Lifestyle

Land (and Life) in Perspective

Two weeks ago I took my 5 year old son with me to put up some signs advertising some of my listings. While we were out another realtor called and asked me to meet him at one of my listings for a showing. I informed him my son was with me, and that we would meet him in an hour. After tamping the last bit of dirt into the hole, I loaded up my tools and headed toward the showing. My son and I were going to stop at a gas station and fill up my truck and get him some Gummy Worms. While we were discussing the Gummy Worms, the car in the oncoming lane of the bridge slid out of control and hit my truck head-on .

When I woke up I could hear my son screaming for me and could see the total destruction of my full-sized truck. I’m not sure how I exited the vehicle, but I do remember the ambulance ride to the hospital. John David is fine, with no broken bones or major injuries, and hopefully I will be out of this neck brace in about 4 more weeks.

God was definitely watching over us and the driver of the other vehicle; all of us walked away. The past 2 weeks have allowed some time for reflection on the important things in this life. Family, friends, and faith top the list as far as I’m concerned. The big land deal I missed the day before suddenly vanished from memory, and every glance at my son, daughter, or wife brought an eruption of emotion that was not easy to conceal. This event has given me a chance to reflect on why I do what I do and who it is for. Being a land agent is fun and rewarding, but too often I let it consume my thoughts and energy. I have prayed several times in the past 2 weeks that I would not waste the lessons from this accident. Take a minute (or an hour) and think about the really important things, and why you do what you do, and who it’s all for. I don’t want to waste my life or be consumed by trivial things. My hope is that you, too, will take a moment to seek clarity on what’s important.

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About the author

Jonathan Goode

Jonathan is passionate about helping people buy and sell land. He is an associate broker with Southeastern Land Group, LLC (SELG) and is the Responsible Broker for the company in Mississippi. Jonathan is an Accredited Land Consultant (ALC), working with Southeastern Land Group (AlaLandCo) since 2008, serving Alabama and Mississippi. He is a member of the Alabama and Mississippi chapters of the Realtor’s Land Institute (RLI), and is currently serving as Vice President of the Alabama Chapter. Jonathan specializes in marketing rural properties online, and is a contributor for LANDTHINK.com, writing articles focused on helping people buying and selling rural land.

2 Comments

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  • Jonathan,

    Thank you for sharing your story! I have been running around crazy trying to get all of our tax items together (I’m one of those agents who waits until Oct 15th) and have been quite stressed out. Thank you for sharing your lesson, it really hit close to home!

    Thank you again.

    PS: I have an awesome 200 acre tract that is surrounded by WMA on 4 sides. It is in the middle of the Cohutta Wildlife Management Area. We paid $15K per acre for it and would like to get that out of it. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

    Laura Sisson
    Blue Ridge, GA

  • Ok, this is another attempt among many to inform Americans about a matter that is not trivial and should be acknowledged. The subject is taxes. But the subject is a specific tax. The tax is “Federal Income Tax”. In the Internal Revenue Code of Title 26, all kinds of revenue are listed as income for federal tax purposes. But wait, the tax is on federal income. Does the sale of your property constitute “federal income”? Absolutely not! If it is not federal income, then there can be no tax due. Capital gains from the sale of property must have been a sale within a federal zone and is accounted as federal income. Land sold in Clay County or any other County of Alabama not having any property owned by the federal government cannot be federally taxed when sold. Of course there are properties within every county of Alabama that does have property owned by the federal government such as post offices, military posts, federal courthouses, etc, but they are not being sold as private properties.Remember too American’s, when you file a 1099, you are reporting federal taxable income which is not so and you therefore commit a felony because the form requires your signature under penalties of perjury. The sale of private property does not constitute federal income in the way of any capital gains. A gain is the result from a government granted privilege activity, when considering the tax on federal income. Are you a federal taxpayer? A taxpayer according to the Internal Revenue Code is someone (Usually a federal employer) who is made liable for collection of federal income tax as a withholding agent, on nonresident aliens and foreign corporations. Check it out at section 1461 of Title 26 USC (IRC).Knowledge is power when you use it. So, when you consider this coming April 15th and the payment of taxes, rest assured if you are not a taxpayer and you are not liable for federal income taxes as provided at section 1461 of the Code, you will commit perjury if you file the traditional 1040 Form. And rest assured the IRS will, if they find an error that is of a large amount in their analysis of the tax form, will prosecute you via the Department of Justice, for a crime you committed voluntarily, even if your error was at best an honest one.

    Ok, that’s the rub. Either you are a federal taxpayer or you’re not. The choice is yours.
    April 15th….the new April Fool’s day!

    Comments welcomed.

    Alvis Jenkins

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