Thanksgiving is no turkey

You can’t go too far wrong with a good Thanksgiving.

For starters, everything smells good all day, even me. Then, everybody’s nice as pie for as long as they can stand it.

It’s our only holiday when we’re supposed to think about what we eat, the folks who produced it and the land it comes from. Thoughts of Pilgrims and Indians may flash by between a wing and the prayer. Then everyone falls asleep watching the Detroit Lions lose another football game.

I’ve shirked my fatherly duties to 23-year-old Molly. She never got either my three-hour, before-the-meal lecture on The True Meaning of Thanksgiving or my four-hour, after-the-meal talk on Indigestion, Its Causes and Cures. Molly has always been happy with her modest vegetarian meal, which excludes all meat and vegetables and incorporates, she says, the good kind of calories that are concentrated in buttered rolls, pies and whipped cream.

I’ve never told her that I was once related by marriage to Oceanus Hopkins, the one child born on the Mayflower during its two-month crossing in 1620. Oceanus made no other history in his three years, though in times like these all of us admire the value his parents placed on liquidity. Read more »

How to Profit From the Greatest Land Rush in U.S. History!

At precisely twelve noon on September 16, 1893 a cannon’s boom unleashed the largest land rush America ever saw. Carried by all sorts of transportation - horses, wagons, trains, bicycles or on foot - an estimated 100,000 raced to claim plots of land in an area of land in northern Oklahoma Territory. There had been a number of previous land rushes in the Territory - but this was the big one.

Many would be disappointed. There were only 42,000 parcels of land available - far too few to satisfy the hopes of all those who raced for land that day. Additionally, many of the “Boomers” - those who had waited for the cannon’s boom before rushing into the land claim - found that a number of the choice plots had already been claimed by “Sooners” who had snuck into the land claim area before the race began. The impact of the land rush was immediate, transforming the land almost overnight.

Over 100 years later, we are in the midst of a second rush for land. When it is over it will go down as the greatest land rush in United States history far eclipsing the Oklahoma land rush of the 1890’s.

How will it be different? Baby Boomers, investors and institutional investment firms are preparing to buy over one-half of the useable land in the U.S. in the next ten years. Are you aware there is approximately 1.6 billion acres (Yes, billions – with a big B!) that can be bought and sold? The potential is for millions and millions of land deals in the next few years. Read more »

Building dirt: Louis Bromfield, a novelist with some novel ideas

Country property has always attracted a bit more than its fair share of philosophers, utopians, missionaries, dreamers, writers and nuts.

As farmers, many in this group fail, some despite their best efforts, other because of them. Jefferson and his plantation were essentially bankrupt when he died, though we now celebrate his experimentalism.

Writers who farm tend to be wealthier than farmers who write. It’s clearly easier to persuade the public that a dopey plot is worth reading than it is to persuade the dumbest househusband that a comparably rotten potato is worth eating.

Louis Bromfield is no longer a household name except maybe around his farm near Mansfield, Ohio, but he once was rich and famous.

Bromfield won a Pulitzer Prize for a novel in the 1920s, followed by a number of bestsellers. He wrote from the countryside of northern France. He was admired and connected. When war clouds gathered in the late 1930s, he chucked France and fiction to return to Pleasant Valley where he had been raised. Read more »

Bub was here: Now what?

President-elect Obama showed up unannounced in Blue Grass late Wednesday afternoon as I was pulling in with a load of split firewood. He wore old jeans and work boots. I tossed him a spare pair of leather work gloves, and we started pitching sticks on the pile behind my back gate.

He didn’t say anything for a while.

Lucy and Sophie, our two Yellow Labs, sniffed him up, decided he wasn’t edible and wandered off to shampoo themselves in fresh cow flops. The results of good breeding always amaze me.

“Ever live out here?” I asked.

“Nope. Big cities. Honolulu. New York, Boston, Chicago.”

“Aren’t too many Obamas in Blue Grass,” I admitted. “Baracks are scarce, too. You’d get a nickname pretty fast. Something like Goose or Tater.” Read more »

Here’s the scoop: There was a fourth debate

Senators McCain and Obama came to Blue Grass this week for a fourth debate, because they recognized that my vote might decide the 2008 election.

We sat at my kitchen table. They came dressed for farm work, both in new bib overalls and ironed flannel shirts.

Me: Senator Obama, say some good things about Senator McCain.

Obama: Well, let’s be clear. For a man his age and considering the dreadful things he’s been through over many decades, like skin cancer and five years of torture, yes, for a man his age, I think he’s doing okay. I hope I’m as chipper at 72.

Me: Senator McCain, same question about Senator Obama.

McCain: That one gives a great speech, which he learned how to do at those Ivy League schools that Bill Ayers and other terrorists might have attended while they were making bombs. I dropped bombs on Hanoi, but I sure didn’t make them in my college dormitory room. Senator Obama has yet to deny that he associated with all the terrorists, socialists and Woodstockists that he could have associated with back then. America doesn’t know the real Barack Obama, and neither do I. Read more »

Real-estate tax policies: What would McCain and Obama do?

What are the real-estate tax policies of Senators McCain and Obama?

I’m not sure reliable answers are available. Campaign promises are preferences, not contractual obligations. Circumstances — the economy, control of Congress, competing demands — will shape what either wants to do as President as well as what is feasible. But mostly neither has said.

On fiscal policy, they share some positions. Both appear to like balanced budgets, pay as you go and deficit reduction, but both have proposed policy packages that would increase the national debt—McCain more than Obama.

Both urge tax cuts and spending as part of a post-election stimulus package now being worked up in Washington, but with different components and orientations.

McCain now supports continuing the Bush tax cuts that he opposed when they were enacted. Obama supports tax cuts for the majority of taxpayers and tax increases for the top five percent.

The tax positions that both candidates have taken in their stump speeches differ from the positions their campaign staffs and economic advisers advance. Read more »

5 Benefits to the Recipients of Florida Conservation Easements

A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or qualified conservation organization that restricts specific uses or development on the land. This is a landowner’s way to protect the land for now and in the future. One of the significant benefits of a conservation easement is the protection of wildlife habitats, natural lands, and resources for generations to come.

The seller of a conservation easement is a landowner who desired to restrict development or land use through this option, but still holds on to ownership of the land.

The buyer or recipient of a conservation easement is typically a government conservation program or a private conservation organization. While the landowner seller has specific benefits that make a conservation easement desirable, the buyer or recipient too reaps benefits from this type of transaction. Read more »

Vacant Land and Baby Boomers

Are you aware in the midst of a slumping housing market that land in many places is appreciating in value? So why aren’t more investors pursuing land as a part of their investment strategy? The answer is that most investors are focused on the over-developed residential and commercial real estate markets and haven’t considered raw land as a viable option in which to build their real estate career.

Land is the place to be in 2008 and 2009

According to the USDA, there are 2.2 billion acres (yes, that’s billion with a big B!) in the United States. Of the total amount of land, 1.6 billion acres can be bought and sold. Some of you are thinking, “So what – are people really purchasing land, especially when prices for houses in many places are falling?” The answer is a resounding, YES! Read more »

Panic reigned: What to do about the hay?

This thing that’s paralyzing our big banks and gutting the stock market used to be called a “panic.” Today, it’s a meltdown, or a mess or an “unscheduled event.”

Panic is the best description. I’ve been in a few. Fear pounds your flight button. Everyone starts moving away from the threat. Faster. Then wildly, desperately faster. Someone goes down; then others. Screams.

In battle, it’s called a rout. In cattle, it’s a stampede.

Fear starts it, fear feeds it. The fear is rational: Stay where you are, and you’ll get hurt. But fear smothers the part of your brain that might save you, the part where you keep your wits.

One person at a time, panic stops. Fear is not mastered, but it is compartmentalized. Reasoning returns. It suggests that a better alternative might be to turn and face the threat, accepting the possibility of bad consequences. Those who turn into the threat bring others with them. The pell-mell slows and eventually stops. Read more »

10 Things That Add Value To A piece Of Land

I just got back in from showing a large parcel we’re selling up here in New Hampshire; boy was it beautiful today and a great reminder how lucky we are to be in the land business!

As we walked through the woods, I went over some of the positive attributes of the property and also the negatives - I always try to be up front about things, it’s much better than having something bite you on the ass later on. On the drive home, I thought of a few important factors to keep in mind when considering a piece of land for vacation or retirement - these are the physical components that can add value and of course make it easier to sell on the back end… here’s ten of them:

1. Exposure: Look for Southern and Western orientation of the property; this is what most people want.
2. Views: Anything with a view will add value and remember, a Winter view may be obscured by leaves in the Summer!
3. Water: Some form of water on or very near to the property enhances it’s atmosphere - year round brooks are better than seasonal ones and anything swimmable is a huge plus.
4. Quiet: That gorgeous view lot is worth so much less when there’s the sound of traffic in the background, so always listen when doing a land tour.
5. Trees: Mature woodlands are far more desirable than scrappy new growth after recent logging activity!
6. Proximity to Ameneties: Most folks want to be within an easy drive of local shops, healthcare and recreational attractions - the further out you go, the more you’re cutting down on the number of people who would buy your property on the back end.
7. Topography: Is there a good spot to build, or even better, several nice spots to choose from?Too much steepness or wetness can be prohibitive; same goes for a long and/or steep driveway for access.
8. Special Features: Such as granite stone walls, mossy escarpments, waterfalls or existing trails. Try and find out what the ’secrets’ of the property are.
9. How’s the Apporach?: Several run-down mobile homes and a half a junkyard preceeding your subject lot aint gonna help matters when looking for good value!
10. Developer Reputation: If it’s in a development, protective convenants, road maintenance and a well thought-out design, in addition to a good developer reputation are all important factors.

This is by no means a complete list and I’m sure you could add a few….. there’s actually quite a lot to it, when you think about it. Taking the time to consider some of these items will really help when making that all-important land-buying decision.

Richard is a Land Specialist at Northern Acres (www.NorthernAcres.com) and the creator of Black Widow Network (www.BlackWidowNetwork.com) for the real estate investment community.