Are You Dreaming of Beautiful Farms?

Madison Georgia is a rural oasis – just an hour east of the hustle and bustle of Atlanta, just a short drive from the gated golf communities on Lake Oconee, half an hour south of Athens, home to the University of Georgia Bulldogs.

Georgia’s Piedmont is fast becoming the hub of the local food movement.  Here in Madison and Morgan County in the heart of the Piedmont, the Madison-Morgan Conservancy is supporting commodity farming as well as the production of local and organic meats,  eggs, vegetables, and associated farm products.

You know you live in a special place when the Long Term Planning Committee you sit on chooses “preserving our agricultural heritage” as one of its top three priorities, along with investing in infrastructure and promoting job growth.

I’ve been helping families choose farms in Madison Georgia and surrounding area for a decade now, and one thing I’ve learned is that families choosing rural life have one big decision to make:

Is it better to Buy a farm or Build a farm?

  • When you build a farm, you may start out with bare land, or with a home on some acreage but not much else. Building a farm begins with a lower initial purchase price, and then you add the improvements you want: home, outbuildings, fencing, perhaps a pool, raised beds, fruit or flowering trees. Each addition comes with a price measured in both time and money. But you get the satisfaction of creating the farm of your dreams.
  • When you buy a farm, the upfront cost will be higher, because you’ll be buying both land and improvements. One of the downfalls of buying a farm is that the improvements reflect the vision of the current owner – given a blank slate you may have made other choices. But the advantage of buying a developed farm means you can begin enjoying your farm on day one and you can finance the improvements at today’s low mortgage rates.

But we all found our way here, because we love living in a place that protects its historic and cultural resources, promotes sustainable farming, and plans to have clean air and abundant water for generations to come.

And we love looking at beautiful farms…

If  you’re ready to turn dreams into reality, contact me today and we’ll begin the search for the farm you’ll call home.

Land Conservation

Land Conservation

Over 2,500 acres in Morgan County are permanently protected by voluntary, donated conservation easements. Landowners

who donate a conservation easement can claim a federal income tax deduction — an incentive that has been highly successful at encouraging private, voluntary land conservation. But Congress has allowed the enhanced easement incentive act to expire, reducing the value of the tax deduction for many landowners.

With the enhanced incentive in place, the pace of land conservation nationally increased by about 33%, exceeding one million acres per year. First established in 2006, the enhanced incentive expired at the end of 2014. It will been enacted retroactively to Jan. 1, 2015, and will be permanently in place, giving landowners certainty in their conservation and estate planning. -Chris McCauley, director of the Madison-Morgan Conservancy

Featured Farm Listings