Offer Price per Acre

I am considering making an offer on 40 acres that neighbors some family land and would like to ask what everyone thinks is an acceptable offer price on the property. Please give me a range of what you would offer on the property based on the notes below. I am not sure if they owner would like to sell it, but based on their use of the land (cutting and not replanting and not currently leasing hunting rights to produce income) I am hoping to offer them cash and get them to sell.

-It is a 40 acre parcel that was clear cut and not replanted in 2008
-There is around 8 acres of SMZs that were not cut and have mature hardwoods on them.
-The site is adjacent to a county highway
-The site is 8 miles from a local saw mill
-The site is positioned on "high ground" that stays fairly dry in the winter with the exception of the SMZs
-I would like to purchase and plant loblolly for future resale
-The property is valued at $1500/acre based off of tax records
-The property is owned by an out of state private land owner who acquired it through inheritance and to my knowledge has no sentimental ties to the property and does not visit it regularly at all

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I'd offer $1K/acre as a starting point based on what you've described and see if you got anywhere. He's milked it as far as cutting it for the foreseeable future and, in his opinion, it's just sitting there. $40K prob sounds pretty decent to him for land in another state that he never accesses and he's already gotten paid for once through timber sales.

By my math 1500$x40=60k tops. You might be able to get them to negotiatiate. GLWS

What county? How close is the nearest town? Any encumbrances on the property?

Yep, this is what I'd do. Although there are several areas where $1,000/acre is too high.

I just bought 38 acres in a very similar situation that borders us except it was clear cut 2 years ago and not replanted.

Got it for $1,000 an acre.

Had it not bordered us it would not have been worth $1,000, but it was to us.

I agree, start low, and let him counter offer. You have to decide how much it is worth to you, not anybody else. It's only a bad deal, if you feel that way.

You also have to figure in what it's going to cost you per acre to (spray/burn/prep/trees/labor) replant he land since it's been 8 years after cutting.

God Bless,
David B.

This ^^^^

Can anyone give me a ballpark cost range to prep and plant loblolly on a site that has 8 years of clearcut growth per acre on a 40 acre tract?

As it borders family land, it may be worth more to you than anyone else. 8 years of growth is problematic because the trees may be big enough that bulldozer clearing may be the best option. I would have a forester look at the tract & give an estimate for site prep.

Ballpark - $250/ac to spray, burn, seedlings and plant.

You have to answer Rebels question. What county and nearest town are huge.

I doubt it on an 8 year old cutover. It's going to need mechanical. I'd wager it would be closer to $400/ac

No way that's gone happen

Yes I would agree with timbercruiser...between $210-$250/ac with site prep & machine planting 3rd Gen Lob

You are way high Reb.

Maybe.

Chop $120/ac
Spray $80/ac
Burn $45/ac
Plant $100/ac

I realize this thread is a couple of months old but I'd like comment on the replanting discussion. If it were hardwoods that were clear cut I'd leave it alone considering it's been 8 years. If it were pines I'd recommend you have a forester to walk the property and see how trees per acre you have at the moment. If there's a good amount of trees to the acre and they're 8 years old you'd be going backwards to cut it and replant. If you can pay for the property without the need of cutting the timber and do decide to replant I'd highly recommend planting hardwoods. Hardwoods are getting harder and harder to find, in central Alabama at least, and the price of hardwood it getting higher everyday whereas pine prices are falling.

Why would you recommend walking away from an 8 year old natural HW stand but 'highly recommend' to replant hardwoods?

I think he was recommending not killing the 8 yo hardwoods.....not walking away from the land.

8 years! 8 freaking year old natural growth. And you guys think you can get a decent regeneration job for 250/ac or less, which is average cost or below for "normal" regen. An 8 year old natural stand in SW AL would have 1000-1500 tpa of various species already 20-30 feet tall. And 2000 more tpa of suppressed trees, bushes and vines in places you couldn't walk through, etc. Comparing that to a freshly harvested area with normal, timely regen practices.

Alrighty then.

Turkey I can show you a tract, about 800 acres that had a 12 or so year old clear cut thicket of junk hardwoods, privet, etc on it. I had a helicopter nuke it, we planted with mechanical planters with no burning or anything. That was about 7 years ago and there is a nice plantation right now out there. It was a LOT less than $250 an acre.

What's a LOT less?

I just don't see it. I know what average, timely industrial regen costs are here in the timber belt. Maybe you have a viable plantation on par with industry standards - I don't know. But there's a lot of professionals around here - the best in the business - that can't get desired results at that cost ( whatever a LOT less actually is). If you have a stand that can be thinned at age 11-13, and that scenario is true - I say congratulations.

Good chance it might be thinned at 11 - 13, it is growing well, but it isn't that old yet. I don't remember the exact cost, but I'll try to dig it up. This was a cheap landowner experiment, but I don't see anything wrong with the stand at this time.

Ok, but you do understand that it's not industry standard and has very little chance of producing desired results in 95% of landscapes in AL - with that particular budget in 2016. The original topic, I thought, was to give the guy some idea of industry standards.

I gave you credit where credit is due. But your cheap landowner experiment is not applicable to the discussion to be fair.

What kills me is a tract I just saw offered for a little under $1.5 million for 240 acres. Has a decent sized lake and new construction lodge that's pretty nice. Even if you value the ammenities at 250,000 that's still 5,000 an acre for land and timber. The topography and site index are pretty much crap too. Steep slopes and highly erodible sandy textured soil from what I saw when I was on the property several months ago.

And it will rot on the market at that price.

Ok, I'm giving a price on a normal spray, burn, hand plant with gen 3 loblolly at about 726 per acre next week, it is going to be around $240 per acre in the ground.

I'm with you on that cost - that is what's typically used when calculating cost analysis for acquisitions and disposals south-wide.

We may have to agree to disagree that it will be enough on an average 8 year old natural regen in AL - to produce a viable plantation. Just a lot for normal prescriptions to overcome in most all cases. There's more than a few reasons why mechanical site prep is still fairly popular, and recovering neglected stands is a big one.

I would say at least $350 for site prep and planting on an 8 year old clear cut, maybe up to $400. It cost $250 for a recent cut over if you include site prep burning and quality seedlings.
I would not offer more than $800 an acre considering they let it grow up in 8 year old cut over. If it's left to naturally regenerate it's going to be a long time before you have any decent timber value on the property.