I lost a bunch of inheritance just to keep the land, my dad left to me. Crazy.

That sux 3baily3, it really sux. But that is the world were living in today. The depletion of the American dream. Dirt farmers 100yrs ago could afford way more than we can today. Think on that a little while.

That sucks. Gets me to thinking about the old Indian who refused to leave for the reservation and said: "how can any man OWN a piece of the earth? It is not the property of any man." I also think about the frontier settlers who simply had to choose what 40 acres they wanted and bingo, they owned it. Seems like it should be our generation's turn to go pick out 40 acres and claim it.

Generationally keeping family land together is a tough thing to accomplish and is something I am thinking about a lot. I am blessed to be the 4th generation owner of my 320 acres and the only reason for that is a couple of lucky breaks. My grandfather got into financial trouble and was about to lose it but my mom and dad scraped together every penny they had and bought him out. Otherwise it would have been gone considering dad had 5 brothers and sisters. Then about 20 years ago my Mom gave my sisters money for their share in the place. Wasn’t full market value and honestly they got a not great deal. But they had never been involved in the place. So that brings me to the present with 3 kids, all living in Utah and none of them ever having been really invested in the place. They like being here but that’s because I have made it what it is but they would have a real hard time dealing with the place from 2000 miles. At this point I need to keep it available for my wife if I croak and she should have a financial need but otherwise I am probably gonna let the kids decide what is important to them.Complicating this is my Dad was a very very smart guy who died at 42 and in a journal he wrote the last two years of his life he described what he thought would be happening in society in the future and so far he has been 100% right, scarily right. And one thing he was very clear about was at some time our family would need this place to survive. Locking it down so it could never be sold also has its problems because in a generation or two the number of people involved will grow exponentially and there have already been family drama about this place which I hope ends with me. It’s no easy decision. If I had one kid living here and interested in it it would be easy, they would get it but that’s not the case.

speaking firsthand...."family land" is a freaking nightmare once multiple people are involved.

we had 400ac in Hardeman Co, TN...it was the most perfect land you could imagine. about 70/30 timber/pasture, mostly hardwood with a little pine scattered in...about 1/3 of it was bottomland with about a 1/2 mile of Hatchie River frontage. Absolutely covered up in deer and turkeys and a fair amount of ducks (although I didn't hunt much at the time). old house, a small single-wide, barn, pole barn and a huge shop/shed. 1 decent size spring-fed pond.

It was originally my great grandparents'. Then it passed to my granddad and his 2 brothers. By the time it made it to my mom and her cousins, 10-11 different people "owned" it together. 1 cousin went bankrupt and nearly lost it for everyone, but my mom and her sister bought the cousin out before the bank got involved. Another cousin didn't give a crap about any of it and just "wanted her share" of the value, but because she "owned" like a 1/3 of it alone, nobody else could afford to buy her out.

The one person that actually lived there (about a half mile from the property) and took care of all the day-to-day maintenance and upkeep died, and everyone else lived anywhere from 1-3hrs away.

It finally got sold a few years ago.

Alabama land deed laws/rules are screwy . going thru this stuff right now with my land. my wife and i on deed , wife passed in 2011 trying to add son to deed as to not have to go thru probate and all the bull crap that goes with that.. I've had to hire an attorney to do the paper work , they are requiring me to take my late wife off deed and have any relatives that might have a claim on property after death to sign a paper saying they have no interest in land ....crazy all this just to add my son on the deed.. oh and dont forget the deed transfer fees that go along with it..I want to go the trust route too and my son as head of trust...but got to get thru this stuff first.

Dang. Who would say that knowing the context? Sorry to hear about y’all’s place.