How to BUY LAND without being RICH | Real Farmer's Simple Advice that Worked!

I'm not getting anything out of teaching you this I'm telling you this is what you need to do in order to build your dreams I ain't afraid to work I ain't afraid to play I ain't afraid to get the job done to do good my own damn way ain't afraid of times like this [Music] they chewing they ain't mooing guys welcome back to the Stony Ridge Farm channel it's a beautiful day here on the farm we are in North Central North Carolina and today I'm just going to quickly talk to you guys about starting your own Farm Homestead Farm whatever you want to call it this is a small farm some people call it a hobby Farm I don't call it a hobby Farm because I file a Schedule F every year and I earn a living partly on the animals here on the Stony Ridge farm so I've got a lot of questions and comments and just piles and piles of people asking did you win the lottery how' you do this how did you build this Farm you know it must be nice to be rich I get that a lot must be nice it's not nice it's hard work it is nice and wonderful to live on a place like this I'm on 150 acre first generation cattle project 50 years ago this was tobacco 6 years ago this was overgrown and and covered in Brush now we're bringing it back to agriculture we're bringing it back to cattle and we're healing the land and we are regenerative farming now what does regenerative farming mean to you and me it means doing the right thing for the land for the soil for the animals our animals receive no vaccinations oh God they receive no medications unless they are sick we don't treat the well we treat the sick imagine that concept I know it's really tough with Western medicine that we should most certainly treat people who are sick and who are well or cows who are sick and who are well but we don't have health problems here on the farm I have yet to have but one health problem on this Stony Ridge Farm and that was from one young animal eating too many acorns and that was something that I learned we had a bumper crop of acorns about I guess three years ago and I lost a calf to bloat since then I've learned how to treat bloat and I know what to do and I haven't lost a cow since then but that happens sometimes this is 150 acre not a magical unicorn farm that fell from the sky this is dedication and hard work now let's talk about how I got started with this Farm I went out and I sought out land I was looking for land that was close to where I grew up close to where my parents live my parents live about 15 minutes away from here I want to be close to family in case they get sick I'm there for them I can be there for them the land that you see right here was overgrown in Brush and Briars and brambles and trees and needed a lot of Rehabilitation a ton of Rehabilitation if you look back I'll post some videos at the end of this at some of the clearing and some of the Timber cutting what we did was we went to Carolina Farm Credit and got a loan I said we there's no we anymore sometimes the stresses of a farm can stress a marriage to the point of where it just don't work sometimes you can't bring a city girl to the country and sometimes people just don't have what it takes to keep a successful relationship did the farm destroy my marriage absolutely not absolutely not did social media destroy my marriage absolutely not and I'm going to tell you about a commodity that you don't know about or you may not know about that you need to incorporate into building your farm so 25% down had to save up had to scrimp had to save had to get myself as close to out of debt as I possibly could if you're thinking about building a farm like this or buying some land you're going to have to have about 20% down now whether you take out a home equity loan like I did in order to get that 25% down to buy the land or whether you have it in the bank already that's up to you depends on how disciplined you are and let me tell you you can't build a farm without some self-discipline so if you think you're going to go out you're going to buy that new Yukon Denali for 140 I don't know what they cost now $120,000 and you're going to build this farm and you're not a millionaire already you ain't going to do it you just ain't going to do it stop making yourself yourself perpetually middle class by burying yourself in Consumer Debt and a car is Consumer Debt work to get out of that and that might turn some people off but stick with me here think about this so we went to Carolina Farm Credit I borrowed money 25% down the land that we're standing on right here was Brushy overgrown and it cost $1,800 an acre there's 90 Acres on this padic or plot and there's 60 ACR on the other side the other side was even worse than this side lots of money went into this so once we bought our land we had Timber some Timber about this big some about this big and we cut the Timber on the land we made yeah 40 to $50,000 we took that money we reinvested it into clearing pastures and building fences now make no mistake about it we've got a ton of videos out there you can build your own fence or you can hire it done it's important to know that it's important to know that the cost of fencing is astronomical it is but if you can learn how to do it yourself and build a good quality fence you probably won't have to rebuild that when you're 80 if you build it when you're 40 or 50 odds are it's going to be falling apart by the time you're 80 unless you do it right now we tried to do it right what we have here again was a loan I just got a loan on the 60 Acres over there you can't get a conventional loan a conventional mortgage you can't get a VA loan there's money out there from the USDA for you to borrow against do I advocate for you borrowing money from the USDA to buy your farm and build your farm yes do I advocate for you to seek seek out free money to start your farm if that's what you want to do go for it absolutely it's not what we did here on the farm but I did seek it out I found out that the usdaa offices here in my County were helpful in some ways and not so helpful in other ways I got put on a list and pushed back put on a list and pushed back don't wait for the government to hand you that free check guys get out there get to work get the chainsaws out and get the bush hog out and get the machine out and start clearing land now most of you and myself we buy a piece of land and it's grown up and trashy and nasty and we're going to go out we're going to work we're going to take chainsaws and wheelbarrows and brush and and grapples on tractors and we're going to clean all this land up right what I realized was money is much better spent organizing yourself financially and paying someone to do it that is a pro if I would have had to clear all of this land and let me show you all around us every bit of this had to be cleared it cost me about $16,000 to do that if I had to do it I'd have been out here for 3 years you got to get your farm up you got to get it pumping you got to get it pumping out financial gain financial gain that's what it's about I started with three cows we bumped up now we're almost at 50 cows I've had as many as 65 cows in the winter time you got hay expenses in the summertime the cows are out grazing you got fencing and hay expenses and payments payments payments payments once again this is not unachievable for you if you're seeking land to buy you can go on all these websites and look up all these plots of land that are out there for sale for astronomical prices or you can be patient you can buy your time you can go over to the Farm Service Agency office you can look on the bulletin board there are people with land for sale you can knock on doors you can see overgrown land go right on the gis website look it up real quick see who owns that land write them a letter I've always dreamed of farming Mr Mr Jones I've always dreamed of farming I see that you have 55 Acres over here and that it's all it's starting to grow up I would love to bring your farm back to life ask them about leasing ask them about purchasing please contact me I would love to continue the tradition of Agriculture on your property most of these older farmers who have retired people in their 60s 7s ' 80s 90s maybe even low 100s they love agriculture but their families their kids find it much easier to go to work in town get a paycheck come home take the kids to soccer practice and that's it there are opportunities out there and those opportunities aren't necessarily on a realtor site now there are great realtor sites and if you don't have a good realtor contact one that way he can be out there or she can be out there looking for you I didn't buy any of this land through a realtor it was all Word of Mouth you've got to put yourself in a position for success in order to be successful that is a take-home message you can write that down on the whiteboard in your house you have to put yourself in a position for success in order to be successful so that's what I did the first piece of land that I bought was one of my patients at the hospital I'm a registered nurse I have since stopped nursing started content creation and started farming full-time here on the farm you can do this guys I'm telling now let's talk about a commodity that nobody really seems to think about I say nobody I say probably 0 one% of people and you see us out here and you see us creating content I'm not getting anything out of teaching you this I'm telling you this is what you need to do in order to build your dreams okay to build your dreams while you're building your farm while you're seeking out land you need to create a little content this is the next Comm commity would we rather raise 10 acres of squash and sit at the farmers market all day on Sunday and Saturday and make 50 bucks or would we rather create content to help subsidize the cost on your farm that's what I'm telling you that is a commodity that you can use some people say well I don't want to talk on a camera and I don't let me tell you something your perspective is valuable it is very valuable when you mess up on your property on your farm on clearing your land on running your chainsaw on running your tractor when you mess up it teaches us it teaches me it teaches you it's super important for all of us to share this and on the garbage crap that you see on TV and everything super commercialized guys I think it's a breath of fresh air I want you to leave a comment tell me what you think about this valuable commodity to help you build your property it is not a unachievable miracle this is not a unicorn farm that just popped out of the sky this is something that took hard work dedication planning hard work dedication and more planning now I've got a load of hay coming in here for the cows I'm just about out of hay speaking of planning we got to spend a little bit of money today but it takes money to make money you guys hear that right that's what people say it takes money to make money but I say it takes intellect to make money and it takes thinking outside the box okay thinking outside the box I bought the land 25% down went to Farm Credit got my loan you can go to the USDA you can get loans there's grant money out there for you if you decide you want to do it I know the government's cutting back on this kind of stuff so don't Bank on that however it is achievable don't go buy the Farmland right next to town that cost $10,000 an acre and expect that you're going to have a profitable Enterprise guys seek out the warn out seek out what everybody else doesn't want what nobody body sees potential in and that is how you build a farm successfully without going in the PO house cool guys thanks a lot please comment if you have any input anything you'd like to share post it down there in the comments I really appreciate you I've got to go check on the cows make sure I do a little pregnant walk make sure nobody's going to have a baby tomorrow thank you so much you can Farm you can build your homestead you can feed yourself you can feed your family and you can feed other families guys if that's what you dream of Chase that dream let me be your inspiration chase that dream see you next time on the Stony [Music] Ridge kids we're living life pure and sweet that's the way supposed to be Stony r