and maybe they could $500,000 when they sold it,
Just price out fencing for an undeveloped track, that might scare you
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I feel the fencing feels. Haha
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Eh, not much for sale with indoors up here. Most are listed for 3-4 mill right now (some with a house, some with just a barn apartment). Of course these never move quick, but with the way the market is, building might not be a huge hit. I knew of one for sale for a little over the OPs budget, indoor with like 40+ stalls, but siding, roof, and footing all needed to be replaced. The rest was functional not pretty.
I am a little curious on recent fence prices - are we talking more than $20-25 a linear foot? Been casually planning a dream farm scenario and that’s the number I’ve been using (doubled from my 2018 price at the current property).
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I agree in an expensive area of the MA that would be difficult. (I’m in NoVA, where that would be impossible).
But if you are interested in building costs generally, I recommend a Facebook group called Horse Barns: Plans, Designs, and Ideas, where people discuss their farm building plans and costs in great detail.
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Prices are absolutely stupid right now, and as you’ve noted the maintenance on most of these properties has been deferred as most of the sellers are only selling if they have to: divorces, very elderly, gone broke etc,
Your best bet is to get on some realtors email list of properties that never go on the market. I don’t know where you are located but I do see stuff come up in that price range occasionally- look in NY state and the snowier parts of PA and assume you won’t have trail access off the property. Or buy a facility without a house on it and build.
I’m in a pretty reasonable COL area north of Baltimore. Pre COVID they were definitely out there. Since the 30% COVID surge in real estate I haven’t seen anything close to that budget to buy, if you need a house, maybe with a sketchy trailer. And no way you could build it under $1M unless you went very light on “show barn” amenities. Fencing and footing to reach that show barn level are just $$$ on top of all the dirt work that a new build adds. I would keep looking, something has to give with interest rates sometime which should help inventory (and eventually prices, maybe?). Another bummer is without a house you are limited in financing options, perhaps, which is another thread. At 20’x30’ this is personal use, correct?
Adding don’t build in a flood zone. If you ever have to sell you are going to limit your market to cash buyers, who want horse facilities, which is always going to be tiny.
Edit, I missed 20-30 stalls. I was thinking personal use small 3 stall barn. To go 20-30 stalls with suitable acerage I just don’t see getting close to $1.5M these days unless it’s in very bad shape and then you’d be putting in tons of money to correct deferred maintenance.
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Since you’ve gotten a lot of responses saying it’s near impossible and I’ve recently went through a similar experience so I get how discouraging it can be I’ll be the odd one out and offer some hope. I definitely don’t have enough knowledge to speak on building but here are some current listings as well as a couple recently sold
NY- https://www.horseproperties.net/properties/new-york/saratoga-county/rexford/65259
PA- https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/210-Oberholtzer-Rd-Gilbertsville-PA-19525/2113304350_zpid/?
NJ- http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/24-Baker-Rd_Pittstown_NJ_08867_M93022-79986
MD- https://www.zillow.com/homes/15104-Gardner-Rd-Waldorf,-MD-20601_rb/
Don’t give up, not saying it will be easy, but probably a matter of being patient yet ready to move quickly on anything that comes up. Good luck!
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It is still under contract
If it’s in our target area we do not need a house on property. Hoping that will open more options for us
Wow, thank you! This did just give me some hope! Although simultaneously disappointed I missed out some of them, especially that one West Milford, though not an ideal location for me, what a gorgeous facility for a great price
If you don’t need a home, that opens the door much wider for building your own facilities and finding something in your budget.
I’m a bit of a naysayer just because I know how much money I’ve dropped on my own tiny place. Horse stuff in general has just gotten so high in cost.
Whatever path you take, I wish you luck in finding or building your dream property.
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some here in Ontario but ya know….snow.
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I feel that, I think OP may be able to find something that works, but the need for the high end show barn vibe is what’s killing options I think. Not needing a house is helpful, though! You just can’t get what OP wants for less than $3 million around here, despite being pretty rural.
It’s rough. Nice facilities need clients with big budgets, so they tend to be closer to HCOL areas and there goes your cheap land (except for floodplains…). Development pressure is INSANE too, I would almost bet that the pulled offer is going to someone paying developer prices.
Good luck OP, I think this will be a wait and see game, but be ready to POUNCE on something. A realtor with horse connections would be invaluable in catching something before it hits the market!
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We are hoping for something in the middle. It needs to be “show barn level” ie bigger than 10x10 stalls built for ponies or 15h QHs, big enough arenas to jump a full course in, decent enough footing for jumping 3’+, safe turnout, barn in good repair/not falling down.
While it would be lovely we do NOT need anything super top of the line flashy, euro stall fronts, chandelier lighting, etc. etc
The one we made an offer on was functional but not fancy. The barn was in decent condition but nothing special to look at. The stuff that really counts (ie footing, stall size, overall property condition) was all good.
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Don’t forget you can phase things to help with cost. Maybe you just do a bare bones pole barn, stalls, and indoor right now. In 5-10 years you can add on or finish things out. The land prices don’t go down, so I’d find the land you want and build on it slowly as you can afford it (doing that here in CA).
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We can make a cash offer, so hopefully that will help as well.
I wonder if there are any industrial type properties you could convert to your purpose for that budget? I used to teach a lady whose family repurposed a warehouse into an indoor arena and barn. There are also barns in my area that repurposed trusses from hockey arena’s to build their barn/arena, and we bought a horse from a place that converted a dairy barn into
a riding arena: the windows were oddly low, but it was a good space! The barn I rode at as a kid had a repurposed airplane hanger for an arena.
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All I know for sure is that to find what you are looking for, at the price you can pay, is to move away from civilization to some extent. Move away from where things are built up already, and where all the other establishments are. Away from the cities, into the country. Away from people. Built up places where people already ARE is expensive (I dunno why because I can’t stand all those people). So cast further afield, look around. Look where others aren’t looking.
Look for water availability and quantity. Look for semi arid location. These may sound counterproductive, but they don’t have to be. If you are battling mud with horses, it will be a lifelong battle, will be expensive, and you will probably not win in the long run.
Dunno if this helps you, but there you go.
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This is not technically mid-Atlantic but might be encouraging:
No affiliation to the seller.
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The grand sierra design looks great! But I see that the price you mentioned is the base price. I would speak with the builder to get a more comprehensive picture of a realistic price. To save money on the indoor, consider a covered arena (roof only, no walls) instead of an indoor. With climate change a covered arena in the mid-Atlantic may be sufficient. Be wary of floodplains; you may not even be able to get a building permit for a flood plain, and for good reason. I would wait for something already built to come on the market. There are predictions of prices coming down.
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