Building a Different Kind Of Nursery and Company
The best things in life are free is dead wrong. The best things
in life are things that you get paid to collect. For many years
I would advertise to pay for broken mowers. Many people saved my
adds and would call me months after the adds expired. One day
someone called me and asked if I would still pickup mowers,I
said I had so many I didn't need any more. They then asked how
much would I charge to pick one up. Bingo, I realized that I
should be charging not paying. Immediately I reran the adds and
announced that would pick them up for a fee. I actually got more
mowers. I don't know why but people even treated me better when
I went to their homes. I guess they thought I wasn't under
paying them for the mowers or something like that. This was a
turning point in my life. I realized that I could collect things
I wanted and get paid for it. Like working and enjoying it. I
decided that from now on I would make sure that I turn the table
on all my problems. I would make the problem a solution. I would
make any thing I like to do part of my work. I liked to grow
trees and plants. So of course I raise them for profit and here
is how it came about.... Of course you have heard that, "Money
grows on trees", or, "Buy land because they're not making any
more of it". How many times? I first heard about it when I was 5
from my great uncle, Uncle Bill. Uncle Bill was wealthy, retired
and living the good life in Sarasota Florida. I was impressed
with his big house, boat, and all his toys that successful
people collect. He was a forestry graduate of Penn State and had
made a ton of money. As I grew up he would visit us once a year.
I always listened to his stories and was convinced that he could
never be wrong. He had made his fortune selling traffic signals
(red lights). High tech for his day. I can remember him telling
my father that if he was starting all over he would buy land in
Maine and grow Christmas trees on it. Listening in and hearing
this I thought it was secret market information that is only
repeated to close friends and family. I thought I would never
tell anyone for if I did, well, it would lose its value and
everyone would be doing it. Sort of like the pig market cycle.
One minute trees would be scarce and bingo, the next minute
there would be surpluses and the market value would crash. As I
grew up, some say I never have, I wanted to do just that. Grow
trees and buy land, lots and lots of land, and of course plant
lots and lots of trees. In 1973 I graduated from Juniata College
in Huntingdon Pa with a BS in Chemistry. It was at Juniata that
I met my future wife. I pro ceded to go out and get a job with
in Lahaska, Pa.. I really wanted to start growing trees. So I
bought 160 acres of land in the mountains of Virginia in
Allegheny County. The purchase price for this mountain land was
$150 per acre. I was working in Bucks County Pa. and felt that
if I worked day and night I could pay for this property in a few
years. The older lady who sold me this property sold it to me
for 1/2 down and the balance in one year with no interest.
Making about $6.00 per hour and borrowing $12000 for the initial
payment, I proceeded to go into debt. During this year I
proceeded to start to pay down on the property. I did get
married later in the year and my wife and I started our real
estate purchases. Within 2 years we had paid off this property.
We bought our first house and started saving money for a Bucks
County Farm. We both had our day jobs and at night and on
weekends we mowed lawns. After 5 years we had enough down money
to buy a 38 acre farm in Doylestown Pa. Keeping our first house
as a rental, we moved to our farm. This farm had a purchase
price of $210,000, and a payment of $1493 a month. We named this
property, Highland Hill Farm. It was at this point that we came
up with the plan that we followed that helped us to fund the
purchases of all our farms and properties. I called this plan,"
My dollar a day plan". We reasoned that each day we should work
on projects that will in the future pay off with an income
stream of $1 per day or save me $1 per day from my current
costs. Each day would be considered successful if that goal was
met. All costs and all projects and work was measured in that
manner. If we could set up a low cost plan that could reap the
benefit of $1 a day we would work on it. The goal of the dollar
per day was not important, just the attempt. We would work on
the idea until it would be completed or given up on. We reasoned
that one could spend hundreds of dollars on each idea, because
when it would work out, the pay back would be hundreds of
dollars per year. After many days my income would be increasing
and it would help fund the plan. Our mortgage payment was
greater than our combined take home pay. This meant we had to
bust xxx. So we had to work every night mowing lawns and doing
extra work. We started to plant Norway Spruce and White Pine
Trees. We started with the smallest and the cheapest trees we
could afford. We started with 2-4" seedlings. Since we felt it
would be years before these trees would be sale-able we kept up
our lawn route. As our children arrived they went with us on our
lawn route and we back packed them as we mowed lawns. Within 2
years the first batch of trees were marketable! We sold 2-3'
pines and spruces for $8.00 each delivered and planted. These
trees sold like hot cakes! Thus a few pennies for seedlings
could be converted to many dollars within a few years. This
would add many dollars per day to our plan. We also rented out
barn space. Within one month of ownership we had almost $1500 in
rent per month from barn spaces. We purchased Scottish Highland
cows.I like to eat and I loved having cows on the farm when I
grew up so I figured get paid to raise what you like and eat the
rest. These cows would save us from buying meat. We had a garden
for vegetables and fruit trees in our pasture. When I cleaned up
the dead branches I found a place to sell them for smoking
meats. The garden saved on buying vegetables. Being asked to do
lawn cleanups and remove items from customer properties, we
began to do small hauling jobs. We found that a lot of good
stuff is thrown out so we started collecting used lumber,
plumbing supplies, and anything we thought we could reuse or
salvage. Everything we did was directed towards being self
sufficient, cost saving, and income production. (I know if I
told you all the ways we saved you would not believe me so I
will save the words.) We heated our house with a wood burning
stove. The wood burner saved on fuel for winter heating. We
would turn the burner on only for hot water for showers. Since
our house was old and large, a lot of fuel would be saved in
this manner. Within a few months we realized that this plan was
working. We saw that in acquiring rental properties and placing
them in service, we could buy properties with positive cash
flows. A positive cash flow of $100 per month brought in about
$3 per day. It does not sound like a lot but when you calculate
in expected appreciation of the property and possible rent
increases, this plan looked even better. We thus started to look
for more properties. We found another farm in Bedminster
Township. The cost was $195,000 for 8+ acres, 2 houses, 2 barns
and machinery storage sheds. I estimated that there would be
$3500 per month in rents that would support this price. After
buying this property our first months rent was $3450 !!! With
taxes and insurances, we made at least $1000 per month on this
farm. We also planted trees and shrubs on this property and put
in a few cows. In seeing that this method was working, I went to
the public library. We got books on how to buy and manage real
estate. I read everything I could. The book,"Nothing Down" by
Robert Allen was an eye opener. It confirmed many of our
strategies. Almost every deal on real estate that we did was
with nothing down or creative financing. Every property had to
make a positive cash flow. We never bought a property to flip.
We became a buy and hold persons. We did buy a few single family
homes, but concentrated on farms and land. Gradually our gross
income and net income allowed me to quit my day job. That took
almost ten years. As we had more and more spendable income, we
would invest it in more types and kinds of trees. During the
early years, we wanted to plant trees that we could market
through newspaper ads. Newspaper ads allowed me to have a store
without hours. People would call in for information instead of
visiting my location. This saves a lot of time. A phone
answering machine acted as my secretary. We would take orders
over the phone and deliver and plant nursery stock directly to
the homeowner. Our adds targeted customers who wanted screens
and privacy fences. They tended to buy large numbers of small
pines, spruces, and arborvitae shrubs and trees. One could
deliver 20 2- 3' white pines on a pickup truck and plant them in
an evening. At $8 ea we would gross $160 Our tree cost was 20
cents ea. or about $2.00 per order. We all gained valuable
lessons in planting trees in a wide range of conditions. Without
a doubt I can conclusively say that I now have found that money
does grow on trees. My uncle Bill was right. His secret market
information was exactly as I had thought when I was 5 years old.
Only after enjoying the trees and nurturing them over the years
did I realize that it wasn't for money that he wanted to raise
trees, it was for satisfaction in the way of life and quality
time that I have been blessed with in following my dream. Bill
Hirst P.S. 30 acres being cleared A 30 acre field in Doylestown
Has to be cleared this month. We still have about 150 flowering
pear trees to be dug. The field next to this plot is the next to
be bull dozed. We have app. 60 acres of stock there.
Year 2006 Free Stuff: We will be giving away free bibles that we
got out of the trash as supply lasts. We also want to get rid of
some surplus stock. I will determine how much free stock is
given away by the size of your order. The more you buy the more
you will be given. I want your trucks to go home full so you
don't waste gas. You can see more of our operations at
HTTP://www.seedlingsrus.com or HTTP://www.highlandhillfarm.com