How did I buy this property?

I always knew I wanted a property that was peaceful and silent, where I could work uninterrupted. I read somewhere that great people like Orwell and Fleming have always written from their own secluded retreats. While I do not claim to be a great writer or even very good at marketing (my chosen profession), my current job as a founder requires me to focus on chunks of deep work at a time, and my previous home in Hyderabad or my current home in Bengaluru does not afford me that opportunity.

It is not just about seclusion either. It is also a place I can call my own. I bought my first property at 42, and I bought it just so I could move to Bengaluru. Being close to BLR airport gives me the option to fly at a moment's notice (which I haven't done since I bought the property), or to drive to Hyderabad where a large chunk of my wife's family stays. It also gives me access to a plethora of local hill stations, coffee farms, tea estates, and a whole lot of places where there is green everywhere.

I travelled to Sakleshpura and Chikkamagaluru a few years ago and was blown away by the greenery among the hills. Coffee mesmerized me.

I did search for an empty piece of land around Hyderabad when I was living there, and I expanded my search to neighbouring districts. My friends from school were kinda irritated at me for mentioning my search and search results for quite a while. I will not blame them; it kinda became almost an obsession.

When I failed in that search and spent that money on the home in Bangalore, the search started again, and this time I had the added advantage of more greenery and more places to look at.

Coorg, Chikkamagaluru, and Sakleshpura were the obvious choices. The former had the advantage of being served by good roads through Mysore, and the latter two were served by a decent enough Bengaluru-Mangaluru highway.

So I called every broker who had a YouTube channel, every broker who had put their number on open advertisements, and I placed comments on Reddit and everywhere else I could. I called all of them and travelled to these places if they had a place to show, or sometimes even if they didn't have a place to show. I did this every weekend I could afford to go away from my business. I spent nights in these towns after a day of visiting 5 farms, woke up the next day, went to another town and another broker to look at another 7 farms, and then drove back tired to Bengaluru.

If one of them called me to say they had found a farm close to my budget that fit my needs, I would wake up at 3 AM, be on the road by 4 AM, look at the property, and come back home by evening.

I visited farms on top of hills my car could barely drive up, the suspension creaking, the thorn bushes scratching my paint. I visited farms that were dilapidated, farms that had too many leeches (although I do not know what I was expecting), and farms that came in four different parts spread out among other people's land.

I think I did this for a month at a time. I drove to Hyderabad for my appointments and spent ten days there, then came back to Bengaluru, and then repeated the cycle again. In many of these drives my wife was next to me, driving the car when I was too tired, figuring out where to stay when I had to start very early in the next few hours. She didn't think I would ever find something, until I eventually did.

When a broker or a reseller or an agent called me, I was the first person to come see the property. I think they eventually understood that this Telugu- and English-speaking, non-Kannada dude was serious about buying a coffee farm.

It was all fun. I knew what I wanted, I knew what I could afford, although the ones I couldn't afford were tempting.

I found a broker friend of another broker who finally found me the place. I visited the place four times: once to reassure the seller that I was serious about buying it, once to collect additional documents, once more to walk the land before signing, and finally after buying the property.

It was not easy, but it was not difficult either, because I was very interested. I love coffee, and I love living amidst coffee. And as with everything, I want to make it fun and profitable eventually. I know I have many years of spending ahead, on farm management, on fertilizers, on pruning, on chopping, on clearing brush, on watering, and all of that, before I see any money. I know I have to spend some more on building a small home as well.

The road is long, and I have a lifetime of walking the farm and doing all of that, and most importantly, having fun and working from there.