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For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

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Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#31

Post by Merrill »

MS90 wrote: post #23
CharlesColeman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spending a quarter million dollars on a four wood walls and a door in a podunk Montana town that is about a 100 mile drive to the nearest town From the OP: > The Jersey Lilly was the town’s first brick building , built in 1914 as the first bank of a very different Ingomar. > The nearest town, Forsyth, is “only” 44 miles away . “That’s really close in Montana, trust me.” If you want to write a dismissive comment, go…

I mean, he's got a point. Forsyth has less than 2000 people in it. As someone who used to live in Montana, the nearest town worth mentioning is Billings which is 111 miles away, and the nearest town worth really going to is Missoula which is 371 miles.

It all depends on your point of view. I have a nephew who lives outside of Roy, population 108. He grew up in central South Dakota but moved to Montana because South Dakota was getting way too crowded.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#32

Post by TylerE »

CharlesColeman wrote: post #18
kempbellt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. You'd really just be paying for the history. Spending a quarter million dollars on a four wood (edit: brick ) walls and a door in a podunk Montana town that is about a 100 mile drive to the nearest town isn't a business purchase. You likely wouldn't recoup the cost in your lifetime.

> Spending a quarter million dollars on a four wood walls and a door in a podunk Montana town that is about a 100 mile drive to the nearest town From the OP: > The Jersey Lilly was the town’s first brick building , built in 1914 as the first bank of a very different Ingomar. > The nearest town, Forsyth, is “only” 44 miles away . “That’s really close in Montana, trust me.” If you want to write a dismissive comment, go…

Forsyth itself has a population of under 2,000. Barely a town, if even.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#33

Post by dobleboble »

ctdonath wrote: post #22

With the onset of Starlink, I expect such locations could experience a population boom. With urban housing prices skyrocketing (demand exceeding supply = bidding war), many are discovering the only thing they need to live where they actually want to is reliable high-speed low-latency internet. The land is cheap ($150,000 for 321 acres in Ingomar, Montana), the region attractive (drove around there this summer, very n…

Go back during winter and see if you feel the same way XD

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#34

Post by MS90 »

Merrill wrote: post #31
MS90 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, he's got a point. Forsyth has less than 2000 people in it. As someone who used to live in Montana, the nearest town worth mentioning is Billings which is 111 miles away, and the nearest town worth really going to is Missoula which is 371 miles.

It all depends on your point of view. I have a nephew who lives outside of Roy, population 108. He grew up in central South Dakota but moved to Montana because South Dakota was getting way too crowded.

Ha! It is crazy how different perspectives can be depending on where you're from. When I moved up to Montana in 2011 they had just broken 1,000,000 population for the first time in the state's history and all the locals were talking about how crazy it was. Meanwhile I also thought it was crazy, because I had just moved from a place where there were a million people within five miles of me. A quick google shows that Montana still has just one area code - 406 - for the entire state.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#35

Post by [deleted] »

TylerE wrote: post #32
CharlesColeman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Spending a quarter million dollars on a four wood walls and a door in a podunk Montana town that is about a 100 mile drive to the nearest town From the OP: > The Jersey Lilly was the town’s first brick building , built in 1914 as the first bank of a very different Ingomar. > The nearest town, Forsyth, is “only” 44 miles away . “That’s really close in Montana, trust me.” If you want to write a dismissive comment, go…

Forsyth itself has a population of under 2,000. Barely a town, if even.

[deleted]

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#36

Post by kempbellt »

CharlesColeman wrote: post #18
kempbellt wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. You'd really just be paying for the history. Spending a quarter million dollars on a four wood (edit: brick ) walls and a door in a podunk Montana town that is about a 100 mile drive to the nearest town isn't a business purchase. You likely wouldn't recoup the cost in your lifetime.

> Spending a quarter million dollars on a four wood walls and a door in a podunk Montana town that is about a 100 mile drive to the nearest town From the OP: > The Jersey Lilly was the town’s first brick building , built in 1914 as the first bank of a very different Ingomar. > The nearest town, Forsyth, is “only” 44 miles away . “That’s really close in Montana, trust me.” If you want to write a dismissive comment, go…

Having lived in Montana for 2 years myself, I don't consider Forsyth a town worth noting. Billings is the closest town that has a decent population, and it's 110 miles away by car.

Brick or wood (fixed my original comment for ya), my point was it's a simple building in a tiny "town". It's not worth the money as a business purchase, but would be a pleasure buy.

Not sure why my comment needed to be pedantically torn apart.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#37

Post by micro_cam »

ewhanley wrote: post #15
edf13 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your paying for the business + history

In Montana, you're paying for the liquor license. It's not uncommon to see hole-in-the-wall bars in 2000 person towns go for $1 million. They are quota-ed and similar to the NYC taxi medallion system.

This is correct. On the other hand since tasting rooms can operate without a liquor license it creates a real advantage for small brewereries etc. My town of 5000 has two mircobreweries, a distillery and a cidery and Montana ranks second (IIRC) in breweries per capata.

Plus all the really cool bars are out in the middle of the mountains nowhere near a town.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#38

Post by DEADBEEFC0FFEE »

pmilot wrote: post #21
rb808 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not joking, I checked streetview and its one of the few places I've seen in the developed world where the streetview car didn't bother leaving main street and just GTFO. Edit: hey sorry if I come across as offensive, I'm from a small city and like living in quiet places.

I wonder just how strange and alien most locals would find the above comment about their town. Not trying to be offensive here, I just find the thought of using Google Street View coverage as any kind of metric for such a place so... jarring.

It's a fascinating comment, in a few ways. I can say I have never been somewhere and wondered 'would a Google streetmap car come here', I don't think it works in that way. The closest similar judgement I can relate to is being somewhere without network coverage. I don't really want to be there, it's weird and makes me think about how different it would be to live somewhere with no coverage. So perhaps then, it's simply noticing the absence of something we thought if as ubiquitous. A mental model, revealed as wrong, or distorted. Jarring is a good term for that too.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#39

Post by mb_72 »

pmilot wrote: post #21
rb808 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not joking, I checked streetview and its one of the few places I've seen in the developed world where the streetview car didn't bother leaving main street and just GTFO. Edit: hey sorry if I come across as offensive, I'm from a small city and like living in quiet places.

I wonder just how strange and alien most locals would find the above comment about their town. Not trying to be offensive here, I just find the thought of using Google Street View coverage as any kind of metric for such a place so... jarring.

It looks like it would have taken the driver perhaps 10 minutes to negotiate the town, significantly improving the imagery. I would be interested to know how Google determines what should and shouldn't be included at locations such as these.

I've made a list of similar 'one-horse'-type towns to visit during a future one-in-a-lifetime trip around my home country (Australia). Growing up in a country town there (population roughly 25k at that time), things are indeed different than in the capital cities, and I imagine even 'more different' the smaller the population.

Re: For Sale: The Only Bar in a 14-Person Montana Town

#40

Post by planteen »

ctdonath wrote: post #22

With the onset of Starlink, I expect such locations could experience a population boom. With urban housing prices skyrocketing (demand exceeding supply = bidding war), many are discovering the only thing they need to live where they actually want to is reliable high-speed low-latency internet. The land is cheap ($150,000 for 321 acres in Ingomar, Montana), the region attractive (drove around there this summer, very n…

Right this minute you could find very fast internet (fiber) in rural areas with very inexpensive housing. I have a relatives in the Dakotas & Nebraska with better internet than I have in Denver. Some of them live in town and some of them live in the country. A lot of it seems to depend on local government having the drive to get rural access funds from the FCC.

As another said, eastern Montana could be brutal if its not something you are used to. There are extremely hot and extremely cold days (in the -30s degrees F) possible. It will be really windy and really brown (its very dry) for much of the year. You might also be shocked by how much some people drink/use other substances and how they get around when incapacitated. (There is no Lyft/Uber). There will not be a lot of young singles around, either.

I personally don't think there will be a big boom because of Starlink for housing. At the end of the day, internet is just a small factor in what makes a place desirable to live. Climate, distance to city/airport, local bars & restaurants, scenic beauty, and local activities all factor a lot, too.

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