Good deals

[Anonymous-0]

I have been away from this board for a few days so I went back to read some of the posts from when I was gone, including the ones where the man got a good deal on the JD tractor from his neighbor. I congratulate him and his neighbor for getting together on a deal where both people were happy with. Which brings me to something the people in our area are talking about. A friend and neighbor sold some of his land to a young man about 7 years ago for a VERY good price(for the buyer). His theory was to give a young man a chance to get into agriculture to help keep the community going. Now this young man has put this same land on the market for about 6 times what he had to pay for it! I bet the orignal seller wishes he could have a "do-over", and sell to someone who actually would have stayed here and used it.

 

[Goose]

Whenever you let friendship and/or goodwill enter into a business deal, you're absolutely begging for trouble.

My wife's brothers and their sons occasionally bring vehicles to my shop for repair. I have, on several occasions, had reason to call a nephew who has a drain opening business similar to Roto Rooter. We have a simple agreement. Kinship is kinship and business is business. And the two never intermix. We have a ball socializing and interacting as a family, and when business comes up everyone is treated like anyone else off the street.

It works out great with no hard feelings.

 

[rrlund]

True,but in crackerheads case on the 330,sounded like he nor his son will ever part with it and the seller was satisfied with always knowing where it would be.

 

[kurt:ky]

Shoot, let it rest.

 

[MTC]

Had the same problem with my brother.He bought a 120 arce piece of woods that had a terrible road to it.I "gave" me a half mile easement off our farm which made it alot easier for him to get to his woods.He kept the land for 2 years then sold it more than doubling his money,partially because of the easy access.I wish I had a do-over.Never will do that again.I brought it up to him when he sold it and he said the easy access did not make a different.Seems like money wins out over blood some times.

 

[Ray]

An older man near me gave 10 acres with a pond to a local couple who were getting married.His wife suggested it because her step son was the
one getting married.A few months later they called the wedding off and refused to return the property.The old guy ended up paying $50000 to get the property back.

 

[1936]

A class mate who's family had a car dealership said to me when a used car deal is done each had figured that the other was scrXwed.

 

[I wanna Farmall]

Its a shame how people take advantage of eacother like that. I would never do a thing like that. Sickening.

 

[Mike M]

I had bought some stuff with the best intentions of "keeping it forever" well forever is a long time and things do change. I hope they can at least "keep it for a long time"

 

[Steven f/AZ]

Business and friendship don't mix - I learned that this week. Of course a "friendship" that is destroyed over a matter of $20 wasn't a real friendship to begin with.

Caveat Emptor (did I spell that right? LOL)

 

[Anonymous-0]

Hate to say it - but - it's his land, if he wants to sell it, it's up to him to set the price, not the previous owner.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I agree with that most times. I had some almost new welding equipment I sold to a friend. I bought it to go into business with another guy and got taken. My friend said he'd buy it if he could make a couple payments depending on when he got paid. I said no problem and as soon as he had the money he paid me. We both got a good deal. Another so called friend wanted to buy my garden tractor. I didn't totally trust him but took the machine to his place as I didn't have anywhere to take it. He said he'd pay for it when he went back to work on a golf course. He kept telling me he was going to pay for it. To make a long story short he and his brothers kept using it the whole time. They even broke the blade engaging cable so the blades couldn't be shut off. No they didn't tell me. After 4 1/2 months he hadn't come up with the $1350 so I took the key out. I went by a week and a half later to ask for the money and he said he wasn't going to buy it. He did say his brother was P'Od about something. Probably to lazy to use a push mower. I went with a real friend and picked the mower up. I haven't talked to the cheapskate since. Most of the time it's better not to sell to or do work for friends. It's almost a recipe for disaster. Dave

 

[Mike (WA)]

Guess it would depend on the circumstances. If the kid gave farming the "good ol' college try" for several years and found out, like thousands of others, that it just wasn't in the cards unless he had a zillion acres, then I wouldn't be upset; if he just sat on it waiting for prices to go up, shame on him.

 

[Eric SEI]

I have read about this concern in several magazines. One solution is a contract that retains part of the profit to the seller. It is set up like this. A period of time is chosen, 20 years is typical. Then for every year the buyer keeps the property before selling it he gets to keep 5% (100% / 20 years) of the profit. If the buyer kept the land for 5 years then he would get 25% of the profit and the seller would get 75%. The agreement would have to be filed at the courthouse just like a lien.

A arrangement like this protects the seller from buyers who are getting a special price. If the buyer keeps the land then the agreement will never effect him. An agreement like this may make the seller more comfortable and therefore more agreeable to the sale price.

 

[Anonymous-0]

And the guy still finds a buyer? I can't think of anyone who would sign on for that kind of contract! Even if I never wanted to sell, I still wouldn't want that over my head. What if the buyer HAD to sell out 2-3 years down the road due to illness/injury/divorce/etc? A guy would be just plain dumb to sign a contract like that. JMHO.

 

[Mike (WA)]

Nebraska Cowman posted a gem on this board sometime back, that I have shamelessly used as my own on several occasions: "If you loan a guy 20 bucks and you never see him again, it was probably worth it."