That is traditional old world inheritance practices there. Eldest male gets it all, but he also inherits a patriarchal responsibility for "running" the family land and business to include supporting elderly relatives and immediate and extended family with assistance, housing, jobs, etc. He inherited authority and responsibilities.

Are other family members willing to buy the sellers out? I'd get everyone together to find out who wants to sell, who wants to buy.

Agree to having 3 appraisals done, averase them out to Y. Y/X shares * #sellers / #buyers. So if you had 1 seller and 3 buyers then each buyer would get 33% more added to their interest. Buyers may have to float a loan on it but it insures the parcel stays together.

Subdividing the land would be next to impossible for fairness.

I told my wife that for each kid that we had, we would acquire a piece of land to hand down to them. each piece being of similar value.
They will grow up knowing which piece of land is theirs and the Will reflects that.

I'm not opposed to splitting acreage, although I hate to see it done. It does give one sibling the chance to buy the other out.

I think it is important to treat each kid fairly.

My mother in law was part of a family land issue that involved something like 1100 acres around Eagle Lake. Most everyone decided to sell and split based on % ownership but a couple of semi-estranged family members who simply wanted to be contrarian and antagonistic trying to carry on an old family feud of sorts. It drug on for quite a while and I am sure a few lawyers may have ended up with a good cut of everyone's inheritance because of a couple of jerks.

Remember, it sucks when land is split up, but that's how it goes with more people and more efficient agriculture. Land can be assembled too, with enough patience.

One of two things will happen, and this is from personal experience in 2010. The family members will either decide if they want to purchase the land or if they want to sell. If they refuse to sell, then they must buy. If the buyers don't want to pay what the others want to sell for, then the entire tract will go on the market for sale.

Splitting the tract up will devalue some portions of the property and the one that recognizes that will demand the land be kept in tact and sold "in kind".

You probably need to get a good real estate Atty to explain this to everyone at the same time. The only thing left after that is mediation. I guarantee you won't like the results of that. I didn't.

agfan2013 said:

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sellthefarm said:

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Why do people feel like all descendants must be equal heirs?

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So what happens when you have three kids and they all have a love for the outdoors, willingly fix the fence & watch the cattle, hunt out there, etc? You can just pick one of them to take it all? I dont have kids yet, but that seems like a pretty hard prospect to give one of your kids something worth that much money and not give the others anything.....

Are you Italian? I work in consulting for agriculture and have noticed Italians prevent this problem with farming by pretty much giving everything to the first born son, anybody after that is sol.

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Primogeniture is the term, lots of people all over the world have used it for a very long time. It's been abolished in most of the post industrial revolution non-agrarian modern world.

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Don't bother with the "working the land" argument because no one works for free.

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I bet this somebeech never toted a backpack sprayer all summer long when he was a kid (or knows how deep it is to solid rock along every fenceline)

Married an Aggie Lady said:

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If I have many grievances with my descendants, rather than airing my grievances next to the Festivus Pole, I'll simply make sure to leave land in my estate such that everyone gets an undivided interest.

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Funny thing is that according to the story I heard.this is why northgate is set up the way it is.

Family didn't get along, so the land was split up in to these "useless strips" and alternating stripes were given to the heirs. "Get along or go broke" the old man told them from his death bed.

LMAO right? I sure as heck didn't get paid for all the work I did.
My wife and brother in law spent days working in corn and bean fields in the Dakotas for "room and board".
Kids growing up in the country are viewed as free labor force as often as not.

Duncan Idaho said:

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Married an Aggie Lady said:

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If I have many grievances with my descendants, rather than airing my grievances next to the Festivus Pole, I'll simply make sure to leave land in my estate such that everyone gets an undivided interest.

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Funny thing is that according to the story I heard.this is why northgate is set up the way it is.

Family didn't get along, so the land was split up in to these "useless strips" and alternating stripes were given to the heirs. "Get along or go broke" the old man told them from his death bed.

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I've never heard that story before. I do know that some distant relatives of mine used to own some or all of what is now Northgate, but I never knew exactly where the old property lines were. I'd be interested to learn more about it some time.

powerbiscuit said:

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sell the whole thing and split up the percentages to those with a stake in it....anybody who wants to buy it can bid on it in the open market

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That's what we did. There was a point that I wanted the 200 acres, but too much erosion and cattle running made it less attractive. Not enough treeso. I'm going to join a Carolina hunt club.

That was the story Don was telling back in 91. How true it is? I have no clue. But it did make sense as to why things were they way they were.

Neches21 said:

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I told my wife that for each kid that we had, we would acquire a piece of land to hand down to them. each piece being of similar value.
They will grow up knowing which piece of land is theirs and the Will reflects that.

I'm not opposed to splitting acreage, although I hate to see it done. It does give one sibling the chance to buy the other out.

I think it is important to treat each kid fairly.

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Unless it's a contiguous piece somewhere that you can add on to with each kid, they are going to be super super pissed when you die and they recheck the values.

As far as ag exemptions and that sort of thing goes, does land have to be individually titled, or could you still get that with land titled in an entity's name (say Limited Partnership or LLC)? Interested if anyone knows.

I'm just surprised that some black sheep of the family relative didn't get the grandma or grandpa with dementia to sign a revised will making them the only heir to the land. That's the true American way.

The second way is those that want to sell sue those that don't. Then whatever value the land had winds up going to legal fees and the relatives wind up hating each other.

91 that is a Title co question, I'm mortgage. Someone here may can answer. The exemption will transfer to the individual but an entity is beyond me. I always start at title.

I've worked plenty of land and never been paid for it. I don't farm to feed other people and I can't work on engines, but I've done just about everything else from building barns/sheds/cabins/docks/bridges, clearing land and planting food plots, fencing, irrigation and drainage projects, running tractors and chainsaws, improving roads, fighting wildfires, stocking ponds, building blinds, spraying cactus, raising cattle/horses, breeding whitetails, running exotics and whatever else between two different family ranches in Mason and Leon County over the past 25 years. None of it "mine" and none of it inherited. And I've personally participated in dozens of public speaking events and counseled individually no less than a few hundred families across South and Central Texas on estate planning for Ag families particularly as it pertains to large family farms and ranches. So I'd say I know what I'm talking about although I haven't bothered to share any advice on this thread, probably have more experience on the subject than most, and have rightfully formed a duly educated personal opinion on the subject. Am I jealous of anyone with large spreads oh inherited land? Damn right I am but I never suggested otherwise. What gets me bent is all of the damn familial greed I've seen first hand over the years. And I smell it in this thread. Rant over.

Tree Hugger said:

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So theoretically I could have 44 acres out there somewhere, but how much use would I really get from it?

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High fence + hunting preserve!

My folks had several hundred acres that they started giving undivided parcels to myself and my 2 brothers in increments each year that fell under the gift tax threshold starting when we were pretty small. About 10 years ago when the parcel was about to be fully ours in undivided status, my father took an satellite photo and divided it into what he considered to be 3 equal sections and numbered them 1, 2, and 3 on the photo. Minerals rights remained intact for the whole parcel, each son received a 1/3 interest across all 3 parcels.

Each of us looked at the photo, and ranked the sections in the order we would prefer them. One of my brothers and I ranked the same parcel first, we flipped a coin for it. Once the choices were completed, my parent's lawyer drew up documents to assign the undivided interests to the proper person. Each of us and our wife's signed the legal docs that we agreed with the transfer process and the land was officially divided three ways.

My brothers and I always felt it was my father's land, and he could do whatever he wanted with it. The fact that HE decided how to divide it into what HE considered three equal parcels on his own and HE came up withe the division process was the key in a smooth transfer.

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sell the whole thing and split up the percentages to those with a stake in it....anybody who wants to buy it can bid on it in the open market

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That's what our family did when the grandparents passed.

Apache said:

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LMAO right? I sure as heck didn't get paid for all the work I did.
My wife and brother in law spent days working in corn and bean fields in the Dakotas for "room and board".
Kids growing up in the country are viewed as free labor force as often as not.

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any parent will tell you kids sure as hell arent free

clobby said:

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sell the whole thing and split up the percentages to those with a stake in it....anybody who wants to buy it can bid on it in the open market

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That's what our family did when the grandparents passed.

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That's what we are going to do. I talked my Dad into leaving his land holdings to us three kids in undivided interests. I knew it would be a mess to try and divide it and he was dying and I didn't want to subject him to that. It is a mess. Three years later and three lawyers later, we are selling everything and dividing equally. I tried to buy his farm in Jack County from the other two but they didn't want to sell. I bought a farm in Young County and now they want to sell.

I told our three kids, sell everything and divide it equally.