If changes in your operation leave you with extra space in a building and your neighbor wants to rent it, how much should you charge? Do you make allowances for whether or not it's a shop-type building and if he will be using electricity?

Or maybe you know a non-farmer who got outbuildings with the purchase of a new house and you want to rent it. What should you pay for it? Can you barter in some other way, such as cleaning his driveway when it snows for use of the building?

How much for rent? This 30 foot by 40 foot building with a gravel floor would be worth something if rented out. An Extension survey hopes to find out what a fair rent would be. You can help.

Right now there are questions like these and not many answers, says Sarah Hanson, a Purdue University Extension ag educator in Johnson County. The questions come in, both about storage of machinery in buildings in crops in bins, but information about going rates in the country and what's fair are few and far between.

As a result, the north Central Farm Management Extension Committee is conducting a farm building rental rate survey to get up-to-date answers to these questions.

"I'm asking local farmers to participate in the survey so the information we get back will be accurate," Hanson says.

Related: Landlords and Tenants: Building Trust

You can find the farm building rental rates survey here. Hanson says the questionnaire is set up so you can go directly to the questions that relate to the particular type of building that you have rental information about. This cuts the time it takes to complete the survey. She estimates that you can complete the survey in a matter of minutes. Your name will not be connected to the information in any way, she adds.

Purdue Extension educators are hoping for strong participation form Hoosiers who have this type of information. When someone asks questions about building rental rates in the future, they will be better equipped to answer.

Hanson says they would like the survey completed by January 31.

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