Farmers National Company auctioning two premier properties

The local team of Farmers National Company has been pleased with the way the Kansas City area market has responded to both the company’s real estate listings and to its auction process for selling agriculatural property.

“While it has not been quite a year since Farmers National Company entered the Kansas City market place, the results have far exceeded our initial expectations,” said local broker Bill Gaughan. “But most pleasing has been the acceptance of using auctions to market premier real estate properties. Both buyers and sellers are rapidly coming to recognize auctions as the way to most efficiently realize the fair market value for such properties. This is particularly true of premier properties which, because of their unique characteristics, are hard to value.”

Farmers National Company specializes in auctioning premier properties and Gaughan pointed to two properties that will be coming up for auction this month as perfect examples of how auctions are the best way to value and sell premier properties. Both of these are unique properties that bring value beyond what you could likely find by searching for comparables.

On Dec. 12 what Gaughan describes as a spectacular 500-acre property south of Holden, Mo., is being auctioned.

“It is special in so many ways” Gaughan said.

This property, Trail Ridge Farm, was developed by the seller as his crowning jewel. The owner had previously developed many duck clubs in the Truman Lake area, but this was to be his own property and his finest effort. He wanted to develop a farm and recreational property that would be unequalled, and he succeeded.

The property is located between a Johnson County drainage ditch and Bear Creek. The seller took advantage of this unique location and its 380 acres of cropland to build a 5-mile long system of dikes with controlled piping to flood or drain fields as he wants. As a result, 170 acres is diked, floodable bottom ground.

The combination of the excellent soils in the bottom ground and his ability to control subsurface moisture has resulted in some of the most productive farmland in the state of Missouri. This past year, for example, his soybeans averaged over 67 bushels per acre, with some areas showing over 77. Even more impressive is that in 2012 in the midst of a blistering drought the land still produced over 50 bushels per acre.

But that is only part of the story of this property. He built a large trophy bass lake with the appropriate bottom structure to grow and sustain a monster fishery just outside his front door. He protects the lake and the surrounding fields with nine ponds, all stocked with fish, designed to prevent siltation and provide unequalled recreation.

The combination of fields and surface water brings unique visitors, including swans and bald eagles. The property also includes irrigated gardens, orchards, flower beds and bird houses. All of that surrounds a comfortable and secluded maintenance-free building housing a 2,400-square-foot modern apartment.

The best way to appreciate this property is to go to FarmersNational.com, click on the auction calendar and find this Johnson County, Mo., auction scheduled for Dec. 12. There you can find a downloadable brochure, and be sure and watch the “virtual flyover” to appreciate this stunning property. The property will be sold in four parcels so the farmland can be split from the lake property.

Another premier property in the metro area is being auctioned on Dec. 18

“The most popular farmland is always productive land that is close enough to the city that it has development potential and this is exactly what this 169-acre property in Cass County offers,” Gaughan said.

Located just west of Raymore on Hubach Hill Road, this property is in a fast growing area of beautiful estate homes. The property is close to the Raymore city limits, has access to utilities and is on a paved road.

The property contains two ponds, scenic views and both tillable and hay ground. The soils are productive and deep, so some of the hay ground could be easily converted to more cropland.

The property will be auctioned as a multi-parcel auction in two parcels with with approximatley 27.5 acres along the Hubach Hill Road and approximately 141.5 acres fronting on Parrot Farm Road. For more information and a downloadable brochure on this property visit the auction calendar for Dec. 18 at FarmersNational.com.

Farmers National Company tracks it’s farmland sales by the hundreds of millions and averages auctioning almost one property a day. Locally, Farmers National Company real estate can be reached at 913-837-4665 or by emailing WGaughan@FarmersNational.com. For farm, ranch, and hunting properties in the Kansas City market area visit FarmersNational.com/KC.

Farmers National Company, an employee-owned company, is the nation’s leading agricultural farm and ranch management and agricultural real estate sales company. Additional services provided by the company include auctions, appraisals, insurance, consultation services, oil and gas management, forest resource management, lake management, FNC Ag Stock, and a national hunting lease service. Visit the Farmers National Company website at FarmersNational.com.

This story was originally published December 6, 2014 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Farmers National Company auctioning two premier properties."