I got a loan for my land with Farm Credit

Most Americans are not aware that you can get a loan for rural land in this country, at least if you're like me. I had no idea I could get a loan for the land you see behind me until I did a Google search one year ago. And in this video, I'm gonna talk about Farm Credit, Farm Credit East to be specific since I'm in the Northeast, which is the lender that I ended up going with in the end. I did not end up using the USDA, although there's nothing wrong with the USDA. They are one of the financing options I talk a lot about on this channel. But in this video, I'm gonna break down Farm Credit and the Farm Credit system. I got a loan for the land you see behind me, which was essential because by getting a loan for that land, I was able to afford and cash having this Amish built structure that you see behind me, which I can break the costs and everything related to that down more. I am currently writing about it on my sub stack. Farm Credit is a nationwide network, the Farm Credit system that was actually established by Congress in 1916. As you guys can see, I talk about this a lot. So I remember these random dates. Most people are unaware that this system exists. Congress set up the Farm Credit system to make it easier for farmers and ranchers to basically grow the food that was feeding the people who lived in this country. They weren't able to fly in the produce that we are today. So they set up this network to make it easier for everyday Americans to get into the art of farming. That network still exists today and most people are unaware of it. By the way, this video is not sponsored by Farm Credit or Farm Credit East. I am just sharing this because in my experience, this is my fifth real estate transaction and they are by far the best lender that I've ever worked with. They genuinely care about how your farming experience goes and they wanna see you succeed and I'm gonna explain more about that in this video. With Farm Credit, I was offered two options, 20% down or 30% down and you did need to have a credit score of 620 or over. If you are watching this video and you're like, oh, well, there goes my farming dreams, please check out the USDA. They have 0% down programs or seller financing. I'm gonna do more videos on that. Where you start leasing out acreage from the farmer directly and you guys can hash out your own deal that way. I opted for 30% down with Farm Credit. That was my personal choice with a 10 year payout structure and my interest rate at the time was 9%. I did get the loan in 2023. Before someone says that's an awful interest rate, it allowed me to get a headstart and now I have a barn center that I can start paying back by actually running a business here. When I called up Farm Credit a year ago, I called up their local office to me, which was in Greenwich. They sent me a pre-approval form to fill out that night. They got it to me really quickly. It's very standard loan stuff. They wanted to see tax returns, current bank statements, a profit and loss statement because I have a registered LLC and an S Corp. And by that next morning, they had issued my pre-approval. It was like very quick. And by having that pre-approval, my realtor, which was the realtor on Zillow, by the way, I didn't go find a real estate agent. I found the listing for this land on Zillow and I clicked contact to the agent. She called me in 20 minutes. She was great. She put in the offer for me with Farm Credit. And then over the next, it took four weeks, I think for me to satisfy like all of their background things that they required for me just to be totally sure to issue the official approval of me. Since they are taking a risk in giving me a loan for farmland as someone who has never farmed a day in my life, they knew I had never farmed a day in my life. They didn't require me to submit a business plan. However, Farm Credit is regional based on where you are. So I have had some people write into me from the South, I think, and say that their Farm Credit has asked them to just type up a very simple, you know, one page of their intention of what they wanna do with the property. It makes sense if you have never farmed a day in your life that they might wanna know if you have like the slightest plan. I was honestly shocked that they didn't ask for that from me. I just told them I was gonna grow microgreens and that was good enough for them. Since then, I've gotten to know their website pretty well and I get emails from them a lot. They sent us all an email the other day that was so incredibly helpful if you're in New York State. It was a breakdown of all the available grants that you might not know are available to you to do everything from conservation work to planting special trees on your property. And actually, thanks to their email, I contacted the USDA and kickstarted a process of getting grant funds to put some conservation type of work, trees rehabilitation on my property. I would have never known that that grant was available to me. It's for somewhere around one to $3,000 a year. The USDA is willing to invest in conservation work. I can talk about that more. I'm in the very beginning stages of it though. I don't wanna jinx anything. They do have to dispatch somebody here to do a site visit. And then I think we'll explore my options more with the USDA at that point. But that's the type of stuff Farm Credit does. They send out guides sometimes that break down the most profitable agricultural things you could be doing with your land. They offer free advice. If you call them up or email them, the person who was assigned to me through the loan process, she answers my emails right away. Like they actually care that this goes well for me. They actually care that I am successful as a first-time farmer. And I've never ever had a lender, a bank care like that. And when I looked it up, Farm Credit is technically a nationwide network of financial co-ops. They still function as a bank, but I believe the co-op side of it is possibly what makes them more caring into you as a person. And when people say to me, oh my God, I wanna work with Farm Credit. What do I do next? I just say, you guys call them up. The government established the system, the Farm Credit system to service you. Call them up. They are technically paid to help everyday Americans get into the act of farming. And it's not just farmland. If you go on their website, they do rural land, timberland, construction loans. They do bookkeeping, taxes for farmers. There's so many tax breaks and tax incentives to do this. I'm gonna be going through that process in January and reporting it all here for you guys. I've just started to dip my feet in the waters of the tax breaks that are gonna come from this, which is amazing. And Farm Credit will help you with that. That's like a separate service you can hire from them. I've just, I've been with them for a year. I feel like I'm learning more and more about them. Somebody wrote on one of my videos that each Farm Credit office hosts a yearly dinner that all the farmers are welcome to come do for free. I didn't know about that. I'm gonna have to put in a call and be like, when's this dinner at? I would like to attend it. Also, since it's a financial co-op, I get emails sometimes about voting. So if you're someone who has a loan with Farm Credit, you get to vote on the officers and the people and the different positions of power within the network, which is just very cool and democratizing feeling. And they've just, it's just been an unbelievable experience with them. Again, if you're not able to do a 20% down payment, there are other options that I do talk about it on this channel and I will link to one of the videos below. I would also say, just from my personal experience, I had this wrong and I see so many people have this wrong. So many people think that you need 500 acres to be a farmer, that you need 10 acres to be a farmer even. You don't need even a full acre, honestly, to grow all of the food your family needs and then some to sell at your farm stand. I'm currently selling pumpkins at my farm stand, which has made me way more money than I ever thought it would. Happy to do a video breaking down what I'm earning at my farm stand if you guys want. You don't need the land you think you need. I do have people write in to me and say, oh, I'm looking at 20 acres I can't afford. And I'm like, why are you looking at 20 acres then? Why don't you look for four? This was 6.74 acres. It's, I don't know if you can see, it's huge. I barely, I need to put a path behind me so I can even walk it. I use one of my acres every day. I don't touch 5.74 of my acres. So if you're looking up this land and you see 40 acres for $400,000 and you go, oh, that's so out of budget for me, I would say to you, you probably don't need 40 acres. In fact, you'll be happy that you don't buy 40 acres because that's a lot of land to steward and take care of. Trust me, it's plenty of work taking care of almost seven acres. So that would be my advice to you just from my own gardening experience this year and paying for things like, I do have some part of the property mowed and I'm gonna have to pay for a plow this winter and all those good things. I have not hit that point in my farming journey yet where I want to sit on top of a massive tractor alone and hope I don't do something dumb and get hurt on it. That could change. Like one year from now, I could start one of these videos sitting on a John Deere tractor. So I could eat my words there. But anyway, happy to answer any questions about Farm Credit below. This was not sponsored by them. I am just that passionate about the Farm Credit system network. I want everybody to know about it because I fully believe we will have a better future overall as a country of everyday people like you and I buy this farmland as opposed to corporations and Wall Street. Put that on my tombstone. Bye.