Anyone else experiencing timber company land being bought out from under you while your lease is under contract? I’m in a hunting club that currently has around 1300 acres. 2 years ago we had over 3500 acres. We went many years (over 20 years) with the 3500 acres and not a peep from anyone. Then out of the blue a couple years ago we started losing land pretty quick. The land that has been bought wasn’t on the market for sale. The buyers made cash offers directly to the timber companies and there was no hesitation by the timber companies to sell. We got notice from the 2 timber companies that sold that on such and such date to not be back on the property that it was sold. We did get a prorated refund for the remaining part of the leases. The refund was prorated less than the lease price we paid for the remaining time left on the lease. There’s nothing special about any of the sold land. Mostly reclaimed strip pits from 30 plus years ago and the majority of it is difficult to access. Not complaining by any means. If I had the pesos I would be doing the same, although it would be on more “user friendly” land. Just wondering if anyone else is having this happen recently? On a side note, there are several more clubs and private leases very close to our club that are having the same thing happen.

Definitely sucks but happens all the time. At least you got a notice, I've had friends pull up to gates only to be met by the new landowners handing them their cams and giving them a few days to remove their stuff from the property. Had a friend who was half way finished with planting 1,000 acres last year when the new landowner greeted them (received no notice at all) luckily they were able to take the seed and fertilizer back (new landowner wasn't interested)

My neighbor bought 200+ acres from rayonier 2 years ago,Rayonier kept the timber and he bought just the land,don’t know what he gave for it.

Timber companies aren’t called “Hunting Lease Companies” for a reason, that’s just a nice steady stream of supplemental income. They make their profit from buying and selling land and timber.

Yes. I found out Monday that the land I lease will be sold in the near future. In a few years, it will be Forever Wild and in the WMA. On the opposite side of that, i was offered land for sale that would take land away from another hunting club.

A lot of the smaller companies have private equity investors and have to give them a guaranteed return. They can't make money on the wood so they buy/sell.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the economy takes a chit. I predict a lot of fire sales are coming.

Stuff happens

All Westervelt property is for sale. We lost 100 acres in columbiana due to it being "rezoned". Since it was right next to a lot owned by either a current or former mayor, you can probably deduce what happened there. Then they sold 26 acre's to an ajoining landowner because he built a second house on his property right close to our biggest greenfield, and tried to get Westervelt to tell us we couldn't hunt it, and they basically told him to go pound sand. Funny thing is they could have told the guy no, and let us hunt it another year and he would have paid more $.

They just "rezoned" 80 acres across the road from the former main entrance to our club that is westervelt land, and they have for sale signs posted on all their land on the left side of 70 going from Columbiana to Calera.

What I have been told is they like to sell land for enough to buy double the acreage they sold. We have supposedly 250 homes going in on the 100 acres that was sold. I figure that will be a nightmare for a couple years with trespassing.

Our old lease was bought in its entirety by Forever Wild and is now a WMA. I have land nearby so I still hunt it done but the public land rules suck.

In a world where I am a multi millionaire, and I had just purchased lots of land that was previously part of a hunting club, I like to think that I would have so much money that I wouldnt care if they kept hunting it.

If I had enough money to go out and pay cash for 200 acres, likely as not I am to busy spending money hunting in a variety of other states/hunting more desirable places anyway.

I guess that could come back to bite me if I were to get sued by someone's insurance company if they break their leg falling out of a treestand.

I’m sure all Westervelt property is for sale for the right price but it’s not actively listed like their Shelby county properties. But they have been trying to sell all their property in Shelby county for quite a few years.

We log for large timber company. They own close to 200k acres . Its all for sale all the time. The general public just don t know it. There no for sale signs anywhere. Have call them an ask. They have already cleared bout 5k acres for farm land an sold most of it . They just don t need that much timberland. Only one papermill in area an they have wood supply agreement with them for only a small amount of wood. Only cut bout 4k acres a year. Im sure lot other timber companys in same boat. Land sales in my area has went from 2k an acre up to 6k in last two years. Blows my mind the price what some this junk land is being sold for. Most buyers are other states.raw land doesn t stay on market long here. Forever wild bought 6k acres of company land an its in wma now. Too steep to log . If i only knew now what gonna happen with land prices i would have invested in land few years back in stead of ira.

Yep I saw 40 acres here in the middle of nowhere bring 279k couple weeks ago...it's getting expensive and looking good to sell

Yep i saw 200 acres bring 1.2 million couple weeks ago. Had couple run down houses on it . All fields no timber value. An i live out in the boonies . Some guy from texas bought never set foot on it . I just don t understand what happening

A good friend has been in the business all his life. It used to be about timber management and now it’s all about selling land. And prices get more stupid by the day. Most are out of state and think our prices are cheap. He gets calls constantly and the hard part is finding folks wanting to sell. So that increase prices significantly. Another friend wasn’t gonna sell his family land but has changed his mind because of how much folks are willing to pay. He’s got a bidding war going.

This is also a sign of folks with money thinking a big crash is coming.

Land is considered a safe place to park money

How much US soil is owned by the Chinese? More is being bought everyday. We’d better quit worrying about out of state purchasers and worry about the foreigners.

A lot of folks are 10-31ing money. It causes a ripple effect.

207 acres of land with good tree's just sold across from my place. Sold in two weeks for 3800 (I'm told) an acre with a lot of good timber on it. Just glad the guy that bought it is going to use it to hunt instead of development.

I’m glad to hear that!

It is getting stupid around missouri too. In the last month right around me

33 acres for $475k small brick house that is terrible.
26 acres of junk timber on steep rocky hills that the access road floods for $175k
116 acres with junk house that floods $675k
10 acres with a 40% finished metal shouse for $375k