[lotsofpulp]

Land can’t be financed, businesses can be financed. Businesses that own land are much more easily financed, with the lowest interest rates.

When you buy land to develop, you have to pony up cash for it. I have never heard of a lender lending without a cash flow producing asset as collateral.

[dismalaf]

You've got it backwards. Hard assets like land, buildings (aka. your house), machinery (a tractor or your car) are all much easier to finance than businesses. A simple Google search gives a wealth of resources for someone looking to finance (aka. mortgage) land and/or property for a farm.

https://www.farmcreditil.com/Products/farm-loans

There's even government grants and loans to help:

https://www.fsa.usda.gov/resources/farm-loan-programs/farm-o...

Edit - we're on HN. If you'd ever tried to get a business loan you'd know it's near impossible for a new business without 100% collateral, which is why the entire venture capital business, and HN, even exists...

[lotsofpulp]

My point is those hard assets have to be used for a business, not for price speculation (as far as I know). Your second link says:

>Farm Ownership Loans offer up to 100 percent financing and are a valuable resource to help farmers and ranchers purchase or enlarge family farms, improve and expand current operations, increase agricultural productivity, and assist with land tenure to save farmland for future generations.

What is "assist with land tenure to save farmland for future generations"? Is that speculating for future price increase?

[dismalaf]

> My point is those hard assets have to be used for a business, not for price speculation (as far as I know). Your second link says:

Banks will let you finance any land if you have a way to pay for it. They'll let you mortgage some plot of land in the middle of nowhere if you have the income to pay for it.

A farm is income. A future farm is a business plan. But if you want to speculate on land from the city and work an office job, yeah, they'll give you a loan for that too.

> What is "assist with land tenure to save farmland for future generations"? Is that speculating for future price increase?

Pretty much yeah.

[rob]

> Land can’t be financed

Doesn't seem accurate. See:

https://agamerica.com/land-loans/real-estate-loans/

https://www.farmcrediteast.com/en/FINANCING/Land-Loans

[toomuchtodo]

This is factually inaccurate. The land is the collateral. If you don’t service the debt, they take back the land. 75-85% loan to value, 2-4% interest over treasury rates. Underwriting guidelines for the loan will differ if this is for speculation, development into housing, or agriculture.

[potato3732842]

You're being pedantic.

Land not occupied by some money making asset also being financed or used as collateral in the deal cannot be financed at rates that are not the lending equivalent of a "we really don't want this job so we're bidding high".

[toomuchtodo]

This is simply not true based on the interest rates and underwriting guidelines, and I own raw ag land that has been financed with nothing else besides a down payment and the land as collateral. Words mean things my dude. These are not hard money rates, these are credit products specifically for land with no business, cash flow, or other income stream at time of transfer. Being ignorant or unsophisticated is a choice.

[potato3732842]

"Ag" is the keyword there and I suspect it roughtly translates to "somehow tax subsidized by the rest of us". Go try and get a loan on residential/industrial or otherwise non-ag land and get back to me. Everyone looks (i.e. does their due diligence) and nobody ever goes for it because the rates or terms are always laughable.

Since you're an expert link poster why don't you cherry pick us all up some of those underwriting guidelines you cite?

I look forward to learning about ag specific loan products.

[toomuchtodo]

I can have a wholesale originator (UWM) extend me credit for those use cases in ~15 minutes up to almost $1M at 7% (conforming, ready for sale into the ABS market), which is very reasonable imho. I can get up to $5M within a few days if it’s commercial through one of the commercial banks I work with (Wintrust). 80% LTV, most of the time.

Guidelines are openly available at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and USDA websites (unless there are specific overlays a bank is using, which is typically proprietary).

[lotsofpulp]

This is news to me. Are you saying you can borrow money with the stated intention to speculate on future sale price, from the government no less?

I have no experience with farmland, but for other purposes such as building hotels/retail/etc, you can't just get a loan for the land, you buy the land with cash and then get a construction loan to start development. I assumed you would have to at least need to have a plan to operate a farm to get a loan.

[potato3732842]

What does "conforming" mean here? Because I suspect there will be a reference in there that is a pointer to something involving government subsidy. Everything ag related is rife with that.