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I’d do the barn and an outdoor.

There are times in the winter where I can’t ride due to weather but a really nice outdoor does negate most of that. Plus, I’m of the mind that riding only 3-4 days/week from Dec-March is probably a good physical and mental break for my horses.

Getting both for $100k is unfortunately probably not going to happen. You can get a decent shell for $50k and put in the guts yourself if you have the skills and tools. Otherwise I’d say you’re looking at a budget barn for $70k and an outdoor for $30k if you’re lucky.

FWIW:
We put in an outdoor for about $8,000-10,000 over the course of 2019 and 2020 but did all of the grading and work ourselves.
Put up a 30x40 pole barn last year for $12,000, one sliding door, one walk door and two windows. No electric or plumbing or concrete. Also not including any ground work or excavation. Literally just the building.

In the Midwest where labor is cheaper.

I would go with the indoor/barn combo plan option, if you can afford it. You may not have the budget to actually build the stalls and furnish it right away, but if the space is there and mapped out you can work on it over time.

FWIW, the numbers I gave above were from a steel structure builder. Lumber is more expensive here than other areas but even having spent last winter in the land of pine trees and seeing what fence boards cost… yikes.

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Let’s change the title of this thread to “Someone gives you an infinite amount of money for a barn and arena. What are you building?” :joy:

(not helpful to the OP at all)

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For reference, I am in SC. A basic 4 stall center aisle barn, with tack room and feed room, and wash stall was $165,000. A “native soil” standard dressage arena was $15,000. Native soil means the area is leveled by scraping off the topsoil and subsoil sand layer, then laser grading and packing the existing clay layer, and re- spreading the sand. This is possible because I’m in a coastal plain area with topsoil and sand layered over clay about 3 feet down, and nothing had to be purchased and trucked in. The extra topsoil worked nicely to fill in a rolling terrain 1 acre jump field, which I did myself.

If someone gave me $100,000 today I’d replace the dressage arena with GGT footing with about half of the money, and use the other half to put up a building to shelter the horse trailers, tractor, and implements, and for hay storage - to get the hay out and away from the barn. If there were anything left over, which I doubt, a schooling water jump would be nice.

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And even more sobering is it doesn’t necessarily increase your property value :confounded:

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Lumber and steel are at a huge high right now. A friend just put up an 11 stall barn and indoor about a year ago and her prices jumped from 600k to 800k. She says she couldn’t afford it now.

She is in CT.

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I would try the hardest for that indoor, or like here in the SW, covered arena.
You can work on the ground and ride any day or night, any time of the year.
If you have to wait to do any other construction, the indoor will keep you riding all the time, priceless.
For outside, you will have way more places to haul to ride if you have to.

This is so true. I know the previous owners took a huge hit when they sold us this place. It cost them quite a bit to put in the barn/arena and the new shop. They didn’t get any of that investment back. Right now the estimated cost to replace the buildings on this property is twice what it would sell for.

Did I miss where you live? I just find this incredibly unlikely. 10+ years ago I built a two stall shed and it cost more than $2K by the time it was done, just in materials. I had a very (too) small outdoor built and that cost nearly $25K.

I’m thinking 6 stalls at the most. I also want a wash stall, tack room, feed room, and hay loft for blanket storage.

Definitely get updated quotes. A 6 stall barn is fairly large - do you think you’ll board horses or were you just thinking you’d build large because the money would cover it? If you don’t think you’ll personally own more than 3-4 horses yourself, I’d start to cut corners by making the barn smaller.

I think a Morton type building for the arena would be close to $200K at this point in time (not counting site excavation). My neighbor had one built that is smaller than this…maybe 20 years ago and I believe it was about $90K, not counting footing. I don’t know if that included electric work or not. https://mortonbuildings.com/projects/marks-riding-arena

I’d love to know the prices on this website. I wish they would have some base numbers included but I suppose you can get that when you submit the form.

If someone gave me 100k for a barn and arena, I’d sell my place and then upgrade to a farm that had a barn and arena already built.

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I will say, after having gotten pricing from several named barn building companies (in other words, not the local barn builders), the Morton estimate was half again higher than the next estimate down and that was them not even doing all the stuff we asked for. Yes, they offer a great product but so do other companies.

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I kind of am getting a feeling that the gifter of the loan might become displeased believing surely for $100,000.00 all this can be done.

There may be a strain on the relationship without full documentation of just what the loaner thinks and what is the actual cost.

OP and Gifter need to set down to kind of figure out just what this project’s guidelines should encompass

Then get three different companies to quote the general aspects of the project

I have seen on the past where a well-heeled family member wanted to help thinking their offer was overly generous when if fact by the standards of the times was actually inadequate… then there became a level of distrust by the gifter of thinking they were being taken advantage of

Hopefully this is not the case for OP, but it could be…

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This was my experience as well.

The pandemic has caused prices to quadrupedal. $100K will get you a really nice barn or a really nice outdoor and a fence. Not both. Not even coming close to an indoor.

I agree with this thought, but the prices quoted by StormyDay would not have gotten you anything close to what they stated in my part of the world, even four years ago. That is about the time I got quotes on a three stall barn.

Speaking as someone who has been a gifter of the same amount, my recipients used it as down payment on 60 acres that already had an older 14 stall barn and fencing, and have built it into a thriving eventing training facility. Sometimes it is just best (and less costly) to move to a new location with things already built.

Best $100K I ever spent to support nice people and my favorite sport.

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I live in Virginia, but the quotes were when I was in NC.
Morton is extremely expensive and IMO overpriced for the product

I’d need about 800k more to do that. Farms are very hot in my area. Putting in a simple barn on a property can easily raise asking value by 100k here

Not what I was asking about. I’m asking about barns and arenas, not input on my financial situation or my family. Thanks.

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