Thinking about purchasing a horse farm nearby. My real estate agent is asking me what inspections I want. There is a newish house that I assume would get a regular home inspection. Who would inspect/what would I have checked on the barn? Barn is newish but includes living areas, in addition to stalls and indoor ring. Whole property has well water and septic. I think my real estate agent is a little out of her element with farm properties…
I’d hire the Inspector yourself & ask about including the barn structures, not just the LQ part.
Seller should have had a Perc test on the septic & well can be inspected cheaply by a local company.
I paid under $500 to have my well tested when I refinanced. That included shocking it as my water is very high in iron & this was before I replaced the 40+yo water softener.
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Get the electrical in the barn looked at by a licensed electrician that understands commercial. All kinds of hinky things could be found and generally expensive to fix.
Plus if on a well, have water tested plus request a drawing of the layout of system plus how washrack drainage is set up.
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an environmental inspection of the land’s use might be good, thirty years ago a friend was looking buying a ranch in Colorado, he had an environmental inspection done that uncovered two land fills on the property that contained a large amount of chemical drums, estimated site clean up was $100k
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I’d second the electrical inspection. I see some really shaky to horrific wiring in barns.
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Thirding the electrical inspection. In Ontario, you want an electrical contractor (TSSA approved), not just an electrician.
Definitely well testing, both refill rates and water quality.
Definitely septic, make sure it works. All of the above are very expensive fixes.
Depending on the structures, it may also be worth calling out a roofer to make sure all looks good & get an estimate on expected lifespan. Plus a commercial/home inspector that can do the overview and suggest any other items that need to be addressed.
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While I have zero regrets with our “turn-key farmette” ( 
) purchase, we bought a bit of a house of horrors. I love love love it, but it has been anything but turn-key.
Have the inspector follow the entire path of your plumbing up to the barn. That was our biggest oops: we confirmed the hydrants at the barn all worked, but all of us, including the inspector, just ASSumed it was traditionally plumbed into the water lines. Uh, no. Water to the barn comes from a spigot on the side of the house attached to a frost free hydrant, which it runs backwards down, by a section of hose. 
Our inspector was very good, but how we all missed that is beyond me.
Also check the electricity. We did catch the amateur, not-up-to-code job to supply electricity to the barn on our inspection. We just underestimated how many headaches it would give us to repair and replace.
Check septic and well. Also, if your septic is the type with a drain field, check that thoroughly. That was another oops for us: the septic was inspected and we got cash from the seller for the repairs. But no one inspected the drain field, and it has some damages that will eventually need repaired.
But the rudest suprise was that barn plumbing setup. We still haven’t repaired it.
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Electrical wiring, septic system, plumbing pipes well through entire house, age and condition of water heaters, any existing easements, termites, any fireplaces, roofing, lightening rod system if any, fencing condition, pasture and yard pitches and drainage, check for any hoa involvement and rules, and check on regulations about manure handling and disposal. Do a visual drive-by and internet search for potential problems with neighbors. And in snow area check on who does snow removal to get you out to a main road. Have gas company check propane tank condition also. I cannot emphasize electrical and fire prevention enough. A place I boarded which had old electrics.
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No one’s mentioned a survey of the property? Get a survey. KNOW where your pins are, and where your lot lines are. Walk the property with the surveyor. Neighbors may move stakes, so don’t just rely on those after the fact, have the surveyor show you directly after it’s been completed.
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Don’t forget to check if you are in a flood plain.
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THIS!
My farm was originally 10ac for sale.
I only wanted 5 (hindsight = 20/20 
)
The guy who bought the other 5 was driving his truck from the road over a corner of my property as a shortcut before he built his house.
Annoying, but no real damage done.
But I put in what I called my FU Garden in that corner.
Some fallen branches, held in place with wire.
I forget what I planted in it, but whatever didn’t last & it filled with weeds.
Just enough to cut off his access without him driving very purposely across my property.
And I used the corner formed to play at XCountry with my TB 
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Thank you everyone for the responses. Much appreciated. Do you think a “normal” home inspector can be tasked to do all these things when asked, or do you think there are inspectors who specialize in farm properties?
My “home” inspector actually specialized in commercial properties but was awesome and caught a ton of stuff. But he also was a 3rd generation farmer and had horses and cows.
Generally the survey is a requirement if you are taking out a mortgage and required by the bank. I had my surveyor mark all the property lines and spray paint the corners so we would know if staked were moved.
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Like @luvmyhackney, our inspector didn’t specialize in farms per se, but he was from a multigenerational farm family in our county and also owned horses.
also might to make sure the property does not fall into some town/cities extraterritorial zoning district (if allowed in the specific state), my BIL bought a property outside of a city’s boundaries but the property was within that city’s extraterritorial zoning which caused headaches and forced him to pay for the extension of the city’s water mains
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Totally depends on the bank/location. We’ve never been required to get a survey.
We had a “normal” home inspector. We thought he was very good. We found out the hard way on MANY, MANY things that a “normal” inspector for horse property was not the best way to go! I agree with everyone on well, electrical, plumbing, and we had a nasty surprise in the winter when we were told that we had gas heating, but discovered it was really a 5 lb container of gas. It heated the house for about 20 minutes. This was after the “normal” inspector praised the fact that we had gas heating. That was a very expensive lesson learned, since neither DH nor I had any experience with gas. We also have major issues with electrical and plumbing. All very hard, expensive lessons learned.
Go to the courthouse and look at the easements. Confirm the zoning with the county also, don’t take anyone’s word for it except the zoning people. If there are any utilities you have to have, like high speed internet, and they aren’t installed yet, confirm that they are available, and how much it will cost you with the supplier. If something like good cell reception is vital, try using your cell phone everywhere on the property.
Taste the drinking water, it may not be something you want to cope with. I’ve known water to have different additives, my aunt’s house had a lot of iron in it, and that was nasty. Another aunt had a lot of soda water (not sure what the real term is), and it didn’t taste good until you got used to it.
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We canceled a purchase (was contingent on inspection) due to numerous electrical issues we found in the arena/barn. It was such a beautiful barn and arena, but the electrical was scary! The inspector could tell us the major issues, but he suggested getting an electrician out if we wanted more info. Since the issues were significant, we didn’t pay for that.
We had the same inspector do this farm and he kept commenting on what good shape everything was in and that he wanted to buy it.
We did well and septic (required here for sale anyway) and full inspection of house and barn.
I second tasting the water! Although most farm well water is going to have an issue and can be treated, but you’ll want to know what issues you are dealing with. Our previous farm in WA had terrible water and there was nothing that could be done. Very high tannin level.
If there are automatic waterers, make sure they work
Check the fences and gates
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I’m in PA, will be geographic variables to my comments. If it has septic have the septic pumped and inspected. Even large properties can make it difficult to replace a sand mound (in a place that you won’t have to look at all the time)
Check the zoning at the Township or county yourself. I don’t trust a real estate agent or the fact it already has horses on it and whether the barn apartment is allowed (and was built with a permit/inspections).
Have someone verify the flows on the well(s). Most well installers can do this in half an hour. To me, it was well worth the peace of mind.
Then “a normal” home inspection to include the barn. With the farms we’ve passed on things in the house/barn didn’t bother me as they were typically fixable (at a cost) if structurally sound.
If related to the well, the septic, terrible drainage or zoning/easements you can get in a very expensive situation where you own a property that’s never going to meet your needs.
Good luck! I’ve loved all of our farms over the years for various reasons. Old house or newer house, it’s always an adventure.
