A few weeks after losing our first farm to a bidding war, another farm came on the market. It was just around the corner from the property that we had lost.

One hundred acres of forest, creeks, corn fields, one large barn and another medium, and an old farmhouse with numerous additions. A few features made it particularly notable. First was the pond. Or should I say lake.

I still think about this pond. It is massive and made me realize a pond was pretty much a must-have feature for me. In addition, several wide and deep creeks wind their way through the property, flowing to a large river.

Unfortunately, this was not the only water on the farm, which brings us to the second notable feature.

When touring historic farm houses, we were often advised to wear our shoes when we went down to the basements. We’d seen rubble foundations and dirt floors, but we’d never seen what we found in the basement of this house: approximately eight inches of water and a rubber dingy fully inflated and floating around in the cellar. Never mind shoes, we needed high rubber boots!

Aside from the water, the basement was in great shape for an old farmhouse: fairly generous ceiling height and a concrete floor–albeit under water.

Upstairs, the house had original door knobs and light fixtures in a few spots, although for the most part it was characterized by dated 70s finishes and bad additions.

Most of the original character had been lost, but the graffiti sprayed on the painted brick did add a certain… something.

It certainly had potential.

We made our offer that day. Believe it or not, we went in at full asking price, and we were the third offer.

We were only competing with two other bidders, which was one less than the last farm. But it was two too many. The farm ended up selling for $82,000 over asking.

We were nearly a year into our search, we’d seen only two farms that we wanted to buy and we’d lost both in bidding wars.

We were a little bit heartbroken–I still think about that pond. We were very frustrated. And we were starting to wonder if we were ever going to find the farm of our dreams.