First Time Landowner Purchases at Gill Land Company Auction

Jay Ackerman (shown above with this parents and grandmother) purchased his very first piece of land at one of our auctions last fall. What a neat experience it was to be a part of this major life decision for him! We sat down with him afterward to visit about what led him to purchase this parcel and his plans for the land.

GLC: Are you from the area or did you grow up around here?

JAY: My parents grew up around here and then moved to Watertown, which is where I grew up. I would come back here in the summers to help my grandpa make hay. That’s what initiated my interest in the land. I worked for neighboring farmers back in Watertown as well. As I grew older and became more involved with my grandparent’s place, I bought a couple pieces of equipment. After high school, I was a carpenter for a few years. When I was offered a job up here I thought, “Well why not?” Might as well come up here and chase this dream a little bit.

GLC: What made you want to own land of your own?

JAY: It was just time I guess. My grandparents’ place is really small so it was nice to buy a little more and upsize a bit. This land is nearby so it is a good fit.

Also, there's just a satisfaction of owning land. Knowing that it's yours and you can do what you want with it and nobody is going to tell you what you can or can't do with it.

GLC: Was this the first auction that you’d attended?

JAY: Land auction, yeah.

GLC: Walk me through the moment when you realized you were going to get this land, when you knew it was yours?

JAY: I don't know if that was an exciting feeling or a scary feeling! I was sitting there with my family, and we bid until we got the high bid and a chance to claim the parcel we wanted. Then I think there was a lot of shock and a lot of excitement, but it was good.

GLC: What are your future plans for this land?

JAY: I've got hopes and dreams for it; things I want to do with it. I plan to hang on to it for the rest of my life and hopefully pass it on to my kids someday. I think that's something very rewarding to look forward to – to see the result that years of hard work have created and to share that with my future family.

GLC: What kind of challenges did you encounter once you decided to pursue a land purchase?

JAY: It was hard to decide if I should buy land now or if I should use the money for other things. I also wondered if I should look at buying land in other areas to diversify a bit. But this was just too close to home. How many chances in your life do you get to buy land right next to you? If something comes up in your backyard, you should take a look.

I talked to the bank. When they said we could make it work, that's when I decided to go for it. My neighbor told me, “Just bid on it till you own it.” I guess that's what I did!

Also, the unknown was a challenge. Not knowing the process for buying land since I’ve never done it before and the steps that needed to happen. But it was nice - between Gill Land Company and the bank, they pretty well took care of all that stuff for me.

GLC: How is it different for you now with this parcel of land that you own compared to other land
that belongs to family or that you lease?

JAY: The decision-making process is huge. You can follow what other people do or you can just try and blaze your own trail. I kind of try and find common ground between both approaches because what everybody else does isn't always going to work for you. Then again, you don't want to completely stray away from what everybody else does because there may be good reasons to doing it that way and there’s no point repeating the same mistakes.

GLC: Are you still as excited about this land now as you were when you bought it?

JAY: Yeah, I'm even more excited for spring! I'm ready to get out and do something with it instead of just driving by and looking at the snow.