Farmland and acreage in south Lake County

Crown Point, Lowell, Cedar Lake, Winfield, Hebron and the ground in between. Families here have watched houses go up on every side of the farm. Most of them want two things at once: keep the home place, and make the rest of the ground work for the family.

Keep the homestead. Sell the rest.

A typical split keeps the house, the yard and the barn on 5 to 10 acres and sells the back ground, as one tract or several. Where the line goes depends on the road frontage, the tile, the tenant's lease and the county's rules for splitting a parcel. I walk the ground with you before anyone draws anything.

What I do

• Walk the ground and sit down with every heir, at your kitchen table or mine.
• Give you my opinion of what the homestead is worth kept and what the rest is worth sold, from recorded sales and posted auction results nearby.
• Work with a licensed Indiana land surveyor on the split.
• Work with your tenant on timing around the crop year.
• List the tracts, take them to auction with an Indiana-licensed auctioneer, or sell the whole farm, whichever the family chooses.

Five years out

The families with the most choices are the ones who start while Mom and Dad can still sit at the table. Nothing has to be sold this year. A plan just means everyone hears the same thing at the same time.

Father and son. Two generations, like the families we serve. You work with me, Doug, from the first call to the closing. My son handles our marketing.

Douglas Willems, broker and REALTOR®. Licensed in Indiana since 1997, working out of Crown Point.

Surveys by a licensed Indiana land surveyor. This is a real estate and land plan, not legal or Medicaid advice.