Things to bear in mind (I live not too far away and although I haven't driven as far down as the one you're looking at, I nearly bought a derelict mill further up that road):
- Yes, you're only a few miles from the mart, but the prices there will be below Thainstone because fewer buyers come up. When the grass is good in Aberdeenshire, people can make money buying in Caithness, putting to grass only in Aberdeen for six weeks and selling at Thainstone.
- Prices for feed are higher at the agricultural merchants because of the extra fuel used for delivery. A bag of 18% ewe rolls is currently £8.60, that's up £1.20 on a year ago.
- Hay/silage season is very short. The year before last, when we had a wet summer, people were having to bring lorry-loads of fodder up the A9 at huge expense.
- Budget for frequent foot bathing, that ground is pretty wet.
- I'm concerned that there are no internal pictures of the house, I think you might be camping in it.
- Check this out with SGRPID, but I believe the money for capital improvements on crofts is now all spent. You used to be able to get up to £25k over a two-year period, but a neighbour of mine *just* got his agricultural building squeaked through before it closed and I don't believe there's any more coming.
- I believe it's an executor sale, which may work in your favour slightly. The croft isn't registered on the ROS, which it will have to be, but depending on how the will was worded (if there was on) it may be possible for the incoming purchaser to 'come in place of' a dependent. This is what happened when I bought another two crofts 4 years ago, basically you become the inheritor of the crofts in exchange for paying the purchase price to the estate and it cuts out a lot of paperwork. If you do go for it, expect it to take anything up to a year for the purchase to go through, because the crofting commission does not do anything fast, although they're very helpful if you phone them up.