Agree you should not invest any significant money (anything that requires debt) into a property you do not own on paper.
Do you and your SO plan to have kids? If yes you need to factor schools into the decision. You may not want your kids going to the schools in that area. Or you may have to pay for expensive private schools.
I agree with approaching this as “would I buy this property if it wasn’t in the family” and if the answer is probably no then you have your answer.
You could always apply for the job, and then if you get it, you could try just living in the area, maybe not on the land but find an inexpensive rental nearby (one with sufficient internet bandwidth - satellite won’t do it, I tried that and it failed miserably) and use that time to save up, get out of debt, whatever you need to do to make your finances more solid. Then, after you’ve been back in the area as an adult, can decide if you want to stay or if it’s just not for y’all after all. By then you’ll know better how to handle taking sole ownership of the land if you do want to make it your permanent home.
A call to a Probate Attorney would serve you well if you decide to go forward with the property and can help craft an arrangement that protect your interests.
Particulars should be worked out before investing anything. A family Trust would be something to consider.
I see a nice opportunity presented and your interest in it can be protected regardless of your decision right now if your family is agreeable.
This is what I don’t quite understand. Even if not fully developing the property as a farm right away, this is a full-time job. Who will be hiring all the contractors needed to develop and maintain the barn, manage them, watching the horses when you get them? It’s hard enough for my friends who WFH with horses at home just to take care of a few horses on-property on small acreages that were already developed.
Even if you just want a few boarders, will the area support the business? It doesn’t sound like there is much of a horse culture in the area. If there is a lack of affluent individuals, that can make it hard for boarding to pay. What about vets/farriers in the area?
Even if there is fast internet, it might not be reliable, particularly in bad weather.
Even houses have their quirks, and cost more than planned at the outset, but my instinct says that it’s hard enough to manage a house without help doing “weekend warrior yard chores” much less a 60 acre farm.
I am confused…I know lots of people that have a personal barn or a couple of boarders that work full time jobs but still manage to make their barn work.
Just because the OP has 60 acres does not mean they have to use it all. I doubt someone has a full time job tending to it now.
Sure, you hire someone to build the barn. Sure you hire someone to put in fences. But all of this is doable.
A barn with a few boarders does not have to be a full time job itself.
I have a more than full time job and am managing my contractors for fencing and barn renovations just fine.
It’s plenty doable.
If you can get high speed internet, Starlink actually works really well in mountain areas, and just pay property taxes, plus that’s the job you want, I would do it.
I would buy a used RV to live in, do inexpensive fencing and a turnout shelter for horses, and save every dime I could. Then I’d go buy my own land.
Sounds like a fun job. I would go for it. Farms are for the young and physically abled to manage it. Build it up and raise your kids there until school age.
If you earn enough by then, kids will benefit most from a more urban area when they’re older. You can get the farm running well enough for a manager and, hopefully, save enough for a small place in the city. The farm could be for weekends. Otherwise, stay there and raise your kids there.
At least in my area, the people I do who have this at home are struggling to find good, reliable help (and boarders), and in terms of contractors, it’s in a much more developed area than the OP. (And they bought their property with a barn that needed rehab, not from scratch.) Another friend who was attempting to build such a setup in a more isolated area (but not as isolated as where the OP is) ended up with a pretty epic nightmare struggle of contractors not delivering on what she needed. And neither of them had 60 acres. One worked part-time while her husband worked full-time, the other was retired.
Regardless, before making the decision (assuming the land would be hers) the OP needs to determine on a more concrete basis the financial costs/logistics of both barn-building and horse-keeping and determine if the resources are there to help her in that very specific area. And also how this would fit into her lifestyle and her husband’s–even really basic stuff like getting chores done within the context of their work schedules.
I agree with attempting a move into the area with a rental seems more feasible to get a feel for whether this is where she’d like to be for many years. It also might enable her to get a feel of the horse scene there and establish social connections with other horse people, which would be helpful.
If it’s being willed to you and your sister, your sister will benefit from all the investment you make but you will be out the money that went into it while 50% of the benefit is someone else’s. Too messy for me.
Yes. When it comes time to divide the assets among the benefactors your improvements made with your money will add to the value of the land. Unless you can afford to buy out your sister, you will likely need to sell the property to divide the assets. Unless the estate also involves a huge cash reserve such that your sister can get all the cash and you get the land.
I don’t know what a farm in Kentucky is worth, or will be worth in 20 years. I’m in a high cost of living area, so acting as executor for a simple suburban house worth over &1.5 million, neither benefactor can afford to buy out the other, house needs to be sold.
It sounds like a better plan might be just to sell the property, divide the money, and then for the OP to buy a smaller acreage (ideally somewhat closer to a city/suburb) that’s easier to manage and maybe even more ideal for small-scale horse-keeping.
Maybe have a discussion with your sister about your dreams as well as the family member?
Another option for the sister dividing part is to subdivide the 60 acres into two 30 acres parcels now. The OP does what they want to their 30 acre piece and her sister gets her 30 acre piece to do with as she wants.
This is a very likely scenario. And this is all assuming the family member doesn’t get into financial trouble in the next 20 years that would require the estate to be liquidated to cover debts. Medical care and long-term care costs can quickly eat through an expected inheritance, or the family member could change the terms of the will, or any number of scenarios. OP shouldn’t move forward with the land until they know for sure they’ll be able to keep it.
I skimmed thru the responses, and see this touched on, but to reiterate:
Keeping horses, keeping livestock, keeping up with maintenance on a large property, in addition to being expensive, is a lot of work. A Whole Lot. Sustainability becomes a big question.
Forget about weekends off. Forget about that trip to Europe. Work. Dawn to dusk, 365 days/yr for the foreseeable future.
Sound like fun? If not, I’d pass on the remote rural gig. Just sayin’ . . .
You’re going to spend your youth working on a farm in an area whose culture you do not like, investing in this property, when you’re not even going to have a shred of a guarantee that you won’t get tossed out on your butt when whoever it is dies and your sister demands her half of the value? I would think long and hard about that.
Chiming in from rural Appalachia. It is not an easy place to live. As George_T_Mule stated above, farming is 24/7 365 days a year, and it usually takes every bit of extra income you have. This is a place where the weather is not your friend and the topography makes even little chores a challenge. Don’t ask yourself, “Can I do it?” but “Will I enjoy doing it?”
In addition, it really is culturally narrow here, not because people are anti-outsiders, but because what it’s really like to live here (rather than what’s on travel brochures) doesn’t appeal to everyone.
It is cold and miserable during the winter (and mountain driving in snow and ice is VERY different from flat or urban driving in the same conditions). It is difficult to make a living, and it appeals to people who have a hard-scrabble mindset more than those who don’t. Pioneers moved here years ago, and for the most part, the only people who stayed are the ones who are wired the same way. Others move here, liking the natural beauty, but they generally don’t stay long. Some breeds of horses thrive here, too, while others don’t. Hardier crossbreds, ponies, drafts… these handle the conditions well, while TBs and warmbloods have a harder time.
If these things sound like a satisfying challenge, then maybe rural Appalachia would be a good fit for you, but if not, there are plenty of other ways to try horse-keeping without the extra headaches.
It’s like the old joke about the farmer who won the lottery. When the reporter asked what he intended to do now, he said, well, I guess I’ll just keep farming until it’s gone.
I haven’t read all the responses yet, but I don’t think you could even get a loan (unless it was from a family member or other unusual source) to put up permanent structures on property you don’t own. If you defaulted, they wouldn’t be able to seize the property back.
I can’t speak to the rest of this, but do want to pipe in that I’ve had very good luck with Starlink for WFH (including frequent Zooming and a TON of time on a VPN) and gaming. I don’t run any engineering software so can’t speak to that, but I haven’t encountered anything that Starlink hasn’t done adequately. I’m not gaming competitively, for instance, but I haven’t had any issues with myself and my SO on a MMORPG together while another housemate is streaming, etc.
It depends on the area! They are not consistently reliable in weather - and I was more referring to the fact that just because they SAY you can get Starlink doesn’t mean you can get good internet for such things. Often people think of satellite internet as plug and play, it’ll work anywhere, but it’s not. It’s finicky like cell reception. YMMV, but do your research before hauling your life into the boonies!
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