BA, I have a hard time digesting that "most farms are purchased with cash". I recently bought a couple of small properties "with cash" but actually refinanced other property before hand while I could still get 4% interest. I called my good lender a couple of weeks ago and he told me that the 4.4 % rate was now over 7, and even if I get 20 percent back as a dividend, it is still "ouch!".
So $15000 land doesn't work, $10,000 land doesn't work,......at least for me it doesn't. I kind of doubt that most savvy investors want $10,000 plus land in investment portfolios (although I bet a few still do), and more power to them. The farm family that has a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to buy the place across the road for $15,000 per acre ( they ain't making anymore land.....it won't change hands for another hundred years...etc) ....they are the ones I feel sorry for. Glad I have never had the mindset that you can't just walk away. My late father taught me that a long time ago....never covet anything so much that you cannot just say "no".
I am thinking retirement mode within a decade, and the last thing I want to retire with is a burdensome debt hanging over my head. My five to ten year plan is to be debt free, with good cash flow, and the ability to spend my social security checks on all the things and places I never have done yet. The wild card is staying healthy, of course. If you wait all of your life to enjoy a slower pace at semi retirement, and get ill, that is a really sad event. Somethings you have no control over, just like driving down the road and getting T-boned. I hope that the experts that say these covid vaccinations have set us up for raging cancer epidemics are wrong, too. I think I would rather get T-boned that get a cancer diagnosis.
