Raw Land Loan Rates 2023
First South Farm Credit (FSFC) has been financing rural land since 1916. Since it was founded over 100 years ago, FSFC now has grown to over 40 branches with 9,000 members and serves the “Deep South” in Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. They offer great raw land loans and competitive land loan interest rates.
Even with everything going on in the world, the demand for land and land loans has been extremely high.
As an affiliate of the national Farm Credit System, a network of borrower-owned lending institutions, First South Farm Credit specializes in providing credit for farming operations that include crops, livestock, land, and timber. FSFC is also chartered to help with financing lifestyle farms, rural home sites or rural land tracts for enjoyment or investment purposes.
As a rural lender, First South Farm Credit basically lends money to people for pretty much anything that they want to do “in the dirt”. That could be row cropping, timber raising, raising livestock or farming for wildlife.
It doesn’t stop there.
FSFC can assist a property holder in enhancing the value of the land. That includes things such as improving timber stands, clear-cutting, clearing roads, planting green fields, building ponds and planting trees and shrubs to improve green areas and cover for deer and turkey. It even encompasses lending money for controlled burns and planting of grasses and grain crops for things such as quail development and assisting in constructing access roads.
First South Farm Credit can also lend money for building a hunting cabin or dwelling on your property.
Being able to lock in a fixed interest loan at today’s lower rates is beneficial to land buyers and can offer a sense of security, knowing their rates won’t fluctuate.
“First South Farm Credit can make construction loans and, if needed, can turn those loans into long-term loans. Some landowners are building secondary homes, hunting cabins or lodges, and others want to put their primary residences on 20 to 30 acres” says Taylor Hart, the branch manager of First South Farm Credit in Opelika, AL. “Perhaps that person wants to sit on his or her back porch and look at a pond and we make loans for pond construction as well.”
“First South can make loans for anything a landowner wants to do to develop his property or its habitat or the amount of wildlife there. If you’re playing in the dirt, we want to be in there with you, as long as you’re improving the value of the dirt, which is the collateral of the loan,” Hart said.
But wait, it gets better.
In addition to its extensive experience in agricultural and land financing, one thing that sets First South Farm Credit apart from other lenders is that they are a cooperative.
When you borrow money from FSFC, you become a member and that means you own part of the business. That ownership entitles you to share in the profits through our Patronage Refund Payment Program.
In other words, First South Farm Credit gives its customers, who are actually owners, money back. While it can’t guarantee payments back to you or the exact rate of return, as long as it remains profitable and well capitalized, FSFC is committed to sharing its profits and has made patronage payments for the past 23 consecutive years.
Current Raw Land Loan Rates from First South Farm Credit
As of 2/10/23 rates have been easing back in the last few weeks and are in the 7-8% range depending on the financial position of the borrower and terms. Call the First South office in your area for a rate quote.
In addition to financing land, FSFC can finance your land improvements, new and used tractors, and other equipment that is used to maintain and enhance your rural property.
