Hi Paulus,
I am not a expert by no means on buying and renting homes in the country. I do know that it seems like more people are trending to small organic hobby farms. I too have been looking into this type of investing in Michigan. I have found depending on the size and make up of the property there is other added value. A couple examples are if the property is wooded you can do a select cut and make some money off the wood and it will improve the health of the rest of the trees. If has a area of plowed fields you can rend the house and lease the field to a local farmer. I now that in the south there seems to be more hunting leases as well so that would be another option when buying a home with land. As far as the fencing goes if the current fence is not functional I would replace it. I would consider it curb appeal for the country.
