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Bill and Marges Unlikly Business Story
Of course you have heard that, "Money grows on trees", or, "Buy
land because they're not making any more of it". How many times?
I first heard about it when I was 5 from my great uncle, Uncle
Bill. Uncle Bill was wealthy, retired and living the good life
in Sarasota Florida. I was impressed with his big house, boat,
and all his toys that successful people collect. He was a
forestry graduate of Penn State and had made a ton of money. As
I grew up he would visit us once a year. I always listened to
his stories and was convinced that he could never be wrong. He
had made his fortune selling traffic signals (red lights). High
tech for his day. I can remember him telling my father that if
he was starting all over he would buy land in Maine and grow
Christmas trees on it. Listening in and hearing this I thought
it was secret market information that is only repeated to close
friends and family. I thought I would never tell anyone for if I
did, well, it would lose its value and everyone would be doing
it. Sort of like the pig market cycle. One minute trees would be
scarce and bingo, the next minute there would be surpluses and
the market value would crash. As I grew up, some say I never
have, I wanted to do just that. Grow trees and buy land, lots
and lots of land, and of course plant lots and lots of trees. In
1973 I graduated from Juniata College in Huntingdon Pa with a BS
in Chemistry. It was at Juniata that I met my future wife. I
proceded to go out and get a job with in Lahaska, Pa.. I really
wanted to start growing trees. So I bought 160 acres of land in
the mountains of Virginia in Allegehany County. The purchase
price for this mountain land was $150 per acre. I was working in
Bucks County Pa. and felt that if I worked day and night I could
pay for this property in a few years. The older lady who sold me
this property sold it to me for 1/2 down and the balance in one
year with no interest. Making about $6.00 per hour and borrowing
$12000 for the initial payment, I proceeded to go into debt.
During this year I proceeded to start to pay down on the
property. I did get married later in the year and my wife and I
started our real estate purchases. Within 2 years we had paid
off this property. We bought our first house and started saving
money for a Bucks County Farm. We both had our day jobs and at
night and on weekends we mowed lawns. After 5 years we had
enough down money to buy a 38 acre farm in Doylestown Pa.
Keeping our first house as a rental, we moved to our farm. This
farm had a purchase price of $210,000, and a payment of $1493 a
month. We named this property, Highland Hill Farm. It was at
this point that we came up with the plan that we followed that
helped us to fund the purchases of all our farms and properties.
I called this plan," My dollar a day plan". We reasoned that
each day we should work on projects that will in the future pay
off with an income stream of $1 per day or save me $1 per day
from my current costs. Each day would be considered sucessful if
that goal was met. All costs and all projects and work was
measured in that manner. If we could set up a low cost plan that
could reap the benifit of $1 a day we would work on it. The goal
of the dollar per day was not important, just the attempt. We
would work on the idea until it would be completed or given up
on. We reasoned that one could spend hundreds of dollars on each
idea, because when it would work out, the pay back would be
hundreds of dollars per year. After many days my income would be
increasing and it would help fund the plan. Our morgage payment
was greater than our combined take home pay. This meant we had
to bust xxx. So we had to work every night mowing lawns and
doing extra work. We started to plant Norway Spruce and White
Pine Trees. We started with the smallest and the cheapest trees
we could afford. We started with 2-4" seedlings. Since we felt
it would be years before these trees would be saleable we kept
up our lawn route. As our children arrived they went with us on
our lawn route and we back packed them as we mowed lawns. Within
2 years the first batch of trees were marketable! We sold 2-3'
pines and spruces for $8.00 each deleivered and planted. These
trees sold like hot cakes! Thus a few pennies for seedlings
could be converted to many dollars within a few years. This
would add many dollars per day to our plan. We also rented out
barn space. Within one month of ownership we had almost $1500 in
rent per month from barn spaces. We purchased Scottish Highland
cows. These cows would save us from buying meat. We had a garden
for vegetables and fruit trees in our pasture. The garden saved
on buying vegetables. Being asked to do lawn cleanups and remove
items from customer properties, we began to do small hauling
jobs. We found that a lot of good stuff is thrown out so we
started collecting used mowers , engines, lumber, plumbing
supplies, and anything we thought we could reuse or salvage.
Everything we did was directed towards being self sufficient,
cost saving, and income production. (I know if I told you all
the ways we saved you would not believe me so I will save the
words.) We heated our house with a wood burning stove. The wood
burner saved on fuel for winter heating. We would turn the
burner on only for hot water for showers. Since our house was
old and large, a lot of fuel would be saved in this manner.
Within a few months we realized that this plan was working. We
saw that in aquiring rental properties and placing them in
service, we could buy properties with positive cash flows. A
positive cash flow of $100 per month brought in about $3 per
day. It does not sound like a lot but when you calculate in
expected appreciation of the property and possible rent
increases, this plan looked even better. We thus started to look
for more properties. We found another farm in Bedminster
Township. The cost was $195,000 for 8+ acres, 2 houses, 2 barns
and machinery storage sheds. I estimated that there would be
$3500 per month in rents that would support this price. After
buying this property our first months rent was $3450 !!! With
taxes and insurances, we made at least $1000 per month on this
farm. We also planted trees and shrubs on this property and put
in a few cows. In seeing that this method was working, I went to
the public library. We got books on how to buy and manage real
estate. I read everything I could. The book,"Nothing Down" by
Robert Allen was an eye opener. It confirmed many of our
stratagies. Almost every deal on real estate that we did was
with nothing down or creative financing. Every property had to
make a positive cash flow. We never bought a property to flip.
We became a buy and hold persons. We did buy a few single family
homes, but concentrated on farms and land. Gradually our gross
income and net income allowed me to quit my day job. That took
almost ten years. As we had more and more spendable income, we
would invest it in more types and kinds of trees. During the
early years, we wanted to plant trees that we could market
through newspaper ads. Newspaper ads allowed me to have a store
without hours. People would call in for information instead of
visiting my location. This saves a lot of time. A phone
answering machine acted as my secretary. We would take orders
over the phone and deleiver and plant nursery stock directly to
the homeowner. Our adds targeted customers who wanted screens
and privacy fences. They tended to buy large numbers of small
pines, spruces, and arborvitae schrubs and trees. One could
deleiver 20 2- 3' white pines on a pickup truck and plant them
in an evening. At $8 ea we would gross $160 Our tree cost was 20
cents ea. or about $2.00 per order. We all gained valuable
lessons in planting trees in a wide range of conditions. Without
a doubt I can conclusively say that I now have found that money
does grow on trees. My uncle Bill was right. His secret market
information was exactly as I had thought when I was 5 years old.
Only after enjoying the trees and nurturing them over the years
did I realise that it wasn't for money that he wanted to raise
trees, it was for satisfaction in the way of life and quality
time that I have been blessed with in following my dream.
Bill Hirst
P.S. 30 acres being cleared
A 30 acre field in Doylestown Has to be cleared this month. We
still have about 150 flowering pear trees to be dug. The field
next to this plot is the next to be bull dozed. We have app. 60
acres of stock there.
Year 2006 Free Stuff:
We will be giving away free bibles that we got out of the trash
as supply lasts. We also want to get rid of some surplus stock.
I will determine how much free stock is given away by the size
of your order. The more you buy the more you will be given. I
want your trucks to go home full so you don't waste gas.
You can see more of our operations at
http://www.seedlingsrus.com or http://www.highlandhillfarm.com
About the author:
Bill and Marge started at the bottom....some say that's where we
belong....Yet when you come to visit our operations, you will be
amazed!!!!!!!Our web sites include: http://www.seedlingsrus.com
http://www.highlandhillfarm.com http://www.huntingrelics.com