Discussion Forums

My parents, aged 84 and 78 have put in their will that the five children will inherit their estate. The estate consists of an undetermined amount of stock market investments and 280 acres of bare land. The land is currently under tillage with a mix of corn and soybeans. My parents are in reasonably good health for their age and eventually we will have some decisions to make on disposal of assets. I'm mostly concerned with the land disposition for the purposes of this discussion. One of my siblings is the executor and generally w/r/t to the estate liquidation my role will be minor except to provide input as requested. I haven't given much thought to this, but recently have wondered about keeping the land and continuing to rent it out to the current renter. My parents have been retired for around 20 years, have sold the homestead, and none of the children are able or interested in farming the land. How does it work if the heirs decide they want to keep the land in the family after my parents death? What happens if some of the heirs want to sell but other heirs want to keep the land? The obvious answer would be for the heirs that want to keep the land to buy out the owners that want to sell. How is this done? Auction? Appraisal? Negotiation? How is the land managed, rent collected, taxes paid, and everything else handled that is part of being a farm land owner? Especially since I live in another state approximately 2000 miles away. What if in the future there are conflicts between the heirs w/r/t to anything regarding the land? Lots more questions but these will give me a few things to think about. Thank-you.