Not often that I am shocked by anything now days.

Long story short I decided to take the farm a whole different direction. Turning the South end into a 12 RV pad Campground and putting in 8 12x32-16x46 rental cabins and having a dam built that will make a horseshoe shaped 12 acre lave with two 3 acre silt ponds above the lake. And the Machine Shed grill restaurant and a stage and amphitheater. A LOT of work and broken down over a 4 year time table. IE Dams for lake and ponds starts next year, the first two cabin shells go up this december, the Machine Shed Grill is already open one day per week in defiance of the Governors closure orders as are most other privately owned restaurants and bars in the region.

So as usual I give regular progress updates on the projects on the FB page. Hey folks love to follow and feel like they are part of building something. And well the FB followers actually are a part of building it since the business they have are and will give me are financing it all.

Here is what gave me a little shock. Starting about two weeks ago I started getting messages and calls from City Folks of a High income nature wanting to long term lease the cabins before the shells are even finished and habitable on the inside. The folks asking about this possibility are all from the Cities of Chicago, STL and Evansville and want 2-3 year locked in leases with the lease paid in year increments up front. I have not even calculated what my rental fees will be yet, but they are offering $1500-$2,000 per month ($18,000-$24,000 paid in advance at the start of each year.) It cost me roughly $23,000 to get the shell and finish it out as something very nice inside and each cabin with some variation consist of a master bedroom, a small full facility bathroom, a large combination living room/dining room and a small but full kitchen and a decent size porch. I do all of the construction, electrical, plumbing and finishing work inside the shell myself which takes about 150-200 hours per cabin from shell to finished. Priced having the Amish Guys or a Contractor do the inside work and well that raised the cost per cabin to just shy of $50,000.

So I have started getting into conversations with the folks making these offers and what it comes down to it seems is they want a Guaranteed bug out location that they have exclusive rights to but do not want to commit to buying property and building their own. They are the very upper end middle class to low end Wealthy with significant disposable income. They are all in the 40-50 year old age range. And they all two common themes #1 they have zero clue about living rural #2 and I quote "Have an impending sense of doom about what is coming down the road for America, particularly in the Urban and Suburban environments."

Like I said this is not exactly what I had in mind for the rental cabins. I was thinking more along the lines of week end and weekly rentals with maybe $350 per week and $200 for a weekend. $18,000-$24,000 paid up front with a ironclad multi year lease is sounding real good though. The plan is over the next 4 years to put in 12 cabins on the point between the lakes arms in clusters of 4 with plenty of space and privacy between each cabin. The Clusters being for easier utilities and septic systems all cost figured into the cost of finishing each Cabin. So it would be real nice in one aspect to be handed a check for $24,000 as soon as a Cabin is complete and have full instant return on my investment plus a little. And every years payment thereafter be pretty much pure profit. Drawback to taking this route is that it displaces my more center middle class blue collar customer base that has been my bread and butter for the last 22 years. Loyal customers that will stick with you 5-10-20+ years are getting hard to come by now days, so I place a very high value on my 600+ loyal Customers and am as loyal to maintaining their business as they have been to supporting mine.

Those wanting to rent on 2-3 year leases might be long term or they might 2-3 years and done never to be seen again. The folks most of which have been loyal customers for 10 or more years on the other hand are less than half the revenue but will be loyal customers until they die or I do whichever comes first.

I am considering doing the first 4 cabins as the high end rentals and using the up front money from them to pay for the next 4 Cabins and reserve the second 4 for the regulars to rent and enjoy. And then leave the final 4 up in the air after seeing how the first two sets of four pan out.

LOL I am taking the whole Grey Man thing a different route Can keep the farm a revenue generating power house by turning it into a Rustic Resort type place. And just be the small farm with a restaurant, cabins, RVs and some really nice ponds and good size lake with a Amphitheater for bands and plays and a Store. While still keeping a 5 acre section of the farm totally private and separate. What can I say I LIKE being able to earn a much better than average living from my little farm and the best thing about being self employed or rather employed by yer own Corporation is that you get to pick whichever 22 hours of the day that you work.

I am though finding some moral and ethical things in this new direction that I had not anticipated. LIke say screw the long time regulars and go with the big money or stick with the people that made this all possible in the first place and still earn a good living. Or find some compromise in between.

But the real thing of interest are the City folks looking for dedicated rural options to escape to and willing to pay premium prices to have that insurance policy of sorts. When people are ready to commit large amounts of money for a dedicated exclusive use lease that they may only use 3-5 times per year it says something.

 

Yeah we've been approached about buying our land in NC from basically the Atlanta crowd.

Nope.

 

Would never sell any land to anyone, LOL once I have it, it is mine until I die. Renting and leasing though is another matter.

 

They just auctioned a few hundred acres next to ours. Now the weasels are trying to expand their territory. When we're up there I try and shoot every morning and evening to let them know, it's still southern appalachia.

 

T5R Yuppie camp ground,You're not charging enough at 24K per cabin,Go for 36K ,Pretty sure they expect room laundry service.
Dress up in you're feeling sexy outfit !

 

The temptation is real. The campgrounds around Nantahala River Gorge fill every weekend. But no way are we selling out.
And I don't dress up in sexy outfits. That's west coast man. lol.

 

Interesting.

I would talk with a lawyer on the lease terms. And I'd be very specific on the number of folks allowed to reside in the cabin. Cause if Renter X is actually fleeing a collapsing city, they might just show up with a passel of 'friends'.

And the local tax hounds will be after their vig as well.

Best of luck, it might turn out to be a real nice way to leverage the property for retirement income.

 

Always take the money and run.
Oh and definitely utilize that good old fashioned down home organic, non-gmo, gluten and glutton free, hand crafted Amish labor if you can.
If you were ever one of those 4 year business and management type there are 2 things they teach them, the biggest one is return on investment. You need to do what ever you have to and get that RoE down, burn who ever you have to, lay off as many people needed to get that return on investment.
If there is some horrible, vile, unethical, unthinkable thing you could do to knock a year off the RoE payback time, you do it.

 

Sounds like those cabins would sit empty with maybe a visit or 2 from the long term renters. Wonder if it's possible to have the best of both worlds. Long term renters use it when ever they want with a guarantee of instant occupancy and still short term it out on weekends.

 

If you take the city folk's offer, when it hits the fan you will find out that they didn't bring/store nearly enough food, and you will have big problems with them that close to your home.

 

Offer them an upgrade that includes long term emergency food that will be waiting there for them. Nicely marked up from your cost, of course.

Damn... wonder if someone would pay us to rent the old rabbit barn. Clean out the poop, throw in some bunk beds....

 

That's when you show them the garden.

 

Damn you ruthless.

 

If you rent it out to ten or twenty of our more "southern" neighbors you wouldn't even have to clean out the poop.

 

I'd run it like a farm version of a dude ranch so I could get free labor.

 

If someone has a multi-year lease, they're in occupancy even when they are not onsite. The lease-holders will have (and want) instant access, 24/7. It's unlikely you would be able to get any secondary use out of the leased units.

You might consider doing the long term lease units more like doomsday cabins, rather than ordinary campground accommodations. And doing more of them--right up to the maximum cabin occupancy you choose.

People are buying doomsday bunkers like there's going to be no tomorrow. And they're paying very big bucks to get whatever they can, while they still can.

So bump your prices up to $52,000 per cabin, per year, with the first year paid at the start of construction and running to completion (occupancy date) plus 12 months. Make the leases Renewable thereafter under agreed terms that include contingencies for hyperinflation and succession. And ABSOLUTELY limit the maximum number of occupants.

At any appropriate higher rate, build in all the usual security features: Storage space for emergency supplies, gun safes, independent backup power & water, etc. Offer dedicated garden/greenhouse space with each cabin.*

Go as paranoid as they want--and are willing to pay for.

Even so far as individual fallout shelters. (At a slightly higher fee!)

Why am I hearing "Rock of Ages" right now?

The long term lease people may not realize it, but they want to piggyback on your infrastructure. Your self-supporting (to some degree) infrastructure. They want to buy into your survival village. They want to join the Thunder Tribe, because it looks like the smartest bunch within running distance.

They want to buy a slice of the security that they see you have created, and that they need.

So plush up the offering--just for them--and bump up the cost (because it's a bargain).

Impress each one with the limited and personal nature of the opportunity, and swear them to absolute secrecy on a Commie Liberal's grave.

The public must NOT find out! (Hah!)

The public will not find out--but every Good Ole' Boy in the bunch will. You'll have a bidding war to oversee, and your choice of winners.

*If you offer dedicated garden space to the lease-holders, set up an optional arrangement to farm the garden spaces to keep them in full productive readiness. Service charge, plus all or a portion of the harvest. Have green houses (if opted) ready to set up at need. Local labor would probably be happy to share crop the charming raised-bed gardens behind each well-appointed cabin...

You may wind up needing some four-color printing. And more land.

 

Dooms day ranch.

 

As they are pretty upfront about SHTF/bug out perhaps there should be an expectation of firearms and ammunition to be provided by the lease holders, for example one semi automatic primary arm in 5.56, 7.62x39, 7,62x51 with x number of rounds per person along with one secondary arm (pistol or shotgun) with similar ammunition requirements. You don't want a hundred customers showing up on your doorstep thinking that you are going to protect them all. Same with supplies, water filtration, etc.

I'd also want them to have an additional skill, like first aid, communications, welding, etc..

 

Odds are high that they would be paying a lot of money for something they would come to a few times per year. And a real and serious SHTF........ it is a damn long and dangerous drive to Southern IL from Chicago. Remember this is not a doomsday camp but a recreational get away and campground that just happens to be heavily armed and with two wayward combat vets as the live on the farm hired hands. And luckily it seems my friend at the VA has three more solid but fallen through the cracks vets she thinks I can help out and offer some order and purpose in their lives.