The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

Northwest Oklahoma 1

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  • Shane Terrel stands outside his office, Hunting Country Real Estate LLC, in Alva. The company specializes in the sale of recreational ag properties.

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March 6, 2010

No land in sight

Farm property in state is scarce, Terrel says

By Joe Malan, Staff Writer Enid News and Eagle

ALVA — When some people look at the agriculture and farming real estate market, they might believe the recession has led to low prices.

Not so, says Shane Terrel.

The real truth is there’s been less activity overall in the market.

“There’s just not (been) as many transactions,” said Terrel, owner and broker of Hunting Country Real Estate LLC in Alva.

In fact, the scarcity of advertising for properties has surprised even him.

“Last year, in March of ’09 was the first time in my life I haven’t seen any land auction advertisements in the entire county up here,” Terrel said.

One of the major issues confronting agriculture and farming real estate sales today is the lack of such real estate on the market.

Terrel doesn’t believe there are any challenges getting people to buy farmland in Oklahoma, the problem is there’s not enough to go around.

“People are looking and having trouble finding it,” he said.

Prices on recreational land have increased 50 to 100 percent since 2005, Terrel said. Most of the appreciation was caused by purchases from non-resident buyers.

“That’s not so much true on class one soil, highly cultivated farms,” Terrel said.

Rich farmland will always draw money and buyers, he said.

The real estate market for marginal (recreational) land has shifted a bit from previous years.

It used to be recreational land was hard to sell but easy to close.

Now, it’s hard to sell and hard to close.

Terrel said requirements from lenders and title companies are becoming more stringent, which may be behind the new trend.

Sales of farmland or recreational land may remain slow until the last quarter of this year.

Hunting Country usually closes 50 percent of its real estate properties in the last quarter of the year.

That’s when non-resident hunters typically come to northwest Oklahoma to look for properties to purchase.

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