Grey highland

[dogmacanada]

ANYONE BIDDING TOMORROW...  my family lives in flesherton, can't believe they are all still up.... I want the 200 acres, but what is a good bid....will go over 200,000 right?  So many properties to choose from, WHY?  The corner acreage is up forsale(187000) would imagine it will be redeemed....  Someone post results tomorrow please

[Jayz]

ANYONE BIDDING TOMORROW...  my family lives in flesherton, can't believe they are all still up.... I want the 200 acres, but what is a good bid....will go over 200,000 right?  So many properties to choose from, WHY?  The corner acreage is up forsale(187000) would imagine it will be redeemed....  Someone post results tomorrow please

Remember to count in legal fees for getting into legal issues, if you know what I am talking about. It seems it'll make a good spot for a great solar project though  

[bee]

200AC - 20 tenders sold for $357,550.00

[dogmacanada]

That is insane....  Higher then assessed value...

[Dave2]

That is insane....  Higher then assessed value...

1. Deed has not been registered yet and one like this is a prime candidate for post deed redemption.  

2. What was the distribution of the bids not just the winning one?

3. Big acreages close to Toronto come up rarely so they tend to be agressively bid.  Assessed value on these tend to be a bit of a crap shoot, some very high some low in my experience.  

4. This maybe a strategic bid.  I did not follow this one because I already have enough on my plate already with over 500 acres of land including 200 acres so far this year and it is outside my regular hunting territory.

One of the smartest guys on this board   said it best for these.
"Go big or go home"

As they say in stocks any idiot can buy them the key is what you sell (lease?) them for. I call them as I see them and I am not afraid to put my money where my mouth is, if I think there is underlying value, even if sometimes I look like an idiot because everyone else stayed home.

Maybe that's why I have to get back to reviewing a 30 page single spaced  solar lease for 10% of the property on the opposite end of the property to the boat launch that is  within walking distance.  

5. Comments on whether someone got good value on the Grey Highlands one or not?

[jwjonker]

if the tale is true, the 200ac was a good deal. I live in GrandValley area which is about an hour south and vacant farm land is going for 8-12$K / acre (in parcels of 90+ acres). It appears that a large portion of land was being farmed in some fashion or another ....

[Jayz]

$357,550 ... too much for a solar project. ;-|

This could make an interesting case study. There is a certificate of pending litigation registered in 2007 and has  since stayed. I don't know how easy or how fast one can have that removed in order to get a clean title. Tried to talk to a lawyer but didn't get hold of him. Couldn't find the court file so not sure what exactly it is about. It looks like a family matter - one child got the property from mom, the others had issues and sued ... I would imagine this would eventually go away but not without a legal process. I would also think the family would be happy to let the property go at that price and "discuss" later how to "share" the proceeds. ;-)

Any thought?   

[jt]

I don't think the price was crazy, but I don't think it was a steal either.  I think it isn't that far off from what it would have gone for on the open market.  It is a big piece of land, but a lot of the land is "aggregate woodland" - covered by trees and heavy restrictions for chopping them down.  I figured about 100 acres had this designation.  The problem is that only about 40 acres was in a nice, easily accessible rectangle and the rest of the land that might have been workable was broken up into very small fields by the woodlands and would probably be difficult to access.  While big, when you subtract woodlands, hazard area, wetlands, and innaccessible/unworkable portions of the property, the 200 acres drops to probably somewhere between 40 and 65 workable acres.

House was abandoned and there didn't seem to be any value there.

Also, a lot of the land in the cleared portion of the land is designated mineral aggregate or something like that.  I understand that this means that there is gravel or sand?  Anyone know what effect, if any, this has on crop production?  There appear to be quite a few farms in the area that have this designation, but I suspect it isn't considered "prime" farm land?

[Ronster]

That is insane....  Higher then assessed value...

Assessed values have not kept pace with the recent rapid escalation in farm land values, however I have to agree with jt that only a small portion of the 200 acres would be useful for modern farming practices, which requires larger fields for bigger equipment.  Therefore the highest bid is certainly less than the land's market value, but I don't think its a great bargain either.