AUTHOR: JW ROBINSON, BROKER | LICENSED IN WY
Renovating residential homes has been a hot topic for many years. Television has promoted the process of upgrading real estate through multiple shows across several networks. However, did you know upgrading and renovating farm and ranch properties has also become popular? The rising price of agricultural land has made it difficult for the average producer to afford more property. Agricultural producers are forced to lease property to have enough usable acreage to support their business. Over the last several years, I have worked with a growing number of young farm and ranch buyers. Many of these buyers have cleaned, developed, and remodeled ranch properties and relisted them for sale. However, there are several differences between flipping residential homes and upgrading and renovating ranch property. To understand the ranch side, it is important to understand the people participating, the process, and the potential gains from a ranch upgrade.
First, it is important to understand the people involved in ranch renovation. In other words, who is doing the heavy lifting? Although not all, most of the people that I have seen renovate and upgrade ranches are under the age of 45. They also all have one thing in common; they love agriculture. It’s more than just their business and industry; it’s their lifestyle. These farmers and ranchers are hard-working, and it’s normal for them to work from daylight to dark. They have always been do-it-yourself workers, learning the skills from when they were young in 4-H, FFA, shop classes, college trade schools, and often from uncles, grandpas, dads, and neighbors. They understand welding, the use and maintenance of tools, equipment, and heavy machinery, and have experience building shops and corals. They understand functional site plans and strategic layouts for working facilities. Therefore, their hard work ethic and skill set make a perfect opportunity to clean, develop, and produce a property to attract future land investors.
