Those of you who have sold your farm, questions on what to do with the horses

[SugarCubes]

Looking to hear from people who have sold their farm(ette) and bought a different farm(ette)…

We are putting our 3 acre farmette on the market this spring and looking to buy 10-20 acres. What did you guys do with your horses while your current home was on the market and while you were in the interim period between selling and moving into a new place (we will most likely build again, which means at least 6 months of renting until it’s finished)

Did you board your horses? Keep them at home until it sold? We would likely be able to purchase the new land before our house sells, but won’t be able to begin building the house or barn until after it sells. I could put a run in shed and some temporary fencing up and move them to the new lot before we build, I suppose…

Just looking for real life experiences!

[ElementFarm]

haven’t sold our place (and hope we never do). But when we bought the place, the previous owner kept her two horses there until the week of closing and moved them out of state at that time when she moved.

[Simkie]

We’re about to list our place now and move halfway across the country to CT. Horses will stay here with us until we’re ready to move, and will then be hauled professionally to the new place. If the timing doesn’t align for those things to happen without a gap, then I’ll find a place to board either here or there for a few weeks until we’re all in the right spot.

We have the facilities in the new spot for the horses, though. Can see how much harder it would be without!

[Texarkana]

I’m about to be in a similar situation, so I’ve been pondering the same question. Although we lease our current farm, which theoretically gives us a little more flexibility.

The hope is to keep them at home until we are ready to move into the new place, but who knows how that will work out. We’ll potentially be moving cross country, but don’t know where, which also complicates things.

[moving_to_dc]

Horses stayed on the property during showings. We listed with a “horse” realtor, and he was required to be on-site for all showings to “guard” the horses and other critters.

Horses were on property the day of closing - 5p closing. Grrr! Buyers allowed horses to stay on property until 8a next morning, at which time I loaded them and headed toward DC. It was too late in the evening on the day of closing to head out, plus we had severe storms ALL afternoon and evening. No way to safely load in those conditions.

Driving thru VA, 1 day out from arriving in DC, and I get a phone call that the closing on my new MD property has been pushed back 2 weeks. Not cool… As the plan was for an early AM closing, with horses in the trailer in the parking lot, and then heading for new property and unloading (turn-key horse property ready to occupy).

Maryland seller’s realtor says bring horses, they can live in round pen until closing. Drop horses off for 1 night, but that plan wasn’t going to work because we were living at Ft. Meade’s campground - about a 2.5 hr drive away… No way to do self care in that situation. Load horses back up, and literally start driving around, looking for boarding stables. Found one - set horses up for 2 weeks - finally close on house, pick up horses and head to our new home.

Bit of a nightmare, but it all worked out fine in the end.

[Texarkana]

Moving to DC… holy heck, what a nightmare. Thanks for sharing so we can all learn from your experience and hopefully not recreate it!

That’s just nuts!

[SugarCubes]

[QUOTE=moving to dc;8902299]
Horses stayed on the property during showings. We listed with a “horse” realtor, and he was required to be on-site for all showings to “guard” the horses and other critters.

Horses were on property the day of closing - 5p closing. Grrr! Buyers allowed horses to stay on property until 8a next morning, at which time I loaded them and headed toward DC. It was too late in the evening on the day of closing to head out, plus we had severe storms ALL afternoon and evening. No way to safely load in those conditions.

Driving thru VA, 1 day out from arriving in DC, and I get a phone call that the closing on my new MD property has been pushed back 2 weeks. Not cool… As the plan was for an early AM closing, with horses in the trailer in the parking lot, and then heading for new property and unloading (turn-key horse property ready to occupy).

Maryland seller’s realtor says bring horses, they can live in round pen until closing. Drop horses off for 1 night, but that plan wasn’t going to work because we were living at Ft. Meade’s campground - about a 2.5 hr drive away… No way to do self care in that situation. Load horses back up, and literally start driving around, looking for boarding stables. Found one - set horses up for 2 weeks - finally close on house, pick up horses and head to our new home.

Bit of a nightmare, but it all worked out fine in the end.[/QUOTE]

Oh man! So glad you were able to make last minute arrangements! That’s exactly the type of thing I worry about…so maybe it would be best to make arrangements to board them just in case closings get pushed back or something like that comes up!

So, no issues with keeping the horses at home while house was being shown? We are in a non-horsey area and I have a feeling whoever buys our place will likely turn the barn into a garage or guest house or something, so I wonder if the horses being there will be a turn off? Then again, it’s the perfect set up for someone with a couple of horses, so who knows…

[Ballygrace]

Keeping horses during sale of farm

[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8901658]
Looking to hear from people who have sold their farm(ette) and bought a different farm(ette)…

We are putting our 3 acre farmette on the market this spring and looking to buy 10-20 acres. What did you guys do with your horses while your current home was on the market and while you were in the interim period between selling and moving into a new place (we will most likely build again, which means at least 6 months of renting until it’s finished)

Did you board your horses? Keep them at home until it sold? We would likely be able to purchase the new land before our house sells, but won’t be able to begin building the house or barn until after it sells. I could put a run in shed and some temporary fencing up and move them to the new lot before we build, I suppose…

Just looking for real life experiences![/QUOTE]

We kept our horses at home while our farm was on the market. Our Realtor was a horse farm specialist and guided us. We were careful to keep the horses well groomed and the barn neat and clean. If a horse person was looking at our farm, seeing our well kept horses lead them to think their horses would look good if they lived here. If they weren’t going to have horses, the barn was very clean and it was easy for them to imagine using it for another purpose.

When we moved, our buyers graciously let us rent back for 6 days so we could have an orderly move.

[Eleanor]

Most farm to farm moves I have done I have tried to have 2-4 weeks. take over new place on first and move out of old place on 15/30th. that way It gives time for the worst to happen. I know it is not always easy to do.

The times it has not been able to do that I just board horses at a farm that I feel comfortable with. I will board for a month but may move them earlier if everything is ready where they are going. The last move we where here for a few weeks before I went and got the horses. I love to have them with me sooner but they don’t mind having a holiday away from me. I feel better leaving them somewhere that I know rather them at a new place if I can’t be there every day.

[StormyDay]

We had a month to move, but we were lucky because the rental we were moving into was ours halfway through that month. We took several trips of stuff because of this. The horses were living there during showings, I just kept the barn tidy. When the horses left (we left the 16th or so, so there was some time for the grass to grow back on the pasture) I scraped the stalls out, power washed the whole barn, paid to have the manure pile removed, and dragged the pasture so the poop piles would be gone for them.
None of this was done for us, either time. I moved into barns with manure in the stalls and old hay on the floor.

[Pennywell_Bay]

I closed on the new farm first and it was practically horse-ready (one reason why I bought it). I closed in Indy in May and moved my horses in June from PA. I think it was a 2 weeks gap that the owners (with contract in place) let my horses live there. It was pretty seemless but we worded hard at coordination.

I kept the barn nice, horses well groomed, had an equine realtor.

[SugarCubes]

[QUOTE=Eleanor;8904935]
Most farm to farm moves I have done I have tried to have 2-4 weeks. take over new place on first and move out of old place on 15/30th. that way It gives time for the worst to happen. I know it is not always easy to do.

The times it has not been able to do that I just board horses at a farm that I feel comfortable with. I will board for a month but may move them earlier if everything is ready where they are going. The last move we where here for a few weeks before I went and got the horses. I love to have them with me sooner but they don’t mind having a holiday away from me. I feel better leaving them somewhere that I know rather them at a new place if I can’t be there every day.[/QUOTE]

Having 2-4 weeks would be ideal, I hope we get that lucky!! I would have no concerns with boarding them with my trainer (they’ve lived there in the past) but she has no open stalls right now, hopefully something opens up by the time we sell!

A few of you have mentioned using an equine realtor - we’ve always used a family friend who happens to be one of the best realtors in our area, but she knows nothing about horses. We DO have an equine realtor in the area…do you think we’d be better off going with her rather than the family friend?

[StormyDay]

[QUOTE=SugarCubes;8905300]
Having 2-4 weeks would be ideal, I hope we get that lucky!! I would have no concerns with boarding them with my trainer (they’ve lived there in the past) but she has no open stalls right now, hopefully something opens up by the time we sell!

A few of you have mentioned using an equine realtor - we’ve always used a family friend who happens to be one of the best realtors in our area, but she knows nothing about horses. We DO have an equine realtor in the area…do you think we’d be better off going with her rather than the family friend?[/QUOTE]

An equestrian realtor is going to have clients of her own who are looking for equestrian properties, which makes your property more likely to sell. However, if the equestrian realtor is not a very good realtor than the family friend would be better to go with. Just make sure she understands that the equestrian amenities need to be stressed in the advertisement, such as lots of photos of the horse areas, and also you may want to post the house on sites like your local FB equestrian sites, Craigslist (yes people do buy properties through craigslist ) and hang fliers in the feed and tack stores near you. Either way you might want to do that.

[ElementFarm]

we used equine realtors for to find both our rental and our current “forever” farm.

In my case, I didn’t care so much about the house, but I had specific requirements for the barn. Equine realtors will take pictures of the barn, the stalls, the tack room, the ring, and pastures. Regular realtors post 30 pictures of the house and then one from outside of each of the outbuildings, to include the barn. Before going to look at a place, I wanted to know how big the stalls were and if matted, fencing type and condition, and riding amenities. Frankly, non-horse people just don’t know enough to answer these questions, and got a lot wrong.

If you think the next buyer is likely to look at your place for horses, then using a horse-smart realtor probably is a good idea. If you think interested parties will just convert the barn into storage/hobby/garage space, then it probably doesn’t matter as much. I would work with any non-equine realtor and suggest that good photos of the barn and tack room interior are included, and give her the words to say when describing the horse amenities.

[Foxglove]

Because our farm was sold (by us) because it had become surrounded by residential homes on 1/4 acre lots, we were not targeting the equestrian market --realtor felt the property would sell quicker if we removed the horses and all other animals from the home --we boarded the horses and put dogs/cats with friends during showing. When our house and barn were shown, it appeared as if no animals had ever lived there. As it turned out the realtor was correct and the place sold quickly (once we took that approach). The people who bought it used the barn for an auto repair/restore facility for their sons to work on their cars. Had it been filled with horses and hay, one wonders if the people would have “seen” the possibility of a place for the boys to work on their cars.