Reply #4: My family's family business is on property that is worth more than the base of 3.5 million

[KittyWampus]

because real estate values have skyrocketed. The ground under our feet has become worth a fortune.

We don't have that much money in liquid, spendable form. In fact, we just get by. Any time there's a little profit, it goes into capital improvements like keeping the roof from falling off or replacing 100 year old metal pipes.

I once made the grave error of starting a thread about this. It seems there's a large number of DU'ers who just don't support small, local family businesses as being worthwhile. Even if we are talking about a rare third generation business.

And the pockets of real estate that have increased exponentially in value is still increasing with areas devoted to suburbia and farmland overlapping more and more.

Larger corporate farms want more land. Especially with growing demand for ethanol.

And people in cities and suburbs want a home surrounded by farmland/vineyards/horse farms.