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What was the best land purchase you have ever made?

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    What was the best land purchase you have ever made?

    I am interested in farmland and real estate and love to hear how guys made some great deals that worked out well...

    Share them here if you have a good one?

    #2
    The best deals in my area are the
    quarters of land that people bought
    twenty years ago, and are now
    subdividing them into country
    residential parcels and selling each one
    for triple the price they paid for the
    land. I don't agree with this practice
    and our municipality is very lax in
    their land use planning as far as
    protecting better agricultural land but
    some of people in the community are
    making a killing, or were until things
    slowed down. There is a glut of acreages
    on the market here now.

    Comment


      #3
      coppertop where abouts do you live. Here in Southwestern Ontario we have very strict rules designed to prevent what is happening around you. My family has 200 acres and the only way I can build on the 200 is if we severe 100 acres. Sounds as though new rules are needed.

      Comment


        #4
        I am in west central Alberta. The
        resource based economy in our
        municipality has put pressure on
        agriculture land by people wanting to
        live in a rural setting but not on a
        farm. This has happened to the
        detriment of the livestock producers who
        are now dealing with trespassing,
        complaints about generally accepted
        farming practices such as spreading
        manure, hauling silage and weaning
        calves. The conflict between the two
        landuses is great, plus the added
        pressure on the environment due to
        numerous on site sewage systems, some
        that have already failed, plus the
        number of water wells in the area. I
        agree that people need a choice in where
        they want to live but if we aren't going
        to protect the better agricultural land
        and the right to farm by our existing
        producers then agriculture really isn't
        a valued industry.
        As you may have notices, I am passionate
        about this and all land use issues.

        Comment


          #5
          I couldnt agree with you more. The same thing is happening here. City people move to rural communities thinking that they have the right to ask for these changes. Its quite disgusting that our Gov't allows this to happen. Nothing pisses me off more then some idiot trespassing, be it for hunting, growing pot etc. They damage crops and have little or no regard for other peoples property. Keep up with the passion, it becomes a major problem when people become complacent and lose the passion.

          Comment


            #6
            I am a municipal councillor, and have
            voted against development adjacent to
            large livestock operations due to the
            potential for conflict. People don't
            understand that the silage wagon will
            start going by their nice little house
            in the country every morning at 6:00,
            and they will smell silage all day in
            the crisp winter air. They don't realize
            that the farmer has to follow rules in
            Alberta with respect to spreading
            manure, and those rules include his
            being allowed to spread up to the
            property line if he intends on
            incorporating the manure. I get calls
            from people complaining about the dust
            along a silage haul, and those calls are
            never from a farmer, always from someone
            who moved to the country from town and
            didn't understand what sort of
            activities go on in a rural setting. Our
            county hands out a Rural Living Guide
            with every subdivision, and it clearly
            states the obvious such as: If you live
            on an acreage you may need to own a
            tractor because you are NOT going to
            automatically be plowed out in a
            snowstorm. It also deals with the dogs
            running at large issue, although I am
            afraid that sometimes falls on deaf
            ears. At our Municipal Planning
            Commission meetings we hear all about
            conflicts between neighbours, mainly due
            to dogs running at large bothering
            livesstock. The odd time the neighbours
            don't like each other because one of
            them ran off with the neighbours wife,
            but those situations aren't as prevalent
            as the dogs running at large. LOL !!!!!

            Comment


              #7
              The opportunity to sell your land for development is really only an option in a few spots close to cities and towns...

              As farms get bigger, I see fewer rural folks as most of the houses are being bulldozed. I think we should allow some splitting off of the homes with the land to try and keep the rural population up in certain areas?

              Comment


                #8
                I have never objected to the farmer
                taking out his farmstead as an acreage.
                In our municipality the farmstead parcel
                can be no more than 15 acres, which
                allows the person to have some livestock
                if they wish.
                This coming week our Agricultural
                Service Board is going to be discussing
                a recommendation to council which will
                see no acreage development allowed
                within the Minimum Distance Separation
                from any confined feeding operation. It
                is difficult to explain to some
                councillors who have an urban background
                and don't understand that allowing
                acreages near feedlots, hog barns,
                dairies etc. only creates conflicting
                situations, and hampers the farmers
                right to be able to carry out normal
                operations.

                Comment


                  #9
                  "This coming week our Agricultural
                  Service Board is going to be discussing
                  a recommendation to council which will
                  see no acreage development allowed
                  within the Minimum Distance Separation
                  from any confined feeding operation."

                  As a youngerish farmer I have always thought that if worse comes to worse I can bail myself out by subdividing a piece and generating cashflow. Whether to keep farming seriously or hobby farm and work off-farm year round I was not sure.

                  If you stop subdivision within boundaries of CFO's I will have to fight any new CFO to the bitter end. Even though they buy my feed grains and I buy manure it would drop my land value significantly if they encroached onto my subdividable area.

                  Now that I think about it I better apply to subdivide any potential sites now before you change the regs.

                  I assume the county councillors (and anybody else in the know, er, I mean with forsight) have already done this for themselves over the past couple years?

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Actually, Ron on our council no-one has
                    subdivided any land. With respect to not
                    allowing acreages within the setback of
                    a CFO, if you don't have any CFO's near
                    you then you don't have a problem at
                    this time.
                    How many people to you know that would
                    want to live within the Minimum Distance
                    Setback of a CFO, eg acreage owners ?
                    The MDS is considered to be the area
                    necessary for the least impact of odor
                    from a CFO. Personally, I don't know
                    anyone who would want to live that close
                    to a hog barn, or other CFO with the
                    exception of perhaps a poultry
                    operation. In the days where people are
                    building million dollar houses on their
                    acreages it is difficult to understand
                    why anyone would want to put that
                    investment beside an operation where
                    there would be significant odor, dust,
                    manure spreading etc., that is why I
                    support no acreage development within
                    the MDS of existing CFO's. They need to
                    be able to operate and expand without
                    being hampered by country residential
                    parcels located too close. These CFO's
                    also include multi species operations
                    such as Hutterite Colonies.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Actually I do have several CFO's around me and part of my "technically subdividable" parcels are within the minimum distance.
                      The operators of the CFO's are good people, respectful operators and I have noticed an odour probably less than 5 days a year due to injection or immediate incorporation (for good agronomics not to appease the neighbors) so I dont know why anybody would mind living near them.
                      I believe that at the present moment I need agreement from the CFO to subdivide? I can deal with that (the hog barns were there when I was a kid), but if the rules are changed so I have no option of subdivision in that area it would change my retirement/bailout plan considerably and I would have to fight it.
                      What about first parcel out in the MDS? Fragmented parcels?
                      I am not trying to pick a fight but this is going to affect a lot of people if it goes through and the current land value in central alberta is tied to acreages. I see the county council as retired landowners that want to prevent change and keep things as they were 20 years ago, I dont see any young people having influence on the decisions that are forced upon them.
                      If the current regulations were enforced properly I dont think any reasonable person would have a problem living in a MDS, the problem is there are rules with zero enforcement. Just a waste of paper. ie. incorporation of manure, just before BSE there was talk of soil testing before and after manure application to prevent groundwater contamination.
                      Custom operators that run commercial operations with farm fuel, farm plates, no safety inspections and no maximum hours of service are crazy.
                      The county has better places to look than limiting and lowering my property values.
                      Covered way to much here, it must be a sore spot. Sorry but acreage owners arent the only problem.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Ron your county likely has completely
                        different rule than ours does. The
                        Agricultural Operations Practices Act
                        sets out the regulations for CFO's in
                        Alberta. Municipalities are required to
                        develop their own Land Use By-Laws and
                        Municipal Development Plan which will
                        indicate how many parcels may be
                        subdivided per quarter section of land.
                        Most municipalities allow one parcel,
                        the farmstead as an automatic
                        subdivision. Many are now not allowing
                        subdivision within the MDS of CFO's
                        because of the issues that both parties
                        face, conflicting land uses, trespassing
                        on property, ATV's, snow machines,
                        complaints about odor and dust etc. In
                        our municipality the CFO operators spend
                        hours each week dealing with frivilous
                        complaints from neighbours who do not
                        understand generally accepted farming
                        practices. CFO operators have provided
                        dust control for their neighbours, have
                        changed their silage haul routes and
                        drive miles out of their way to appease
                        complaining neighbours. This costs the
                        CFO operator a lot of money which
                        normally would not be necessary his
                        farmer neighbours don't complain about
                        the dust and the silage trucks ! As far
                        as councillors being retired people not
                        embracing change, I disagree with you
                        wholeheartedly. There is nothing
                        stopping young people from running for
                        municipal councils, in fact next year is
                        election year so maybe consider putting
                        your name on the ballot. Our county has
                        numerous leading edge developments, as
                        do many others. Any county that does not
                        embrace new ideas isn't going to be
                        viable for long. The taxes from farm
                        land and residential aren't the ones
                        that keep municipalities viable,
                        commercial assessment is the money maker
                        for municipalities and you do not
                        attract new commercial development by
                        being old fossils that don't embrace new
                        ideas !!! The Province has downloaded a
                        lot of things to rural municipalities
                        much of which is costly and requires
                        adhering to provincial legislation. It
                        is easy to criticize your local council,
                        but if you haven't walked in their shoes
                        perhaps you should attend a few council
                        meetings to see exactly what they deal
                        with on any given council agenda.
                        Our county deals with re-zoning
                        applications for land on every council
                        agenda, this might be for a recreational
                        development, a commercial development or
                        an industrial development such as a
                        class 1 land fill. With each
                        application comes reams of information
                        to read, and these old 'retired,
                        councillors as you put it' spend hours
                        going through the material before making
                        decisions. As with all land use
                        decisions, any changes to the land use
                        by-law must first go through a Public
                        Hearing where anyone from the public may
                        give their opinion .
                        I personally know numerous councillors
                        from across Alberta, I am willing to bet
                        that very few people who are young, like
                        I assume you are, would be willing to
                        work seven days a week, being on call to
                        the community from 6:00 AM to Midnight
                        daily, study thousands of pages of
                        documents monthly, drive up and down
                        roads on a daily basis, attend every
                        charity function in the community, and
                        the list goes on and on. Most of these
                        folks make less than $35,000 a year for
                        the time they spend as ' Boards of
                        Directors' making decisions in a multi
                        million dollar businesses. Much of what
                        they do is done voluntarily. I have a
                        great deal of respect for anyone who
                        will put their name on a ballot, go out
                        and knock on 1500 doors asking people
                        for their support, and then on election
                        day only have 35% of the eligible voters
                        bother to drive to the local community
                        hall and vote. Apathy elects most rural
                        councils !!!

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Hey coppertop. I appreciate your comments on what councillors do and it is a pretty thankless job for the most part. Having said that, no matter how flat you make a pancake, there are still two sides to it. The councillors is my area make WAY more than the amount you've stated and that is just as a base "salary". They earn a per diem for every meeting they attend etc. etc. so some of them make far more than most of us.

                          I am concerned about the number of acreages that have been "cut" out of the ag land around me. Heavens, with the amount of subdivision that has gone on, we could likely open a 7-11 at the end of the road. For example, on the 1/2 section beside us, the original owner took 5 acres out of each quarter for a 10 acre parcel smack in the middle of the two parcels. The south quarter is still farmed. The north quarter was kept intact until about 3 years ago when the follow that bought it sold it to one of his grandkids. That kid turned around and subdivided an acreage out of it, sold the remainder to his brother and now that has been sold to someone who is farming it as well as building a house.

                          In the subdivision applications, it is amazing how the seasonal creek turned into nothing more than a drainage ditch. It is far more than that - it is one of two wildlife corridors between the Red Deer and the Medicine (there I've given my county away)and that will likely now be severely impacted because of the fences, cattle and house.

                          There are always unintended consequences and I fully understand where the municipalities garner a lot of their tax dollars.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Hi Linda, I am aware that some county
                            council's are paid a base salary plus
                            per diem, but that is not the norm in
                            across the province. The Alberta
                            Association of Municipal Districts and
                            Counties polls all their membership and
                            provides a detailed report on councilor
                            compensation. In my county councilors
                            are paid a per diem, for half day and
                            full day meetings, plus two days per
                            month for the time spent communicating
                            with ratepayers.
                            Again, if the public is not in favor of
                            their council being paid a monthly
                            salary plus a per diem they need to
                            speak out during election year. I
                            certainly know there are some 'hogs at
                            the trough' in municipalities, but those
                            folks need to be held in check by their
                            colleagues on council.
                            In our county we must get the approval
                            of council to attend any meeting or
                            function outside the regularly scheduled
                            council meetings and committee/board
                            meetings.
                            I have always felt that a good, honest,
                            hard working council is worth whatever
                            they are paid, a useless councilor that
                            only shows up for photo ops, and doesn't
                            do their homework etc. isn't worth
                            anything as far as representing their
                            ratepayers goes.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Frank I think these guys got a little off topic thought off topic was just for the marketing forum haha. Were you asking how to make the good deals or were you asking about good deals?

                              Comment

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