I don't mean to brag but just found out this week what kind of deal I got on property I bought last year. Last year 12 acres of wooded property that adjoins me came up for sale last year (I had mentioned to the person several years ago if he wanted to sell it, let me know.) Anyhow, we bought the property -12 lovely wooded acres- and just this week was approached by two men wanting to cut trees for timber. I found out that if I have the trees cut I would get at least what I paid for the whole entire property if not more!! I am not interested in doing that at this time - let them grow bigger -, but am very happy to find out what a good deal I really got!

Michael in North-West Pennsylvania

-- Michael W. Smith (kirklbb@penn.com), November 18, 2000

Answers

michael, be careful. Lots of offers from never-do-gooders. Consider timber gardening. That way you weed out the poor trees to encourage the good growth. And remember, if you cut it all now, you will never live to see another profit. Manage, manage manage. Glad you are not going to cut now, what, if ever?

-- Terri Perry (stuperry@stargate.net), November 18, 2000.

See if you can get management advice from you county agent or the state Department of Conservation. There are ways to pull a few trees off of the land every year or so that will both make you some money and make the woods healthier.

Two of my neighbors here have said they wanted to buy this place before I did, but thought it was tied up from an earlier offer. Both have said there is more in timber here than what the asking price was. Between when I bought this place and when I finally got moved here a timber cutter called me wanting to buy either the land or the trees, but he didn't give me a price. ==>paul

-- paul (p@ledgewood-consulting.com), November 18, 2000.

When I was bargaining/negotiating for my land, the seller used the supposed timber value as a factor in pricing the property, as well as extolling its beauty as forest. Thing is, if you've got timber, you've got no forest, and if you want forest, you can't chop down all the trees to sell for timber.

And anyone who is thinking to sell off the logs you have to fell to clear your house site (if you're not going to use them as lumber yourself), you will be much better off to have the trees stacked on your property to use as firewood than to sell them through these chainsaw jockeys. They have more value in BTUs than at the sawmill or pulp mill.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), November 19, 2000.

Michael, pretty common practice here in East Texas also. Between timbering and letting them take your iron ore, it more than pays for the land. Problem comes if the land has been under exemption, you will have to pay back taxes if they have been given any tree exemption. Timber prices are very seasonal, and what you get this year, you may not get next year. Have part of the deal include them stacking the tops, which become a huge job once they start to rot, you can't really dozer them up because of all the stumps. You also will have no resale of your property if you timber, until it is cleaned up. So though selectively timbering your place like in our case we took out all the pines for pulp wood and some of the bigger pines for board stock, we left all the hard woods. I stayed on the property the whole time, counting the loads, you are paid by weight on each load, so count the loads so you get all your money. We have timber beatles here in Texas, so we timbered to get the most for our trees, before we had damage. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 20, 2000.