This isn’t the blog about last week that I hoped to write.
For more than a month, I had Dec. 4 circled on the calendar. I cleared the evening and begged off an officiating assignment to be available to attend a land auction.
The farm isn’t right across the road from my house, but at less than 3/8 of a mile, I can certainly see it. It adjoins other property that we farm. Good dirt that close to home is always going to catch our attention. In fact, we didn’t even consider two or three other land auctions this fall because they were farther from home.
This farm was in four parcels, totaling just less than 100 acres (99% tillable with no improvements), sold as an entirety Thursday night for just over $14,000 per acre. We were runners-up bidders on the entirety as well as lead bidders in an unsuccessful combination bid. The other farms that have sold (including one private party deal) this fall have been in the same price range. Prices per acre were: $11,700 with a few improvements, $11,700 with some woods, $13,000-plus bare land, and $19,000 with a large house and multiple buildings.
The six or seven active bidders on this auction were enough to push the sale price to the point where we couldn’t make it work for what we wanted to do. I know I will be asked today how I slept. The answer is I slept fine, except for the box of Christmas ornaments falling off the couch in the middle of the night! LOL.
We will continue to pursue opportunities when they arise as we want to expand and improve our portfolio. It can be a long, slow process. Patience is required.
I’ll end with a quick story about another time we attended a land auction. Several years ago, we were in the same position at a real estate auction. After the sale concluded, a gentleman walked up to us and said: “I see you were the runner up bidders—" Before noon the next day we had settled on a price and signed a contract for his parent’s estate. Years later, this farm is consistently at the top of our non-irrigated farms.
You just never know how things are going to turn out!