A few almosts...

We have been searching for this elusive rural property for some time now, and I am sure that our friends and family must think "they are too picky".

I mean, how hard can it be to find a rural farm in Ontario?

Harder than you think.

We are fortunate that our "agent" is also my dear sweet fireman's mother. She is endlessly patient, and never laughs at our ideas.

The first farm we almost bought seemed so promising. 84 acres, an old stone house, a lovely pond... it was our dream property! I was so disappointed when I took my intuitive friend out to see it, and she simply looked at it and said "No, I really don't think this one is for you". HA! I scoffed, what did she know?
In those days we were still learning about City Planners, and so when we learnt a little more about this dream farm, we discovered that over 45 acres of the property was swampland. We decided not to buy it.

The second farm we got to the point where we actually put in an offer. It was a "fixer upper" on 100 acres of the most gorgeous farm land you have ever seen. The agent told us it was an estate sale, and what we didn't know is that the family members could decide not to sell the farm...at any point in time. And they did just that, even though we had an offer on the table.

Back to the drawing board.

Farm three was perfect. A huge Victorian, on 50 acres. Beautifully renovated, and within our price range. We put in an offer, we haggled a bit over the details, but decided that we would simply give the seller what they wanted. After all, we wanted this house! We signed it back giving the seller all that they asked for...and we heard nothing. Days passed. Finally the selling agent advised our agent that the seller had changed his mind on our offer. Odd. Much later we found out that the selling agent had another client in the wings, and he sold the farm to that client and scooped 100% of the commission. Ethical? No. Illegal? No.

So, back to the drawing board. We look at houses weekly. I have become an MLS master. We look at maps and can recognize almost every sideroad and concession. We do drive-by's and try to curb our disappointment.

We have narrowed down our list of wants and wishes, and we now know exactly what we want. And we know, that somewhere out there our dream farm is waiting.