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Schrader's auction staff has over 400 years of combined experience.
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On Monday, September 24, 722 acres were sold by Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company, Inc. for the Dr. William Fitzkee Estate. 634 acres was near Albion, Indiana and 88 acres was near Butler, Indiana.
Dr. Fitzkee was a prominent Doctor in Albion Indiana who had invested in the rolling hill country west of Albion. He started purchasing farms in 1969 and continued to purchase neighboring farms during the 1970s as farmers sold out.
His first love was horses and was well known in the Midwest for his Championship Jumping horses. Signs on his Fitzkee Farms state THIS IS HORSE COUNTRY .
The 722 acre Auction was standing room only at the Noble County 4H Fair grounds auction venue. Over 100 registered bidders competed at auction to determine who would own the timber and grassland that had been retired from farming. To the very end, 30 different buyers were submitting their bids for tracts ranging from 3 acres to 90 acres to compete against a single buyer who was determined to purchase all of the Noble County farm. The final selling price was $2,050,000 ($3,235 per acre). The 88 acres of mostly recent tree plantings, near Butler, sold to two (2) buyers for $211,000 ($2,400 per acre).
On Tuesday, September 25, 1066 acres were sold by Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company, Inc. for four (4) different Harman family Trusts and Estate. The entire acreage was located south of Warsaw at Claypool, Indiana within a mile of the new Dreyfus bio-diesel plant. 600 acres of the property laid in one section, a rarity in Northern Indiana. Several buyers came prepared to purchase the 600 acres and competed for more than 2 hours as many bidders submitted bids on the 36 tracts in various combinations. In the end, the larger buyers were outbid by the local buyers, each purchasing 40 acre to 190 acre blocks of land. The top 190 acres sold for $3815 per acre and the average of the entire 1066 acres was $3470 per acre ($3,699,000).
After conducting the two auctions, Rex Schrader said these auctions proved again the strength of the current land market in northeastern Indiana. In each auction close to 100 bidders competed. In Kosciusko County the land sold based on production value and was influenced primarily by the current and future prices of corn and soybeans. The Noble and DeKalb County land values were driven by buyers seeking hunting land and general recreation, plus some good timber acreage.
In addition to the weekly land sales in Indiana and Ohio, the Schrader Company has experienced a wide variety of land sales during the past few months including: 5600 acres in Dodge City, Kansas; 890 acres in DeKalb County, Illinois; 263 acres, Fox Island, New York; 1800 acres in Tennessee; 2300 acres in Washington; and 4000 acres of reclaimed coal land in Southern Indiana.
Schrader said the property selling for the highest price per acre was the 263-acre Fox Island in Lake Ontario, New York, which sold for $3,780,000 ($14,370 per acre). The seller had purchased the island for $900,000 four years ago.
Schrader said he still prefers working with the farmers selling the Indiana, Illinois and Ohio farmland. The Schrader Auction Calendar shows the company will be busy selling lots of Indiana, Illinois and Ohio farmland this fall and winter. According to Schrader, the substantial increase in land prices and the risk of higher capital gains taxes in the future are the reasons most of the sellers have decided this is the time to sell some land.
For additional information and photographs or an interview with additional comments on the land market, contact Rex Schrader at 1-800-451-2709, cell # 260-229-2400 or e-mail rex@schraderauction.com.
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