For those who have done it before and have wisdom to share, if you had to do it all over again, would you buy a pre-built farm and put money into making right, or build from scratch?
My biggest issue is my budget. If I had a couple million to spend it would be pretty easy to find the right farm 
DH and I are in agreement, we donāt need a big house. A barn with LQ is fine. The most important part for us is the barn, paddocks and arena since I make my living as a trainer.
Everything we are finding in our budget has a good barn and either no house or a 400 sqft apartment (just tooooo small) or, it has an over the top fancy house and a crappy barn with wire fence. Most of the places we are looking at are built for back yard horses. They have common fence lines where turned out horses can kick each other through the fences or 3 foot high dutch doors on the stalls or my favorite, 6 foot wide aisles. Iāve seen some stupid stuff. With one of these places we are going to have to put money into building a house or a barn, retrofitting a barn, building fence and/or adding an outdoor arena (no indoor required, we live in the south).
Our other option is to buy a lot and build a barn with living quarters and put up fence and build an arena 
It seems that there are no perfect options. I must have 6 to 8 good quality stalls and tack storage/wash rack to run my business. No way to get around that part.
If you could do it all again, what would you do?
I missed the āifā when you said your budget was several million :lol:
soā¦ the one with the great barn and small apartment should be the less expensive in my mind as it appears the equine part is complete; you could get a modular home set up pretty quickly and could either sell it later or use it as a hired hand housing
Itās expensive to build vs adjust & improve. If you can find something already ready, go for it. Building, fencing, running utilities etc., can cost?..
Perhaps find the house & build a barn & your ideal horse setupā¦ Look at the overall investment of the home, barn setupā¦
What does your lender say about barn with an apartment, can be hard to financeā¦
The problem with building from scratch is that you have to spend a lot of money right away just to get functional.
When you start with a place thatās at least livable and minimally suitable, even if it isnāt ideal, you gain a little breathing room and the opportunity to spread your improvements out over time.
Buy as close to what you want and then try to modify and add as little as possible.
And get ready to document everything and supervise everything !!!
And ?!~!?
DRINK heavily :lol:
I have done it both ways and it is ALL a PITA ! :eek:
but
you will LOVE having your OWN PLACE !
Wishing you the best of luck !
Iām in your same boat. Iāve looked at some very nice plans for barns with living quarters above, but I cannot find anyone who will touch them in terms of insurance. My biggest concern would be to underestimate the cost of fencing and local price of hay, farrier, vet and other related stuff.
I have never been in a barn that did not share fencelines, so that wouldnāt be an issue for me as a boarder as long as the paddocks were good-sized. I would choose the best barn+ acreage package as my priority, and then I would, as clanter said, plop a modular home on it. Some of the modular barn builders (Iām thinking of Woodtex) are also making modular homes. You could get a couple run-in sheds and your house on the same truck. 
We built our own farm, from raw land - from the ground up and its a trade off.
I LOVE our location, I LOVE our acreage (40 acres) and I have enjoyed building it,
BUT, there is a lot more Iād like to do.
Hiring it to be done, if you donāt - or canāt - do it yourself,
becomes fairly expensive and is time consuming.
It takes longer, over time, if its not set up the way you want it,
with fencing, buildings already in place.
It also seems like things arenāt custom āfinishedā when you are doing it ALL, imo :no:
If I could do it again, Iād probably do more up front, in the loan,
instead of biting it off in affordable chunks,.,
BUT, I still totally love our farm.
Here is an overview of our farm.
The next things I need to ātake off the listā are - turn paddock
next to the barn into a small arena, and stain run in shed.
Then porches on the house.
Then,., whatever else needs fixing :yes:
http://s42.photobucket.com/user/redboy949/slideshow/My%20Backyard%20Barn
Iām no expert but from the little Iāve seen, itās usually cheaper to buy a pre-existing farm and do upgrades. Best to find one with a good house and a workable barn that can be updated and some fencing in place. Building from scratch, while you can get a home loan, a loan for a barn, while not impossible, is more of a challenge, youāll either have to go thru the builder or a farm loan of some kind or be paying cash. I donāt think many banks will roll that cost into your mortgage. Fencing is usually a cost out of pocket that can get quite expensive. I would get some quotes on the kind of fencing you want and for an imaginary amount of acreage just to get an idea. Remember there are other things you will need to buy, like tractor, implements, stall mats, feeders, etc. all the things you need for the barn and property maintenance.
Sit down and crunch numbers on building from scratch, include absolutely everything and see what it looks like, then see what kind of loans are available. Then compare to what you can find pre-existing and pick the best properties you would be interested in and see what kind of costs are involved with upgrading.
Love love love our here. But lord building from scratch is expensive.
One point to consider ā are you planning to finance this farm? If you are, then check with your lender about financing on barn only versus a property with a house. It is way easier and cheaper to get financing if a house is present. I think raw land and barn will not be easy to finance and will take a considerable down payment to acquire. Maybe the barn with the apartment might work, especially if the plan is to build a detached house in time.
We spent a solid 8 months looking at farms when we bought. We finally settled on a 95 acre property with a decent farm house on it. Then over the next 3 years we installed a barn, a ring, all the fencing, etc. Both my DH and I have full time jobs, so this was work we contracted for or did ourselves on weekends and holidays.
If you make your living working with horses, where are you doing it now? If you work out of another barn, stay there until you get the barn built on the new place. Or you could squeeze into an LQ arrrangement and build a house.
Lots of choices, but please find out about financing because that is going to influence your choices.
I will add, bc others bring up the financing aspect,
our mortgage was for the HOUSE -ONLY.
We bought the land outright, paid cash.
We HAD to put in a 1000 foot driveway FIRST, just to access our property
($10,000+ upfront costs).
We planted our own pastures 1-1/2 years before we built.
We saved & paid for our foundation, septic and well,
out of pocket as well,., probably another $15,000.
After we built our house, I hired out for some (starter) fencing
(2 smaller paddocks).
I then built my pole barn out of pocket, as well.
No loan on anything here except the house.
We moved from a town house situation so we DID NOT own ANY tractors, mowers,
etc.
Its very expensive to acquire these things, as well, it takes longer to build bc
you are planning and āthinking thruā every aspect of the farm.
In all honesty, I also think if you find property with everything in place,
give or take a few things,
BUY IT!
Someone else already did the hard part^!!
Building from scratch is harder, unless you are a developer,ā¦,
altho, it can be very rewarding too.
[QUOTE=TrailRides4Fun;8550835]
We built our own farm, from raw land - from the ground up and its a trade off.
I LOVE our location, I LOVE our acreage (40 acres) and I have enjoyed building it,
BUT, there is a lot more Iād like to do.
Hiring it to be done, if you donāt - or canāt - do it yourself,
becomes fairly expensive and is time consuming.
It takes longer, over time, if its not set up the way you want it,
with fencing, buildings already in place.
It also seems like things arenāt custom āfinishedā when you are doing it ALL, imo :no:
If I could do it again, Iād probably do more up front, in the loan,
instead of biting it off in affordable chunks,.,
BUT, I still totally love our farm.
Here is an overview of our farm.
The next things I need to ātake off the listā are - turn paddock
next to the barn into a small arena, and stain run in shed.
Then porches on the house.
Then,., whatever else needs fixing :yes:
http://s42.photobucket.com/user/redboy949/slideshow/My%20Backyard%20Barn[/QUOTE]
I will add, bc others bring up the financing aspect,
our mortgage was for the HOUSE -ONLY.
We bought the land outright, paid cash.
We HAD to put in a 1000 foot driveway FIRST, just to access our property
($10,000+ upfront costs).
We planted our own pastures 1-1/2 years before we built.
We saved & paid for our foundation, septic and well,
out of pocket as well,., probably another $15,000 - $20,000.
After we built our house, I hired out for some (starter) fencing
(2 smaller paddocks).
I then built my pole barn out of pocket, as well.
No loan on anything here except the house.
We moved from a town house situation so we DID NOT own ANY tractors, mowers,
etc.
Its very expensive to acquire these things, as well, it takes longer to build bc
you are planning and āthinking thruā every aspect of the farm.
In all honesty, I also think if you find property with everything in place,
give or take a few things,
BUY IT!
Someone else already did the hard part^!!
Building from scratch is harder, unless you are a developer,ā¦,
altho, it can be very rewarding too.
We were hoping to find a place with a modest house and some outbuildings that could be modified to meet our needs. As previous posters have mentioned, that tends to be less expensive than building, and allows you to spread your expenses out a little more.
However, in our area there was a big gap in properties where nothing even vaguely suitable was available. There were properties with not nearly enough acreage, there were properties with enough acreage but with completely over the top mansions that put them out of our price range, and there were properties in a dense forest with no pasture, and properties where the land around the house was literally a swamp.
So weāre building from scratch. Iām getting the barn and fences that I wanted, but in order to do that, weāre going to be living in a used mobile home that looks like it should be full of moonshine and crystal meth, LOL
The reality is that you canāt build today for what you can buy already built.
So, if you want to save money for other than setting up and building, then buy something that mostly fits and what doesnāt you can remodel or build only a bit of the whole.
Building from scratch is harder and costlier in time and money and aggravations, no question there.
Also, consider that life has a way to throw a wrench in the gears of the best laid plans.
Getting what you need now and working with and around it puts you there now, to enjoy doing what you want to do now.
Not knowing what may happen to change our wants and needs later, by the time you finally get it all built your way, by then, your needs may have changed.
[QUOTE=Wayside;8551122]
We were hoping to find a place with a modest house and some outbuildings that could be modified to meet our needs.
As previous posters have mentioned, that tends to be less expensive than building, and allows you to spread your expenses out a little more.
However, in our area there was a big gap in properties where nothing even vaguely suitable was available.
There were properties with not nearly enough acreage, there were properties with enough acreage but with completely over the top mansions that put them out of our price range, and there were properties in a dense forest with no pasture, and properties where the land around the house was literally a swamp.
So weāre building from scratch. Iām getting the barn and fences that I wanted,
but in order to do that, weāre going to be living in a used mobile home that looks like it should be full of moonshine and crystal meth, LOL[/QUOTE]
That used mobile will be a ādistantā memory soon enough :lol:
My husband and I ācamped outā in our house just as soon as we got
our occupancy permit
All of our furniture was in still storage, so we had 2 plastic outdoor chairs,
a plastic table from the $1 Store, and 2 queen size blow up mattresses.
Also ate picnic meals with plastic plates, cups and cutlery.
So much fun!!! :yes:
Its was ācamping with all the amenitiesā until we could get the time to get
our stuff out of the storage unit (took a few months, summer was our busy season,
and we moved in beginning of July).
Life was never more simple!!
Will add, in my area, its the same with farm land.
Its either a huge tract, on the bays, which is way out of price range of an individual
bc it will ultimately become a housing development, to be purchased by developers.
Or, its a smaller commercial farm operation (chicken farm)
with a million dollars + of infrastructure to continue
the said farming business ^
Or, its raw land, smaller acreages (tree farms, sub divided farm fields)
that have to be ādevelopedā by the individual, for their personal needs.
Very few āmini farmsā are on the market here.:no:
Ones with smaller/medium sized homes, like ours (2400 sq ft) with smaller acreage than ours,
(we have 40 acres), and a similar (somewhat nicer barn)
sell for roughly $500,000.
Others, smaller acreages of land, have no homes,
or have mobile homes, some with no out buildings
unless they are dilapidated chicken houses, and some with very old, abandoned farm houses,
that need to be torn down, and the land is currently just being farmed.
Mini farms are becoming more popular, and available here, now,
bc over the past 10-15 years, the zoning changes have allowed for them to be developed with small horse farms in mind.
I think the inventory of smaller āhobby horse farmsā is growing with the demand.
Thanks for the great responses.
Insurance and financing is difficult here for both LQ in barns and for mobile homes. There is ONE company who will insure barn apartments and LQs that I know of. At least there is one! And as far as mobiles go, Iām not sure I want to be living in a mobile home when a hurricane rolls through anyway.
TrailRides4Fun Iād be all over 40 acres and a house and barn for $500,000. Forty acres with a livable house is double that here!
Typically 10 acres with a decent house, workable barn and good fence is $650,000 and up here. If itās less than that, you probably donāt want to live in the house or put your horses in the barn. Or, itās nice enough to use but itās an hours drive to the grocery store.
[QUOTE=Goforward;8551236]
Thanks for the great responses.
Insurance and financing is difficult here for both LQ in barns and for mobile homes. There is ONE company who will insure barn apartments and LQs that I know of. At least there is one! And as far as mobiles go, Iām not sure I want to be living in a mobile home when a hurricane rolls through anyway.[/QUOTE]
I know in my area, the county will not allow someone to live in an aptmt
atop a barn.
There has to be a primary structure in place, then the out buildings with an additional aptmt, etc (2ndary/accessory structure).
It may have to do with insurance restrictions as well
Edited to add - Iām a good 30 minute drive from a grocery store here :lol:
Buying is more cost-effective and also time-effective if you are running a horse business and/or are impatient and want your horsey things NOW.
Both of our farmettes we bought. We did at one point buy bare land with the thought of building, but we ended up moving instead and so sold that land.
Weāve done improvements at both the places we bought: built a hay room onto the barn, added an arena (well, it was already roughed-out in terms of placement and site prep), fencing, added run-in shed, set up irrigation for the pastures, trimmed trees, put in new flooring, fireplace, painting, etc.
Hereās an example of the cost of something. Our current place has 6 acres of irrigated area (some is horse pasture, some is yard). The horse pastures were 3-rail board that was old and needed to be replaced and I wanted to do no-climb. I got a quote. The first quote I got, the guy thought I wanted to replace the whole thing, posts and all. His quote was for $27k!. I said, no, no, no, the posts are fine and in good shape, I just want to take the boards off and replace them with no-climb. So that was about $9k for that job. I benefited from the work that had already been done and the infrastructure that had already been laid out by the previous owner.
My house isnāt exactly what I want, but they did a really good job with the barn/pasture/arena (small covered, outdoor dressage) - heck, they had even made a little trail system on the back part of the property that I use more than the arena! I couldnāt build all of that for what I paid for it.
Everything is so expensive - dirt work (and where I live, rock moving), running utilities, digging a well (if you need that), putting in septic, pouring concrete, permitting, building, finish work, etc. Unless I won the lottery and could stay at my current house while building another, I wouldnāt do it.
Then there is the current loan situation. Mr. PoPo and I have excellent credit, no debts other than the mortgage, and closing on this house was a nightmare and almost didnāt happen. I donāt know what lending is like for new construction, but I canāt imagine that it is better than for existing properties.
One problem that I think you mentioned is finding the right combination of horse property and house. I would love a lot of land (I have 20 now, which is good, but what I could do with more, muahahahahhaaa!), but it seems the bigger the property, the bigger house it has. I donāt want a huge house. I want a decent-sized (no more than 3,000 sf - less would be preferable), non-fancy house with a decent-sized barn (current one is four stalls - it is enough, but what I could do with more, muahahahahahaaaa!), arena, pastures. Then you get the problem of location. I would imagine that most of the good, useable, buildable properties that are close to town are already built up, so youād need to go farther out. That could be more dependent on your town, though.
Iām 5 miles from the grocery store and drug store and gas station. Iām 10 miles from work. Donāt know how I got so lucky, but I did.
