Need help - how to price an equestrian property near Boston

Need help - how to price an equestrian property near Boston

China, ME · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes

I'm working with a seller to market her equestrian property in a VERY high-end bedroom community near Boston.

It's 10 acres with a very nice colonial, plus a guest house rented at $1,500/month, huge barn with 25 stalls that rent at $900/month each - though there's no guarantee that clients will remain.  There's an inground pool, paddocks, tack rooms, etc. 

Being in Massachusetts instead of say, Texas, horse properties are very few and far between - especially with 10 acres this close to Boston.

As you might expect, there are no good comps.

3 other big name brokerages have listed the property and have failed to sell it - each with about 200 days on market.  The seller has lowered her price by about 15%, which makes sense given the previous failed attempts at selling - but I'd really like to come up with something substantive to back that price up.

The big issue is that in this town, there are no equestrian sales for many years.

I attempted to create a metric by comparing sales of a few different styles of homes (3/2 capes, 2,000 sf +/-) in other towns that have some equestrian sales and the subject town and coming up with a percentage, and then applying that percentage to equestrian properties in the other towns.  It didn't seem meaningful.

My last resort is a professional appraisal, which I expect will cost $1,000 or more.  I could ask the seller to pay for it and reimburse her at closing.

Any ideas on how to give this seller a recommended price that we can both have confidence in?

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Real Estate Professional · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2012 · 23k+ posts · 13k+ votes
9y

People in the high end horse biz have stupid big money.  It's usually based on personal desire, not "market comps".  More true for this property, than for the typical home, they need that one buyer who is willing to overpay if they really like it....no way to quantify that.

This assumes it would be primarily for their own use, not just a straight up business/investment purchase.

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  • Investor · Somerville, MA · Member since 2016 · 150 posts · 70 votes
    9y
    Personally I'd do it like I do all other buy and hold properties I put offers in on. Calculate out the Cash on Cash return, set it to where you typically buy and there's your offer. This sounds like more of a commercial property than a residential with 25 stalls at such high rents. If you were to go to a bank or appraiser I be willing to bet they do something similar (or come up with a comp that is going to be pretty far from market. (Depending on the area of course...) because 10 acres in some market surrounding Boston would be way too expensive to support a property like this.
  • Real Estate Professional · West Palm Beach, FL · Member since 2012 · 23k+ posts · 13k+ votes
    9y

    People in the high end horse biz have stupid big money.  It's usually based on personal desire, not "market comps".  More true for this property, than for the typical home, they need that one buyer who is willing to overpay if they really like it....no way to quantify that.

    This assumes it would be primarily for their own use, not just a straight up business/investment purchase.

  • Russell BrazilBusiness Member
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    Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes
    9y

    Expand your search to include all of New England to get a baseline.

    The issue here will not be so much in pricing as it is in finding a buyer. You are going to need to work the phones on this one. Call every broker who deals with luxury listings in New England to try to drum up a buyer.

  • Real Estate Investor · Macedon, NY · Member since 2016 · 251 posts · 290 votes
    9y
    Be careful with horse related property in the Boston area. With 25 stalls this is more than just a hobby farm. From what I understand Suffolk Downs only has six racing days this year and will probably be gone in another year or two. I would venture to guess that there will be more inventory (empty stalls) than tenants in the New England area.
  • Real Estate Agent · Melrose, MA · Member since 2016 · 22 posts · 7 votes
    9y
    Mike Abramowitz how long did it take to close on your first deal using direct mail?
  • China, ME · Member since 2014 · 3k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    9y

    @Mike Abramowitz I should clarify that I'm hoping to represent this seller as her agent. I did consider using the income approach as the seller is also a trainer.  But after talking with her, she will retain the name of her business and is not planning on selling the client list.

    She clarified that clients like hers are not so much renting their stalls just for the space, but more for the trainer than anything else.

    @Russell Brazil  I have looked all over Mass, but the prices vary wildly, dropping quite a bit as you look west of I-90.  For example, right now there's a listing for 80 acres in Framingham at $1.5M.  Another in Ashby with 151 acres at $749K.

    I tried developing a data model by comparing smaller homes in town that also had horse properties with similar properties in the subject town, then applying that correction factor to horse properties.  The results seemed like garbage.

    I think you're right about working the phones for this client, but that's ok - it's what I do!

  • Investor · Somerville, MA · Member since 2016 · 150 posts · 70 votes
    9y

    Ahh okay, that's a tough question then... I think as an agent you should be very straight forward with the client about how tough this is to property quote on pricing. And since you're not the first agent to come in and offer them advice on pricing its going to be very tough to come in at a lower price and have them agree since other agents have (for a lack of a better term) poisoned their mindset and given them unrealistic expectations. 

    In the market today in the Boston area, if your property is on the market more than a week with out an offer (on the residential side) your price is too high.  I suggest you see where the owner stands on need to sell, and if they really want out you price it to sell and let the bidding bump the price up to a good point. 

  • Real Estate Investor · Macedon, NY · Member since 2016 · 251 posts · 290 votes
    9y
    Does it make sense to break the valuation into to segments? For example, what is the house worth on a one acre plot? From there treat the farm as a commercial property valuation. Use NOI and Cap rate to determine a value for that. At that point look at the combination of the two and see if it makes any sense. You'll probably not be able to be at 100% of the combination but it may give you a solid starting point.
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