FEBRUARY 12 - FEBRUARY 18, 2020 ISSUE 2906
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FEATURE
Finding Just the Right
FARM OR ESTATE BY CARLA HUCKABEE
CAAR REAL ESTATE WEEKLY WWW.CAAR.COM
“I
t’s just a different animal than your typical residential real estate listing.” So claims Maury Atkins, REALTOR® with Roy Wheeler Realty – Zion Crossroads, when referring to farm and estate sales. He should know. Growing up on a farm in Louisa County, he had a front row seat to the real estate transactions that transformed a sleepy little intersection into Zion Crossroads and the Spring Creek gated golf community. “When I was a kid, I never imagined that 60 years later this would be a major thoroughfare and destination, with significant retail, and a nearly 1,000 acre planned community.” But that’s exactly what happened with the sale of nearby farms and estates. These transactions are substantial and can be more complicated than regular home purchases. Sometimes they require different financing mechanisms, may include restrictions, and often use other sales strategies than the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Interested buyers can best navigate these complications by using an experienced farms and estates REALTOR®.
Farm vs. Estate Though farms and estates are usually lumped together in conversations and in listings, a farm typically has more acres than an estate, and other structures besides the home. Atkins explains, “This is the reason buying a farm may require a different financing mechanism than a regular home mortgage. Much of the value of the
real property is separate from the residence. Whereas, real property labeled as an estate usually implies a residence and acreage, with the value concentrated in the home.” Farms and estates have an ebb and flow to their supply and demand like their residential cousins but may be on a different timeline and spurred by different triggers. In 1938, when U.S.
Route 250 was extended west to Richmond, there was new interest in the land surrounding the intersection of 250 with U.S. Route 15. Then again in the 1970’s, when Interstate 64 was making its way through the region, demand spiked again. “Later,” Atkins says, “when the market crashed in 2007-2011, regionally, developers were buying larger acreage tracts to break up. We are seeing those being built on now.” Sharon Donovan, REALTOR® with McLean Faulconer Inc., agrees. The market for farms and estates can be unpredictable and out of sync with the typical residential market. “Sometimes one farm can sell and that will create a ripple effect in the market. Then you’ll see three or four farms or estates move very quickly, like we saw in 2019.”
Patience is a Virtue Compared to a typical residential market that sometimes resembles a piranha feeding frenzy, John Ince, Associate Broker and specialist in country properties with Wiley Real Estate, says “the time on market for a country property is more often measured in
