Welcome to Heart Mountain Farm

The farm is located in the Elbe-Elster district of Brandenburg, about 90 minutes south of Berlin. It's serviced by a direct train from Berlin HBF, Potsdamer Platz, and Südkreuz. The farm is 10/20/45min from the train station (car, bike, walk). The nearest supermarket is just a few minutes further.

You can. The farm has electricity, running water, and heat, though all three are limited to specific sections of the interior and not always very efficient. It's a quaint old farmhouse and it shows, with many areas not meeting modern standards. Some wings are 1960s GDR, some are from the 1990s, and some have been fixed up in the last couple of years. It was used as a full-time residence until a few years ago, and we've lived there for months on end as well.

Because the living tract is not up to code at the moment, it is not designated as such in the rental contract for the property.

As with any old and large property, there is some degree of maintenance required in order to keep the weeds from taking over the outside the animals from taking over unused interiors. But if dusting, weeding and sitting on top of a riding lawnmower sound relaxing to you (which they are), then it's not a downside. 

The other issue is that, in the winter, while the pellet heater in the bedroom can and will comfortably heat the whole living tract, more remote areas need to be heated electrically, at present. 

For people buying the place and planning on living there, it's advised to either renovate the farm house completely, or to build a new apartment in the cowshed (for which measurements and plans are already made).

You're free to set up a business on the property as you please. Obtaining the relevant permits would be your responsibility. It is very common in these villages to run various businesses from these types of properties. 

Neighbors have dogs, cats, horses, ponies, chickens, cows, donkeys, and even alpacas on their properties. 

Please let us know if you have more specific questions.

One of the cool things about this place is that it feels like it's a standalone place (because you're mostly surrounded by your own buildings, like a courtyard, but there are actually neighbors on each side of the farm, so you don't feel isolated and usually you'll see them if you're working out back. Generally, the evenings are very quiet - but once in a while (maybe once every two months) there are techno parties next door. Currently the neighbors are also renovating and building.

This question is a bit hard to answer because there are quite a few places that could qualify as rooms - depending on the season. But very conservatively, there are three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, two bathrooms, a few more multi-purpose and countless storage rooms.

This is probably a good idea, since significantly fewer people in small villages and towns in Brandenburg speak English than in Berlin. That being said, there's no better practice for learning German than this kind of environment. Of course, we recommend taking the Deutschable self-study course and using what you learned with the neighbors and in daily interactions in town.