A few days ago I got a letter from a land company from CO that wants to buy my place. They will pay for all expenses for survey, filing, and lawyer costs. The price that they offered comes to ~9400$ an acre and the numbers are staggering. Crazy price but no I'm not selling even if that offer was doubled.

Anyone else get thins like this? Maybe a scam but not sure the letter is already in the garbage.

Interesting. Did they say why they wanted it?

I get offers for my farm as well. Nope, not interested.
When my wife and I decide to sell, I will offer first opportunity to purchase to my nextdoor neighbor (common courtesy).

They never said what they wanted it for. They are a legit company that sells land and buys land. I would guess they will flip it for a profit. Not sure though.

Got a phone call last night wanting to make an offer on my property.

I get phone calls and letters all the time.

I bet if you dug that paper out of the trash you would find they wanted to give you $9400 for all of it.

At least that is what I get, pennies on the dollar offers.

And yes, their interest is to take advantage of you, flip the land and make a very large profit.

We even get the scum that claim they are looking for a place for their family to get out of the city. All shady schemes to get you to sell cheap so they can sell high.

Get calls at least twice a week wanting to buy my place but when I quote what I will accept click end of call

Hunting property perhaps? Around here hunting property brings more than tillable.

Just got an offer from CO. for 120 acres we own in North Central WI. They offered $128,000.00. LOL, Neighbor just listed 40 acres recreational land for $8000.00 an acre. I find it amusing.

We get things in the mail wanting to buy our land, this week it was a logging company wanting to select harvest our trees.

I dont believe either are wanting to spend what it would take to buy it. Can't say I wouldn't be tempted if they offered what the fello across the road has his 5 acer lots are listed at. Tempted but that would be it unless the entire family wanted to move( wife and kids). I dont see myself as the owner just the custodian taking care of it for future generations.

I would say that price per acre was somewhere in MT they paid that for 5-10 acres by a tourist spot. The $9400 could be "We have paid up to $9400."

I had 100 acres in upstate NY, would periodically get letters to buy the land, and always way lower than actual value, or letters offering to log the place cause they were "in the area"

Never entertained any of them, when I did sell, a realtor got top value for it, it went to a former Airborne guy and his family... they are now farming it again....

Any of those letters you get are looking for you to sell cheap....of course, cause they're going to flip it....Broke my heart to sell what I had, but circumstances change...

Ah No!! Lol They have total number listed I just divided the acres into the total sale price. An eye opening amount of money could of retired at 20 years old.

Nieghbor had sold his dirt and now a big mess. Big holes and piles. The turned his land into a gravel pit. I dont know what kind of arrangements they made but no thank you.

I just got one the other day for my property in the u.p. Not interested one bit. Immediately went to the trash can.

We once owned a farm with a slight hill on it. A paving company agreed to remove the topsoil and then take a layer of sand to their asphalt plant. Once the sand layer was removed, the land was restored, fertilized and limed. That area of the farm was significantly better for farming, plus we sold the sand.

Dirt meaning they want to buy the land/farm/ranch.

I’ve only got 20 acres and get the same offers.

Yep all the time . They want it for cheap to resale. I believe it’s legitimate they’re fishing and once in a while they get a nibble

Snowy, you are in Montana. They would subdivide it, build log McMansions and sell them to people from the east or California, that work on the internet out of their home.

This is exactly what is happening throughout the west…. Happened in Colorado 40 years ago…. Sad really but money is a powerful tool.

Yep!! They would 5 to 10 times their money what they pay me an acre.

I've been getting a few calls a week. Maggot developers.

For a while, I was getting calls and texts to buy both of my dad's houses and my mom's house, a few times a day and occasionally my farm. It was annoying. I had to silence my phone for unknown numbers.

Keith

I’ve had a multitude of solar panel companies reach out about buying. Could easily x4 what I paid an acre, but would never consider it. Several developers reach out each year as well. It is nice knowing that if I were to ever truly get into a bind that I could pop off a couple of 5 acre lots and get my head above water. Hoping that there will never be an offer that is too good to pass up.

I get letters like that 1-2 times a year. Even had a guy knock on the door offering to buy the properties a couple months ago.

I get the same thing, I think they get your info from mortgage companies. We had an appraisal for a HELOC and started getting offers, they were absolutely insulting though. The last one was like $400k which was like 30% of the appraisal. What a joke.

thanks for not selling

it's one thing when it is the jerk that farms on 3 sides of you who stops buy every time there is a weather event and says " so you ready to sell" and pulls out his check book like he will write a check on the spot.

but these corporations , very likely private equity backed

they know what they are doing and even if they sat on it a few years they are going to make double what they are willing to pay you maybe triple or more.

honestly if we want to have any land left to hunt and trap sportsmen are going to need to start forming a land trust and getting Pitman-Robertson money to add to their own to buy up any parcel they can.

Sounds nice but sportsman cant even agree to aprove of other people legal hunting methods. Even on this sight just look at the threads about x bows for a prime example

You say that as though it's a bad thing? This is exactly the way a republic founded on capitalism is supposed to work. The "private equity backed" corporation made an offer for a piece of property they wanted because they indeed did assume it would be a profitable venture. The landowner declined to sell, which is his right. But if the landowner down the road chose to sell.... why would that be bad? Maybe he's tired of the MT cold and wants to move to NM. Or maybe MT isn't cold enough for him and he wants to move to AK. A landowner choosing to sell his land to a corporation isn't a crime, FCOL.

the republic was founded on ownership , if it was those peoples money it would be one thing but buying a company on debt then holding that debt against the company and not the people who took the loan in the first place is wrong , it is a way to buy the company on debt , gut all it's assets and file for bankruptcy defaulting on the loan and that is how private equity firms operate.

if he wants to sell great but it doesn't sound like he wants to sell and would rather preserve the land for his family.

Much of our farm was sub-divided into lots over 100 years ago in a get rich scheme for some developers. Lots were sold mail-order all over the country. When we bought the 67 acres in 1953 there were still at least 20 or so small 20X110' lots sprinkled throughout not owned by us. Over the years they would come up for sale by the county for tax foreclosure. Dad paid about $50 -$100 for most. You can't build on a single lot that size here.

The last two lots (side by side) we never did acquire but have farmed them all these years. Apparently the owners (Calfornians) who had kept the taxes up, recently sold to one of the companies like mentioned above. The land company offered us the lots for $30,000. They are not buildable (ag zoned) and most of the square footage of soil is in an ash swale that isn't even farmable. But the upper 30' or so is right into our blueberries. SO we could lose about 35-40 bushes.

We counter offered $8000 but they're not interested. (The idgits likely paid that or more for them). We'll see where it goes. It only really has nuisance value for us.

Maybe Vinke will buy it so he can graze on blueberries!

You are confused about how corporate debt and limited liability actually work...... You are attacking a version of private equity that doesn’t exist....

Like Gunnleg mentioned, around my neck of the woods these solar farms are suddenly popping up. One site in particular blows me away. Picture a nice neat home surrounded by open corn/'bean fields, creek running nearby in a semi rural part of the country. House is on a 5 acre lot and has been there for 30 years or so. Bam! A solar farm pops up and encompasses the land around the house and 5 acres. I mean it butts up to the property! Unbelievable! Basically, the home loses value and becomes unsellable. Owners are S.O.L!
It seems the solar farms pop up quickly say in about a 90-120 day window.

Another possibility. Folks refuse to sell it happens. 5 acres surrounded by a solar farm I've no doubt an offer was made. Moving stinks. If your upset by the loss of property value, ( lower evaluation is a boon at tax time) I guess the offer should have been accepted. Solar farms are not built in secret. Folks need to accept consequences of their choices.

FWIW I'm not a big fan of solar or wind either one. No one cares what we think. Make your best choice and live with it.

As long as they keep getting taxpayer funding, the number of solar and wind farms is just going to grow.

Agreed Danny, don't know the folks personally just watched it happen.
trapdog1, have you heard anything about the funding for these? One of my
farmer friends mentioned that there was a deadline for govt. funds to build
these? He mentioned that's why so many had popped up so quickly here.
I don't know the facts though....

I didn't get into ranching for money, I did it because I love the lifestyle and it's the only way I know how to raise good kids. Been a lot sacrificed to create my little ranch here in Central MN, and I could sell it and buy a lake house and new cars but ide regret that everyday.

Hope your children's children continue to love your place in Montana!

Solar farms and data centers here are springing up.

If only we didn’t have millions of acres of building rooftops and parking lots where we could install solar panels.

No kidding running th a pannels above parking lots would save rual space and the energy would be closer to where its used.

Personally I’d love to park in a parking lot shaded by panels when it’s 100 degrees out.

I’ll never understand the whole “take a nice ag field and cover it in panels out in the middle of nowhere” mentality. At first I thought the deer and other critters would love having areas with shade or protected from snow exposing some vegetation, maybe even a little warmth underneath in the winter like the Alaska pipeline does. Ha nope they nuke all the vegetation with ground sterilants and put up a 6 foot fence around them.

With all the trillions we’ve wasted on learing centers, wars and other pork barrel spending they could have replaced every roof in the US with panels and created an industry for installers and panel maintenance.

You got that right!! A great life, probably never get rich with money but the life style is worth more then money.

I bought the farm after years of looking in 3 states and researching. I saw waht was out there makes me thankful for what I have been blessed with.

Why. What do we all require. Food water and shelter. I could grow and raise,/ kill 90+ % of our food if I needed to. We dont get near that level but could if we had to. Often everything on my plate comes from our farm and hunting. My kids have 96 acres to run, explore, shoot, hunt and learn on. We can raies any animals we want if we put the right fence in. Its a ton of work and animals tie you down. But its a great lifestyle I feel lucky to have.

Got another letter from same Land Company wanting to buy. It is a fair price but I could sell the whole place for 6 to 7 times more what they are offering. If I subdivide I could sell parcels for 10 times what they have offered.

No Thanks! I would not sell for 10 times more then their offer now.

Just curious, do you have kids who want the place?

I only have 2 daughters and they're young, I'm not sure they'll want the place. Personally my legacy isn't this dirt it's my daughter's, the only way I know how to raise them to be hardworking and productive is by raising them around livestock. My hope is that my kids want to live in the country and have a farm but if they don't want it I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with it.

One son and his family. He works in engineering for an electric company but his family enjoy coming here and will be the Principal when I'm gone. I have one granddaughter that it will be handed down too and my hopes never to be sold. It was a working ranch at one time and now the only thing I have in production is the hay ground. Hay ground rented out will pay for all taxes for them, so no need to sell is my hopes.

Talk to a realtor you trust. Ask him/her what they think the price might be if you ever sold thru them. You might be surprised.

We were considering selling our cabin that has shoreline. We contacted a realtor who was friends with my parents. The realty is now a 3rd generation business. Kevin came out, did his once over. He said he’d be able to sell it for almost twice what the letter writers had offered. Kevin, the grandson of my parent’s friend and realtor, is just as nice as his grandfather. He’s selling it for us now.

I don't think you should feel like you are alone or being selected to sell your land. We were getting post cards and letters for several years by firms wanting to buy our property. We sold last year, but not to any of those that mailed us stuff. We did have two firms or people stop by and ask if we were interested in selling a few years ago. Most of the times those types of situations come about as the potential buyer is looking to live in or near the area.

Bryce