All Forum Posts by: Mason Moreland

 Think I saw you ask this one another thread as well? Not sure if anyone replied before but I don't know anyone personally investing in Grayson. It's still a bit "out there" and mostly rural/ag based. Takes about 2hrs to commute to the main part of Dallas for work. Only folks I knew that lived up there were "horse people" and owned their own properties for horses. It is in the path of progress I suppose, though. Denton is probably more immediate/proximate to development than Denison... More jobs and such in and near Denton (also has UNT).

 No, typically there are no entitlements out here. We work in the High Plains AVA (between Lubbock and Midland) and anything outside city limits typically isn't zoned or regulated (no building permits for houses even!) except for state-level stuff (septic systems) and larger water wells (whatever local Underground Water Control District you're in). And everything is outside city limits around these parts ;) As I always say, it's all ag land and it's so flat you can watch your dog run away for a week!

Either way with row crop or permanent ag (we do vineyards), it stays ag-exempt on taxes. Which is great considering with vineyards our per-acre property value goes from like $2-3K/ac up to $30-50k/ac. Development for sure, just in a different way.

That's awesome, sounds like a neat deal! Always drove by small chunks of farmland in DFW and wondered A) if I could get permission to dove hunt (hehe) and B) how I could swing a deal to develop them. I still sort of "develop" farms, but just from row crop ag to permanent ag haha. Congrats and keep us updated.

None with AcreTrader, but we have done an offering through Harvest Returns, which is similar. HR does farms and agribusinesses though, so a bit more diverse.

I am curious to see how they are calculating their net annual return, seeing 8-11% on row crop farmland seems very high unless they are assuming a certain amount of appreciation, a certain hold period, and a sale. All of those factors are speculative. I can see 8%+ on specialty or permanent crops though. Also some agribusinesses. 

Take a close look to see if that's how they are calculating their returns. I typically can't get row crop AG to pencil out any better than maybe 3-6% annual CoC return as leased farmland even if I held it directly, not much meat on the bone there to bring in investors unless you are factoring in big appreciation and a sale. Could be different in areas outside of my own I suppose.

Problems are opportunities to make money where no one else can... Not much advice for remediation since I was mostly on the "ID and Investigate" side of site contamination, but there is probably a deal hiding there if you can protect yourself adequately.

One thing I do know is if it was a gas station in the 1950's and before, it TOTALLY had leaks!!!

Where there are problems, they are opportunities to make $$$!

If you can make the numbers work out, raising the house up (piers, etc) out of the base flood elevation could increase the value of the home quite a bit.

Is it currently rented/producing income? If so, most commercial local/state banks will lend 70 or 75 LTV (at least here in TX).

These are some of the sources I use to mine the names of brokers who are working with the type/in the area of properties I want to acquire. I'd also add LandsOfAmerica and all their state-specific sub-sites.

Couple tips from doing significant work in rural land (row crop farms for conversion to vineyards) deals in TX....

1) 90% (making that # up, but it's high) of the time when rural land is sold, it never ever hits the market or even a broker and is sold to someone who also owns land within a few miles that the current owner knows. If you can network with the local landowners some and let them know you're looking and why, it can go a long way. Become a known quantity and "part" of the community you're looking to buy in.

2) Most of the best land deals are pocket listings, IE they never hit the MLS or other website. In our case, we see about 10X or more pocket listings than MLS listings. Reach out to all the land brokers that do advertise on the MLS occasionally and let them know exactly what your "buy box" is (parameters of a property that you will say "yes" to and buy). Ask that they bring you deals that fall in those parameters first. Most/many land brokers shop properties as pocket listings long before it ever hits the MLS, unless it's and ultra-high-end property. As the song goes, "If you've got the money, honey, (they've) got the time!"

3) If there are any major crops or livestock grown on the type of property you are looking for, go to wherever the processing center or aggregation point is and chat with the manager (gin, grain elevator, market, auction yard, etc). Let them know who you are and what you're looking for and how to contact you. Reach out a couple times to keep top-of-mind for them. They often know someone who is going to sell before that person even decides! For us it's cotton gin managers.

But for hunters passing through, cabins can be good seasonally. I can provide some advice on that if you are located in the Rocky Mtn states seeing as I'd be your target demo there! :D