The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: chriso on November 01, 2010, 01:47:41 pm
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I would love to make the next step up to owning a better smallholding but how do people afford it? I have a decent job with good salary but just can't see how I could justify purchasing something around £350k. :(
How do others manage?
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Not that dear up everywhere, Chriso. Where are you looking? Are you restricted to a specifics area?
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I've just been looking local but most decent smallholdings seem to be around that price, some very run down ones go a bit cheaper.
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We never did figure out how to afford a proper smallholding especially when I gave up work to look after our young children. Instead we sold our house, bought 14 acres of land (no buildings) and rent a house nearby. We would need to win the lottery to actually buy the house we live in now, and we have vague dreams of being able to build a home on the land one day but its hugely unlikely. Not the conventional way to do it but it works for us and I'd recommend it as long as you can rent something nice very close to the land.
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At the moment I'm renting too. I did have to give up my good (as in well paid) job to come here though - I was in southwest london then, and nothing was going to come within my reach there.
mab
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We moved... Fortunately (or unfortunately whichever way you look at it!) closer to my hubby's parents - To a 10 acre smallholding just over the Welsh border, for £240K. House needed lots of work, but just about habitable if happy to rough it! If we'd have stayed where we lived in Warwickshire £240K would have got us a semi-detached with a poxy garden... Much that I miss family and friends back there, I love the land and animals we have now and wouldn't go back to my old house if you paid me!!!
We were fortunate in finding our place, but if you can't afford what you want yet, look to make a step in the right direction if you can, maybe not finding that permanent place that ticks all the boxes yet - But maybe somewhere you can improve and sell on to make some more money to put towards that perfect place...?
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My brother calls me 'the accidental businessman' (TAB not TAS - lol) - I started an internet website in 2001 that never paid a penny for years but in the last 4 years its sky-rocketed and has allowed me to buy a dilapidated smallholding with cold hard cash at the bottom(ish) of the market crash a year and a half ago. Its been a dream come true that I feel I sometimes take for granted, although the work has been immense and I think its going to be that way for the foreseeable future - but thats the fun!
I would never have bought something that was pristine though, even though I did have the money to do so - you can make you own home have more value through you own work with a wreck of a house - it also give you the chance to make your house a home (although I still live in a building site!!). Go for something that needs doing up (its hard to find nowdays) - its cheaper and more satisfying when you finally get it done (if you can ever get to the final!!)
Ta
Baz
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Pick where you buy carefully, there are areas that are cheaper. I bought a house in joint names with my mum- there was no way I could afford land on my salary. She put a large lump of cash into the house, I have a mortgage for the rest.
Beth
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I bought mine about 10 years ago when I could almost afford it on a full time salary but had to go for something without central heating, dilapidated decor and old fashioned double/secondary glazing in metal frames. I have done the necessary work as I could afford it - oil CH, new bathroom, decorated and carpeted etc tho that needs redone now!) but it still has somewhat old fashioned features (doors etc).
It has increased in value so I now have equity in it and was overpaying the mortgage the last couple of years in order to have a chance now to ditch the job. And although it dipped this year (was put at £300k earlier this year) hopefully it will go for more (offers over system plus hopefully a market recovery back towards the £350k mark) next year and I will be able to use the equity to buy land and start over as now I am not working a day job it is going to be impossible to raise a mortgage to get something even comparable in another area I want to move to.
I will either live in a log cabin if planning allow it, or a caravan, or a house down the road within walking distance if need be in order to move to somewhere I want to live my days. And then make it work however I can.
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we had to buy one that needed loads of work ::) in fact most of the rooms are stripped of paper and carpet and bare, have been so for a long time but we just live with it. we also bought a holding with steep land in parts so that did not appeal to many who would prefer flat pasture but as we were buying goats it was perfect (and has done wonders for my thigh muscles carrying buckets up that hill!!)
also helped selling a house in london for silly money and being able to plough that into a large house in the midlands
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We live in a small rented cottage. We also rent 4 acres of land about 3 miles away. It's not ideal as we're not actually on site, but it's the only realistic way we could afford it at the moment. It's a hassle having to go there every day, particularly juggling work as well, but we're up for the graft as it gives us as close as we can get to where we want to be.
We'd love to be in a position to buy a 7 - 10 acre site with farmhouse - but that's pretty pie in the sky for us at the moment (unless i happen to find a winning lottery ticket!).
I think it's about looking at the problem differently - don't assume the only way you can do it is to buy something ideal right now. Break it down into what you really want, and can afford, and that fits into your lifestyle at the moment, and then find a way of doing that. There will be compromises along the way, and it may take you on a more winding path than you think, but it makes the journey more interesting!
Good luck.
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Good question.
We may be in exceptional times financially but it sometimes seems that those with money have been least affected by the recent financial turmoil. I've seen, first hand, existing land owners going head to head at an auction to bid over £100k for 5 acres just to stop non farmers (dare I say like us) from getting hold of a piece of land. The chap concerned didn't know who he was bidding against - he was going to have that land at any cost. Its a very strange world!
How many years will he need to work that 5 acres to make a profit?
So why not put your money into buying a house in the right area then rent the land until you're rich and famous enough to afford the luxury of buying. Another advantage of renting is that you stay flexible - so if a better piece of land comes up you can grab it more easily.
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We've also bought a chunk of land but live 6 miles away at the moment. If we get planning, we'll live on it. If not, we'll buy something nearer as at the moment it's costing us a lot in diesel and time. We would have liked the Georgian farmhouse with acreage but...life's all about compromise!
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so many similar stories. like others, we couldnt afford what we wanted, so settled for less and doing what we can, when we can afford it. we bought a run down old cottage that was half the size of our last house and about 6 acres - house is onsite which is brilliant. we'd have liked more but that was never gonna happen with what we had to spend, so we just keep looking locally to see if anything comes along that we might be able to afford...someday!
agree with everyone else that you have to decide what you 'have' to have as a minimum and work towards that - the rest is luxury.
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Well choosing a place that needs a bit of work done would be the obvious choice but you try telling our lass that. She's not into the animal side of things so is struggling with the whole idea. :farmer:
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Have you looked at buying a farm cottage and either renting land from the farm or buying some from them. There are a few farms around here that seem to have done that, with the new farm payment rules that require farms to exclude areas that are not considered useable it may be that small parcels of land will be easier to come by.
I live in a village but have been able to persuade the neighbouring farmer to sell me 6 acres which is behind my house , it is on a hill and was not really of much use to him as it was purely grazing and he had to drive sheep throuh the village to access it.
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I know it is hard, and I may not be able to afford to stay here forever, so I am half expecting to end up keeping a few goats in a back garden sometime ahead. My sister has been looking for someplace with land for over 10 years- but she has been looking in a very specific area which is very expensive to buy in. They may have found something now- but only because the school catchment areas have changed! And they need to seel their their house before they can put in an offer- worrying times ahead!
Beth
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Its the reason so many want to be smallholders moved to France.
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I can sympathise with the last comment Chriso, 3 years ago we bought 5 acres and a 'shed' which we live in, one of our daughters was into animals and horses the other is not, we moved from a newly refurbished 4 bedroom detached bungalow in to a dilapidated wooden construction that is livable but certainly not luxury. The not into animals daughter constantly moaned for the first 2 years (made worse by the fact that she didn't even have a bedroom, they sleep on the sofa's). However year 3 has seen a turning point in her, she will now admit that she loves living here, she loves the wildlife, the stars, and even the animals (not that she has much to do with them but will help out if necessary). She was an older teen when we moved here and I did feel a bit guilty but I explained to her that she was at the begining of her adult life and likely to move on and do the things she wants to do, we are in the middle of our lives and would like to do something that we want to do!
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Sorry I meant Chriso's last comment about his lass, just to clear up any confusion :P
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We found the only way to afford a house with land (in a 50 miles radius from Edinburgh, as OH works there) was to buy a building plot with land, then rent for a couple of years (we managed to use the interest from the sale of our Edinburgh house to pay for the rent and had two children at 3 years and 18 months at the time - so static caravan was not an option) while the house got built. Still got a hefty mortgage, but you have to decide on your income situation beforehand, then find the solution and the location.
If you bought a building plot you could get easily PP for a static caravan, start the holding and make a start on building the house. You can then do it as slowly or as quickly as finances allow, or build a small house first, but have the plans approved for a big one (extensions) over time.
However renting land and living nearby (either owned or rented) sounds like a good compromise - especially if not all family members are that keen on the smallholding idea.
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We found our solution by buying a place that needs a lot of work, is in an undesirable (for some) location and that was at auction. I never thought we'd be able to get anything nearly as good as this, but a lot of late nights surfing the web for possibilities finally paid off!
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It certainly is good to see how others have managed, thanks everyone for all the comments and real life examples, it gives some hope to those of us on the outside looking in.
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I forgot to say there is a place very near to me now reduced to 250k with 5 acre, house needs a bit doing to it and the land looks like it needs drainage sorting.
Now another question - how to convince the other half?
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Our solution came in the form of renting - I looked for 3 years, found the house, took 18 months to get a viewing and then a further 5 months to find out we had it. The house is part of an estate of 7 farms which have all been let smallholdings for the past 160 years, they are not allowed to be sold.
We have signed a 5 year farming tenancy and at the end of that can sign for either 5, 10, 15 or 25 years (all of our neighbours have signed the latter).
If the house we live in now was on the market it would fetch way over £600k ... we rent it for £950 a month. I make myself take a few minutes every day to remember how lucky I am to have eventually found it!!
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@Chriso
How to convince the other half... well for me it worked well that the farmhouse we've bought is big (4 bedrooms) and she gets a free rein in deciding how its done up. I spend all night trying to decide what breed of pig to go for next and she sits next to me designing kitchens - win, win!