Selling property with or without farm business and equipment

[Miss_Motivation]

Hi COTH,

How have people handled selling their horse farm that includes a currently-operating boarding or training business? Turnkey? Separate everything? Negotiate everything?

If you sold your place to folks who did not continue the horse business, what did you do with all the farm equipment- just leave it as part of the sale, have an auction, etc? Take it with you?

My retirement from the farm feels like it’s moving closer due to family concerns etc. I am just curious how others have marketed a nice small farm with a going business on it… and what you would do differently if you did it again.

Thanks!

[clanter]

About fifteen years ago a friend bought an ongoing boarding/training operation in western Connecticut turnkey including some of the schooling horses… everything except household furniture was included. Rather than a Real Estate Loan which would have be limited to just the physical property he used a Small Business government backed loan (SBA.GOV) The Business of the boarding/lesson program operation’s historical books were the guidelines to prove the purchase was a sound and profitable operation.

The SBA does not lend the money directly but is the guarantor of the loan that is issued through a financial institution. The SBA web site had a page that will direct you to institutions that they have a working relationship with.

I believe he paid $1.4M for the operation back then.

The process was not simple but he got it worked out. Farm is still successfully operated today

The farm had been a long going Morgan farm for decades before the purchase, we actually knew them for showing. The sellers were wanting to retire but also wanted the farm to continue.

If I remeber correctly it took about six months for the paperwork to be completed and then the closing.

[TheJenners]

I have seen it go piecemeal and go together “turn key.” My former neighbors did the piecemeal thing because the place wasn’t selling as quickly as they needed funds (I am guessing based on the FB posts and other crap, I stalked quite hard because I couldn’t wait for them to be gone (there is a two-year-long thread on them )). So they sold tractor and implements for “$x or trade for a truck and/or camping trailer” and sold all the farm stuff such as buckets, animals, etc, separately from the residence - and the real estate listing did not include any of those items. I have sold a farm before where I did not list the farm items, but told my real estate agent to tell an interested buyers’ agent that I would sell them to a buyer, list and prices provided, if the buyer wanted - which was actually what I did, from water troughs to rubber feed pans. Seems petty, $3 rubber feed pans x 12 or whatever, but it added up to a tidy sum and I got that money directly instead of it being part of a divorce proceeding I was going through, as my ex-asshole had already signed granting me all associated horse- and farm-related equipment. The divorce agreement was only splitting the equity of the sale of the farm. He then called the cops on me when I removed IIRC a mower. .

[Miss_Motivation]

Thank you for the information. I do know one person who recently bought a farm entirely with an SBA loan… not quite sure how she did it, but she did!

I’m just trying to figure out how to market/price a place that probably only has a 50/50 chance of appealing to an equestrian buyer. Our area is very nice and in fact horses are getting to be pretty rare around here but our small area has special zoning to keep them viable.

It seems my place might appeal to a trainer (with wealthy customers) who want to have an operating farm that will not be sold out from under them as several of the large public stables around here are in the midst of doing.

[Miss_Motivation]

Yeah, TheJenners, the costs to run a farm seem petty until you’re the one buy 50 waterers, 50 halter hooks, 50 sets of stall mats, 50 mangers, etc!

Boarders have NO idea how much it costs to run a farm. They know the price of hay and shavings and somehow… think that’s it.

Hope you got out of the pokey for the mower… some people!

[TheJenners]

Oh I was never even contacted! He was told it was civil.

[clanter]

@Miss_Motivation

I’m just trying to figure out how to market/price a place that probably only has a 50/50 chance of appealing to an equestrian buyer. Our area is very nice and in fact horses are getting to be pretty rare around here but our small area has special zoning to keep them viable.

there is another thread about similar a property. obtaining a comparable property for a standard real estate loan appraisal is at best difficult to near impossible.

We are on a multiple acre track in what has become the city (about two million people now surround us whereas when this was developed there few if any around here) . To obtain a direct comparable appraisal is impossible, evening extending the distance in miles and time frame. Our lender back when we bought this place decades ago allowed the appraiser to use comps that were as old as ten years and still had to range out five miles… just to get three comps… today, there is just nothing that is being of like kind being sold as most all of these remaining properties are being handed down to family.

[clanter]

@Miss_Motivation

It seems my place might appeal to a trainer (with wealthy customers) who want to have an operating farm that will not be sold out from under them as several of the large public stables around here are in the midst of doing.

I have “heard” of such properties being converted in Horse Conds where each stall is actually a condominium with ownership being sold/transferred to the horse owner, the condo management fees cover all care. Supposedly there are some of the around New York City

The concept is identical to a human condo but modified for horses

[MsM]

I think some of the answer depends upon how quickly you need to sell - and the other potential uses of the property. I have seen some advertised as business and real estate for sale first with equestrian focused brokers. Sometimes they sold that way. Other times they show up in general real estate as multi-purpose. And sometimes they are sold for development.

Easiest to sell everything at once, but may not be most profitable.

[Alterration]

And a caveat, as I’m learning with the purchase of this place, depending on where you are, it can be difficult for your buyers to obtain financing for a horse farm. Just warning you up front that if you make it a business, you may want to specify that they need to obtain business financing