comments but this link
takes you to something you absolutely have to see.
Listen/watch the video to see what Rick is talking about.
12/31/08
AUCTION!
AUCTION!
We've got an auction coming up in Missouri January
14 at the Klub in Mound City. So far, we're selling four tracts: Two nice 80 acre row crop farms, a 20 acre
tract of native timberland north and northeast of Mound City, and a 72 acre
CRP-hunting parcel north of Forest City. All are good for what they are, and
all have motivated owners so take a look at these on our web site and feel free
to check with us for more information or to arrange a showing. Plan to come to the sale and buy some land. These are good, smaller tracts of land and
they will all make good investment property.
The
72 acres is subject to prior sale (we are
working to sell it privately, too).
Keep checking this site as we may get a couple more tracts before the
sale date.
My thoughts on the recession:
We all know that the economy is in the tank,
the car companies are broke and then there's that Madoff guy and the giant
ponzi scheme. Will the troubles ever
end? the answer is YES, YES, YES! We're all getting a huge boost in our weekly
income; you'll see it every time you fill up your car with gas.
Oil is actually below 40 per barrel and my
heart is bleeding for the big oil companies and opec. Like I said last month, every time I buy gas I end up with a
little money in my pocket that would have gone into the tank last summer.
With Obama in office and all the other
problems I don't expect him to mess with our farm programs too
unfavorably. He was a senator from
Illinois you know and I hope he's closer to the farm business than McCain was. Only time will tell.
We're seeing some rebound in our commodity
prices again thank goodness and I expect fertilizer costs to be way down by
spring.
Who wants any part of that crummy stock
market. This last deal finished me; all
of us out here in the "outlands" are the very end of the tail of the
dog; The only time we'll make any money in that market is after everyone who is
on the inside has made all they can stand and want to dribble out a little to
us. I'd lots rather own land! People have to eat, there are
more people every day, and guess what? They are not making any more land.
November 21, 2008:
Everyone talks about all these government bailouts. You and I don’t see any of that money but I sure see some every time I fill up my car. I filled up my gas tank last night. It cost $1.59 per gallon and the total bill was $23.00. That means I’ve got about $37.00 more dollars in my pocket than I did when I filled up my tank in August. What did I do with the savings? I went to a restaurant and ate a nice dinner with my family. Next time I fill up, I might go out and buy a new pair of pants. Who knows? This drop in fuel price is going to do us more good than all those federal programs put together.
I just heard a guy on television say that the markets had dropped over 50 % since the big government bail out and if that was a rescue, he’d appreciate it if the government would please stop helping him. Amen!
The farm sector seems to be moving along without too much distress at this time. Next year’s cash rents are already coming in at least as strong as they were last year, sometimes higher (I know, by saying this I’m driving up cash rents, see my October 18 farm management comments below). We have lots of interest in buying land from investors and farmers alike and prices seem to be solid. Not as high as they were this spring at planting time when commodity prices were at record highs, but there is still a good market and prices are strong.
I heard indirectly of a no-sale yesterday, but I don’t have any details. If I get any more information, I’ll report it here.
We have a couple of new properties for sale up in Iowa. Both are very good upland farms. Call us for more information if you’re interested.
November 6, 2008
Obama made it. First non-white president in history. This year was the toughest choice I’ve ever had to make. I didn’t like either candidate. On the surface, it looks like Obama is going to be pro-farm, at least. McCain wasn’t pro-farm at all. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens (like we’ve got any other choice now! We’re living in interesting times, for sure.
Stock Market, Banking Crisis, Commoditites, and how its all effecting the farm industry:
The stock market appeared to have hit a low and started up, but as I write this, it’s trending downward again. Obama’s election hasn’t done much for the overall market to date. It’s sort of like the $700 billion bailout that we “had to have”.
All the world banks have drastically lowered their published interest rates; the prime rate here in America is now 1.5 per cent, same as it was right after the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. That should be good, right? Go talk to your lender and see what the current interest rate is! Rates for us common borrowers are HIGHER. Why? Nobody will tell me anything that makes any sense. They don’t talk about this too much on the morning business shows either.
There have been several public auctions of farmland since the crash. All but one have been really strong. And that one seems to be an exception, not the rule. There was only one buyer there that day, and about fifteen observers. Half of them were real estate sales people or bankers.
It’s a little early to report cash rents, but from the information I’ve been hearing, those numbers are going to stay high, too.
In summary, my world seems about the same as it was back in the summer before the recession.
October 18, 2008:
We got our first test of the market since the big stock market crash at a land auction today. Three upland farms sold at public auction in Atchison County, MO. Prices ranged from $2600 per acre up to $3250 per acre. They had less than top quality soils, but they were in good condition and the higher priced one had some improvements. One of the farms sold to a couple of neighboring farmers, one sold to two out of state investors who had other land in the area, and one sold to one of the heirs of the estate.
THESE FARMS SOLD FOR ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE WORTH BEFORE THE CURRENT FINANCIAL MESS! See my coments on the financial mess below, October 17, 2008
Most of you know that we do a lot of farm management. We maintain an email list of farmers who are interested in renting ground and we regularly send out emails to everyone on that list, notifying of new farms for rent and describing recent trends in the business. My son is currently working to rent his father in law’s land for the 2009 farming season. Last week he sent out an email notification to everyone on our list advising that the land is available for rent. Most of the responses that we are gettting back are from farmers with the typical questions like, location, soils, tillable acres, etc. Most of the time, but not always. Here are some direct excerpts from one my son got last week in response to his email notification:
dear sir-since corn is spiraling down towards $3.00 per bushel i am wondering what you are saying about cash rent levels? It cost around $3.00 per bushel to raise corn, so that makes land worth nearly zero for cash rent. You promote huge cash rents, and you just make it tougher for us legitimate farmers to make a living and to contract a fair cash rent. You are so full of it! We all see the quality of the farmers you contract with such as ************! I have relatives around Mound City, and they tell me of your worthless reputation! The farmers around here want nothing to do with you. Please take my name off your email list!
Sad to say, we get an email or a letter like this every now and then. In every case so far, its from someone we’ve never done any business with and the gist of the letter is always the same; there is no profit in farming; Barnes Realty is promoting “huge cash rents”; and we’re making it very hard for “legitimate farmers” (like them) to get land rented at a fair cash rent (fair to whom)[2].
To all of you out there who think this way I’d like to make a few points. No apologies, just a few points:
Anyhow, the guy is now off our list. He’s only going to get one more email from Barnes Realty and it will be a link to this bulletin board page.
October 17, 2008
Stock Market Crash? Banking Crisis? Steep slide in commodity prices? How’s that going to affect those of us who are in farming? Here’s my thoughts:
Stock Market Crash: This crash is not the crushing financial burden for us that it is to the city guy who owns only his own home and has his retirement savings in stocks, bonds, and other forms of paper. Most people in the farming business don’t own many stocks. There’s too many things to spend any excess cash on like tractors, fertilizer, terraces, land payments, etc. If they do own stocks, its generally with surplus cash, not life savings. For most of us, this crash hasn’t cost us a dime.
Banking Crisis: Nearly everyone associated with farming including their bankers almost went broke or did go broke in the early eighties thanks to a whole bunch of things that were totally out of our control. Things like the grain embargo; record high interest rates, retroactive changes in the tax code and on and on. We emerged from that mess a much smarter and conservative group. As a consequence we’re now one of the strongest sectors of the economy. Farm debt is extremely low as a percentage of net worth. Most of us bank locally or with one of the Farm Credit Banks around the country. These lenders were not in the sub prime loan business. Furthermore, the bad times had made them all cash flow lenders: Not only did you have to have net worth, but you had to be able to demonstrate that you had sufficient income to pay back the money they were loaning you. In short, most of our lenders are solid and money is available for the farm sector, if you’re a good credit risk.
The steep decline in commodity prices: This is the hard one: Last summer, we witnessed the biggest run up in commodity prices ever. World food demand, ethanol, and the generally hot economies in Asia an elsewhere, plus institutional fund investment all worked together to feed the run up. This feeding frenzy has ended for a while and we’ve got commodities more in line with their historical trends. That’s the bad news. Now for the good: A month ago, we were all complaining about input costs. These will be affected by the crash too. Crude oil is less than half its high price last summer. That will translate into cheaper fuel and fertilizer costs. World population is not declining and all us people gotta eat. Last but not least, its just before harvest and it seems like prices always get driven down just before harvest.
My guess is these markets are at their lows right now and that they will start working back up after the harvest is in. We may not see prices at levels like last summer for a while, but we’re not going to be squashed like a bug on the windshield either.
In short, we may come out of this mess better than any other sector of the economy.
October 1, 2008
My thoughts on this current economic crisis.
I don’t understand.
For the last ten or more years numerous shady mortgage brokers have been originating some of the dumbest loans I’ve seen in all my years in the business. I’m just a backwoods country broker; certainly not as smart as some of these “suits” in the banking business think they are, but it was obvious to me that lots of these loans were very shakey from the day they were made. I was on the opposite side of these deals (Its my job to sell the property for the seller, not worry about whether or not the buyer can pay for it.) but I knew that lots of them were bad.
If I knew they were bad, why didn’t the people in the financial business, those who were responsible for the quality and security of the loans that they were making know it, too? Well, I think that they did know and just kept right on making more and more. It was like a giant pyramid scheme.
Now all that’s coming unraveled just like I figured it would and these big banks are failing right and left. Not all the banks mind you, just the ones who made or participated in these really dumb loans. Our leaders are on television telling us how bad off we’ll be if these lending institutions fail and telling us we need to bail them all out by having the government assume this bad debt.
This is where I start getting confused. Maybe I’ll be less so if someone can answer the following questions:
These leaders are trying to tell me that the government is going to assume a majority ownership in these bankrupt banks and companies, in return for its efforts and that the public will therefore be a participant in the profits when these companies “turn around”. What is half of zero?
What in the H___ is the government going to do with all this bad paper and all the foreclosed houses?
How is the failure of Washington Mutual going to affect me? Shucks, I’d never heard the name until a couple of weeks ago.
Why should the American taxpayer “rescue” these idiots?
Where were all these leaders and smart guys while all this bad stuff was happening?
Why should we listen to these folks now when just a few weeks ago they were telling us how good things were going?
If I go broke out here selling real estate, will the government come in and assume all my obligations? (this isn’t a fair question because I know the answer to this one)
Like I said, I just don’t understand.
Land sales continue to be strong. There seem to be multiple buyers for nearly any kind of good land. This circumstance can make a public auction a good way to sell a farm if you’ve got a marketable tract of land or if you’ve got an immediate need to move a property quickly.
Barnes Realty sells land at public auction, and we do it differently than most of the competition. No need to go into all the details here, BE SURE YOU TALK TO US BEFORE YOU DO SOMETHING. There’s no obligation, and we won’t steer you in any direction, we’ll just discuss what may be best for you in your specific situation, and it’s completely confidential. That’s all we do around here, LAND SALES.
DO YOU HAVE LAND IN A “C” CORPORATION THAT YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO SELL BECAUSE OF THE TAXES YOU’LL OWE?
We can help you sell the property in such a way that you will minimize the taxes.
[1] Less than nothing is not an exaggeration. In real terms, interest rates being paid are less than zero when you consider the devaluation of the dollar as compared to other world currencies. At the end of the year, your dollar, plus all the interest it earned will buy fewer goods and services than it did at the beginning of the year. And that’s not counting the tax you pay on the interest you receive.
[2]This particular writer was quite a bit more vitriolic than most though, he went on to run down every farmer who has ever rented a farm from us, even named one specifically (we left that name out) and ended up smearing our reputation, telling us how nobody wanted anything to do with us. I think he’s wrong. One thing that is pretty certain; it doesn’t sound like I’m going to make any more money from him in the future than I’ve made from him in the past; nothing; zero.