McClelland Minute - March 21, 2010

Value is determined by who is looking

The call came from out of province.  The seller wanted to list an old farmyard of approximately five acres.  She said although it had been in her family for almost a hundred years it was time to sell; there was no one left locally who would care.  Would I mind going to have a look at it and advising on value?

As I drove up I could tell the property hadn’t been used in many years.  The laneway was so overgrown that it was difficult to navigate my truck up between the encroaching caragana, obviously planted as a windbreak to keep the road from blowing in during winter.  In fact, the hardy stand of shrubbery was so thick it was squeezing out the maple and spruce trees that had been planted with care to frame the perimeter of the property.

The yard was laid out in the traditional way – house on one side of the circle drive and barn with other outbuildings on the other.  I smiled at the circle drive; it surrounded an old power pole in the centre.  When electricity came in to the area during the 50s it was thought to be prudent to place the transformer and meter service central to all the buildings. Today of course, with big tractors, wide cultivators, and B-train grain trucks, it couldn’t be in a more inconvenient, even unsafe, location.

When I stepped out of the truck, I made sure I had my cell phone with me and looked around for a good walking stick to carry.  No, I wasn’t going for hike.  The stick was for a more important purpose than that.  Long grass can hide many surprises – old wells, harrows, boards with nails, you name it; I have come across it before and bear the bruises to prove it. 

Once, I entered the basement of a vacant country home in an effort to determine the integrity of its foundation, and almost fell down a steep flight of stairs when a tread tipped, pitching me forward into the concrete wall. My phone had been left in the truck, and it likely would have been long time before anyone had found me in that remote location. So never again; today someone always knows my itinerary.

It was obvious the one and one-half storey house had seen better days, and was in tear down condition.  I wonder how many families had lived there?  You could see where the page wire fence had once stood to keep out the chickens, and maybe even an errant pig or two, from the garden in the back.  A rusty children’s wagon was parked beneath a stately old maple next to a rubber tire cut out for a swing.   The branch above bore the scars where the ropes had been tied.

The old hip roof barn was twice the size of the house but it too had seen better days.  I didn’t bother to go any farther into what was left of the corrals, but did note there was a substantial amount of horse drawn machinery parked near the back fence.  These probably had been there since the first tractor came onto the farm, and bigger, better implements were needed.

As I drove out the yard and turned towards home, I couldn’t help but think that what I was going to tell the owner would not compensate for the emotional value those five acres meant to the family that homesteaded it or the generations that came after.  My analysis would be impartial and analytical.  Maybe if it was priced right, the next owner would clear the underbrush and debris away, and then create their own set of memories within the shelter of those tall trees.

Vern McClelland is an associate broker with RE/MAX of Lloydminster.  For more helpful hints on buying or selling real estate visit www.vernmcclelland.com or call him directly at 306.821.0611

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