One of the most common ways to diversify one’s financial portfolio and generate passive income is through real estate. When they think of real estate, most people think of commercial buildings, apartments, or single-family homes. However, other real estate assets benefit from the ground we stand on.
Farmland in the United States is one of the most significant real estate assets since it provides food for people. FarmTogether is an investment platform that enables you to purchase fractional shares of farms, orchards, and other rural properties, even though most people would never buy an entire farm.
This review will go over FarmTogether to see if it really is the best farmland investing platform out there.
You’ll learn whether farmland investing is the right online business for you.
And at the end, you’ll find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding FarmTogether and farmland investing in general.
FarmTogether is a course that teaches you about real estate investing.
If you’ve read my other articles on real estate investing, you’ll know there are 3 primary ways to invest:
Wholesaling, buy-and-hold, and flipping.
While they each have their pros and cons, there is a ton of potential for success in investing in real estate.
Real estate has created some of the largest fortunes in world history.
That being said, you should take some time to seriously think about something:
Is now the best time for YOU to get into real estate investing?
Because despite the potential upside, investing in properties or land takes a lot of capital, and is very labor intensive.
That means if you:
- Have less than 3 hours per day, OR
- Aren’t sitting on $20K+ in disposable income
This may not be the best time for you to start investing in physical real estate.
Don’t get me wrong, real estate investing can be an amazing way to protect your assets while generating cash – but there’s a time and a place for it.
But there’s good news!
All you need is a system to generate the cash (& free time) you need to be ready for real estate investing.
My preferred method of getting there is by becoming a Digital Landlord
It takes the benefits of real estate investing, but removes many of the barriers (& annoyances), like:
- Small cash flow on properties
- Having to take out debt
- Dealing with repairs and upkeep
- Dealing with tenants
The cool part is that the income is mostly recurring (AKA semi-passive).
You could make anywhere from $2,000-$10,000+ per month doing it.
You can build it as big (or small) as you feel like, without the annoyances I listed above.
If that sounds interesting, you might want to think about using the Digital Rental Method.
Then, you can take the profits and start investing in physical real estate a year or two from now.
If you wanna see what FarmTogether looks like on the inside, keep reading.
What Is FarmTogether?
FarmTogether, a platform for accredited investors to invest in farmland in the United States, was founded in 2017. They aim to adopt a crowdfunding strategy in agriculture to democratize farmland investment.
A team of experts with years of combined experience in the food, agricultural, and farmland investing industries runs the platform. The company’s CEO, Artem Milinchuk, served as the VP of Operations at B2B surplus goods platform Full Harvest Technologies.
FarmTogether was started in San Francisco by a team of four people, including the current CEO. According to Crunchbase, they have $3.7 million in venture capital funding.
How Does FarmTogether Work?
The FarmTogether platform works similarly to other real estate crowdfunding platforms. The process is as follows:
Their group finds potential farmland locations in the US that need funding.
They will negotiate the terms and make the property available on their marketplace if it meets their investment requirements (for instance, crop kind, property location and valuation, operator experience and skill).
Then, investors can go through the available properties and their investment profiles (such as target IRR, holding period, cash yield, and how much capital investors have already committed to the deal).
The required minimums begin at $15,000. Depending on the size of your allocation, this is usually low enough to allow you to diversify among a few different properties.
FarmTogether and their contractual partners handle day-to-day crop maintenance and harvest sales after you invest.
Returns are earned in three ways:
- quarterly or annual cash flows from harvest sales
- lease payments from operators, and
- revenues from the eventual sale of the property after the investment holding period.
Individual and corporate accounts, self-directed IRAs, and 401(k) accounts are all supported by the FarmTogether platform.
Who Can Invest With FarmTogether? Is It Limited To Accredited Investors Only?
To become an investor in FarmTogether, you must meet specific criteria. These rules ensure that the investors are financially secure and have a failsafe in place.
You must be the following to invest in FarmTogether properties:
- An accredited investor
- You must have a net worth of at least $1 million
- Alternatively, you can make $200k each year
How Much Does FarmTogether Cost?
Signing up for the FarmTogether platform is entirely free. You’ll not be charged any fees until you invest. These fees differ and are specific to each property. In general, You should expect the following FarmTogether fees:
- Transaction fee
- Annual management fee
- A one-time, upfront cost that averages around 2%
- A yearly charge between 1 percent and 2 percent goes to the partners managing the day-to-day farm operations.
However, it’s critical to examine the offering documentation thoroughly because each deal has its own fee structure, and some may even incorporate profit sharing for the managers.
Is Farmland A Good Investment?
There isn’t such thing as a risk-free investment. Still, farmland has a very appealing risk/reward profile and serves as a wonderful diversifier for a well-balanced investment portfolio of stocks and bonds.
Farmland is, according to their website:
- Over the last two decades, farmland has produced an annual return of roughly 10% on average (leading up to 2018)
- It has a poor correlation to stock market performance and a low volatility
- During this period, there was not a single year with negative returns
The FarmTogether platform’s fees are also quite low compared to other private investments. Furthermore, because people will always need to eat, there is minimal likelihood of a major decline in farmland values.
FarmTogether has a favorable risk/reward profile.
What Is The Minimum Investment?
Minimum initial investment. On the low end, $15,000, but it might go as high as $50,000 or more depending on the exact investment.
Investment term. It could be as short as five years, but it’s more likely to be seven to ten years. Particular investments may take even longer.
Net rent distribution frequency. Rent payments might be made quarterly, semi-annually, or annually, depending on the investment.
Eligible investors. You can invest as an individual, a limited partnership (LP), a limited liability company (LLC), or a trust. Investors may be US citizens, permanent residents, or foreign nationals.
Eligible accounts. You can hold taxable investment accounts in a self-directed IRA account. FarmTogether collaborates with Alto IRA on this project.
Distributions of income. Rent payments might be received quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Distributions, like annual income, are placed directly into a linked bank account.
Year-end tax reporting. Individual investments structured as LLCs will have year-end results reported on IRS Form K-1. This includes rental income and expenses, which are taxable each year. When the property is sold, any gains will be taxed at lower long-term capital gains rates.
Fees for FarmTogether. The particular fee structure will differ depending on the investment offered. On average, you should anticipate paying an “intake charge” of 0.5% to 1.0% of your initial investment. You should also anticipate paying an annual management charge, normally roughly 1% of your investment value. However, no fees are levied on the selling of the underlying farmland.
Customer support. Because you’ll need to plan a call, phone interaction is limited. And because the company is headquartered on the West Coast, you must consider time zone differences. The lack of phone contact is common in the real estate crowdfunding industry.
Is FarmTogether Safe?
Instead of owning shares in FarmTogether, when you invest in the company, you hold a stake in the farm itself through a different legal entity (often an LLC). So, your farmland assets are safe even if FarmTogether experiences financial problems or goes bankrupt. Additionally, as FarmTogether does not operate any farms, any disruption in its business operations would not directly affect any of the farms you invest in.
However, because FarmTogether acts as the asset manager, there will most likely be some disruption—albeit temporary—of a few things for investors, such as access to reporting or documentation, distribution payment, or communications with the farm operator.
Several safeguards are in place to mitigate this damage, with each agreement containing a survivorship plan for continuous administration.
The most significant risk for investors in farmland real estate acquisitions is that the farm will not produce satisfactory results. This can be caused by many factors, such as:
- Disease or pests
- Drought
- Catastrophic weather
- The operator made a mistake
- Commodity prices are low
Or, more frequently, a combination of the above. If a farm fails to generate predicted cash flows, FarmTogether investors may not receive the planned payouts due to bad luck or poor farm management.
In the worst-case situation, a farm may have to be sold off—potentially at a loss—if circumstances become bad enough. It’s unlikely to happen with well-vetted arrangements and qualified operators, but it does happen. In the worst-case situation, those losses might be compounded if a debt is involved.
What is the takeaway? Make sure you do your homework. Before investing, understand any business’s financials and determine whether the risks fall within your own risk profile.
Having said that, there’s a lot to admire about FarmTogether and what it has to offer investors. Farmland is not an investment class that many people have had the opportunity to invest in, but its risk and return profile and future potential should put it on your radar.
Final Verdict
In the field of investing, FarmTogether has a unique niche. FarmTogether gives people who want to invest in farmland and meet the platform’s strict investor profile requirements a new and easy way to invest in agricultural real estate. Additionally, you must achieve the minimum investment requirements to invest.
It’s critical to understand that FarmTogether is not a real estate investment trust (REIT). Furthermore, when you participate in FarmTogether, you are not investing in the platform as a whole but in a specific agricultural opportunity. This means that your investment is illiquid, and you risk losing money if the farm goes bankrupt or fails to pay its lease obligations.
Pests, terrible weather conditions, or plain old bad luck could all occur – there are numerous reasons your farm may fail to satisfy its financial commitments. This emphasizes the importance of thoroughly researching both the agricultural market and the crop in question before putting money up.
FarmTogether offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity to invest in farmland and a wealth of educational tools and resources to help you make an informed decision.
Is FarmTogether Investment Platform Legit?
FarmTogether is a legit company that offers certified investors real estate investment opportunities, although farmland may seem like a strange investment. Investors can buy a partial or complete interest in a farm to get a piece of the operating income and possibly capital gains when the farm is sold.
FarmTogether collaborates with several well-known companies, including Equity Trust Company, PENSCO, and Leading Harvest, lending legitimacy to this relatively new startup.
Can FarmTogether Make You Money?
Yes, you can definitely make money through farmland investments! Accredited and nonaccredited investors, however, have other options.
There’s a lot that comes along with farmland investing that many people struggle with.
Now, don’t get the wrong idea…
It’s not impossible to make money with farmland investing, but if you’re gonna put in the amount of grueling work to do this business (which, trust me, isn’t easy), you might as well bring in some REAL money while you’re learning the ropes.
The program that helped skyrocket many online businesses to over $40,000+ per month is so simple that making money really does become second nature.
Alternatives To FarmTogether?
Yes, there are plenty of other business models to choose from if you want to pursue this making money online. Here are just a few:
Is FarmTogether A Scam?
So, time for the $1,000,000 question – is FarmTogether a scam?
No, not technically. You can 100% make money with this program, though it’s not nearly as simple as they make it seem.
As with most businesses, there is A LOT of work to be done upfront & no guarantee of you being successful.
Not to mention the profit margins are typically pretty small.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big proponent of front-loading work now, so that you can reap the rewards later.
But if I’m gonna do that, I want the rewards to be HIGH and virtually guaranteed.
I’d rather put in that same 3 months of work (in my spare time) & build a handful of Digital Rental Properties that each produce $500-$2,000 checks every single month afterward (AKA recurring income).
And the cool part is that you can do it in a lot less time than 3-months (I personally did it in my first 2 weeks of using the Digital Rental Method).
Unlike physical real estate, you can do it from anywhere in the world, so it’s a genuine “laptop-lifestyle” business.
All you need is an internet connection.
Some of my friends are Digital Rental Method that run their 6-figure businesses from:
- Camping trips at national parks
- Beachfront in Hawaii
- On the road in a camper van (with a pet pig!)
They focus on living an enjoyable life first, and focus on income second. All thanks to this program.
They can take weeks or months off, and money keeps rolling in.
Living happily is the top priority.
Read Our In Depth Breakdown Of The Top 5 Real EstateOpp Courses For 2024
If the thought of living perpetually at your dream vacation spot interests you, using the Digital Rental Method might be for you!
What Is My Top Recommendation For Making Money Online In 2022?
I’ve personally tried all of the major online business models:
- I’ve sold fidget spinners through Amazon FBA
- I’ve drop-shipped a toilet bowl putting green on Shopify
- I’ve sold women’s health supplements via Clickbank affiliate marketing
- And I made money with all of them, so trust me when I say: there is no “perfect” business model.
It’s worth noting that I FULLY endorse real estate investing as a way to grow wealth, and that’s why I invest my own money in commercial and residential real estate.
That being said, my #1 recommendation for making real money online as a beginner is, hands-down: being a Digital Landlord.
Whether you’re a complete newbie, or you’ve been around the block before but have never had that “big win” to propel you forward, using the Digital Rental Method is for you.
Why?
Time: If you’ve got a spare hour or two each day, you can do this. If you want to drop everything and go all-in, you can do this. More time obviously means faster results, but even putting in a few hours per day is enough to see real success.
And because of that flexibility, you don’t need to trade your time for money. Once the income starts, it’s recurring.
That means you can take a month off, travel the country, pursue a passion project, chill on the beach, or charter a boat across the world.
But you can only do that once you’ve created an income stream that doesn’t require YOU to be there all day, every day.
Real estate investing is a FULL-TIME JOB. If you stop finding deals, your money dries up.
Ownership & Control: Unless you’re buying your properties in cash, you don’t technically own the properties – the lender does.
If you miss a single payment, the property can be taken from you.
Why pour your soul into a business that could be taken away from you at the drop of a dime?
With the Digital Rental Method, you literally own all of the assets, which means you have ultimate control.
Ongoing costs: With real estate, profit margins are actually pretty slim. Real wealth is made in owning the assets, and owning A LOT of them.
using the Digital Rental Method, your profit margin is nearly 100%. Watch here to learn how.
Just a reminder: these Digital Rental Properties are worth (at a minimum) $500/mo in semi-passive income. And each time you create another one, your income increases, and the effort put into creating the next property decreases.
Best-case scenario, you have properties bringing in over $3,000+/mo on auto-pilot.
It’s Effectively Copy-Paste: Here’s my favorite part: once you have your first Digital Rental Property up, you can literally copy-paste another version of it and find another willing “renter” in a few days. DOUBLING your income doesn’t get much easier than that…
If you wanted to double your income with real estate investing, you would need twice as many properties, or double your profit margins on each property. And I can guarantee you that’s a lot harder than a few clicks & a phone call.
Make Money Helping Real People: With the Digital Rental Method, you’re helping solve REAL problems that people are ASKING for help with:
Small local businesses around the world need one thing: customers. Without them, their business would fall apart. If you can provide those customers, they’re going to be really happy – and they’re going to pay you for it.
You’re helping a struggling mother or father put food on the table for their families, put their kids through college, or simply live life a little bit more comfortably.
Having this type of impact on the world is what will help you sleep soundly at night.
So, the rest is up to you. You could keep looking at other opportunities like FarmTogether, which might make you money.
You could keep researching and researching for the next few months (or few years), never making a concrete decision.
OR, you can look deep inside, think about those dreams, hopes, & desires, and make the decision to ACTUALLY make it happen, just like it has for thousands of other students before you.
Making a fortune while actually helping real people that need it.
If this sounds like you, click here to see how it all works.
