The Scoop
The Press Room
The Recreational Land Rush
Editor’s Note: Today baby boomers who have left the country to move to the city to attend college and find better jobs often long to eventually flee city life and return to their roots in the country, after they have made their fortunes and/or reached the age of retirement. Recreational property is quickly becoming a popular and profitable investment. Today we’ll speak with Joe Hayman of Texas AgFinance about investing in recreational land.
Joe Hayman, the chief operating partner of Texas AgFinance, explains that more and more first-time forest, ranch and farmland purchasers have bought land in the last few years, built on these properties, sold this first piece of land after the property appreciates over the next 2-3 years and then traded up to a larger piece of property and a bigger home. They’ve used the tax-free property exchanges in the tax code to buy larger tracts of land and nicer homes. Hayman recommends that you, “Buy your dream-home property and continually improve it. Then if you decide to trade up, your original investment will appreciate quicker and you’ll be able to buy more land and a nicer home.”
 The people who borrow money from Texas AgFinance, in business for over 70 years, also own the company. At the end of the year, based on how the company operates, Texas AgFinance pays dividends back to the customer. For instance if you have a mortgage rate of perhaps 7%, you may receive 1-l/2-% back from the company once per year. Since 1933, Texas AgFinance only has made loans for lands and homes outside city limits, unless that city has 2,500 or fewer people in it. Therefore Texas AgFinance often has more-competitive rates on rural properties than many other lenders do. Texas AgFinance specializes in making loans to small investors who want to buy 5- 10-acre properties and who want to construct homes in that land.
 However, Texas AgFinance doesn’t just loan money to investors wanting to buy small parcels of land. “We lend money for hunting lodges and ranches in Wyoming, Utah and all over the country,” Hayman reports. “Timber tracts, agribusiness and any company that can be tied into any agri-interests can be financed by Texas AgFinance.” Hayman names a farmdominium (a play on the word, condominium) as one of Texas AgFinance’s favorite loans today. “We’re seeing many people who want to buy 5, 6 or 700 acres in the country and don’t necessarily want to build a home on that land. They prefer the amenities they find in town. But they do want to have a shed for their four-wheelers, their hunting blinds and their ATVs. They also want a comfortable place to stay for the weekends that they can bring their wives, their children and their grandchildren to so that’s at least a step up from a trailer. At Texas AgFinance, we believe that the demand for recreational properties will continually increase over the next couple of years and that this kind of property will only grow in value.”
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