LandThink

When people are looking to buy recreational property, information about the timber on a property can be the toughest thing for a buyer to understand.

The rural land business in 2012 has been a pleasant surprise based on reports from land agents I have spoken to. Our company, AlaLandCo, is experiencing our highest sales volume since 2007…

Last week I, along with fellow LandThink Contributors Jonathan Goode and Randall Upchurch had the opportunity to attend a RLI course at Mt. Cheaha State Park in Delta, Alabama called “Timberland: Identifying and Evaluating Timberland as an Investment”.

As of April 5th, 2012, publicly-traded timberland-owning REITs posted YTD returns of nearly 10%, according to the Forisk Timber REIT (FTR) Index.

With the recent run-up in row-crop farmland prices, savvy investors should be looking to similar investments that offer many of the same benefits of crop land ownership, without the hefty price tag.