County Fare

Finance is a dirty !@#$%

Friday, April 2nd, 2010 | County Fare Site, Minnesota

OK we’ll just say it’s a dirty word. After talking with the wonderful, seriously they want to help, people with the FSA concerning a beginning farm loan we have been told that land purchases are more difficult to get funded through the beginning farm programs. This combined with the fact that time is ticking away and moving anything through govt. is slower than snails racing, yes yes I’m all for the slow movement but in agriculture there are a few times a year when you need to be ready to go, such as spring, is why we have decided to make a purchase on our own.

First, I’d like to write a bit about our decision to purchase. While this isn’t the only option we feel it is right for us at this time. Mainly because home rentals are equal or greater in monthly cost than purchasing. Also, if we were to find the perfect rental we would still not be able to easily make improvements to the property that are necessary.

So we have decided to take matters into our own hands and purchase a small piece of property and possibly put a manufactured home on it. This option allows us to get in on time and under budget. Plus we can get started with our soil and composting projects lickety split. The more we discuss this the more we find reasons why it seems like the right thing to do. For example:

1. low cost of ownership (20 acres a home and cost to put in utilities is under half of purchasing a small farm ready to go)
2. low start up cost allow us to funnel more resources into production
3. we get to design our farm (very exciting! farming is DIY paradise)

But, none of the local banks are into financing trailers; I wonder if I could call it pre-fab and get warmer reception? :^D Even thought this option brings our purchase price and payments down to more reasonable the terms of financing aren’t as friendly as with the FSA and it introduces non-local banking business to our plan. Waiting is starting to sound better.

We’ll be weighing the pros and cons here to see what the best option is.

Pros:

1. low cost of ownership
2. more resources for production
3. build what we want as we go
4. get to start now

Cons:

1. financing terms aren’t as nice (fine print from more than one entity yuck)
2. non-local business involvment

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