Farms as "Timeshare condos"..?
We're now entering the final month of setup on a small farm project that has been a long time in the planning and practice stages. One of the principles we expect to work the best for us is that of "equity investment partnerships.
Wandering the real estate web and looking at current farm settings we came across this little item and it gelled a lot of confused thinking. We'd like to share it. Maybe you could use it.
" $18,900.00 MLS®# H3009291
Gorgeous 1 bdrm annual 1 week timeshare at magnificent Grandview Vacation Villege resort in Las Vagas. Unit inc fully appointed kitch,LR-DR,lrg bedroom,4 pc bath,2 TV's,linens maid service,all appl.Access to pool/spas. Enjoy gltiz&glamour of Vegas. Over 3700 vacation resorts for poss trade opt.Current selling for $23000US on site
And we thought..now what if a small group, a family where to pool resources and buy this:
(...that is to say , instead of a week in a Vegas Hotel, how about every weekend in your own Victorian nicety for considerably less..fresh vegetables ..free range eggs.. fresh baking. )
There's a larger reason than holiday escapes in all this.
Capital markets are confused. Real estate and farming are unstable. This is a good time for small circles, family and friends to pool resources, to invest in a family farm "condo" or "timeshare" with an agricultural objective.
This year would be advisable...in time for the spring planting of vegetable gardens. Just a suggestion of course.
Farms are presently a bargain hunters paradise. I doubt this will last long. If the oil based economies, climate change, population, resource factors are not resolved, currency markets collapse and the currency of the ruling systems become irrelevant. Only that wealth that has converted the illusion of currency into food growing land and supporting communities before that happens will sustain us. I suggest this as a margin against that probability.
So...
We've taken recently to farm browsing and country drives on the computer. We're scoping the agricultural real estate landscape of southern Ontario.
This week, a Victorian Gothic 1870's fantasy mansion on 25 acres, oodles of barns, a large pond, can be found for the same price as an average house in Oakville or Burlington. A 100 acre country retreat with a large collection of restorable buildings can be had for the same price as a bungalow on Hamilton Mountain.
We've found ours. A tiny farm setting perfect for working out the engineering of simple objectives at a family scale.
These affordably priced dreams are practical and possible for those with social balance beyond the ordinary. These of course are skills which we must sharpen in our on the job training unfolding this year. We know it requires the ability to work with diverse personalities common to families and collections of mongrel earthlings.
The bottom line is that it requires an empathy for gardening, a rational perspective on food as currency. It requires an understanding of land and buildings as potentially "real" and perennial family estates.
The family farm can be and should be a "hedge bet" against the cyclic nature of economies and empires. The fact that so few recognize that fact does not bode well for the civilization.
If you are however a practical thinker and feel you can muster the time sharing investment resources from family and friends, look for a place that has substantial salvageable outbuildings, a large, character main house and at least 15 acres perhaps as much as 100 acres with ponds, streams and some bush. You do not want an "agribusiness" profile.
I would suggest in a senior's moment that you take someone with you that has construction and farming know how. Be modest.
Don’t be afraid to admit that your professional experience may experientially challenged when it comes to farms. The Master’s in Education, Psychology, Systems Programming or Mechanical Engineering is an abstract when faced with assessing soil tilth and the viability of 150 year old hand-adzed trunnel jointed frames with rough sawn timber planking.
Gardening is an ancient science evolved over the evolution of our common tribes. Much of that science is visceral, genetic and folklore based in earthwalking experience. Don't be intimidated by it..it is part of your soul. It kind of grows on you and within you.
Gardening is a healing art.
The garden requires our attention., needs our touch.
The garden heals the land, feeds us and our souls.
We dream the garden and
perhaps the garden dreams us.
dormant farm buildings: a motley collection of historical but sad looking relics..restorable to my eye but slated for destruction.
Where do you start?
This is personal theory, but I believe a good place to start.
Once you grasp the importance, the nut and kernel of the concept a financing platform begins with partners. You need to bind the idea of land and buildings into a financial community first.
For example, find a half dozen founding directors with the skills required by your community family farm, capable and willing to invest $10,000 each towards a down payment on the project. (You can refer to more detailed outlines of directorship skills, project outlines, share structure suggestions etc. in the garden club notes on this "blog")
The cash investment is the act of faith, the job only begins there. For each investor you seek must also be willing to sit down with the the others , form a board of directors and build that creative critical path to secure the long term.
Growing that critical path is as important as the gardens which are the objective.
Typically, the multi-tasking family Don, a Tribal Chief, a Corporate CEO is the model envisioned and shall I say "Trumped" as the most important factor. Not many of us are wired that way and we can't wait for the Messiah in business suit to make that community stability we require or to anchor that family farm for us. So partner with other earthlings and merge to become that "multitasking" family farm managment unit.
A typical situation could start with two or three working residents willing to "lease" working and/or living spaces and to pay rents towards the building investment "trust fund". The overhead, maintenance and long term objectives included in the first stages of planning must all be considered.
The main consideration of course is that some one has to know how to seed, tend, harvest and preserve food. That may not be the same person who fixes the barn or cooks meals.
The objective requires at least one director with an understanding of critical path mapping and detailed planning of large building and business projects. This may not be the same person with the field management skills to keep the front lines organized.
The third level of skills are the hands on trades, soil management, organic gardening and naturopathic animal husbandry sense.
The largest component is readily available enthusiastic earthlings with practical hands on skills or a desire to learn and be useful. A large part of that energy can be hired and paid for with "food" and perhaps even "shelter" credits issued by the farm in return for work ..pay an honest living wage to yourselves. Measure your product by the real time market around you.
The farm site should have large libraries, study areas, high speed computer links to the outside world to protect it against the pathologies of cultural autism and social introversion. A fact which I determined from watching ecovillage communities over the last 20 years and comparisons with similar farm community struggles during the 1930's. Keep the setting "metaphysically neutral" and simple: one blood, one spirit. Things will hold together and thrive for much longer.
Further startup capital could be raised by selling "food credits" in 100.00 to 1,000.00 units redeemable in the season for which they are issued. The crop planning obviously has to exceed the amount of credits issued.. Thousand dollar units could be extended over two years.
The "club" or investing group would control the main house in this scenario. The conversion of an outbuilding into a 6-800 sq foot 2 bedroom "cottage" for an office, library and private space for site caretakers would be advisable. Each setting will have variations determined by the footprint of existing buildings.
The long term mapping wants to include passive energy greenhouses, living water systems, composting toilets, off the grid engineering, masonry stoves for heating/baking and a host of other small details easily determined from networking, the web, and events like the University of Guelph’s Organic Growers conferences.
Outbuildings can be restored and upgraded for workshops, craft shops, food preparation and packing, dormitories, and guest houses for working visitors, camp outs and holidaying family folks using their credits towards recreational facilities and "bed and breakfast".
The main house can serve as the "club house" offices, community library and community kitchen. A separate seniors residence with facilities for one or two seniors should also be considered.
Personally, I would insist on a 100% equity financing objective. Farming can’t think clearly with the proverbial "Sword of Damocles" of a mortgage hanging over the family farm...particularly when all currency is under such severe stress. A simple manoeuvre during a currency collapse and you may be working for a bank again.
I would suggest a minimum startup with a half dozen $10,000.00 investors, i.e. no more seeding investors than bedrooms. $60,000.00 is sufficient for the average down payment and closing fees. Attracting sufficient capital to convert the asset to 100% equity should be everyone’s modest and realizable first year objective. How you do that is the fine tuning relative to your group. Just that it is sound thinking to make it top priority.
Each founding investor in this scenario buys a right to live in one of the bedrooms and use of the main house, or can use investment credits to pre-book a space for visitors in a family private bed and breakfast arrangement. You may have to cook your own breakfast. The investment can also be construed as a back hedge bet, a reserve base of operations for an extended family.
A family farm, whether it be friends, co-workers or family is a wiser investment than gold. At minimum you can grow your own food and sleep in a passive solar greenhouse under the moon.
Flamborough greenhouse, from our "homeless period" ..with backup wood stove, a cot for those long winter frost watch nights. Sometimes the full moon floating overhead.
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