We’ll be dealing with a farm inheritance situation in the not too distant future. Our homestead (7 acres) sits adjacent to the family black angus farm, ~280 acres, so the in-laws have decided that the 90 acres adjacent to ours, which includes a lot physically separated by a road, will go to us because of proximity and our desire to continue a primary residence on the farm. Oldest son will get a large chunk on the opposite end, youngest daughter the prime piece in the middle with hilltop views and forest.
The brother gets the part with the barn structures and driveway access. He has made it clear that no one will have access to that driveway but his immediate family, making the prime hilltop section essentially inaccessible without building a new roadway for the youngest sibling and her family (her husband is a developer who appears to be salivating at the opportunity to plop down 200 shitbox homes on the site). Our section is adjacent to a farm whose only access is a right-of-way that runs through the family farm, on the border of the section we’ll inherit and the middle part the youngest sibling will inherit, except the right-of-way is zoned to her piece, not ours, and our plan was to eventually buy the adjacent farm and add it to our property, and possibly move to it full-time, sell our current 7 acre place, but that would require buying the right-of-way from the sibling who has no intention of using the farm except for possibly developing her section.
All of which is mildly infuriating since my wife and I are the only ones actually interested in living on the farm and continuing to run cattle on it, while the brother wants a show piece and the sister’s husband will want to develop the middle part.
There are no good answers when multiple siblings with differing agendas inherit farmland unfortunately.
Me too. I’m confused. What happened is I had to pay off my dads divorce. What’s really pathetic is that I paid for the youngest to go diesel mechanic school. And now he wants me to give him 1.5 mil.
Is there more to this story? How does you taking a loan to give her money translate to you owning all or 1/5 of the farm, and why would he ask you to give it away, and to only one person?
Sounds like you own a farm now. And have a difficult set of conversations to be had with your father and siblings, that probably should have been had in advance.
Not trying to be a jerk with that last comment, but if I were going to take out a $250k loan on something with that much family entanglement - I’d have some frank conversations before signing on the dotted line.
This happened a few years ago. I was trying help my dad out.
Sounds like you own a farm now. And have a difficult set of conversations to be had with your father and siblings, that probably should have been had in advance.
Not trying to be a jerk with that last comment, but if I were going to take out a $250k loan on something with that much family entanglement - I’d have some frank conversations before signing on the dotted line.
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My little brother is 23 younger years below me. He just wants to play around. I paid for him to go to tech school. He has a job at John dear making over $100,000 a year.
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There’s always layers of complications to these stories but, sounds like you didn’t have to pay off the ex but you did it to save the farm, correct? Now you own it and for whatever reason he wants it to go to the one he’s coddled and so he now feels entitled.
Nope.
Once farmland is broken up it’s gone forever. You control whether or not that happens. You know the right answer and are in the driver’s seat. Under no circumstances would I give anyone anything nor would I allow purchase without legal protections against development or subdividing the property.
Was it? Maybe I missed it, but it’s hard to tell if she bought the farm and owns it outright, or if she bought the ex-wife’s share, meaning she and her father co-own the farm.
In either case, I wouldn’t be giving up the farm or my share of the farm for well below the market value. If dad still owns part of it, then he’s maybe free to give his stake over to whomever he wants. I would definitely not be giving a sibling a $1.5 million gift, or eating a $250,000 investment out of the kindness of my heart.
i’m guessing as part of the divorce settlement where all assets were to be divided up, the dad was going to have to sell the farm to get a portion of the equity out of the farm for the ex wife’s portion of it. So instead of selling the farm on the open market, the OP purchased the farm for 250K to keep it in the family, which was what the dad owed the exwife as part of the settlement.
But in doing so, the OP now has acquired the farm which had a market value well over the 250K she bought it for…the OP gained all that equity (assuming it is worth 1.5M now). If that is the case, that is not the OP’s equity, it is the Dads…but not technically, since the OP now owns the Deed. So if what i lay out here is true, the OP is not really acting ethical by not settling out with the dad or others. Due to urgent divorce settlement issues, she acquired a 1.5M property for 250K…and that 1.2M equity is not really hers…from a moral standpoint, in my opinion.
That said, if the Dad or any siblings want the farm or a part of it, they need to make the OP whole on her 250K, otherwise they can go pound sand. Or the OP can sell the farm, and then distribute out the proceeds (less her 250K) however the Dad wants (since that original equity is his by rights). I get legally that its not his, but its family.
Could take a mortgage out if they qualified for one. Guessing if Dad was going through a divorce and needed outside financial help to pay the ex he may not have been able to borrow.
If your own the property, what sort of arrangement do you have with your dad so he can work the land? Could you have the same arrangement with your brother?