As an update to last week's opportunity to purchase a farm... I still don't know what's happening. I probably won't get to purchase the property. But I have figured out that I really have no bad options. And that's a huge relief.
I asked a farm consultant to poke holes in my numbers, and she came back with some tweaks, but a generally solid foundation. I ran spacing calculations, and while I can't do everything I'd like on the north side of the property, I can do enough to test my business model and employ my team.
I can't get a commercial loan - everyone I spoke with wants 20% down. FSA is willing to work with me, but it won't be a fast process. I've offered to scale up to paying the rent that the other entity is offering while the FSA process moves through, and now I'm waiting to hear whether my offer is accepted. If it is, then it's time to hustle like hell and implement this plan so that I can start making the money to pay said rent, get my team on payroll and get some documentation of what I can do to my lenders. If it isn't, then it's still time to hustle - just on a smaller scale and with a longer timeframe to prove myself over the next 1-2 years until I can buy property elsewhere.
