Have land and some ideas - looking for some advice

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So, DH and I have some land 8 acres (croft land) and a house-plot (which we cant afford to build on). We have a few ideas on ways to make the land make us some money as opposed to just sitting there growing weeds and grass. But, we have no money to finance anything - in fact we have debts. Does anyone know if there is finance available without putting much down in the way of a deposit? Could I use the land as a deposit? Really don't want to sell our house-plot as its within the land and we would hope to build on it once we are in a position to do so.

We are on the north west coast of Scotland, outstandingly beautiful with an excellent tourist trade from about May to Oct so the business ideas kind of centre around this.

Any suggestions would be greatly received

Eco campsite? earth latrines, and so on. Not sure how much you would need to spend on water pipes, etc. Or about planning permission.

Yeah that's certainly one of our ideas . My DH is a joiner and so the actual labour could be almost zero. But its the actual materials, permissions, other labour we cant do etc, then advertising/insurance etc. We literally are throwing everything at our debts but it will still take about 3 yrs to pay it all off. We cant earn anymore in our current jobs and the job market here is very very limited - so we need to bring some in from a different source and the land is just sitting there!

Check out kickstarter - someone I know recently had some of their startup costs funded this way.

Insurance can sometimes be paid monthly.
Advertising - well think PR / social media as free forms of advertising.

Can you lease it for grazing? Or some of it.

Truffle farming.

I'll have a look at kickstarter thank you Essex.
The problem is if I lease it to someone then they could (I believe) buy it from me for x times the annual rent (we're in Scotland and its croft so v complicated legal stuff!).

I have no idea about truffle farming - wouldn't we need truffles for them to find

Weddings. Yurts, bell tents etc....hippy style wedding hosting. Offer the whole package...find them their celebrant, do the decoration and the food. Build arches out of willow and twine with flowers etc...have bunting by the mile....candles and all that malarky....cater them too.

I think you are right about being careful about crofts having special status.

Depending on the value of the land you should be able to use it as a security for a loan from a bank (although I don't know if crofts can do this??). Depending on the interest you are paying on your debts it might make sense to do this anyway as you could probably get a mortgage at around 4% - whereas your unsecured debts might have a much higher rate.

I'd speak to a local mortgage advisor at first, and a local land agent to get an idea of the value of the land.

In England lots of farmers bank with Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. Might be worth seeing if they lend in Scotland.

Humanist eco-burial ground? They are usually in woodland but there might be something you can do with open land?

I think the hippy weddings with yurts is a brilliant idea.

What about setting up some sort of hobby farm where families can come and their children can lean about agriculture, see some lambs, dig up a potato, that kind of thing?

If all that sounds a bit too investment intensive would it work to divide it up into small plots and rent them individually, like allotments? Don't know how far you are from towny types who might drive out at weekends etc and use that kind of thing, or whether it's too exposed/hilly/windy?

Tell us more about the characteristics of the land and the wider surroundings and location.

Don'tDrink why thank you it's been my little dream for some time I suppose. My sister has a lot of land and I'm always trying to convince her that it's a good idea. I've told her to get a Romany Caravan as part of the deal...imagine that! A stunning Romany Van, lovely willow arches, bunting and candles everywhere...wild flowers....lovely food and pretty tents.

Sigh.

DP and I stayed at a lovely eco campsite in Cornwall last summer. It was just land, a shed with a wood burner and some sofas, games etc for wet and cold evenings, a water pump, compost loos, and natural (i.e. freezing!) shower. It was lovely, made us want to open up similar.
The landowner told us that when they first got the land, they let some surfers park their camper van there for free for the summer in exchange for labour helping them to get it ready for campers. Perhaps you could try something like that?

A snail farm? If you could get yourself past the barf factor....

"We literally are throwing everything at our debts but it will still take about 3 yrs to pay it all off. We cant earn anymore in our current jobs and the job market here is very very limited"

What if you could great your next job and live the rest of your lives, very far from debt? It's not impossible. It sounds as if you are happy to change your job, if the market was better. If the 'market' wasn't a problem, who would you be?