In this episode of Land Stories…
Kristy, our Ad Writer Extraordinaire, joins us again to share how her mother’s dream of owning a farm led to her OWN desire to purchase land! See how Kristy’s experience helping to maintain her parents purchased land was rewarding to her and her family in more ways than one!
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Intro: welcome to the Land Stories podcast where our goal is to help everyday people like you own land. And now your host, who is an eagle scout that is horrible at tying knots, Dave Denniston.
Dave: ok. Well, welcome back my friends to another episode of Land Stories Live. I am your host, Dave Denniston of Generation Family Properties where our goal is help hundreds of people like you own land. And of course we wanna be able to tell your land story. Well, I have here with me the amazing, the wonderful Christie back with us. Hey, Christie. How’s it going?
Kristy: hey. Not bad, no complaints. How are you?
Dave: I’m doing good, beautiful –
Kristy: good –
Dave: beautiful summer day here in Minnesota. It’s like 75 degrees. How is it your way?
Kristy: no, I guess it’s so – it’s 75 degrees in the summer, that’s funny.
Dave: should be like a hundred, right?
Kristy: 105 I think?
Dave: oh man, geez.
Kristy: 75. Texas won’t be at 75 until end of October. Maybe –
Dave: probably –
Kristy: November? It’s gonna be a while, I’m really jealous.
Dave: I went bike riding this morning. It was probably 55, 60. I was like man, the fall is coming here shortly, like –
Kristy: ok, so now you’re just bragging.
Dave: yeah, you know. We pay for it with negative like 20 degrees in January so –
Kristy: that’s true. I’ll take hot any day over cold.
Dave: so Christie, I wanted to talk a little bit today about your experience on your folk’s farm. So you were telling me before we got started today that you didn’t grow up on a farm but your parents bought one after you were in college. So, tell us about that.
Kristy: so, my mum always had a dream to have a farm. She loves horses, I’ve ridden horses, we’ve been on farms a lot. But I grew up in just a normal neighborhood house. And my mum has always had a dream about having property. And she always, even when I was a kid, used to say, we’re gonna have a farm one day, or we’re gonna have property, it’s such a good investment. So, they found this property in Magnolia, Texas, which is north of Houston. We lived in the woodlands but it was about 20 minutes away, not far, maybe 30. We’d go through the woods, it was out in boomies when they bought it. Like nothing around, like literally nothing around when they bought. A nice, wooded property – 10 acres. And then they, we’d sleep over and camp out on the weekends sometimes and play around.
Bring friends out, you know ride bikes, stuff like that. They always had the intention of building. So, when I got out of high school and went to college, that’s when they decided to build because it was a different school district and they didn’t wanna go through the whole hassle of me and brother having to change schools. So then they built their house and the farm and everything. And it’s so funny because 20 years later now, it’s not the boomies anymore. Everything came out that way and it’s actually such an awesome place because they have 10 acres but it’s 5 minutes to a Walmart and it’s 2 minutes to an H-E-B which you don’t have H-E-B but it’s this really awesome grocery store in Texas. And there’s restaurants everywhere and it’s really cool. So, they did very well. They made a good investment.
Dave: so when you say like the farm, like are they growing crops on it, do they have cows or chickens or like what, or you just call it the farm just cause it’s a big acreage?
Kristy: yeah because of the horses. So, it’s like a horse farm. It’s strictly a horse farm. We have right now we just have 4 horses on it. It’s 10 acres. They had a bigger property and that was a hay farm. So, nobody lived on that farm so we never had – I always wanted to have cattle and chickens and goat and sheep and my parents were like calm down, no. You can’t have everything. So, yeah I do call it a farm but the one is a horse farm and the one is a hay farm. No actual cattle but we have some crops, so I guess it’s still a crop farm.
Dave: so what kind of stuff – I know you didn’t like live on it right? But like what kinds of stuff did you do once they operated it? Cause I know you love horses so like did they put you to work or what?
Kristy: yeah, yeah. Lots of work. So, I took care of the horses myself and I would take care of their field. I was pretty particular about how it was so I did all the planting and I did all the harrowing and the making sure there was no poop and this and that. But also I taught and trained horses. I taught riding lessons and trained horses. So, people would trailer into the property. We didn’t board other people’s horses but I had all my clients would come and I did the one school horse [inaudible – 0:04:52.6] he was a school horse and then people would trailer their own horses in and I had a whole jump field set up and a cross-country field so I would teach lessons out there. So, I’d spend about an hour every morning taking care of the horses and mucking stalls and cleaning up and getting spider webs down and all of just that fun stuff. And then I’d spend the next several hours in the morning teaching and training and riding other people’s horses.
Dave: and was this like just during the summer or like when did this happen?
Kristy: it was my full-time job.
Dave: your full-time job, wow.
Kristy: full-time, yeah. I was quite busy cause I competed. I also competed all over the country. So, on the weekends – not every weekend but probably two weekends out of the month I was off horse showing and then during the week we’d train the horses and Mondays was the day off. So, although they’d still eat and they’d still poop so it wasn’t really a day off but they didn’t have to work, I did. That’s kind of how that went, yeah.
Dave: so what do you think, like thinking on your parents doing that? Do you think there was like lessons for that in you? You know, that you picked up because they bought land?
Kristy: lessons I guess makes, it gives me like a negative connotation. I think it’s the exact opposite. I think my mum was a hundred percent right about land is such an investment. And they love it and they will never move from there. Even if they get older and older, I don’t see them ever leaving. They absolutely love it. They might obviously at some point have to hire somebody to do the mowing and the maintenance of course. But it’s just been such a fun family thing for us because I was there every day. And when my dad retired, he’d sit out on the back porch and watch me teach riding lessons and I’d see my dad. So, really it was just a huge family thing. My brother, we both lived quite close. I was about 5 minutes, my brother was 10 minutes. We didn’t want to leave. We didn’t wanna be far away.
Dave: wow –
Kristy: So, it turned into weekend barbecues and I don’t know it was just, it was a family farm. We loved it. So, we’d always want something like that.
Dave: how’s that influenced you now like right? Cause I know we were talking about you buying something. I mean does – was that like a big influence for you and it’s like oh, gosh, now I want my own land, right?
Kristy: absolutely because it’s just there’s something so rewarding about taking care of your own property. You know when my parents bought the property we look back now at pictures where it was just woods and a logging road. And it’s so stunningly beautiful now and we did it as a family and it’s just awesome to know like we did this. This is our place. So, I wanna do it myself too.
Dave: what I though is so cool about this is like you had ownership in this, right? Like you feel like you own it to a degree –
Kristy: yeah –
Dave: because you helped with it –
Kristy: absolutely –
Dave: and what a beautiful life story, life heritage for your parents to pass onto to you kids. I mean, you know I think that’s just a beautiful thing that you can’t get anywhere else you know in terms of learning work ethic or –
Kristy: absolutely –
Dave: how to take care of things or, you know those kinds of things.
Kristy: it’s huge. My brother just had his first baby. She was born in February so she’s a few months old and they live in a normal neighborhood house too. So I mean she’ll have a nice yard and you know they’ll probably get her a dog and all of that but she’s also going to have 15 minutes away, this farm that she can come ride the four wheelers and the gator and get dirty and pet horses and it’s not many kids get that you know, especially if you live in a city. It’s very cool, very cool.
Dave: that is great, that is so cool. Well, I know we’re gonna talk about some of the land we got, Christie. So let’s pivot a little bit. I know you have a property in Navajo County for those people that are wondering behind me, what is this behind Dave? It switches every time. What is this behind him now? Well, Christie is just about to tell us. All right, Christie, what have we got behind us? You wanna share your screen and tell us, what is this property behind Dave?
Kristy: let me share here. Ok, so you should be seeing the map. Do you see it?
Dave: yep, yep.
Kristy: yes. Ok, cool. I always wanna check because I don’t wanna show you along and it’s not right. So, it’s 2 and a half acres. Ok, so I’ll show you pictures later but you can see the general picture there behind Dave. 2 and a half acres, just north of Holbrook. Let me scroll out just a little.
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Kristy: there we go. So there’s Holbrook.
Dave: yeah, it’s kinda like, yeah –
Kristy: decent-sized town, you know. So a little bit like what I was talking about, you can be out but you can drive very easily and get to really cool stuff. So it’s only about 20 minutes to Holbrook so not bad at all. And as people do they tend to move out so could be another story where like mine where in another 20 years it’s to here and then it’s more and more convenient but you’ll always have your little neck of the woods out there that nobody can touch. I’m gonna scroll a little more because then it’s my very favorite thing that I didn’t even know existed. Petrified Forest National Park, which I’ll go over to the pictures in a second. They have a 200 million year old petrified wood forest in there. It’s absolutely beautiful.
Dave: 200 million, wow.
Kristy: 200 million, yeah, crazy. So it’s the petrified national, Petrified Forest National Park in the Painted Desert, which is also beautiful. That’s a little bit less than 30 minutes away. So that’s a really cool heritage site that you can go see. And there’s all kinds of livestock, I mean not livestock, I’ve got my brain on livestock now, wildlife in the area. Oh my god, there’s cows and horses, which there are that also –
Dave: there are, yeah. There sure are.
Kristy: this would be awesome little farm area. You can have all those things if you wanted them, even if you wanna live there full-time. There’s antelope, big horn sheep, elk, deer, so it’s also a good hunting area in the county, if you like that kind of stuff, which is cool. Lots of Native American culture too –
Dave: [inaudible crosstalk – 0:12:28.0]
Kristy: in the area. Then the Navajo Nation is a little bit further out in Navajo County but you’ll also from the property which I’ll show you pictures in a second. You actually get some mountain views, so you can have some desert fun but you also have, it’s not just flat. You’ve got some terrain. You can go hiking, bring your 4x4s. So, I don’t know I just envision this as a really cool weekend place like a good family place, bring the kids, get super dirty.
Dave: yeah, and have some fun –
Kristy: exactly, exactly –
Dave: and for anyone who’s maybe listening to this on the audio version of the podcast later on, what we’re talking about is pretty close to Interstate 40. So I think, how far are we from Phoenix, we’re what 3 and a half, 4 hours, something like that?
Kristy: funny enough, it’s 2 hours from Flagstaff so that’s not bad at all.
Dave: so Flagstaff is to the west by a couple of hours. You keep on following I40 to the east that takes you into New Mexico I think –
Kristy: [inaudible crosstalk – 0:13:26.1]
Dave: so you’re not too, too far from Four Corners and stuff like that. So you have all of those different things, Grand Canyon’s not too, too far away. There are some cool Indian ruins and things near this neck of the woods. One thing I like about this property Christie if you wanna scroll back in for people who are watching this on video, the main drag off of I40 where this property is located, leads right down to this property. So, Sunvalley Road is the main drag off of the freeway. If you wanna scroll in a little bit more there. You can see you go straight down from the freeway. So you got a straight shot to the property. It is a dirt road, that it’s on but it has fairly easy access. We do have one property that’s on the complete opposite side of the freeway that’s very hard to get to quite frankly, whereas this one is easy to get to so I personally like that about this one on the geography. Anything else Christie on your side that looking at the map you wanna bring up?
Kristy: well, one little funny thing that I’m sure you’ve heard the song Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona. Oh did I scroll out too far? Come on Google Maps. Anyway it’s right here. So, there’s a big museum there. You can actually go stand on the corner –
Dave: that’s –
Kristy: [inaudible crosstalk – 0:14:55.7] so that’s a good one and another thing I always talk about the weather. For me that’s super important. 20 to 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix here –
Dave: yes –
Kristy: yeah, it’s actually a really good escape even for Phoenix folk in the summer, they wanna come up here and it’s actually a lot nicer for them and then of course all of the snowboards can come down and not have to deal with snow.
Dave: yes. No, I think that’s a great point, you know. It is cooler, it is deserty. We have some other properties that are more kind of with juniper trees and stuff like that, they’re a little further southeast in Snowflake. But this one is great bang for your buck. 2 and a half acres. Maybe you wanna share some of the pictures of the property, Christie.
Kristy: yes.
Dave: which for anyone who is listening here, we have a Google Drive folder for each and every one of our properties and so what we’re looking at here you kind of see some sage brush. We had our photographers actually planted little tiny stakes that had the property marked out from when we bought this. I’m not sure if they’re still there now to be honest but they were there at one time. Look you can –
Kristy: and you see the road, it’s good. I mean, you wouldn’t – you know, it’s a nice road, not a difficult dirt road at all.
Dave: you can see very flat, easy to build on. There’s no utilities nearby. There’s no power, no water but definitely like we mentioned, you have the easy road access and you get 2 and a half acres for this property.
Kristy: I can just see this being used for like people that like to either dirt bike or 4×4 or bring your horses and you can just go and go and go and go.
Dave: yeah. Well, it’s one of those properties where it’s 2 and a half acres but it’s gonna feel like a hundred because there’s virtually no body around. In a couple of these pictures you can see in the background, there are some RVs and 5th wheels and stuff like that but not a ton in the area. There’s even a cool little gulch right by the property.
Kristy: yeah there’s – yep. Little terrain feature. Oh there you go there’s a nice shot of it. Look at that dirt road’s very nice.
Dave: it is, yeah, well-maintained.
Kristy: yeah, exactly.
Dave: and Christie, how much is this property going for?
Kristy: it’s $3,600 if you pay cash and it’s only $85 a month financed so –
Dave: that’s it –
Kristy: yeah –
Dave: $85 a month.
Kristy: 85 bucks and you can have all your weekends out here, which I don’t know what you can do for $80. Probably couldn’t even take your family out to eat for $85 once let alone own a property.
Dave: right? I mean you think about, at a low-end hotel, you’re paying 85 bucks a month at the low end –
Kristy: yeah, yeah –
Dave: whereas you can for once a month essentially, the cost of staying in a low-end hotel, you own 2 and a half acres. You can’t beat that –
Kristy: yep. You can sleep under the stars instead, which would be way cleaner than a low-end motel I’m sure.
Dave: right?
Kristy: yeah, definitely –
Dave: this is true, this is true. Let’s see. Anything on the website that you wanna draw people’s attention to?
Kristy: not really, it’s – there is a video that I know that people can go watch that cause we’re already on the video, yeah. Some kind of pictures.
Dave: and there’s lots of great descriptions on the website from our photographers’ notes that they went out and took a look at it. How much are the property taxes on this one, Christie?
Kristy: we’re looking at $14,88 per year.
Dave: $14,88, just a little bit more than a month if you tie that into the monthly payments my friends, a whole $1 in change a month, we tie that into the monthly payments so you don’t have to pay that separately but if you want to, you’re welcome to –
Kristy: you can.
Dave: anything else Christie, any closing thoughts on this property?
Kristy: no, just whoever gets it, send me pictures of you getting dirty.
Dave: yeah, there you go. And what’s the best phone number to get a hold of you at, Christie, in case people have more questions or anything else that they wanna go over?
Kristy: yep, so they can call me or text me, whatever’s easier. It’s 971-248-6715 and email is [email protected].
Dave: perfect –
Kristy: so, either way.
Dave: perfect. Ok. Well, friends, I would like to thank you so much for being with us. We’re all wrapped up for today. We would love to hear from you. If you have a question about land, please send them to us [email protected] or submit ‘em right through our Facebook page. Thank you again so much for tuning into Land Stories with me, Dave Denniston and Christie. Make sure to check out all of our properties at www.genfamproperties.com, that’s g-e-n-f-a-mproperties.com. And if you want – have questions about this particular property, call Christie. Christie, what’s that phone number one more time?
Kristy: 971-248-6715.
Dave: all right, there you go guys. Have any questions, you give us a call. Talk you later, bye-bye.
Kristy: bye guys.
Dave [outro]: all right my friends. Well, that wraps up the episode for today. And just remember, it’s just for through the end of December. We would love to give you the opportunity to win 5 acres, 5 acres in Colorado, no strings attached. You can enter completely free as a gift from us to you. Make sure to text freeland, f-r-e-e-l-a-n-d to 44222. Again, text freeland, all one word, to 44222 and we will get y’all entered into the drawing to win 5 acres. All right my friends, we’ll talk to you later. Have a good one, bye-bye.