Seller-supplied timber values: Trust (a little) and verify (a lot)

Timberland buyers need to figure out what a tract’s timber is worth before they submit a purchase offer.

Many timberland sellers provide different types of documents that “show” the value of their property’s timber. Sellers have given me “timber valuations” that go from oral statements, to handwritten notes on the back of an envelope (Red Oak = $50,000; White Oak = $75,000) to numerical cruises ranging from two pages to more than 100.

I’ve found that many of these documents overestimate the volume of timber that a timber buyer will ever pay for, which, of course, inflates the dollar value of the timber the timberland seller is selling and the timberland buyer is purchasing.

Lots of ways exist for timber volume and value to be inflated. I’ll email LandThink.com visitors a chapter from my book, How To Be a DIRT SMART Buyer of Country Property, that discusses the tricks I’ve seen over the years. Ask for “Beware the Seller’s Cruise” at curtisseltzer@htcnet.org. Read more »

Is timberland overpriced? If so, what to do?

It’s a rainy, miserable Saturday afternoon. I’ve just spent several hours looking through some 1,200 timberland listings on www.landflip.com.  I’ve also scanned other Internet sites.  Dozens and dozens — hundreds, even — of 100- to 300-acre properties are listed in the Southeast and to a lesser extent in the North. They are priced mainly in the $2,000- to $4,000/A range.

I’m looking for timberland investments. These tracts don’t pencil out at these prices.

If all of these properties are moving lickety-split from seller to buyer in a couple of months, then keep the prices where they are. If, however, they are not moving, then the current economic situation (layoffs, high fuel prices, credit tightness, uncertainty, loss in stock value, etc.) suggests (loudly, not quietly) that sellers reduce their prices and offer some seller financing. Read more »

Timberland is a valuable investment in a volatile time

Woods provide shade, lumber, mistletoe and toilet paper. They even make oxygen and store carbon.

Name one beach that does anything more than gives you sand itch.

Before Columbus, the 50 states had about one billion wooded acres, about 40 percent of our total land-and-water area. Read more »