1) Do something else for a few years to save up the funds to buy land. People used to apprentice. They didn’t just start out from nothing. I worked for a while at other things saving up to buy land and then gradually shifting over to farming. The idea that everything has to happen instantly is the problem. Patience is a virtue and mandatory for farming. Practice patience.

2) Don’t compete with the developers. There is a lot of lower cost land that is less desirable for the developers but makes fine farm land. This is the second thing I did. This is an important issue because not only is the initial cost of land high where the developers congregate but the long term costs of ownership are high in the form of real estate taxes and dealing with regulations and zoning. Best to deal with this from the start. There are lots of places where land is not so expensive. Today with the correction in the housing market it is even more true.

3) Draw circles on a map. You don’t have to be right outside the cities where the land prices, and real estate taxes, are the highest. Instead draw circles around your proposed markets and look at the places the circles overlap. Shade the map by land prices (which tend to also reflect taxes). Next make off zoning issues – No need to be where you’re not wanted. We bought mountain land further from the city in an area that put us where there was lower cost land and excellent driving to various markets within an hour of us.

It takes a little planning but that’s true of any big project. Starting a farm is a big project no matter how small the farm.

Cheers,

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/